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COMPENDIUiM 



OF 



History and Biography 



MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN 
COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



MAJ. R. I. HOLCOMBE, Historical Editor 
WILLIAM H. BINGHAM, General Editor 



WITH SPECIAL ARTICLES BY 

CHAS. M. LORING, THOMAS B. WALKER, GEORGE H. CHRISTIAN, 
GEORGE H. WARREN, AND OTHERS 



ILLUSTRATED 



CHICAGO 
HENRY TAYLOR & CO. 

PuHlihrr,, Encratirr, and floo* Mariula. 
1914 



f (i/4 



COPYRIGHT 1914 

BY 

HEXKY TAYLOR & CO. 



SEP -8 1914 



)CLA37!)8S7 



FOREWORD 



This compendium of history and biograi)hy aims to 
present to the residents of Minneapolis and the gen- 
eral public a clear, succinct and comprehensive ac- 
count of this region from the earliest prehistoric 
period of whcih any authentic information, written, 
archiPologioal or traditional, is attainable. 

The publishers believe that in the treatment of 
aboriginal doings and developments they have ex- 
plored a hitherto largely untrodden field and given an 
account of it far more complete, accurate and satisfac- 
tory than any that has ever before appeared in any 
publication. They feel confident, too, that in tracing 
the course of early explorations in this part of the 
country and following the footsteps of the heroic ad- 
ventures who made those explorations they have won 
a degree of success never before attained. They have 
used every precaution to verify all the facts and de- 
ductions given, and are therefore convinced that every 
statement made in this volume can be fully and safely 
relied on. 

In dealing with the period from the foundation of 
the city to the present time the publishers have found 
an inexhaustible fund of information and suggestion. 
The invasion and conquest of a wilderness ; the wrest- 
ing of a vast domain of hill and valley, forest and 
prairie, from its nomadic and savage denizens; its 
transformation into an empire rich in all the elements 
of modern civilization — basking in the smiles of pas- 
toral abundance, resounding with the din of fruitful 
industry, busy with the mighty volume of a multiform 
and far-reaching commerce and bright with the luster 
of high mental, moral and spiritual life — the home 
of an enterprising, progressive, all-daring people, as 
they founded and have built it, is always and every- 
where an inspiring 1*ieme, and nowhere is it richer in 
elements of true heroi-sm, brighter with the radiance 
of genuine manhood and womanhood or more signally 
blessed with the results of endurance bravely borne 
and industry well applied than here in Minneapolis, 
which was born and has grown to its present magni- 
tude and importance within the memory of persons 
who are still living. 

The book teems with biographies of the progressive 
men of Minneapolis — those who laid the foundations 
of its greatness and those who have built and are build- 
ing on the superstructure — and is adorned with por- 
traits of a large number of them. It also gives a com- 
prehensive survey of the numerous lines of productive 
energy which distinguish the people of the city at 
the present time and those in which its residents have 
been engaged at aU periods in the past since the settle- 
ment of the region began. And so far as past history 
and present conditions disclose them, the work indi- 



cates the trend of the city's activities and the goal 
which they aim to reach. 

No attempt has been made to give undue tone or a 
spectacular appearance to the course of events re- 
corded in this volume. Essential history insists on 
writing itself, and refuses to be anticipated, controlled 
or turned from its destined way. What the men and 
women of Minneapolis have done and are doing for 
its advancement and improvement embodies the real 
essence of the city's growth and progress, and points 
out, with immistakable significance, the sterling char- 
acteristics of the people who have wrought the great 
wonder-work of its creation and development. 

In their arduous task of preparing this compendium 
of history and biography its publishers and promoters 
have had most valuable assistance from Mr. Warren 
Upham, the accomplished and accommodating secre- 
tary of the Minnesota Historical Society. He has 
freely, cheerfully and at all times placed at their dis- 
posal, not only all the publications in the State His- 
torical Library, but also all the stores of his own ex- 
tensive knowledge and teeming memory of persons and 
events connected with the swift march of Minnesota 
from the far frontier to the heart of civilization. 

The special thanks of the publishers are due also 
and are warmly tendered to Mr. C. M. Loring for his 
splendid and sparkling chapter entitled "Looking 
Through a Vista of Fifty Years : " to Mr. Thomas B. 
Walker for his highly entertaining and valuable 
"Early History of the Lumber Industry;" to Mr. 
George H. Christian for his graphic and interesting 
account of the founding of the milling industry and 
fast-fading stories of its early da.vs: to ]Mr. George H. 
Warren for showing in an impressive way the relation- 
ship of the woodsmen to the lumber industry, the vital 
necessity for their service and its inestimable value ; 
to Major R. I. Holcombe for his masterful work in 
preparing the general history of the city which en- 
riches the volume, and to many other persons whose 
aid is highly appreciated but who are too numerous 
to be mentioned specifically by name. Without the 
valuable and .judicious aid of all these persons, those 
who are named and those who are not, it would have 
been impossible to compile a history of the complete- 
ness and high character this one is believed to have. 
Finally, to the residents of Minneapolis and Henne- 
pin County, to whose patronage the book is indebted 
for its publication, and whose life stories constitute a 
large part of its contents, tlie publishers freely tender 
their grateful thanks, with the hope that the volume 
will be an ample and satisfactory recompense. It is 
submitted to the judgment of the public with no other 
voice to proclaim its worth than that of its own in- 
herent merits, whatever they may be. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 
MINNEAPOLIS IN PRE-HISTORY AND IN THE EARLIEST RECORD. 

TUE MOUND builders' OCCUPATION THE COMING OP THE FIRST CAUCASIANS — THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT FALLS 

BY THE HUMBLE PRIEST THAT MADE THEM FAMOUS 1 

CHAPTER II. 

FURTHER INCIDENTS OF THE ERA OF DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION. 

FATHER Hennepin's work op toil, suffering, and glory — duluth's attempt to rou the good priest of cer- 
tain HONORS and distinctions — GROSEILLIERS AND BADISSON 'S DOUBTFUL EXPLORATIONS — PERROT "s AND 
LE SUEUR'S explorations AND OPERATIONS — CERTAIN ALLEGED VOYAGES ABOVE ST. ANTHONY NOT AUTHENTI- 
CATED VERENDRYE AND SONS ' EXPEDITION THROUGH NORTHERN MINNESOTA FROM 1727 TO 1767 10 

CHAPTER III. 
THE FIRST AMERICAN VISITS AND EXPLORATIONS. 

VISIT OF CAPTAIN JONATHAN CARVER IN 1766 THE FIRST NATIVE-BORN CAUCASIAN-AMERICAN TO SEE AND WRITE 

ABOUT .ST. ANTHONY'S F.iLLS — HIS DESCRIPTION OF TH EM AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY' GOES UP TO RUM 

RIVER AND ASCENDS THE MINNESOT.V — CLAIMS THAT HE SPENT SEVERAL MONTHS WITH THE SIOUX — HIS ENTIRE 
ACCOUNT A MIXTURE OF TRUTH AND FALSITY — BUT ALTOGETHER HE DID MORE GOOD THAN HARM TO THE MINNE- 
SOTA COUNTRY — LIEUT. Z. M. PIKE's EXPEDITION AND INVESTIGATIONS HE PROCLAIMS THE AUTHORITY OF THE 

UNITED STATES, TREATS WITH THE INDIANS FOR THE SITE OF FORT SNELLING AND MINNEAPOLIS, ETC 19 

CHAPTER IV. 
THE ADVENT OP CIVILIZATION. 

TRESPASSES OP BRITISH TRADERS HASTEN THE COMING OP THE AMERICANS — THE BUILDING OP FORT ST. ANTHONY OR 

FORT SNELLING THE OLD MILLS AT ST. ANTHONY'S F-VLLS THEIR ERECTION THE FIRST DEVELOPMENT OP THE 

SITE OF MINNEAPOLIS — MAJOR LONG 's EXPEDITIONS AND INVESTIGATIONS DISCO\'ERY OP LAKE MINNETONKA BY 

"joey" BROWN, THE DRUMMER BOY — NAMING OP LAKES HARRIET, AMELIA, AND OTHERS — FIRST ATTEMPTS AT 
GRAIN GROWING IN MINXESC >TA, ETC 28 

CHAPTER V. 
FIRST OCCUPANTS OP THE CITY'S SITE. 

THE SIOUX INDIANS HAD THE FIRST HABITATIONS — CLOUD MAN 'S BAND AT LAKE CALHOUN — OTHER SIOUX BANDS IN 

THE VICINITY— THE " FIRSTS" NAME OP FORT ST. ANTHONY CHANGED TO FORT SNELLING THE TREATY OF 

PRAIRIE DU CniEN — EARLY^ INCIDENTS OP FORT SNELLING HISTORY — THE FIRST WHITE IMMIGRANTS COME FROM 

RED RIVER THE POND BROTHERS COME AS INDIAN MISSIONARIES AND BUILD THE FIRST HOUSE ON THE CITY'S 

PRESENT SITE — H. H. SIBLEY COMES TO MENDOTA — ZACHARY TAYLOR COMMANDS AT FORT SNELLING AND LI\^S 

TO APPOINT THE FIRST TERRITORIAL OFFICERS FOR MINNESOTA OLD INDIAN FIGHTS AND TRAGEDIES NEAR THE 

SITE OF MINNEAPOLIS — THE FIRST SHOT OF THE GREAT INDIAN BATTLES BETWEEN THE SIOUX AND CHIPPEW AS 
AT RUM RIVER AND STILLWATER, IN JULY, 1839, IS FIRED AT LAKE HARRIET 39 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VI. 
PREPARING FOR THE WHITE MAN'S COMING. 

THE CHIPPEWA AND SIOUX TREATIES OF 1837 — THE INDIAN TITLE TO THE E.\ST BANK OF THE MISSISSIPPI PURCHASED, 
MAKING POSSIBLE SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT AT ST. ANTHONY FALLS — OPERATIONS BEGUN HERE AND ON 
THE ST. CROIX — FRANKLIN STEELE LAYS THE FIRST FOUND.VTIONS OF MINNEAPOLIS AT ST. ANTHONY — LATER 

VISITORS AND EXPLORERS EXAMINE THE COUNTRY FEATHERSTONHAUGH, CATLIN, AND NICOLLET— MINNEAPOLIS 

CAME NEAR BEING LN' PERMANENT INDIAN TERRITORY— CERTAIN DANGEROUS CRISES IN THE HISTORY OP THE 
COUNTRY N.\RRO\\'LY PASSED A MIGHTY METROPOLIS ON THE FORT SNELLING SITE PRE\T;NTED BY THE TLh CON- 
DUCT OF A MILITARY BOSS THE BANISHMENT OF WORTH V SETTLER.S LEADS TO THE BUILDING OF ST. PAUL. .50 

CHAPTER VII. 
PRELIMINARIES OP THE CITY'S FOUNDING. 

CLAIM-MAKING FOLLOWS TREATY RATIFICATION — FRANKLIN STEELE MAKES THE FIRST LEGAL LAND CLAIMS AT ST. 

ANTHONY'S FALLS — WHO HIS ASSOCIATES WERE BUILDING THE FIR.ST MILL ON THE EAST SIDE THE WORK OF 

DEVELOPMENT PROCEEDS SLOWLY FOR WANT OF A LITTLE MONEY FIRST HOMES AND OCCLTANTS AT ST. 

ANTHONY — THE COUNTRY AND THE GENERAL SITUATION IN 1847, ETC., ETC 59 

CHAPTER VIII. 
THE FOUNDING AND EARLY HISTORY OF ST. ANTHO.NY. 

MINNESOTA OPENED TO WHITE SETTLEMENT — FRANK STEELE'S MILL .\T ST. ANTHONY IS COMPLETED AND A BUSINESS 
BOOM RESULT.S — FIRST BUSINESS HOUSES OPENED — -ADVERSITIES FOLLOW AND PALL UPON THE FOUNDER OF THE 
PLACE- — FIRST TIMBER-CUTTING ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI — STEELE'S MILL-WHEELS TURN AND THE VILLAGE 

GROWS — CREATION OF MINNESOTA TERRITORY WM. R. MARSHALL SURVEYS THE TOWN SITE IN 18-49 AND 

ANOTHER BOOM FOLLOWS — THE FIRST FERRY" — ADVENTURE OF MISS SALLIE BEAN — MINNESOTA'S GOVERN- 
MENTAL MACHINERY SET IX MOTION — WII.VT THE FIRST CENSUS DECLARED. ETC 66 

CHAPTER IX. 
PRIMITIVE SCENES AND CONDITIONS. 

ST. ANTHONY" IN ITS FIRST D.\Y'S AS DESCRIBED BY WRITERS AND ACTUAL RESIDENTS — E. S. SEYMOUR, THE NOTED 
NORTHWESTERN TRAVELER AND DESCRIPTIVE WRITER, PRESENTS WORD PAINTINGS OF THE LITTLE FRONTIER VIL- 
L.A.GE IN 1849— EDITOR GOODHUE, OF THE FIRST MINNESOTA NEWSPAPER, MAKES THE FIRST PRINTED MENTION 
OF THE TOWN — ONE OF THE FIRST LADY RESIDENTS GIVES RE.MINISCENCES OF PIONEER DAYS AND DOINGS 77 

CH.APTER X. 
IN THE MORNING OF POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 

THE FIRST COURT CONVENES IN THE HOUSE OF THE GOVERNMENT MILLER FIRST ELECTIONS — SPIRITED CANVASS IN 

1848 BETWEEN HENRY H. SIBLEY AND HENRY M. RICE. THE CAPTAINS OF THE FUR INDUSTRY, AND WHO CONTEST 

FOR THE POSITION OF DELEGATE IN CONGRESS FROM "WISCONSIN TERRITORY," AND SIBLEY WINS ST. ANTHONY 

THEN IN WISCONSIN — FIRST ELECTIONS IN MINNESOTA TERRITORY, 1849, AND SIBLEY AGAIN ELECTED DELEGATE 
- — THE CLOSE ELECTION OF 1850 — JOHN II. STEVENS APPEARS AND BECOMES PROMINENT IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS — 
LIST OF VOTERS IN ST. ANTHONY IN 1849 AND 1850 — THE FIRST SCHOOLS, STEAMBO.^TS, INDEPENDENCE DAY 
CELEBR.VTIONS, BUSINESS HOUSES, ETC., ETC 84 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE AFFAIRS OF STEELE AND TAYLOR — ST. .\NTHONY IN 1850 AND 1851 — THE VILLAGE AS DESCRIBED BY PIONEER 
WRITERS — THE FIRST NEWSPAPER — FIRST SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, ADVERTISEMENTS, ETC. PIONEER ENTERTAIN- 
MENTS ST. ANTHONY MIGHT HA\T; BECOME THE CAPITAL OF MINNESOTA — THE MOMENTOUS INDIAN TREATIES 

OF 1851 94 



CONTEXTS vii 

CHAPTER XII. 
THE CJTY AND COUNTY ARE ESTABLISHED. 

EFFECT OF THE INDIAN TREATIES OF 1851 — THE WEST SIDE OF THE KIVER OPENED TO WHITE SETTLEMENT SETTLERS 

FLOCK TO THE NEW HOME SITES — THE FIRST PERMANENT OCCUPANTS OF THE CITY 's WE.STERN DIVISION — A 
NEW CITY IS FOUNDED AND A NEW COUNTY CREATED 10.") 

CHAPTER XIII. 
LAYING THE CITY'S FOUNDATIONS. 

REDUCING THE FORT SNELLING RESERVE — CHANGING THE NAME OF THE ST. PETER 'S TO MINNESOTA — SETTLERS ON 

THE TOWN SITE IN 1851 AND 1852 FIRST CL.UMS ON THE INDIAN LANDS MISCELLANEOUS CLAIMS AND 

CLAIMANTS FIRST FAMILIES NEAR LAKES HARRIET AND CALHOUN — FIRST CLAIMS IN NORTH MINNEAPOLIS — 

EARLY SETTLERS IN SOUTH TOWN ADDITIONAL PIONEERS OF 1851 AND 1852 FINAL RECORDS OP SOME FIRST 

CITIZENS — UEGINNIN(iS OF THE UNU'ERSITY 11!^ 

CHAPTER XIV. 
LEADING EVENTS OF THE EARLY HISTORY. 

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND COMMENTS ORGANIZATION OP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN THE NATipN AND STATE 

POLITICS IN 1855 AND THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION AT MINNEAPOLIS — THE HENNEPIN COUNTY AGRICULTURAL 
SOCIETY HOLDS THE FIRST AGRICULTURAL FAIR IN THE STATE — THE GOVERNOR PREVENTS THE ORGANIZATION OF 

ST. ANTHONY COUNTY AND IS SEVERELY DENOUNCED ST. ANTHONY INCORPORATED AS A CITY HENNEPIN 

COUNTY ABSORBS ST. ANTHONY — THE SENSATIQN.-iL ELECTION FOR DELEGATES TO FORM THE FIRST STATE CON- 
STITUTION — THE FIRST GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION, IN 1857 — THE FINANCIAL PANICS OF 1857 AND 1859. . . .119 

CHAPTER XV. 

MISCELLANEOUS HISTORICAL INCIDENTS FROil 1861 TO THE CONSOLIDATION, IN 1872. 

DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. ANTHONY DID THEIR FULL PART FROM FIRST TO LAST — 

THE VICTORIES OF THE TIME OF PEACE THE FIRST RAILROADS ARE SECURED THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IS 

SECURELY FOUNDED — A MODEL PRIVATE SCHOOL, THE BLAKE THE REAL ESTABLISHING OF THE UNIVERSITY — 

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDED CREATION OF THE PARK SYSTEM I'i2 

CHAPTER XVI. 
FROM THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE CITIES AT THE FALLS TO THE PRESENT. 

MINNEAPOLIS AS A MUNICIPALITY FIRST CITY GOVERNMENT EXPANSION OF THE CITY AND ITS TRIBUTARY COUN- 
TRY — THE CITY GROWS CONSTANTLY STRONGER ENCOUNTERS AND PASSES PANICS AND OTHER OBSTACLES TO 

PROSPERITY — A STREET RAILWAY IS BUILT — OTHER FEATURES OF STRENGTH ARE SECURED THE YEAR 1880 

OPENS THE DOORS TO A GREAT BUSINESS BOOM LASTING SIX YEARS A PARK SYSTEM INAUGURATED — PROGRESS 

.\LONG ALL LINES A GAIN IN POPULATION OF 118,000 FROM 1880 TO 1890 — MORE RAILROAD BUILDING THE 

EXPOSITION IS CREATED — THE OLD "MOTOR LINE" — THE STREET RAILWAY ADOPTS ELECTRICITY AS A MOTIVE 

POWER — BIG PUBLIC BUILDINGS ARE ERECTED THE CENSUS WAR WITH ST. PAUL IN 1890 THE GREAT BOOM 

BURSTS, BUT THE SHOCK IS SUR\aVED — NEW INDUSTRIES FOUNDED AND OLD ONES STRENGTHENED — TRADE CON- 
DITIONS BECOME WORTHY OF PRIDE AND BOASTING — DURING THE WAR WITH SPAIN — EFFORTS AT CHARTER 

CHANGINC SOME CENSUS FIGURES OF 1900 — PROGRESS IN CULTURE AND REFINEMENT — THE NEWSPAPERS — 

CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS RECENT IMPORTANT HISTORIC INCIDENTS, ETC 138 

CHAPTER XVII. 

PERSONAL AND HISTORICAL REJIINISCENCES BY' PROMINENT CITIZENS. 

R. P. Upton's notes on early days in st. anthony — chas. m. loring's "vista op fifty years" — thos. b. 
walker's reminiscences, historical sketches, and notes on lumber manufacturing at ST. An- 
thony's FALLS — GEO. H. CHRISTIAN'S NOTES ON EARLY ROLLER MILLING IN MINNEAPOLIS AND HOW CERTAIN 



viii CONTENTS 

RAILROADS OPPRESSED THE MILLERS GEORGE H. WARREX "S NOTES AN EXCERPT FROM "tHE PIONEER WOODSMAN 

AS HE IS RELATED TO LUMBERING IN THE NORTHWEST. " 150 

CHAPTER XYIII. 
THE BANKING INTERESTS OF THE CITY. 

SKETCHES OF SOME OF THE IMPORTANT AND TYPICAL BANKS AND TRUST COMPANIES OF MINNEAPOLIS THE FIRST 

NATIONAL THE NORTHWESTERN NATIONAL — THE SECURITY NATIONAL — MINNEAPOLIS TRUST CO. MINNESOTA 

LOAN AND TRUST CO. — THE STATE INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS FARMERS AND MECHANICS SAVINGS BANK — 

SCANDINAVIAN-AMERICAN NATIONAL METROPOLITAN NATIONAL — ST. ANTHONY' FALLS BANK — THE NATIONAL 

CITY BANK OF MINNEAPOLIS — THE GERMAN-AMERICAN NATIONAL EAST SIDE STATE BANK 169 




.ST. AXTIIUNV l-AI.LS JX isoi 
Showing till' first suspension bridge built tliat year, and the first to span tlu- river anywlu-n 




t'(lL. .lUH.N IIAKHI.XUTUX STKVKXS 
I'irst settler on tiie original site of Minneapolis. (Krom 
photo ill ISSd.) 



CHAHLKS H()A(; 

'l"he prniiiiiieiit pioneer w lio gave tlie ( ity of .Minneapolii 
it> name. (I'nun an old ni'Wspaper print.) 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, 

MINNESOTA 



CHAPTER I. 
MINNEAPOLIS IN PRE-HISTORY AND IN THE EARLIEST RECORD. 

THE MOUND builders' OCCUPATION — TUE COMING OF THE FIliST CAUCASIANS THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT FALLS 

BY THE HUMBLE PRIEST THAT MADE THEM FAMOUS. 



To the great cataract iu the Mississippi River at 
its site, the city of Minneapolis owes its origin, its 
existence, and the principal elements which form its 
condition and character. The history of this cataract, 
or Oi the series of cataracts known as the Falls of 
St. Antliouy, is practically, therefore, the history of 
Minneaiiolis. But for these falls there would liave 
been no city here, and their development has kept 
progres-s with that of the city'; and though the city 
could now live and prosper if the great water power 
were taken away, yet that mighty force is still one 
•of the strongest elements and features of the munici- 
pality's well-being and prosperity. 

And the history of the city is also a very impor- 
tant part of that of Minnesota. The two records are 
interwoven and so dependent as to be insepai-ahle. 
IMiuneapolis could hardly exist without Minnesota, 
and ]\Iinnesota at large finds its great busy, bustling, 
and enterprising metropolis of immense advantage to 
the material welfare of the State and its people. No 
history of Miiuicapolis can be complete without a fair 
mention of that of jMinnesota. 

THE PRE-HISTORIC PEOPLE. 

At a very early period in American history, per- 
haps before the Christian era, that mysterious race 
commonly called the jMound Builders occupied por- 
tions of what is now the State of Miiinesota. From 
a fair consideration of the evidences of their occupa- 
tion, it is probat)le that the period of their stay here 
covered at least a hundred years; exactly when they 
came and when they left can never be known. All 
knowledge of them is incomplete, uncertain, indefi- 
nite, and largely speculative. It seem.s certain, how- 
ever, that at a vei'y remote period a race of human 
beings, differing from the red or copper-colored 
Indians of historic times, were in Jlinnesota. They 
left undoubted evidences of their occupation. They 
raised earthen mounds, fortifications, and effigies; 
made and used stone axes, flint arrow-points, spear 
and lance heads, and other weapons and implements; 
and manufactured pottery, beads, and other articles. 



In time tiu^y made implements of copper. They left 
si)ecimens of their work behind them, and very many 
of these specimens are in existence today. 

It seems altogetiier 23robable that at one time there 
was a city of the Mound Builders in the eastern j)art 
of St. Taul, on the cr'est of the great elevation known 
as Dayton's Bluff. Here, until in recent years, were 
a dozen huge conical mounds, some of which were 25 
feet in height and the same dimension in diameter 
at the base. Two or three of these are sup])oscd to 
have been temple mounds, from whose crests human 
sacrifices were offered to the great Sun God ; for, 
many think the Mound Builders were akin to the 
Aztecs of Mexico, whom Cortez found worshiping the 
sun and offering to that gi'eat luminary, fi'om stone 
altars upon lofty elevations, human sacrifices gasiied 
and dismembered with flint knives. Near Little Falls 
are considerable deposits of white quartz; and, from 
certain chips and fragments found in the vicinity, it 
is conjectured that the Minnesota JMound Builders 
worked here and made certain weapons and imple- 
ments. The greater number of these articles found 
in Minnesota were not made here. The material of 
which they are formed came from other States, some 
of it from as far to the eastward as West Virginia. 

Now, the ilound Builders — or at least some very 
ancient people — made all these stone and flint imple- 
ments; their successors, the red or copper-colored 
Indians, did not — could not. They picked them up 
aiul used them. Init they could neitlier manufacture 
them or put them in repair. Evidently the most 
delicate arrow-points were made simply with other 
flint tools. In many Western States, from the Ohio 
to the upper Mississippi, numerous copper imple- 
ments are found in the Mounds and at the sites of 
pre-historic villages. It is conjectured that most of 
the mineral from which these ai-ticles were made came 
from the vast deposits in Michigan. Some of the 
ancient red Indians — notably the Sioux of the ;\Iille 
Lacs — made a rude pottery, but it was not like that 
of the Mound Builders. 

A proportion of the larger ^Mounds seem to have 
been used mainly as the sepulchers or last resting 



1 



HISTORY OF :MINNEAP0LIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



places of the kings, chiefs, and other of the illus- 
trious pre-historic dead. The practice of such 
interment may have been copied from the ancient 
Egyptians. The majority of the mounds are small. 
The smaller are called sepulchral mounds, because 
they seem to have been used solely as tombs and 
burial places. Some of the larger and higher mounds 
are thought to have been towers of observation from 
whose crests the approach of enemies might be dis- 
covered. In nearly every mound that has been 
opened, whether sepulchral, temple, or observation, 
human relics have been discovered. In most in- 
stances, however, all that was found of the character 
of liuman remains comprised some fragments of bone, 
which crumbled on exposui-e to the light, and some 
wliitish powder, apparently the last traces of a human 
•skeli'ton which hac! "returned to its original dust." 
In every case of this kind it is fair to presume that 
the mound was not only intended as the tomb of a 
distinguished personage, but was meant to be a monu- 
ment to his memory. It was a Pyramid in honor 
of a Mound Buikler Rameses. 

Tliis is not the place for an essay upon the old 
Mound Builders. Thej' have long been the subjects 
of investigation and discussion, and, in recent years, 
of controversy and dispute among American ethnol- 
ogists and archaeologists. One party contends that 
these pre-historic people were members of a distinct 
race of fairl.v civilized agriculturists, whose remote 
ancestors came from South America, by way of 
Central America and Mexico, into what is now the 
United States; that they lived from remote antiquity 
in the regions where the mounds and the stone and 
Hint implements were found, and that they were 
finally driven away or exterminated by the more 
savage nomadic hordes that came from the northward 
and wliose descendants became the red Indians found 
ill North America l)y the first whites. Another party 
believes that the ilound Builders were merely the 
progenitors and ancestors of the red or copper-colored 
Indians. No written record of the Moiind Builders 
has ever been found, luiless the alleged "golden 
plates" from which the ^Mormons claim their "Bible" 
was translated was such a record. 

MOI'ND BUILDERS -\T MINNE.VPOLIS. 

There never were but few evidences of the Mound 
Builders' occupation of the present site of ilinne- 
apolis; perhaps there are none now. Out on the 
shores of Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet, in early 
times, there were a few tumuli or sepulchral mounds. 
Tlie Pond brothers, early missionaries, noted one or 
two of these on Lake Calhoun. The late Gov. W. R. 
Marshall, who was one of the very first settlers on 
the east side of the Palls, had several small mounds 
on his claim and excavated one of them for a cellar, 
'but nothing very remarkable was found. At Bloom- 
ington and Lake Minnetonka are al)undant evidences 
of the Mound Builders' presence at a remote time. 
The i-oUection of mounds at Bloomington is large and 
important, but no remarkable "finds" have been 
developed. 

It is probable that in tlie early periods of human 



occupation the site of the great Falls here was 
regarded as supernatural, as holy ground, not to be 
trespassed upon with impunity, but only to be visited 
in reverence and a spirit of devotion. Any great 
natural feature, as a mountain, a large lake, a water- 
fall, was by the aborigines believed to be the abode 
of a deity and was regarded and respected accord- 
ingly. Even the huge granite boulders scattered over 
the sui'face of the countiy were believed to be the 
abiding places of supernatural beings. These simple 
people, in the natural disposition of mankind to 
believe in the mj-sterious and supernatural, filled, in 
their fancies, not only the earth but the air with 
deities and spirits, and of a ti'uth saw God in the 
clouds and heard Him in the wind. 

THE FALLS SITE HELD TO BE HOLY. 

The aborigines, both Mound Builders and red 
Indians, did not make their homes immediately near 
the great river falls at the site of Minneapolis. There 
were beautiful locations all about the cataracts, but 
doubtless it was thought to be dangerous to occupy 
them. The powerful spirits whose abodes were here 
would resent the intrusion and visit the intruders 
with awful penalties and punishments. The nearest 
the old-time villages came to the Falls was out about 
Lake Calhoun. 

When the first white man. Father Louis Hennepin, 
visited the Palls, in July, 1680, he saw a Sioux 
Indian offering sacrifices and addressing his prayers 
to the presiding local deity. Other earl.y explorers 
noted that the Indians visited the mightj' cataracts, 
not to fish or hunt, but to say their prayers and show 
all proper respect to their gods; no Indian offered to 
set his tepee or to build his lodge there. In fear and 
trembling they noted the intinision and trespass of 
the white men upon the sacred precincts. They 
regarded the work of improvement here as sacrilege 
and desecration of the worst form. When in 1820 
the garrison at Port Snelling built a miU and a dwell- 
ing house here, they looked to see it overwhelmed by 
a riood or destroyed by thunderbolts. As time passed 
and other improvements were made, ami especially 
when mills were built and the river current made to 
turn them, they were astounded. Finally they con- 
eluded that the old gods had aliandoned the place, 
and then a few of them came and pitched their tepees 
wpon ground which became the busiiiess center of the 
great city. 

Geologists tell us of the great Glacial Period, when 
^Minnesota was covered with a sheet of ice. In time 
this melted away, and it is thought probable that there 
were men in southern Minnesota when what is now 
the northern part of tlie State was ice-bound. The 
scientific men believe that 7,000 or 8,000 years ago the 
Falls were at the mouth of the Minnesota, and that 
during this- time the long, great gorge between Fort 
Snelling and the present cataract was eroded and 
dug, as it were, by the river. 

THE FIRST WHITE EXPLORERS. 

The city of Quebec was founded by Samuel Cham- 
plain, the French Governor of Canada, in 1608. He 



insTOKV OK MIXXEAl'OLIS AND 1 1 KXXKl'lX ("OIXTY, .MIXXESOTA 



was soon joini'd by missionary priests of llic .Motlicr 
Clitirch wiio penetrated the siirrouiuiiiiir wiUleriU'Sses 
and labored among the savajre Indians lor their con- 
version to the Christian faitli. The eajytnre of Canada 
by the English, in l(i2!l. defeated any further uiis- 
sionary efforts for a time, but the country was restored 
three yeai-s later and Jesuit priests set out to con- 
tinue the missions alone. 

These zealous religious workers became the first 
discoverers of the greater part of the interior of the 
North American Continent, especially of a great part 
of the Northwest. Within ten years after their second 
arrival, they had not only examined mucii of the 
country from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico 
and founded several Christian villages, but they had 
planted the cross at the 8ault Ste. ]\Iarie, from whence 
they looked out and down upon the eounti-y of the 
Sioux and the valley of the upper Mississippi. But 
for these courageous and pious men very much of 
early Northwestern history would not have been made, 
and much more of it would not have been recorded 
and preserved. 

WHAT JEAN NICOLET SAW. 

It was, however, not a priest, but a layman, ilon- 
sieur Jean Nicolet, who first heard of ""a great water" 
which proved to be the upper ^Mississippi. He came 
to Canada from France in ItJlS and had been much 
in the service of the Government as an emissary and 
explorer. In 1639 he was sent to Green Bay and went, 
by way of the Fox River and a portage, to the Wis- 
consin, and down that river for some distance. Of 
this journey Father Vimont, in the Jesuit Relations 
of that year (Rel. 1639-40, p. 135), writes: 

"The Sieur Nicolet, who had penetrated furthest 
into these distant coimtries, avers that had he sailed 
three days more on a great river which flows from 
that lake | Green Bay] he would have found the sea." 

Now it was the Ouinipegou (or Winnebago) Indians 
with whom Nicolet was at the time. They told him 
simply of "a great water," by which term they 
described the big river. From his imperfect under- 
standing of their language, he believed they were tell- 
ing him of tile great ocean, and he hastened back 
with the astounding news. At that time the belief 
was common that the sea was to be found not many 
hundred miles west of Canada. The Jesuit fathers 
now had higl: hopes of rea<;'hing the Pacific with their 
mission stations and prepared to send some of their 
number to "those men of the other sea." (Ibid., 
132-35.) It was not long, however, before the truth 
was learned, or at least enough to realize that the 
Wiiniebagoes meant a big river and not the va.st ocean 
when they told Nicolet of the "great water." 

The Spaniards had discovered the loiocr ;\Iississippi 
a hundred years before, and De Soto had died on its 
banks and been buried in its bo.som in 1542. It is, 
however, fpiite certain that to Jean Nicolet. the 
Frenchman.* is due the credit of having first reached 
and reported upon the waters of the upper portion 
of the great river, which has been not inaptly styled 
the "Father" of them and of many others. 



' Nicolet was drowned at Tlirpo I?ivers, Canada, in 1642. 



THE GOOD WORK OK THE JESLTr FATHERS. 

In Kill F'athers Isaac Jogues and Charles Raym- 
bault, at Sault Ste. :\Iarie, and in 1660 Father Men- 
ai'd. another Jesuit, with a mission on the southern 
shore of Lake Superior, heard of and reported upon 
■'the great river to the westward," and of the nation 
of people living upon it and its waters. This nation, 
it was reported, spoke another language and differed 
in other characteristics from tlie Algonquins. Father 
Allouez, who succeeded Father ilenard on Lake; 
Superior, was the first to report the name of the 
l)eople and of the river. In the Jesuit Relations for 
1666-67 (p. 1(16) he writes: "The Nadouessi live on 
the great river called ]\Iessipi, which empties, as far 
as I can conjecture, into the sea by Virginia." 

The Jesuit father. James Marquette, and the Sieur 
Louis Joliet, instructed by the French Governor of 
Canada, Frontenac, embarked June 10, 1673, in two 
I'.irch bark canoes on the Wisconsin for an explora- 
tion of the upper Mississippi. Sailing slowly down 
the Wisconsin, amid its vine-clad isles, its varied 
shores, and numerous sand-bars, on the 17th they 
glided into the great river, "with a joy I cannot 
express," writes Father Marquette. They went south 
over the river as far as the mouth of the Arkansas. 
The good father wrote "Meskousing" for Wisconsin, 
spelled the name of the great river "Missisipi." 
wrote "Ouabache" for Wal)ash, "Akansea," for 
Arkansas, etc. 

The upper Jlississippi was now fairly well known, 
but nobody had made known to the world the Great 
Falls which constituted its most important natural 
feature. The first wliite man to see tliem was to come 
seven years after Father Marquette and Joliet liad 
learned for a certainty that there was such a gnvat 
river identical with that discovered and reported upon 
by De Soto's expedition. 

ALL HAIL. FATHER HENNEPIN, THE FIRST WHITE JIAN 
AT THE SITE OF MINNE.VPOLIS ! 

The first pure Caucasians or men of full white 
blood to look upon the site where afterwards arose the 
great city of Minneapolis were Rev. Father Louis 
Hennepin and his associate, Anthony Auguelle. and 
the date of their visit was in July, 1680. There is 
but a single source of information to warrant this 
statement, but yet it has been made myriads of times, 
.seldom questioned, and is still listened to with inter- 
est; it cannot become too well known, and perhaps 
it cannot be too often made. 

Father Hennepin was born in the Province of 
TT.iinault. Flanders, Cnow RelgiunO. in aboiit 1640. 
He became a Franciscan monk and in 1674 wa.s 
present as a chaplain in the French army at the bat- 
tle of Senef. A year or so later he was sent to 
Canada. In December, 1679, he was at Fort Creye 
Coeur, on the Illinois River, eager to engage in nns- 
sionai-v work among the savages. His conuuander 
was tlie renowned Chevali(>r Robert de La Salle: Ins 
religious counselor was the venerable Father 
Ribourde. 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



FIEST CAUCASIAN VOYAGE TO THE t'PPER MISSISSIPPI. 

Ou the 29th of February, 1680, Father Hennepin 
and two Frenchmen left Fort Creve Coenr in a large 
canoe and sailed down the Illinois River, which the 
French, and especially Father Henneiiiu, called the 
Seignelay. The party consisted of the Franciscan 
priest and Michael Accault (Hennepin spells the 
name Ako and others write it Lc Sieur d 'Accault, 
d'Acau, D' Ako, and Dacan) and Antoine Auguelle, 
who was a native of the Province of Picardy and 
often termed "Le Pieard" and "Pieard du Gay." 
They had fire arms and other weapons, a good stock 
of provisions, and Father Hennepin carried all the 
articles commonly employed by a priest in his sacred 
calling. 

In his "Description of Louisiana" Father Hen- 
nepin states the object of and some other circum- 
stances connected with the expedition. He says: 

■ ' I offered to undertake this voyage to endeavor to 
go and form an acquaintance with the natives among 
whom I hoped soon to settle in order to preach the 
faith. The Sieur de La Salle told me that I gratified 
him. He gave nie a peace calumet and a canoe with 
two men." 

The real leader or commander of the party was not 
Father Hennepin ; he was merely the chaplain of the 
expedition. Pie admits in his journal that his com- 
panions often disobeyed his requests. The real com- 
mander seems to have been IMiehael Accault. Father 
Hennepin says that La Salle, "intrusted him [Accault] 
with some goods intended to make presents, which were 
worth a thousand or twelve hundred livres [or nearly 
$210]. He gave me ten knives, twelve awls, a small 
roll of tobacco to give the Indians, about two pounds of 
black and white beads, and a small package of needles. 
He is very liberal to his friends." 

About March 7, the party reached the mouth of the 
Illinois. Here they were detained five days by the 
floating ice in the Mississippi, which river was then 
called by the French of the country the Colbert. Two 
leagues from the confluence of the two rivers they came 
upon some Indians whose villages were west of the 
Colliert and who called themselves ilaroa or Tamaroa, 
and were probably the bands known to the Algontjuins 
as the Messouret or Missouris. They used wooden 
canoes, or canoes fashioned from logs, while the Algon- 
quins of the lakes had boats of liireh bark, and the 
woi-d .Missouri, or Michouri, means wooden canoe; not 
muddy, as is commonly supposed. The Maroas were 
at war with the Northern Indians towards whom 
Father Hennepin and his companions were going with 
arms and other iron implements. The Indians shot 
arrows at the white men in the endeavor to prevent the 
reenforcemeut of their enemies. 

'i'lie explorers renewed their voyage up the Colbert 
on ^March 12. The woi-k of paddling the rather heavily 
laden canoe against tiie strong swollen current of the 
Mississii)pi in the month of March and the flrst part of 
April, when much driftwood and floating ice must have 
been encountered, was of course very hard and toil- 
some. Landings and encampments were nuide every 
niglit and progress was necessarily very slow. In his 
Jouriud Father Hennepin does not mention these 



embarrassing circumstances, however, and doubtless 
they were cheerfully endured. He speaks joyously of 
the abundance of fresh provisions the country afl;'orded 
them, saying: "We were loaded with seven or eight 
large turkeys, which multiply of themselves in these 
parts. We wanted neither buffalo, nor deer nor bea- 
ver, nor fish nor bear meat, for we killed those animals 
as the}' swam across the river. ' ' 

SEIZED AND ENSLAVED BY THE SAVAGE SIOUX. 

After a mouth's journey up the great river an extra- 
ordinary incident occurred. The reverend father tells 
us that during tlie voyage they had been considering 
the river Colbert (ilississippi), "with great pleasure, 
and without hindrance to know whether it was naviga- 
ble up and down." It is quite probable that they had 
been instructed to investigate and rei)ort upon the 
navigability of the river, and that they were also to 
examine and describe the country upon both its shores. 
The priest expected to proclaim the Gospel to the sav- 
ages to whom the.y should come, and the daily prayers 
of all three of the white men were that these people 
might be encountered in the daytime, and not at night, 
when they might be mistaken for enemies and ruth- 
lessly killed. Their prayers were answered when, on 
the 11th of April, "about 2 o'clock in the afternoon," 
says Father Hennepin, they encountered '6'i birch bark 
canoes AVith 120 warriors of the great Nadouessioux 
or Sioux nation of Indians. The savages were on their 
way "to make war on the Miamis, the Islinois, and the 
Maroa" Indians, whose country was to the southward, 
and who were the hereditary enemies of the Sioux. Of 
course the Sioux were armed and very desirous of kill- 
ing somebody. 

There was the greatest excitement among them. The 
white men had the peace pipe which La Salle had given 
them, and which Father Hennepin now lipid conspicu- 
ously and ostentatiously aloft that the Indians might 
plainly see it. A peace pipe or calumet was a white 
flag, and not only meant that the bearer was harmless 
and friendly but that he must be respected and pro- 
tected from all harm and injury. It was very valuable 
on this occasion. The Indians yelled and screamed 
and fired arrows at the white strangers, but Father 
Hennepin says: "The old men, seeing us with the 
calumet of peace in our hands, prevented the young 
men from killing us." 

It was a perilously critical time, according to Father 
Hennepin's narration. Some think he exaggerated 
the danger and peril of the conditions, which were 
doubtless bad enough at the best. He says that by the 
signs of the Indians — for their language could not be 
understood — the white men comprehended that the 
savages were on a hostile expedition against their old 
time enemies, the Miamis and others down Itelow. 
Then the good father, "took a little slick and by signs 
which we made in the sand showed them that their ene- 
mies, the Miamis, whom they sought, had fled across 
the river Colbert to join the Islinois." 

TORRENTS OF TERRIFYING TEARS. 

Whereupon, realizing that their enemies had escaped 
them, the Sioux lifted up their voices and wept — wept 



HISTORY OF .MIXXKAI'OLIS AND IIKXNKIMX COUNTY, :\I1NNES0TA 



loudly and tlu'ir tears flowed profusely. Tlieir iocs 
had lied in safety; hiiic illn l<iilirti»i(i(\ Father Hen- 
nepin, "with a wreteheil handkerehief I had left." 
wiped away some of the tears ; the renuiinder eitlier fell 
on the ground and rolled into the river or were swal- 
lowed up by the earth. Tlie savages refu.sed to he 
comforted. They would not smoke the peace pipe of 
the white men. and even wrenched it from their hands. 
The.v made the poor prisoners cross the river and go 
into caini) witli llieni. 'i'lien they called an assembly 
which tletcrmined that the wrctclunl captives should 
be tomahawked outright. As a peace ottering Father 
Hennei)in then gave them six axes, fifteen knives, and 
.six fathoms (24 feet) of a rope or twist of tobacco an 
inch thick. At last, wishing to end it all, the good 
priest, as he says, handed them an ax and bowing his 
head and baring his neck told them to go ahead and 
decapitate him, and so make an end ! 

At once there was a change of sentiment among the 
Indians. They approached the father in a friendly 
manner, jnit three pieces of hot cooked beaver meat 
into his mmith before presenting him with a bark dish 
full of the same food. Then they returned the peace 
pipe, but the three white men spent the night in great 
anxiety. Augnelle and Accault had their arms and 
swords at hand, determined to sell their lives as dearly 
as possible. The zealous and pious priest was, as he 
says, in a different nmod. Says he: 

"As for my own part, I determined to allow myself 
to be killed without any resistance, as I was going to 
announce to them a God who had been falsely accused, 
unjustly condemned, and cruelly crucified without 
showing the least aversion to those that put him to 
death. But we watched in turn, in our anxiety, so as 
not to be surprised asleep." 

LIVES SAVED BUT LIBERTIES LOST. 

The morning of April 12, a chief or head wari'ior, 
whom Father Hennepin calls "one of their captains," 
and whose name he gives as Narhetoba, all in war 
paint, asked the white men for their peace pipe. Re- 
ceiving it. he filled it "with tobacco of his country" 
(probably kinnikinnick), smoked it himself, and then 
made all of the other members of the band smoke it. 
That settled the fate of the distressed captives ; tiiey 
were to live. .Xarhetoba (see definition, post) told 
them that their lives would be spared, but that they 
must go back with them to their own country. With 
this decision they were well enough satisfietl, since 
the Indians' country was their intended tlestination. 

In his perturbation and nervousnes,s Father Henne- 
pin was constantly muttering and mumbling his pray- 
ers. The Indians noticed him, and the father says 
they cried out, "Oua-Kanclie," which the three whites 
thought was an expression of anger and denunciation. 
Michael Accault said to him: "Keep quiet; if you 
continue to mutter your prayers and recite your bre- 
viary, we shall all be killed." Thereupon the good 
father ceased to pray in public, but uttered his orisons 
in the dark or within the .seclusion of a wood. P>ut 
what the Indians really said was "Wau-Kawn, " or 



j)crhaps " wau-kawn-de," meaning supernatural. In 
eit'ect they said, respectfully enough, "lie is saying 
something of a supernatural or sacred character." 
He afterward read from his breviary in an open canoe 
the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, and was not dis- 
turbed. The Indians seemed to think that the book 
was sacred. 

The point on the Jli.ssissipjji where Father Hennepin 
and his conqjanions met the Sioux cannot now be 
definitely fixed. The most reasonable estimate has 
been made by that eminent authority on Northwestern 
History, ^Varren I'pham, Secretary of the State His- 
torical Society, In his X'oluine 1 of "^Minnesota in 
Three Centuries" (V. 229) Mr. Uphamsays: 

"Hennepin's estimate of the distance voyaged in 
the ascent of the ^Mississipi)i from the mouth of the 
Illinois Hivcr before meeting the Sioux was about 200 
French leagues; and from the i)lace of that meeting to 
where they left this river, at the site of St. Paul, ahout 
250 leagues. The whole distance, thus represented to 
be about J-'iO French leagues, or 1,242 English miles, 
is ascertained by the present very accurate maps to be 
only 689 miles, following the wiiuling Course of the 
river. If we can truthfully accept the proportional 
ratio of the e.stimates of Hennepin, indicating four- 
ninths of the whole voyage to have been passed when 
he met the Sioux and was taken captive, that place 
was near the head of the Rock Island Rainds, some 
15 miles above tlic citii-s of Rock Island and Daven- 
port." 

DAYS OP DEADLY PERILS A.XD DANGERS. 

It was probably on the 14th of April when the fleet 
of Indian bark canoes, including the boat of the captive 
white men, set out for the Sioux country up the river — 
the Indians abandoning their war expedition in great 
sorrow. These particular Sioux, connnonly ferocious 
and very savage, were, according to Father Hennepin, 
very lugubrious and lachrymose. They burst into 
tears and wept copiously on the snndlest occasion. In 
tearful tones they would tell the white men how mueh 
they loved them ; the next minute, in voices choked with 
sobs, they would announce that they meant to dash 
out the bi-ains of the helpless captives becaus'^ the 
^liamis had killed some Sioux onci' upon a time, 

;\lore than once Father Heiuiepin's life was saved 
by the intervention of the kind-lu'arted "captain" 
w'hom tlie father calls .Xarhetoba. (Probably, Nali- 
ha-e-topa, meaning, kicks twice to one side.) The head 
chief of the party, according to the father's account, 
was called Aquipaguelin. (Probably A-kee-pa Ga-tan, 
meaning a foi-ked or pronged meeting, from a-kee-jia, 
a meeting antl gatan, forked or i)ronged. and meaning 
one who meets at a forked or pi-onged division of the 
road or i)ath.) For some time this chief was deter- 
mined to kill the tliree wliite men in order to assuage 
his grief for the death of his son, who had been killed 
by till' Miamis. He bawled almost constantly and kept 
up a special roai'ing at night. Father Hennepin says 
he indulged in all this extravagant demonstration of 
a poiginnit sorrow and a broken heart in order to obtain 
the sympathy of his followers so that — probably to 



HISTORY OF illNNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



stop his noise — they would murder the white men 
and appi-opriate their goods. But the father says 
that their lives were spared by the savages for merely 
commercial I'easons. He explains: 

"Those who liked European goods were much dis- 
posed to preserve us, so as to attract other Frenchmen 
there imd get iron, which is extremely precious in their 
eyes, but of which they learned the great utility only 
when they saw one of our French boatmen kill thi-ee 
or four bustards [turkeys] at a single shot, while they 
can scarcely kill only one with an arrow. In conse- 
cjuence, as we afterward learned, the words 'JIanza 
Ouackange' mean iron that has understanding."' 
(llah-/ah Waukon means supernatural iron, and a gun 
was often so called. 

The white men's boat l)ore such a load of freight that 
with its ordinary crew it could not keep pace with the 
light birch-bark canoes of the Sioux ; and so the Indians 
sent four or five of their number to help the French- 
men paddle their craft. The ma.jority of the Indians 
were fairly kind to the prisoners, but their kindness 
sometimes took disagreeable forms. The father 
tells us: 

"During the night some old men came to weep 
piteously, often rubbing our arms and whole bodies 
with their hands, which they then put on our heads. 
Besides being hindered from sleeping Ijy these tears, 
I often did not know what to think — whether these 
Indians wept because some of their warriors would 
have killed us, or out of pure compassion at the ill- 
treatment shown us. ' ' 

When the fleet reached Lake Pepin there was another 
outburst of Indian tears. Father Hennepin says he 
named this lake the Lake of Tears ("Lac des Pleurs"), 
"because some of the Indians who had taken us and 
wished to kill us wept the whole night to induce the 
others to consent to our death." The voyage was con- 
tinued, amid occasional showers of tears and the con- 
stant threats and menaces of old Forked Meeting, for 
nineteen days. It was a voyage of physical toil and 
hardship as well as of mental discomfort. Only one 
thing was comforting, game was abundant aiul there 
was plenty to eat. 

VOYAGE ENDS AT I'RESENT .SITE OP ST. PAUL. 

On the nineteenth day after the capture, or April 30, 
the expedition landed on the east side of the Colbert, 
or Mississippi. Father Hennepin says this landing 
was made "in a bay." and at a point "five leagues [15 
miles] below St. Anthony's Falls." The locality has 
been identified as Pig's Eye Lake, a few miles east of 
St. Paul, on the nortli or east side of the river. In the 
early spring this lake has always been connected by 
water with the Mississippi, and Father Hennepin very 
properly called it "a bay." Subsequently the place 
was called "La Pointe Basse," or the shoal point; 
Point Le Claire, for Michel Le Claire, the first bona- 
fide white settler on its banks; and "Pig's Eye," for 
the nickname of an old Canadian Frenchman, Pierre 
Parrant, who kept whisky for sale at the western end 
of the lake, at Dayton's Bluff. 

Here the Indians broke up the white men's boat and 



seized all their goods, taking even Father Hennepin's 
entire equipment for his sacerdotal functions, all the 
articles pertaining to a portable chapel which he was 
carrying with him, his robes, chasuble, etc., everything 
except the chalice, which, because it glittered, they 
thought was "Waukon" and had better be let alone. 
They also distributed the hapless prisoners separately 
to three heads of families, "in place of three of their 
children that had been killed in war. ' ' Then they hid 
their own canoes and some other articles amid the tall 
and rank growth of weeds and ru.shes in Pig's Eye 
Lake, and then set out for their principal villages on 
jMille Lacs, or among the "thousand lakes" of that 
locality. 

The journey from the river to the village occupied 
about five days. Presumably the Indians followed a 
well known trail, but the march was a hard one, espe- 
cially for Father Hennepin and his companions. The 
distance, as the crow flies, is a little more than a hun- 
dred miles, and the trail was not very far from straight. 
But the Rum River and other streams were to cross, 
swamps and marshes had to be waded, and elevations 
climbed. It was early spring and many of the lakes 
and swamps were covered with a thin ice which broke 
under the feet of the prisoners, and the father says: 
"Our legs were all bloody from the ice which we broke 
as we advanced in lakes which we forded." They ate 
only once in 24 hours and often the priest fell by the 
wayside in the dead prairie grass, "resolved to die 
there," he tells us. But the Indians set fii'e to the 
grass and he was forced to trudge on or be burned to 
death. He swam the chilly water of the Rum River, 
but his companions could not swim, and the Indians 
had to carry them across on their shoulders. 

IN SLAVERY AT MILLE LACS. 

At last, about the 5th of ilay, they reached the ]Mille 
Lacs village, which Father Hennepin calls Issati, per- 
haps a corruption of E-sau-te (or Isanti), meaning a 
knife. A number of the Indian women and children 
came out to meet the warriors and welcome them home. 
The white men were objects of curiosity but not of 
admiration. Their status was that of slaves and nobody 
envied them. One old man ("weeping bitterly," of 
course) rubbed Father Hennepin's legs and feet with 
wild-cat oil and was very sorry for him. while another 
Indian gave him a bark dish full of wild rice well sea- 
soned with blueberries. 

Father Hennepin's master (A-keepa Ga-tan) had 
five wives. He lived on an island to which he soon 
conveyed his adopted son, whom Hennepin says he 
called Mitchinchi (Me-Chincha, meaning my child), 
and to whom he was reasonably kind. 

PROBABLY THE FIRST WHITE MEJ.' AT MILLE LACS. 

Nothing is said by Father Hennepin, in his rather 
elaborate account of his captivity, indicating that he 
and his companions were the first white men that the 
Sioux (or Nadonessis) had seen. He makes no refer- 
ence to the subject whatever. The Sieur dn Luth 
claimed that he was at this same Issati village in l(i7!l. 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



the year before Father Hennepin was taken to it, but 
Father Hennepin does not say so. l)u Ijuth returned 
with the Father to the viUage in the early autumn of 
1680, and in mentioning this fact the priest does not 
hint that this was Du Luth's second visit. It is singu- 
lar that Du Luth never ehumed until late in 1680, after 
Father Hennepin's release, that he was at Mille Laes, 
the village of the Issatis, in the summer of 1(J7(). IMany 
have boldly claimed that Father Hennepin and his two 
companions in captivity were the first white men to 
visit the ancient Sioux at Mille Lacs, and that Du Luth 
willfully and knowingly testified falsely when he 
asserted that he was there in 1679. 

CONDITIONS AND INCIDENTS OP INDIAN LIFE AT MILLE 
LACS IN 1680. 

Father Hennepin and Ids white companions had a 
rather uneventful experience among the Indians of 
Mille Lacs. This great lake at the time was called the 
Spirit Lake, or in Sioux ' ' Meday Waukon. ' ' The peo- 
ple dwelling on its banks came to be called the Meday 
(or Meda or iM'da) Waukontonwan, or people of the 
Spirit Lake ; Meda, lake ; Waukon, spirit ; Tonwan, 
people or village. Father Hennepin found them boil- 
ing their meat and wild rice in earthen pots. He had 
an iron pot "with three lion-paw feet," which the 
Indians were afraid of as "Waukon" and would not 
touch. 

It is therefore certain that the early Sioux made 
pottery, as did the Mound Builders. It is not proba- 
ble, however, that they made flint implements, or at 
least Father Hennepin does not tell us so. They prob- 
ably used stone war clubs, weapons formed of egg- 
shaped stones fastened in the ends of sticks. Henne- 
pin tells us that on one occasion Chief Aquipaguetin, 
the Meeter at the Fork, came at him with his "head- 
breaker, ' ' which was no doubt a war club. The French 
term is "casse-tete," which Dr. Shea and others trans- 
late tomahawK, but which the best dictionaries render 
a bludgeon, or a mace. Literally the term means head 
breaker. The Indians had no tomahawks or other 
metallic implements at the time of Hennepin's visit, 
for this was doubtless their first meeting with white 
men. Prof. Thwaites translated "casse-tete" club. 

The lot of Father Hennepin and his white com- 
panions among the Sioux at Mille Lacs was not an espe- 
cially happy one. They were slaves and had to work. 
The good father was kept busy at garden making on 
the island of his master. He had brought some vege- 
table seeds with him, it seems, and they came handy. 
He planted tobacco, cabbages, and purslain (portu- 
lacca), as well as corn and beans. He had the satisfac- 
tion of baptizing a child, a little girl, the daughter of 
"Maminisi" (probably Maminni-sha, meaiung looks at 
red water), as she was believed to be dying. The child 
recovered, but died some weeks later. He christened 
her Antonetta, chiefly for Anthony Auguelle, who 
stood as her godfather. 

.Michael Accault (or Akol and the Picard had a 
hard time of it too. Father Hennepin sa.vs the latter 
was especially illy used. The Indian women recoiled 
from both men in horror because of ' ' the hair on their 



faces;" they seemed to think they were practically 
wild beasts of some sort, or the missing links between 
the human and the lii-ute. Father Hennepin shaved 
hiuLself and they liked him. He was then about 40 
years of age and the Flemings were generally good 
looking men. Rut he was not favored by the Indian 
women. In fact they did not even use him kindly. 
He says : 

"I had been well content had they let me eat as 
their children did; but they hid the victuals from me 
and would rise in the night to eat, when T knew noth- 
ing of it. And although women have usually more 
compassion than men, yet they kei)t the little fish they 
had for their children. They considered me as their 
slave, whom their warriors had taken in their enemies' 
country, and preferred the lives of their children before 
any consideration they had for me ; as indeed it was but 
reasonable they should." 

Of course the father had told the men that he did not 
want a wife; that he had promised "the Great ]\laster 
of Life" never to marry, and that he only desired to 
instruct them in regard to that Master and His com- 
mands. They accepted his statement agreeably, but 
when he told them that white men had but one wife 
each, they received the information with derision, and 
intimated that such men must be idiots. They bade 
him have patience, for a great buffalo hunt was coming 
off soon and he should be a member of the party, when 
he would have all the sport and all the buft'alo meat he 
wanted. The head chief, the Pine Shooter, was good 
to the prisoners and denounced the other Indians for 
their neglect and cruelty. Father Hennepin gives the 
name of this chief as "Ouasicoude," in Nadouessioux, 
and translates it Pierced Pine ; but it is altogether 
probable that the Indian name was Wahze Coota, which 
means Pine Shooter; in Sioux Pierced Pine would be 
Wah-ze Pakdoka. 

During the less than three months when he was their 
prisoner. Father Hennepin tried hard to learn the 
Nadouessioux language, but did not succeed very well. 
He set about compiling a dictionary of it, but did not 
get very far. He says : 

"As soon as I could catch the words Taketchialiihen,* 
which means in their language, How do you call that? 
I became in a little while able to converee with them, 
but only on familiar things." 

Yet on a subsequent page he pretends to give us a 
full and correct translation of a rather long jirayer 
made by a Sioux at St. Anthony Falls to the deity of 
the place, entreating vengeance on the Fox tribe of 
Indians, the deadly enemies of the Sioux. 

FATHER HENNEPIN VISITS THE FUTURE SITE OF MINNEAP- 
OLIS AND ST. ANTHONY. 

In the beginning of July the Nadouessioux set out 
on their grand buffalo hunt, going down the IMississippi 
to the great jirairies of Southern JMinnesota and North- 
ern Illinois and Iowa. Two months of fine grazing 
luul made the animals fat, and they were abundant. 
Headed by the Pine Shooter, 80 eabixis, of more than 



"Take, pronounced tah-kay; chiabi, keabi ; ban, hab. Prob- 
ably in modern Sioux Taku keapi hay, meaning, What call itt 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



130 families and 250 warriors, composed the party. 
The women went along to care for the meat and of 
course had to take their children with them, ^laiiy 
of the villagers (perliaps the women and children) 
walked from their villages to the Elk and the Rum 
Rivers, where they embarked in birch bark canoes and 
paddled down the upper ilississippi, making portages 
at the Great Falls by carrying their canoes, etc., around 
the cataracts and putting them in the water below. 

Father Hennepin embarked in a canoe with some 
Indians on Rum River, called by him the St. Francis.* 

A sort of boat yard was established at the mouth of 
this river and quite a number of new canoes made. 
The women made the frames and the men cut and 
brought in the bark to cover them. This delayed mat- 
ters so long that Father Hennepin and Anthony 
Auguelle had permission to go in their boat in advance 
of the hunting party. When they embarked on Rum 
River the Picard and Accault would not let the priest 
go in the boat with them. "^lichael Ako told me very 
brutally ('brutalement') that he had carried me long 
enough." The Picard said the canoe allotted them 
was a very rotten one and would have burst had all 
three been in it ; but the priest thought this was not a 
sufficient excuse. He reproached his companions for 
their desertion ; said that whatever favors they had 
received from the savages was due to his good work 
among the latter ; that acting as a surgeon he had often 
bled them and cured them of sickness and rattlesnake 
bites, by administering orvietan** and other medicines 
to them; having kept a stock of these remedies with 
him, and for all this his sworn companions were now 
ungrateful. 

However, on being allowed to go in advance of the 
hunting party, Anthony Auguelle, the Picard, agreed 
that the Father might go in the boat with him ; but 
Michael Ako preferred to stay with the Indians. 
Father Hennepin had protested that he must hasten to 
the mouth of the Wisconsin, becau.se his superior, the 
Chevalier La Salle, had promised to have men and sup- 
plies for him there about that time. Doubtless this 
was a made-up story to deceive the Indians into allow- 
ing their prisoners an opportunity to escape; for this 
is the first mention Father Hennepin makes of such a 
promise on the part of La Salle. 

LOOKS UPON AND N.\MES THE GRE.VT CATARACT. 

Father Hennepin and the Picard were allowed by 
the Indians the Picard 's gun, fifteen charges of pow- 



* It has been disputed that the stream called by Father 
Hennepin the St. Francis River was the one so named on 
subsequent maps. Many think it was really the Eum Kiver 
which he named for the saint, and not the stream which other 
travelers and certain maps considered to be the St. Francis 
and which is now called Elk Kiver. The learned Dr. Elliott 
Cones (deceased) who in 1S9.T rejuiblished Lieut. Z. M. Pike's 
Journal of his ascent of the Mississippi, with invaluable notes 
and comments, was positive that Hennepin's St. Francis was 
really Rum River. Seemingly as a sort of compromise an 
upper branch of Elk River is now called St. Francis. Both 
the Rum River and the Elk (or St. Francis) have their head- 
waters in the Mille Lacs and the Nadouesiouxs would have but 
a small portage to make between them and their villages. 

** Orvietan, now obsolete, was a drug described as a counter 
poison, made in Italy, and given in extreme cases. 



der, a knife, a beaver robe, and a "wretched earthen 
pot," the latter their only cooking utensil; w-hat had 
become of the iron pot with the three lion paws is not 
recorded. The two wJiite men paddled swiftly down 
the Mississippi and soon landed above the great falls, 
probably oppasite the head of the present Nicollet 
Island, or maybe a little farther uji the stream. They 
had to make a portage around the falls of more than 
a mile. That is to say, they had to drag their canoe 
from the water, hoist it upon their shoulders, and 
carry it and their baggage around the cataracts from 
the calm water above to the navigable current below. 
It was well that the canoe was of birch bark and not 
very heavy, yet its transportation was a disagreeable 
and toilsome job at best. 

In neither of his two books — "A Description of 
Louisiana." and "A New Discovery of a Vast Coun- 
try," etc., — does Father Hennepin give a very elab- 
orate description of the great falls which he discovered 
and named. In the prelude of the "Description" he 
says : 

"Continuing to ascend the Colbert River ten or 
twelve leagues more, the navigation is interrupted by 
a fall, which I called St. Anthony of Padua 's, in grati- 
tude for the favors done me by the Almighty through 
the intercession of that great saint, whom we had 
chosen patron and protector of all our enterprises. 
This fall is forty or fifty feet high, divided in the mid- 
dle by a rocky island of pyramidal form." 

In his account of the descent of the ilississippi when 
he first saw the falls, as contained in what may be con- 
sidered his journal in the "Description," he makes no 
elaborate mention of his particular discovery. One 
would expect him to give us a rapturous description of 
all the circumstances, his sensations, etc., covering sev- 
eral pages. But he makes simply a brief reference : 
"As we were making the portage of our canoe at St. 
Anthony of Padua's Falls, we perceival five or six 
Indians who had taken the start," etc. Then he goes 
on to describe the performance of one od the Indians. 
He says the savage climbed an oak tree opposite the 
fall and on one of its branches hung an elaborately 
dressed beaver robe, which he suspended as an ottering 
to the spirit that dwelt under the falls — probably Onk- 
tay-hee, the greatest of all the Sioux water spirits, 
the great Nadouessioux Neptune — and begged that the 
hunting party might be successful, etc. But as Father 
Hennepin understood the Indian language quite imper- 
fectly, his pretended literal translation of the aborig- 
ine's prayer cannot be relied upon. Later Michael 
Accault took away for his own use the fine beaver robe 
which he had seen offered to the water god. 

In referring to the Falls, which he was the first white 
man to see. Father Hennepin invariably calls them 
"St. Anthony of Padua's Falls," or "the falls of St. 
Anthony of Padua." He seldom leaves off the affix 
"of Padua." He evidently wants it understood that 
his patron saint was the Portuguese St. Anthony, who 
died at Padua in 1281, and not the St. Anthony of 
Egypt, who died as early as A. D. 356. It was the 
Paduan Saint that is said to have preached to a school 
of fishes and they understood him. 



HISTORY OF .MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



THE GOOD FATHER S SNAKE STORY. 

About three miles below the falls, or probably just 
above iliniiehaha, the Pieanl di.seovered that lie had 
left liis powth'r horn, with its preeiou.s fifteen eharfjes, 
where they had re-embarked and they landed and he 
rau back to get it. And here Fatiier Hennepin tells 
his remarkable snake story. He gravely relates : 

"On the Pieard's return T showed him a huge ser- 
pent, as l)ig as a man's leg and seven or eight feet long. 
['Uu serpent gros eomme la jambe d"un honnne, qui 
etoit long de sept ou liuit pieds. '] She was working 
herself insensibly up a steep, craggy rock to get at the 
swallows' nests ['nids d' hirondelles'] to eat the 
young ones. At the bottom of the eliff we saw the 
feathers of those she had already devoured. We 
pelted her so long with stones till at length she fell into 



the river. Her tongue, which was in the form of a 
lance, was of an extraordinary length. Her hiss 
might be heard a great way and the noise of it seized 
us with horror. Poor Picai-d dreamed of her at night 
anti was in a great agony all the while. He was all in 
a sweat with fright. I have likewise myself been often 
disturlied in my sleep with the image'of her." 

Such a monster, "as thick as a man's leg," would 
be of the proportions of a python or anaconda, and not 
easily knocked down with stones. Nor do snakes, when 
they partake of swallows an naturel, stop to pick off 
the feathers, but bolt the delicate morsels whole and 
without much prci)aration. A snake of the character 
and dimensions described by Hennepin could take a 
young bird into its stomach — that is to say, swallow 
a swallow— feathers and all, as easily as a man can 
bolt an oyster. 



CHAPTER II. 

FURTHER INCIDENTS OF THE ERA OF DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION. 



FATHER Hennepin's work op toil, suffering, and glory- — du luth s attempt to rob the good priest op cer- 
tain HONORS and distinctions GROSEILLIERS AND R.\DISSOn'S DOUBTFUL EXPLORATIONS PERROT 's AND 

LE SUEUR 'S EXPLORATIONS AND OPERATIONS CERTAIN ALLEGED VOY.VGES ABOVE ST. ANTHONY NOT AUTHENTI- 
CATED VERENDRYE AND SONS ' EXPEDITION THROUGH NORTHERN MINNESOTA FROM 1727 TO 1767. 



As Father Hennepin and the Picard du Gay 
descended the Mississippi tliey found several Indians 
on the various islands — probably Pike's, Gray Cloud. 
Red Wing, and Prairie among others — and these 
people were happily situated. Some of them were 
of the party that had come dovi^n the Ruin River ; 
others were probably those who had marched rapidly 
across the country from IMille Lacs to Pigs Eye 
Lake, or Bay, resurrected the canoes they had left 
there some weeks before, and hurried down tlie river. 
The idea was to be first among the butfaloes, which 
were known to be then coming north, and get tlie 
choice of the herds. They had succeeded and had 
plenty of fresh meat upon which they were feasting. 

Of course the Indians divided their supplies with 
the two white men and all were happy, for a time at 
least. But for the Indians when on a hunting expedi- 
tion to go ahead of a hunting party into the region 
where the game abounded, was a serious infraction 
of the game laws. As Hennepin and Accault and 
some of the "sooner" Indians were feasting on an 
island, suddenly there appeared 15 or 16 warriors 
from the party that had been left at the mouth of 
Rum River. These men had their war clubs in their 
hands and were very indignant at the "sooners." 
They at once seized all the meat and bear's grease 
and reproached the offenders angrily for their viola- 
tion of the Indian hunting rules. 

After leaving this island, which they did secretly, 
Heimepin and the Picard suffered severely for the 
want of provisions. They were not with the Indians 
and Auguelle was a poor hunter. At last they killed 
a buffalo cow and on her flesh and that of some turtles 
and fish they got on very well for a time. 

Hennepin and Auguelle rowed ' ' many leagues, ' ' says 
the father, but could not find the mouth of tlie Wiscon- 
sin. About the middle of July the Forked Meeting 
suddenly overtook them with ten warriors. The white 
men thought he had come to kill them because they 
had desei-ti'd him up the river. But he gave them 
some wild rice and buffalo meat, and asked if they 
had found the white men they expected to meet at 
the month of the Wisconsin. When they told him 
they had not been down to the expected meeting, the 
chief said he and some of his good boatmen would 
hasten down in a light canoe and see il' the white 
men had come. 

Akeepa Gatan and his men i-eturned in three days. 



saying there were no white men at tlie mouth of the 
Wisconsin. The Picard was out hunting when the 
chief returned and P'ather Hennepin was alone in his 
shack. The chief came forward with his "head 
breaker," or war club, in his hand ("son casse tete 
a la main") and the father thought he was to have 
his brains beaten out. He tells us that he seized two 
pocket pistols and a knife, but says: "I had no 
mind to kill the man that had adopted me, i)ut only 
meant to frighten him and keep him from murder- 
ing me." 

The chief contented himself with reprimanding and 
scolding his adopted son for deserting him, and for 
exposing himself to the attacks of the enemies of the 
Sioux, saying that he ought at lea.st to have remained 
on the other side of the river. He then said, in 
effect : "Come with me; I have 300 hunters and they 
are killing far more buffaloes than all the otlier 
hunters: it will be better for you." The father says: 
"Probal)ly it would have been better for me to have 
followed his advice." But he was resolved to go on 
to the Wisconsin and meet La Salle's men, and then 
the Picard was afraid to accompany the Forked ileet- 
ing, and "would rather venture all than go up the 
river with him." So Hennepin and Auguelle toiled 
on down to the mouth of the Wisconsin, but found 
no white men waiting for them, and were forced to 
turn about and paddle up the strong current of the 
Mississippi again. Says the father: 

"Picard and myself had like to have perished on 
a hiuidred different occasions ('en cent occasions 
differentes') as we came down the river, and now 
we found ourselves obliged to go up it again, which 
could not be done without repeating the same dangers 
and other difficidties. " 

For the first few days of their return they had 
nothing to eat, but at the mouth of the Buffalo River 
the Picard eauglit two big catfish, bullheads. Fatlicr 
Hennepin says: "We did not stand to study what 
sauce we should make for these monstrous fish, which 
weighed about 25 pounds, both, but cut them in pieces 
and broiled them on the coals. Boil them we could 
not, as our little earthen pot had been broken some 
time before." That night they were .ioined by 
another large detachment of the Nadouessi hunting 
I)artv and among the hunters was the Looker on Red 
Water, father of the little girl whom Father Hen- 
nepin had liaptized, and who died later in the odor 



10 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



11 



of sanctity. They uow fared sumptuously, for the 
Indians bad pleuty of meat, and gave it to them 
freely. 

The Indians continued down the river, and the two 
white men accompanied them on the hunting expedi- 
tion. Hennepin says the Indian women hid a lot of 
meat at the mouth of the Butfalo Kiver, but it is hard 
to understand why it ilid not sjjoil. However, it is 
difficult to understand many things which the good 
father states as facts. 

HENNEPIN MEETS DU LUTH. 

On the 28tb of July the whole party began to 
re-ascend the ilississij^pi. For Hennepin and Au- 
guelle this was the third time they had paddled up the 
great water-course. The Indians wanted them to go 
with them to the head of Lake Superior to make 
peace and an alliance with their enemies in that 
quarter. At a point which Father Hennepin esti- 
mates (and doubtless over-estimates) as 120 leagues 
from the Sioux country, they met, to their great joy, 
the Sieur Daniel Greysolon du Luth, who, with four 
or five men and two Indian women, had come down 
the Wisconsin, by way of Fox River and its portage, 
in canoes from Lake Superior. And great was the 
joy of Du Luth and his companions at tiie meeting 
with Father Hennepin. Uood Catholics that they 
were, they had not approaclied any of the sacraments 
for more than two j^ears. 

HENNEPIN E.SCORTS DU LUTH TO MILLE LACS. 

Hearing Father Hennepin's account of his experi- 
ences, Du Luth was anxious to visit the villages of 
the Nadouessioux (or Is.sati). up in the Mille Lacs 
region, and urged the father, because he understood 
Sioux, to accompany him and his party to the vil- 
lages of those people. ("De les accompagner et 
d' aller avec eux aux villages de ees peuples. ") But 
if Du Luth had visited the villages a year before, 
why had he not learned something of the language 
of the people? Wh.v did he want to go to the vil- 
lages if he had already been there and formally taken 
possession of them for the King of France? He says 
he went to reprove the people for their unkind treat- 
ment of the three white men in making slaves of 
them. But he further says that 1,000 or 1,100 of the 
Indians, including the head chief, were with Father 
Hennepin when he met him. Surely that number 
was enough to declare his displeasure to, especially 
as he did not punish the Indians in any other way 
than to scold them. 

There is abundant evidence that Du Luth, in July, 
1680, had never seen the villages of the "Issati," or 
Naudouessioux, nor the Falls of St. Anthony of 
Padua, but wanted very nuich to, and readily 
embraced the opportunity to do so, in company with 
the 1,000 Indians and the two white men. The trip 
was at once entered upon ; apparently it was made the 
greater part of the way liy water — up tiu? IMississippi 
to Rum River, and then up that stream to a point 
opposite the Mille Ijacs villages, when the remainder 
of the journey was by land on foot. 



The next paragraph in Hennepin's "New Dis- 
covery" after that describing the meeting with Du 
Luth reads: "The Sieur du Luth was charmed at 
the sight of the Fall of St. Anthony of Padua, which 
was the name we had given it, and which will prob- 
ably always remain with it. I also showed him the 
craggy rock wdiere the monstrous serpent was climb- 
ing up to devour the young swallows in their 
nests," etc. 

The return party arrived at the villages of the 
Issati (or Sioux), August 14, and all the white men 
remained there until the end of September. Father 
Hennepin was fortunate in finding his silver chalice 
and all his books and pai)ers, which he had buried, 
safe and well preserved; the Indians had been afraid 
to meddle with them. The tobacco he had planted 
was choked with grass, but, the cabbages and the 
portulacca ("purslain") had gi-own to prodigious 
sizes. 

DU LUTIl's IMPROBABLE STATEMENTS. 

Du Luth says that he assembled the savages in 
council in their chief village and denounced them 
very vigorously for their treatment of Father Hen- 
nepin and his companions. (One white man with but 
.seven companions denouncing in the harshest terms 
thousands of savages in a locality hundreds of miles 
from any other white men!) Father Hennepin, how'- 
ever, gives a different account of this council. He 
says it was a "great feast to which the savages 
invited us after their own fashion." He says that 
"there were above 120 men at it naked." The head 
chief, the Pine Shooter, roundly denounced the Sieur 
du Luth because he did not show proper respect to 
the Indian dead, and told him plainly that Father 
Hennepin was a better man and "a greater captain 
than thou." The only evidence that Du Luth was 
at ^Mille L<u-s in KiT!) is his statement to that eiVect 
in his report to the ilarquis de Seignday, wherein 
he says: 

"On the 2d of July, 1070, I had the honor to plant 
His ^lajesty's arms in the great village of the 
Nadouecioux, called Izatys [meaning Issatis or Isan- 
tis] where never had a Frenchman been — any more 
than one had been at the Songaskitons | Shonka-ska- 
tons, or White Dog People], and the Ilouetbatons 
[Wat-pa-tons, or River People], six score leagues 
from the former [the Issatis], where I also planted 
His ^Majesty's arms in the same year, 107!). " 

LA SALLE DENOUNCES DU LfTII. 

If this statement were true, Du Luth visited the 
.Mille Lacs villages a year before Hennepin, liut 
the Chevalier La Salle, who at the time was in gen- 
eral charge of Du Luth. Hennepin, and all of the 
other French forces, and interests in the country,* 
says, in a letter to the Governor of Canada, dated 
August 22. 1682, quoted in the Margry Papers, Vol. 
2, p. 245 : 

"To know what the said Du Luth is, it is only necQp- 



♦ T.a Salle 's official title was. ' ' Lord and Governor of the 
Fort of Frontenac and of the Great Lakes in New France," 



12 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



sary to inquire of Mr. Dalera. iloreover the country 
of the Nadouesioux is not a country which he has 
discovered. It has been long known, and the Rev. 
Father Hennepin and ilichael Aceault were there 
before him." 

In other letters and in his official report ("rela- 
tion officielle") for from 1679 to 1681, made to Col- 
bert, the French Jlinister of ]\Iarine, La Salle is 
severe upon Du Luth. He says that in 1680, Du 
Luth had been for three years, contrary to orders, on 
Lake Superior, \\ith a band of twenty eoureurs du 
bois, saying that he did not fear the Grand Provost, 
etc. ; that he and his men engaged illegally in the fur 
trade ; that he induced one of La Salle "s soldiers that 
spake at least the Chipjjewa language to desert his 
post at Fort Fronteuac and join his band and go 
with a delegation of Chippewas ("Sauteurs") to the 
Nadouessioux to make peace between the two nations, 
but two or three attempts to make 'such a treaty 
failed. He further says that Du Luth learned from 
the deserter that there were plenty of beaver skins 
to be had in the Nadouessioux country, and that, 
guided by this soldier (whose name was Faff art) and 
two Indians he set out to get these furs, and on the 
expedition eventually came upon Father Hennepin 
and Auguelle, the Picard. 

The Count de Frontenae had Du Luth arrested and 
held as a prisoner in the castle of Quebec for a con- 
siderable time, intending to send him to France on 
charges made by Duehesneau, the Intendant. His 
men were merely bushrangers and forest outlaws, 
hunting, trapping, and trading without license and 
defying all authority. Many of them were deserters 
from the French army. They were finally granted 
full amnesty by the French King and Du Luth was 
released from prison. He became very prominent 
and even celebrated in French Colonial affairs, chiefly 
as a military leader, and at one time was in command 
of Fort Frontenae. It may well be denied that he 
was the first white man to visit the Sioux at ^lille 
Lacs (to the French soldier Faff art may belong that 
distinction), but there is no question as to the great 
services he rendered in promoting the establishment 
of civilization in the Northwest. He died on Lake 
Superior in 1709, and the city of Duluth may be 
considered his monument. (For the documents 
referred to in Du Luth's case see Vols. 1 and 2 of 
the JMargry Papers in French.) True, one of the 
Jesuit Relations says that Du Luth was at Mille 
Lacs in 1679, but the statement is evidently copied 
from Du Luth's report and no other verification is 
attempted. 

HENNEPIN AND DU LUTH RETUEN TO LAKE SI'PERIOR. 

Du Luth. Hennepin, and their companions remained 
the; guests of the Nadouessioux until the latter part 
of Se]itember. or from August 14. Their prolonged 
stay indicates that the time jjassed somewhat agree- 
ably, which does not compare with Du Luth 's account. 
The travelers now wished to return to Canada. The 
Sioux consented, believing the representations made 
to them that the white men would soon return to 



them, bringing great quantities of iron and other 
goods. The chief, Pine Shooter, gave them a bushel 
of wild rice and other provisions, and made them a 
chart of the course they should take. Hennepin says 
that this chart "served us as well as my compass 
could have done." All eight of the Frenchmen 
including Aceault set out on the Rum River in canoes 
given them by the Indians. 

At St. Anthony of Padua's Falls Michael Aceault 
and another Frenchman stole two fine beaver robes, 
offerings to the Indian great water spirit, Onktayhee, 
one of the robes being that which Father Hennepin 
saw the Indian suspend in a tree. Du Luth was 
afraid the theft woukl get the party into trouble, but 
Father Hennepin said that as they were idolatrous 
and heathenish offerings it was better for Christians 
to -take them and convert them to Christian uses! 
The larceny of these beaver robes heads the Caucasian 
criminal calendar of ^Minneapolis ! 

When they neared the mouth of the Wisconsin 
they stopped to dry buffalo meat. In a little time 
came three Mille Lac Indians who told the white men 
that Waze-coota (the Pine Shooter) had proved theii* 
firm friend. After their departure he heard that one 
of his sub-chiefs had determined to follow them and 
kill them. Whereupon the head chief went over to 
the would-be murderer's lodge and knocked out his 
brains. But two days later they were astonished and 
alarmed w'hen they saw a fleet of 140 canoes in which 
were 250 Nadouessioux warriors from Mille Lacs, 
who were apparently following them with evil intent. 
However, Father Hennepin held up a peace pipe, 
and the Indians came ashore, were very friendly, and 
seemed glad to meet the white men again. With the 
Pine Shooter and the Forked Meeting at their head, 
they were on the way to make war upon their enemies, 
the Illinois, the Messorites. and other southern 
Indians. A few pipe-fulls of Martiniijue tobacco made 
everything all right. Not a woi'd was said about the 
votive oft'erings, the two beaver robes taken from the 
trees at St. Anthony of Padua's Palls. 

It would seem that the Indians accompanied the 
eight Frenchmen from thence to the mouth of the 
Wisconsin, and then went on to make war on their- 
enemies to the southward. Du Luth and his party 
made their way far up the Wisconsin, and eventually, 
partly by the help of the Indian chart, reached Green 
Bay, then called the Bay of the Puants, or Stinkei-s. 
as the Winnebagoes were termed. "Here," says 
Father Hennepin "we found Frenchmen trading 
contrary to ordei-s with the Indians." These were 
doubtless some of Du Luth's bush-i"angers or eour- 
eurs du bois. 

ci-osE OF Hennepin's career. 

Father Hennepin spent the winter of 1680-81 at 
St. Ignace IMission, I\Iackinaw. In Easter week. 1681. 
he left the Mission, i)roceeded down or ea,stward over 
the Lakes to Fort Frontenae, and irom thence went 
to Montreal, where he was well received by Governor 
Frontenae. Then he went to Quebec and in the fol- 
lowing autumn returned to Europe. In 1682 he pub- 



HISTORY OF .MINNEAPOLIS AND IIENXEPIX COrXTV. MIXXESOTA 



13 



lished his "Doscriplioii of Loiiisiaua." in which he 
gives an account of liis voyage from the Illinois River 
np to what is now Minnesota, his capture by the 
Sioux, his deliveranee by Du Luth, etc. In this 
volume he says em])hatically that he ilid not descend 
the ilississippi below the month of tiie Illinois. In 
1697, however, ten years after La Salle had been 
murdered, he brought out another book entitled, "A 
New Discovery of a Vast Counti-y in America," etc. 
In this work he claimed that he did descend the 
^Mississippi from the Illinois to the mouth of the great 
river, then turned about and with his two Frenchmen 
went up the river, was taken prisoner 1)y the Nadoues- 
sioux, discovered the Falls of St. Anthony of 
Padua, etc. 

We do not know when or where he died. A letter 
written at Kome, ^larch 1, 1701, by another priest 
gives us the last word of him extant, li says that he 
was then in a convent of the Holy City, hoping soon 
to return to America under the protection of Cardinal 
Spada. When and where he died we cannot tell, and 
it may be said of the last resting place of this man 
who iirst made the site of ^Minneapolis famous as it 
is written of Jloses: '"No man knoweth of his 
sepulcher unto this day." 

Father Hennepin has been the svib.ject of much 
hostile and bitter criticism. Various authorities have 
denounced him as a falsifier and a fraud. It must be 
admitted that in writing his books he was careless 
in expression and much given to exaggeration. Then, 
too, he wi-ote a great deal about himself, extolling 
liis own merits, vaunting his courage and his exploits, 
while he depreciated the character of La Salle, Du 
Luth. and others. La Salle warned the French Gov- 
ernor that the priest was a prevaricator and given to 
exaggeration, and said he was hardly made a prisoner 
and certainly not treated cruelly by the Indians, but 
that he said he was in order to increase interest iu 
his story, magnify his fortitude, etc. 

Both in his '"Description" and his "New Dis- 
covery" the explorer priest exaggerates distances and 
incidents greatly. According to his statement the 
distance between the mouth of the Illinois and St. 
Anthony Falls is 1.365 miles, whereas, liy the mean- 
derings of the river, it is known to be less than half 
that distance. The palpable falsity of his big snake 
and fish stories, that he was in peril of his life "a 
hundred times" within less than a week, and much 
other misrepi-esentation, j)rove him at least a reckless 
writer. 

But it is with his second volume, "A New Dis- 
covery of a Vast Country," etc., with which com- 
mentators find most fault. It was issued 15 years 
after his "Description of Louisiana," and after 
Father Jlarrinette, La Salle, and many others that 
knew the facts were dead. It was in this book that 
he claimed hi' went down the Mississippi before 
ascending it. Two features of this book alone prove 
its unreliability if not its utter falsity — its horrible 
confu.sion of dates and the utter impossibility of per- 
forming the canoe voyages within the times given. 
In his "New Dis<^'overy, " for example, he says he 
left the mouth of the Ai-kansas Kiver to paddle north- 



ward on the 24th of April (1680). In liis "Descrip- 
tion" he says he was hundreds of miles north of the 
Arkansas, at the bay of Pig's Eye Lake, on the 30th 
of Api'il, and on the 11th was taken prisoner by the 
Indians somewhere near Rock Island. 

Certain apologists for Father Hennepin claim that 
the misstatements in the "New Discovery" were not 
his. but were the work of unscrupulous publishers. 
Yet the weight of opinion among historians is that 
Father Hennepin wrote the book himself, obtaining 
his information of the country of the Lower Missis- 
sippi from the reports of Father !Mar(<uette, the 
Chevalier La Salle, Father Zenobius ^lembre, and per- 
haps others. 

F.\THER HENNEPIN ALL RIGHT ON THE MAIN QUESTION. 

But the question of most importance in the history 
of Minneapolis, and to the people that are interested 
therein is, Was Father Hennepin and his associate, 
Anthony Auguelle, the first two white men to look 
upon St. Anthony Falls and the present site of Min- 
neapolis .' The answei' from every authority is. Yes. 
The distinction given them is not and never has been 
disputed. 

And was Father Hennepin the fii-st nmn to write of 
and publish to the civilized world the fact of the 
existence of St. Anthony Falls and the future site of 
jMinneapolis '? The undisputed answer is. He certainly 
was. Anthony Auguelle did not write anything about 
the discovery; doubtless he could not. He was born 
in the city of Amiens, in the Province of Picardy, but 
he was a simple man, a hard worker, a voyageur, who 
had come to the new country to better his condition, 
and doubtless he was uneducated. He knew enough 
to be a Christian: he attended to his religions duties, 
confessing to Father Heiuiepin regularly, and he was 
always faithful to the adventurer priest. Good enough 
for .\nthony Auguelle, the Picard du Gay ! 

Father Hennepin's discover}' of the Falls of St. An- 
thony (" of Padua," we jierhaps should add) was the 
event that advertised the country of Minnesota two 
hundred years ago more than any other incident or 
feature. The Falls were marked on every subsequent 
map, every subsequent explorer visited them and wrote 
about them; their name was common before the word 
Minnesota was known. Father Hennepin was respon- 
sible for all this. His great achievement makes us for- 
get his weaknesfses and feel like honoring his memory, 
and w-e all are disposed to say: 

"No farth(>r seek his merits to disclose, 
Xoi- draw his frailties from their dread abode." 

No apology is made for the space given in this vol- 
ume to the account of Father TIenne])in and hi.« imiiort- 
ant and influential discovery. No i)i-evious history of 
Miimeapolis has anything like such an account, and the 
facts in detail of the important discoveiw of St. 
Anthony Falls ought to be as well known to every citi- 
zen of ^Minneapolis as the particulars of the discov(>ry 
of America should In' within the knowledge of every 
citizen of the riiiti'd States. 

The authorities consulted in the preparation of this 



14 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



chapter have been, in English, Neill's History of Min- 
nesota, Warren Upham's Vol. 1 Minnesota in Three 
Centuries, Thwaites' Translation of Hennepin's New 
Discovery, Shea's Translation of the Same, Parkman's 
"LaSalle and the Discovery of the Great West," and 
in French, Hennepin's "Voyage, ou Nouvelle Decou- 
verte d'un Tres Grand Pays Situe dans rAnierique, " 
etc., printed at Amsterdam in 1698 by Abraham van 
Someren, and the same printed at Amsterdam in 1704 
by Adrian Braakman ; also Vols. 1 and 2 of the Mar- 
gry Papers. For interesting and valuable notes on 
Father Hennepin and his expedition see Warren 
Upham's articles in Vol. 1 I\Iiun. in Three Centuries. 

GKOSEILLIERS AND RADISSON. 

During the period between 1654 and 1660, ante- 
dating. Father Hennepin by twenty years, two French- 
men, named Sledard Chouart, connnonly known as 
the Sieur des Groseilliers, and Pierre JJsprit Radisson, 
made two expeditious of exploration and traffic into 
the Northwest from Canada. Tliey may have pene- 
trated the country now comprised in Eastern Minne- 
sota, but it cannot be proven that they did, nor defi- 
nitely concluded just where they did come. The 
"Relations," or reports, of the Jesuit fathers make it 
certain that they were in the Northwestern country 
at different times, but those authorities do not pre- 
tend to state their routes. 

Years afterward, while living in England, Radisson 
wrote in English an account of the expeditions of 
himself and his bi-other-in-law, Chouart, or Groseil- 
liers, but this account is confusing rather than enlight- 
ening. In writing Radisson seldom noted the date of 
any event by the month and never by the number of 
the year. It seems impossible now, from his descrip- 
tion, to identify any lake, river, or other natural fea- 
ture of the eounti-y which he and his brother-in-law- 
visited or traversed, or to tell what tribes of Indians 
tliey met. His language is generally no more definite 
than, "We embarked on the delightfuUest lake in the 
world;" or "we ci-ossed a great river;" or, "we came 
to another river;" or "we came to a I'iver;" or, "We 
abode by a sweet sea (or lake) ;" "We passed over a 
mountain;" or "We met a nation of wild men," etc., 
etc. However he at no time mentions tliat they came 
to a river clearly answering the description of the 
Mississippi, or that they even heard of a waterfall 
resembling the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua. 

Historians and commentators do not agree in their 
conclusions as to the .iourneys of the two adventurous 
Frenchmen. Radisson says they spent about four- 
teen months on "an island." The late Capt. Russell 
Blakely claims, in an elaborate article in the State 
Historical Collections, that this island was in Lake 
Saganaga, on the northern boundary of Minnesota; 
Warren Upham thinks it was Prairie Island, in the 
Missi.ssippi, a few miles above Red Wing. There is 
nothing, and never can be anything but theory and 
speculation regarding the localities and natural fea- 
tures mentioned by Radisson. At the same time 
those most tolerant of and friendly toward Radisson 's 
statements admit that many of them are pure fiction. 



The historian or commentator claiming that Groseil- 
liers and Radisson were ever at the Falls of St. An- 
thony or even at the Mississippi, has not yet appeared. 
AVhat Radisson would doubtless call "the beautifuUest 
hotel iu the world" has been built in ^Minneapolis and 
named for him, but the honor bestowed thereby is 
entirely gratuitous. So much for Groseilliers and 
Radisson-. 

PERROT, LE SUEUR, AND THE VEKENDRYES. 

It is well to mention, though ever so briefly, the 
expeditious into the ^Minnesota country, in the region 
of the present site of Minneapolis, made b.y the 
French explorers that came immediately after Father 
Hennepin and Du Luth. Some of these visited St. 
Anthony of Padua's Falls and wrote alx)ut them, still 
further advertising them. 

CAPT. NICHOLAS PERROT "S IMPORTANT OCCUPATION. 

Passing by the great liar and falsifier. Baron 
L'Hontan, who pretended to have explored a great 
river and a vast country in Southern Minnesota in 
about 1690, but who never was in the country at all, 
we come to consider the important expeditions of Capt. 
Nicholas Perrot and Pierre Charles Le Sueur. Perrot 
was a Frenchman, and Le Sueur a French Canadian. 
In 1665, when about 21, Perrot came to Green Bay as 
an Indian trader, and for the next few years acted 
as a general peace commissioner among all Indian 
tribes between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi, 
bringing them all into friendly relations with the 
French. 

Prabablj' as early as iu 1683 Perrot established a 
trading post, which was named Fort St. Nicholas, on 
the Mississippi, not very far above the mouth of the 
Wisconsin. In early days trading posts were generally 
called "forts" although they were not fortifications 
or hardly had a military character. Perrot, it seems, 
was .soon doing an extensive business, buying the furs 
of the Indians of what are now western Wisconsin, 
northeastern Iowa, and southeastern Minnesota. In 
1685 he built a temporary post on the east side of the 
river, near the present site of Trempeleau. Subse- 
quentl.v, on the northeastern shore of Lake Pepin, six 
miles from its mouth, he built his most noted post, 
which he called Fort St. Antoine. He also had, at 
the outlet of the lake, a small post which he named for 
himself and called Fort Perrot, and another in the 
vicinity of Dubuque ; but the latter were merely 
auxiliaries and feeders of Fort St. Antoine. Dr. E. D. 
Neill was of opinion that Fort Perrot was built first, 
in 1683, and stood on the present site of the town of 
Wabasha. 

Perrot informed himself about the country in whicli 
he was stationed. He wrote several manuscripts about 
it, describing certain Indian tribes, tlieir wars, cus- 
toms, etc., and giving much of the geography of the 
country ; but he did not mention the Falls of St. 
Anthony of Padua, although three years before he 
came to the country they had been discovered and 
made known. Moreover, his ti-aders must have pene- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



15 



trated to them many times during the fifteen years 
Fort St. Antoine existed. He knew of the St. Croix 
and the St. Pierre (the latter now the Minnesota) 
Rivers and gives their names at least as early as in 
1689, showing that the.se rivers had been named before 
that time ; can it be possible that he did not know of 
St. Anthony's Falls' If he did know tliem, why, in 
his numerous writings, did he not mention tliem .' 

C.\PT. PERKOT TAKES POSSESSION OF THE COUNTRY FOR 
HIS KING AND NAMES THE ST. CROIX AND THE ST. 
PETER RIVERS. 

May 8, 1689, at Fort St. Antoine, Perrot, acting 
with full authority, or as he says, "Commanding for 
the King at the post of the Nadouesiou.x," took formal 
possession of a large extent of country in this region 
for and in the name of the King of France. This 
country extended far up the ]Mississippi, and of course 
included the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, although 
they are not mentioned. It especially mentions the 
country of the Nadouesioux, on the border of the River 
Saint Croix, ("la Riviere St. Croix") and at the 
mouth of the River St. Peter ("La Riviere 
St. Pierre") "on the bank of which are the i\Iantau- 
tans. " The latter named tribe may possibly mean 
the Mandan Sioux, although when first visited and 
reported upon the homes of tliese people were on the 
upper ]\Iis.souri. 

In 1699 King Louis XIV of France ordered the 
abandonment of the French trading posts in the far 
west, reealling the traders and the few soldiers to 
Lower Canada. In a convenient time Capt. Perrot 
obeyed the order and thereafter lived in retirement 
at his home on the St. Lawrence River. It is known 
that he was alive in 1718, but the date of his death 
is not known. 

PIERRE CHARLES LE SUEUR. 

It is <|uite probable that Pierre Le Sueur was the 
second prominent early explorer to visit the site of 
^Minneapolis. He was a Canadian Frenchman, born 
in 1G57. Probably he came with Nicholas Perrot to 
the Minnesota country in 1683 and was in his employ 
in this region for many yeare. lie was at Fort St. 
Antoine. on the eastern shore of Lake Pepin, in 1689, 
for on the 8th of ilay of that year he, as a witness, 
signed Perrot 's proclamation taking possession of the 
country in the name of the King of France. The other 
witnesses were the Jesuit priest, the Rev. Fr. Joseph 
Jean Marest; M. de Borie-Guillot, "commanding the 
French in the neighborhood of tlie Ouiskonche [Wis- 
consin] on the Mississippi;" Angustin Legardeur, 
Esquire : the Sienr De Caumont, and Messrs. Jean 
Hebert. Joseph Lemire. and F. Blein. All these, in- 
cluding Ix' Sueur, could write tiieir names. Le Sueur 
is described in the document simply as ^Ir. Le Sueur 
and signs without either of his Christian names. He 
was not then a prominent character. 

In 1695 Le Sueur, by order of Gov. Frontenae, built 
a trading post on Prairie Island, in the Mississippi. 



Early in the summer of this year he journeyed to 
Montreal, taking with him a Chippewa chief, Chen- 
gouabe, and "Tioscati, " a Sioux. Tiie idea was the 
promotion of a permanent treaty of peace between the 
two warring tribes in the presence of Gov. Frontenae. 
The Indians remained .several months in Montreal, but 
the Sioux chief Tioscate (probably Te-yo Ska Te, 
meaning white door of a tepee, from te-yopa or te-yo, 
a door; ska, white, and te a contraction of tepee) died 
the next winter. Le Sueur then went to France and 
obtained a commission to work some mines which he 
had previously discovered on the Blue Earth River, 
near its eonfiuence witii the ^Minnesota. 

What he says he reall.v found was some "blue or 
greenish earth" on the banks of the river, and he 
thought that this meant that large deposits of cop- 
per were imbedded deeper beneath the surface. What 
he saw was blue clay, so blue that the Indians used 
it for paint in bedaubing their faces and naked bodies 
on certain occasions. The Sioux called the stream 
whereon they found this blue clay, "Watpa JIah-kah 
to," meaning River of Blue Earth, (Watpa, river; 
mah-kah, earth: to or toe, blue.) Maukato is an Eng- 
lish corruption of .]\Iali-kah to. 

Le Sueur obtained his commission to work his sup- 
posed mines largely through the influence of a French 
assayist named L'Huillier, who analyzed the dirt 
brought from the Blue Earth and said it contained 
copper. Obstacles of one kind and another deterred 
Le Sueur from returning to the Minnesota country 
and working his mine until in the year 1700. About 
October 1 of that year he i-eached the mouth of the 
Blue Earth. He spent the ensuing winter on the Blue 
Earth, a few miles above its mouth, where he built 
a post or "fort" which, in honor of his French fi-iend, 
the assayist, he named Fort L'Ifuillier. 

Le Sueur, who was the historian of his exjiedition, 
says that October 26, 1700, he "proceeded to the 
mines, with three canoes which he loaded with blue 
and green earth." The next spring he is said to have 
left a small garrison at Fort L'Huillier and .shipped 
a lot of his "ore" down the ]\Iis.sissippi to New Orleans 
and from thence by ship to France. Wiiat was done 
with the stuff when it reached Paris is not certainly 
known. The so-called copper mine was never farther 
explored. It was a copper mine without any copper. 
Le Sueur himself is believed to have died before 1712 ; 
one account says he died at sea while on his way back 
to America, and it is also said he "died of sickness" 
in Louisiana, where his home was at the time. 

Le Sueur's journal of his mining expedition was 
published by Bernard La Harpe in French and has 
been translated into English by Shea and others. 
Another historian of the exiiedition was a ]\Ionsieur 
Penicaut, a shipwright, that built Le Sueur's boats 
and kept them in repair. Dr. Neill describes him as 
"a man of discernment but of little scholarship." 
He has, however, written a concise but dear, consist- 
ent, and apparently a fairly correct account of the 
expedition and of the geography of the country. His 
statements agree very well with those of Le Sueur; 
any discrepancies are easily explained. 



16 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



LE SUEUE AND HIS MEX VISITED ST. ANTHONY FALLS. 

We are assured by Penieaut 's account that Le Sueur 
and his men visited the present site of Minneapolis. 
The ship-carpenter historian writes : 

''Three leagues higher up, after leaving this island, 
[Prairie Island] you meet on the right the river St. 
Croix, where there is a cross set at its mouth. Ten 
leagues further you come to the Falls of St. Anthony-, 
which can be heard two leagues [six miles] off. It is 
the entire Mississippi falling suddenly from a height 
of 60 feet, ( !) making a noise like that of thunder 
rolling in the air. Here one has to carry the canoes 
and shallops * and raise them by hand to the upper 
level in order to continue the route by the river. This 
we did not do, but having for some time looked at this 
fall of the whole Mississippi we returned two leagues 
below the Falls of St. Anthony to a river coming in 
on the left, as you ascend the Mississippi, which is 
called the river St. Peter, ['"la Riviere St. Pierre.'"] 
AVe took our route by its mouth and ascended it forty 
leagues, [a large over-estimate] where we found 
another river on the left falling into the St. Peter 
which we entered. We called this (rreen River, [''La 
Riviere Vert"] because it is of that color by reason 
of a green earth, which, loosening itself from the 
Copper mines, becomes dissolved in it and makes it 
green." 

FOR WHOM WAS THE ST. PETER 's RIVER NAMED? 

The river which is now and has long been known as 
the ^linnesota was originally called by the Sioux 
Indians "' Wat-pa-]\Iiune Sotah," meaning River of 
Bleai-y Water. (Wat-pa, river; Minue, Water; Sotah, 
bleary.) The Chippewas called it by a name signify- 
ing the river where the cottonwood trees grow. The 
earl.y French explorere called it "la Riviere St. 
Pierre," or the river St. Peter, and it was commonly 
called the St. Peter's, which name it bore until in 1852, 
when Congress declared that thereafter it should be 
called the Minnesota. 

Singularly enough. Father Hennepin does not 
mention the Minnesota. Doubtless its mouth was con- 
cealed by an island and trees and he passed up and 
down the eastern channel of the ]\Iississippi and did 
not see it. This was Carver's conjecture. 

The Sioux called it the river of clouded or bleary 
water, because a hundred or more years ago it washed 
some clay deisosits above the present site of the vil- 
lage of Morton, and the dissolved clay clouded or 
bleared th(> water. The current long ago receded from 
the clay banks. 

Why did the French call it the St. Pierre or the 
St. Peter's? The question, like many another relative 
to early history, cannot with confidence be definitely 
answered. It had been named the St. Peter l)efore 
May 8, 1689. because in liis proi'lamntion taking pos- 
session of the country Captain Nicholas Perrot twiee 
mentions it by that designation. A suggestion that it 



was named for the first Christian name (Pierre) of 
Le Sueur has met with endorsement from good 
authorities. But this theory cannot be well estab- 
lished. It is most probable that Perrot christened the 
stream before 1689, possibly in 1688, and at that time 
Le Sueur was in his employ, an obscure person, whom 
Perrot designates as simply a 3Ir. Le Sueur, in com- 
pany with Mr. Le Mire, Mv. Ilebert. and Mr. Blein. 
Not until six years later did Le Sueur become famous 
and worthy of having a river named for him because 
he thought he had discovered a copper mine and had 
built a post on Lake Pepin. In his .journal Le Sueur 
repeatedl,v mentions the river and always calls it the 
St. Peter, without a hint that it was named for him- 
self. He well knew whether or not it was so called, 
for he was at Fort Antoiue when the name was given. 
Penieaut also mentions the St. Peter frequently, but 
never intimates that it was named for his superior, 
which he most probably would have done had this 
been the fact. No early chronicles even suggest that 
it was named for Le Sueur and it is a distinction not 
given him by any biographer. The fact that his name 
was Pierre simply, and not Saint Pierre, is also an 
objection to the claim made for him, but which he 
never made for himself, that the stream was called in 
his honor. His name has been honored in ^linnesota, 
however, by calling one of the best counties and a 
flourishing town in the State for him. 

It has also been suggested that the river was named 
for Capt. Jacques Le Gardeur St. Pierre, at one time 
commander of Fort Beauharnois, on Lake Pepin, but 
he did not come to the country for nearly fifty years 
after the St. Peter was christened and well known by 
its name. 

It will probabl.v never be certainly known for whom 
the St. Peter was named. No theory yet brought 
forward has been conclusively demonstrated. One 
guess is as good as another until the truth is shown. 
Since it could not have been named for either of the 
individuals suggested, or for any other early pioneer 
and explorer, it may be that it was called for Saint 
Peter himself, the "Prince of the Apostles." It may 
have first been visited by Perrot 's men on June 29, 
or St. Peter's da.y,* of some year between 1683 and 
1G89 ; if so, the appropriate designation would at 
once be perceived and in.sisted upon by Rev. Father 
]\Iarest. the devout Jesuit chaplain of Perrot "s party. 
Or for some other reason it may have been called in 
honor of the great apostle, to whom were delivered 
"the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven," and this seems 
to be the most probable solution of the question. 

THE ST. CROIX NAMED FOR AN UNFORTfNVTE 
FRENCHMAN. 

The origin of the modern name of the St. Croix 
river has been well enough determined. Father Hen- 
nepin says the Indians called it Tomb river ("Watpa 
ohknah hknah-kah-pe") "because the Issati for. Na- 



• The shallops referred to were probably flat boats propelled 
by both oars and sails; afterwards they were called Mackinaw 
boats. 



♦ .'vinie chroniclers say that Saints Peter and Paul both 
sutrpred martyrdom at Rome on the same day; others allege 
that St. Paul suffered a year after St. Peter. Tn the Roman 
Calendar St. Peter's Dav is June 29 and St. Paul's June 30. 



HISTORY OF .MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



17 



douessioux) k-ft thcif tlir l)oily of one of their war- 
riors, killed by the bite of a rattlesnake." The father 
says lie covered the gjrave or toiiili with a blanket, and 
that this act of respect gained him great admiration 
aud impelled the savages to give him the great 
banf|uet he describes which was given on the occasion 
of his and Du Lnth's visit to the big village at .Mille 
Lacs. 

It is reasonably certain that the St. Croix bears 
the family name of one of Perrot's Frenchmen, who 
was drowned at the mouth of the stream by the upset- 
ting of his boat, some time prior to 1689, when Perrot 
issued his proclamation in which the river is named. 
In his Journal 11. Le Sueur says that on the 16th day 
of Septend)er. 1700, he "left on the east side of the 
Mississippi a river called St. Croix, because a French- 
man of that name was wrecked at its mouth." M. 
Penicaut. heretofore mentioned, in his description of 
file country in 1700, and his account of Le Sueur's 
expedition, states (see quotation on a preceding page) 
that at the river St. Croix "there is a cross set at its 
mouth." It is jirobable that this ci-oss was over the 
grave of the unfortunate voyageur, or at least marked 
the locality where he was drowned. Carver says in 
his Journal that the river "is said to be named for a 
Frenclnuan that was drowned here." 

TWO ALLEGED VERY E.\RLY VOYAGES TO AND PAST ST. 
AXTHONY FALLS — THE ALLEGATIONS NOT VERIFIED. 

In an extract from his "Memoires, " (which is 
printed on pp. 171-72 of Vol. 6 of the Margry Papers, 
in French) M. Le Sueur tells of a canoe voyage made 
by himself on the upper Mis.sissippi sometime about 
the year 1690, or before 1700. He claims that he went 
more than a hundred leagues above the Falls of St. 
Anthony. ("J'ai desja dit que j'avois monte plus de 
100 leaues au-dessus du Sault St. Antoiue.") He fur- 
ther says that the Sioux with whom he went up as- 
sured liim when he had reached the end of his 
upward trip there were yet more than ten days' jour- 
ney to the sources of the Mississippi, of whi'-h sources 
the Indians said there were very many. 

It is to be regretted that M. Le Sueur did not give 
fuller and better details of his alleged voyage, and that 
what he wrote was not intended solely to refute the 
statements of a certain ilathieu Sagean, with whom 
he seems to have had a dispute. He does not say why 
he went up the river or give us any exact dates or en- 
lightening details. Ilis account is not conclusive or 
convincing — and may as well be disbelieved. 

In "jrinnesota in Three Centuries" (Vol. 1, pp. 
■253-4) Warren llpham suggests that Le Sueur and a 
M. de Charleville made the voyage above St. Anthony's 
Falls together. The authority for M. de Charleville 's 
connection is a statement made by M. Le Page? Du 
Pratz in his "History of Louisiana," originally pub- 
lished by him in French in 17.")7. In an English trans- 
lation printed by Becket, London. 1774, the histoi'ian 
(cliaj). 1 of Hook 2) is made to say: 

"M. de Cliaileville. a Canadian, and a relation of 
IVI. de Bienville, Commandant General of this Colony, 
told me that, at the time of the settlement of the 



Fi-ench. curiosity alone had led him to go u]i this 
river [tlu' Mississipiu| to its sources; that for this 
end he fitted out a canoe, made of the bark of a birch 
tree, in oriler to be more portable in case of need. And 
that having thus set out, with two Caiuulians and two 
Iiulians, with goods, ammunition, and provisions, he 
went up the river 300 leagues to the north above the 
Illinois: that there he found the fall called St. An- 
thony's. This fall is a flat rock which traverses the 
river and gives it only between eight and ten feet fall. 
He ascended to the sources 100 leagues above the 
fall." 

That will be about all for the story of M. de Chai'le- 
ville. It is void for improbability and uncertainty. 
The date of his setting out is given as "at the time of 
the settlement of the French," (meaning probably 
Perrot's settlement) which might be any time between 
1683 and 1695. That he would go to all the trouble 
and expense of fitting out and taking part in an expe- 
dition up the river 1,200 miles (or 400 leagues) above 
the Illinois, merely out of "curiosity alone," is at 
least strange. That he shoukl see and pa.ss St. An- 
thony's Falls and pronounce them " a flat i-ock" which 
was "only between eight and ten feet fall" is a pal- 
pable mis-statement. He says he went 100 leagues (or 
300 miles) above St. Anthony's Falls and learned 
from the Indians that the sources of the Mississippi 
were still hundreds of miles to the north. He esti- 
mated the entire length of the ]\Iississipi)i at 4.800 
miles or l.(i00 leagues. Nowhere in Du Pratz 's ac- 
count of Charleville is the name of Le Sueur men- 
tioned, aud nowhere in the extract from Le Sueur's 
"Memoires" relating to his voyages is the name of 
Charleville mentioned. Warren Upham sa>s that both 
Le Sueur and Charleville wei'e relatives of the brothers 
Iberville and Bienville, who were at different periods 
(ioveruors of the Louisiana Tcrritor.y. In that case, 
it is again singular that if they were in company when 
they made the voyage to and above St. Anthony's 
Falls, neither of them in his account mentions the 
other. 

Purtherniore tliere is no corroboration extant of the 
•statements of Le Sueur and Charleville as to their 
several expeditions 300 miles up the Mississippi above 
St. Anthony's Falls. No other contemporary writer, 
whether hi.storian or recorder, endorses their a.sser- 
tions or even refers to them. The "sources" of the 
Mississipi>i are on a direct line about 160 miles north- 
west of the Falls; by the meanderings of the river 
and through the lakes, the distance is much greater; 
but if Le Sueur, as he says, went up the stream for 
more than 300 miles above Minneapolis, it is prepos- 
terous that there wi're yet "more than ten days' 
journey," or 250 miles, to Lake Itasca, the source of 
the Mississippi. Le Sueur, it seems, was bent on 
making, or at least claiming, a record. In the contro- 
versy over which was the greater explorer, Le Sueur 
said: "I went to the Falls of St. Anthony." Sagean 
replied: "That's nothing: I went 50 leagues above 
those Falls." Le Sueur rejoined : "That's nothing : I 
went 100 leagues above them." As to Charleville he 
is not mentioned in American hi.story elsewhere than 
in Du Pratz 's "Description." Ilis statement to Du 



18 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Pratz is entirely unsupported, and not worthy of 
belief. 



EXPEDITION OF VERENDRYE AND HIS FOUR SONS. 

In 1731, Pierre Gautier Varennes, more commonly 
known as the Sieur de la Verendrye, made, in company 
with his four sons and a nephew, an extended expedi- 
tion west of the western extremity of Lake Superior. 
The expedition was commissioned and equipped by 
the Canadian government and its main object was the 
discovery of an easy route across the country to the 
Pacific Ocean. One of Verendrye 's sons was a priest. 
The expedition built Fort St. Pierre, ^.t the mouth of 
Rainy Lake; Fort St. Charles, on the Lake of the 
Woods, and other forts and trading posts on Lake 
Winnipeg and the Assineboine and Sa.skatchewan, in 
Manitoba. 

The expedition did not come near St. Anthony's 
Falls or the present site of Minneapolis. It went 
westward and south westward to "the great shining 
mountains," which may have been the Black Hills. 
On the return at the crossing of the Missouri, where 
the city of Pierre now stands, the commander buried 
an inscribed leaden plate, which was resurrected by a 
school girl in Februarj', 1913. 

FROM 1727 TO 1767. 

In 1727 a French post, called Fort St. Beauharnois, 
was built and a Catholic Mission, called the ilission 
of St. Jlichael the Archangel, established on the ]\Iin- 



nesota shore of Lake Pepin, near the present site of 
Frontenac. The first commander of the post was the 
Sieur Perriere, and the commander in 1735 was Capt. 
LeGardeur St. Pierre, before mentioned. The mission 
was in charge of the Jesuit Fathers ilichel Guignas 
and Nicholas de Gonnor. It is not certain that the 
fathers built a separate mission house, and therefore 
the first church building in Minnesota. The post had 
four large buildings and it is probable that a room in 
one of these was used as a chapel. At all events there 
is no special mention in the early records that a sepa- 
rate mission house was erected, though some good 
authorities think there was. 

In May, 1737, Capt. St. Pierre burned Fort Beau- 
harnois and departed down the Mississippi, on account 
of the hostile conduct and menaces of the wild Indians 
of the surrounding countrj'. The Fort was rebuilt in 
1750 and for the next two j^ears was under the com- 
mand of Pierre Paul ilarin. (See Vol. I Minn, iii 
Three Cents., p. 276.) 

Before further explorations and establishments 
were made by the French in the country of the North- 
ern MissLssij^pi the old "French and Indian War" 
between the English Colonies in North America and 
the French of Canada broke out. Meanwhile the few 
and scant records of that period make no mention of 
the Falls of St. Anthony or the country about them. 
In 1763, by the treaty of Versailles, all the territory 
now comprised within the present limits of Wisconsin 
and of ^Minnesota east of the ]\Iississippi was ceded by 
France to Great Britain, and all French establishments 
in this quarter were permanently abandoned. Fort 
Beauharnois being the last of these. 



CHAPTER III. 
THE FIRST AMERICAN VISITS AND EXPLORATIONS. 

VISIT OF CAPTAIN JONATHAN CARVER IN 1766 THE FIRST NATIVE-BORN CAUCASIAN-AMERICAN TO SEE AND WRITE 

ABOUT ST. ANTHONY'S FALLS HIS DESCRIPTION OF THEM AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY GOES UP TO RUM 

RIVER AND ASCENDS THE MINNESOTA — CLAIMS THAT HE SPENT SEVERAL MONTHS WITH THE SIOUX HIS ENTIRE 

ACCOUNT A MIXTURE OP TRUTH AND FALSITY BUT ALTOGETHER HE DID MORE GOOD THAN HARM TO THE MINNE- 
SOTA COUNTRY — LIEUT. Z. M. PIKE's EXPEDITION AND INVESTIGATIONS — HE PROCLAIMS THE AUTHORITY OP THE 
UNITED STATES, TREATS WITH THE INDIANS FOR THE SITE OF FORT SNELLING AND MINNEAPOLIS, ETC. 



JON.VTHAN CARVER, THE FIRST ENGLISH VISITOR. 

The first Euglish-speakiiig explorer and English 
suhjei't to visit St. Anthony of Padua's Falls was Capt. 
Jonathan Carver, who tirst saw them in November, 
1766. Capt. Carver was born at Stillwater, or Can- 
terbury, in the then Provinee of Connectieut, in 1732, 
the year of the birth of George Washington. He was 
captain of a company of Colonial troops in the French 
War and was present at tiie massacre of the English 
troops at Fort W^illiam Henry, in northeastern New 
York, in 1757, narrowly escaping with his life. 

In 1763, as soon as peace had been concluded, Capt. 
Carver conceived the idea that it would be greatly to 
his credit and advantage, and to the interests of his 
sovereign and government, if he should explore at least 
a portion of the territory in the Northwest which had 
been recently ceded by France to Great Hritain. That 
territoiy was very little known to Englishmen, and the 
Captain believed that if he were the tirst to explore it, 
and then report upon it, his King would suitably 
reward him, and his countrymen highly honor him. 

Capt. Carver's plan was meditated very early, but 
its execution was greatly delayed. Not until in June, 
1766, did he set out from Boston for the country about 
the Falls of St. Anthony, then fairly well known 
through French explorers and adventurers, although 
no p]nglishman had yet visited it. He proceeded to 
Mackinac, or Mackinaw, then the most distant British 
post. Following the track of Marfjuette and Joliet 
and of Du Luth and other early vnyageurs, he pas.sed 
up Green Bay, ascended the Fox River, made the 
portage across to the Wisconsin, and descending that 
stream entered the Mississippi October 15. His de- 
clared destination after leaving the Falls of St. An- 
thony was the so-called "River of the West," or Ore- 
gon, whieh was supposed to enter the Pacific Ocean at 
the fictitious or mythical "Straits of Annian." 

At Prairie du Chien (which he calls "La Prairie 
Ic Chien") some traders that liad accompanied him 
from ]\Iackinac left him. He then l)Ought a canoe and 
some supplies, and "with two servants, one a French 
Canadian and the other a ^lohawk of Canada." started 
up the Mis.sissippi October 1!). 

Capt. Carver did not return to Boston until in 1768, 
having been al>sent on liis expedition two years and five 



months. The following year he went to Ihigland, 
wrote from his notes a fairly good account of Ids jour- 
neyings, including much narrative and descriptive 
matter, and pulilished it in book form. He died Jan. 
31, 1780, at the age of -18, and after his death several 
editions of iiis l)ook were printed, with .some new mat- 
ter, by his friend Dr. John Coakley Lettsom. He made 
repeated efforts to obtain a suitable reward for his pub- 
lic services from the British government, but failed in 
every instance to obtain anything beyond "an indem- 
nification for certain expenses." His book had a lim- 
ited sale and he made little profit from its publication. 

He became very poor. \n 1779 he was clerk in a 
London lottery office at a few shillings per week. He 
died in extreme poverty. Dr. Lettsom says: "After 
rendering at the expence of fortune and health and 
the risk of life many iin])ortant services to his country, 
he perished from absolute want in the first city of the 
world." His death was caused by dysentery occa- 
sioned by actual want of food. 

With his two men Capt. Carver paddled slowly up 
the ilississippi. About the 12th of November (1766) 
he came to the present site of St. Paul and in what is 
now Dayton's Bluff visited the noted cavern afterward 
called Carver's Cave. He also noted that tlie crest of 
the bluff wa.s even then a prominent burial {)lace or 
cemetery of the Naudowessie, or Sioux, Indians. 

SEES AND DESCRIBES THE GREAT FALLS. 

November 17 he visited the Falls of St. Anthony. 
In a very early edition of liis book. ("Travels Tlirough 
the Interior Parts of North America," London, 1778,) 
he describes his visit, with a mention of prominent 
features of the surrounding country. To quote : 

"Ten [?1 miles below the Falls of St. Anthony the 
River St. Pieri-e, called by the natives tiie Wadda- 
pawmenesotor | Wat-pa-.Minne Sotah] falls into the 
Jlississippi from the west. It is not mentioned by 
Father Hennepin, although a large fair river; this 
omission, T conclude nnist liave ])roceeded from a small 
island [Pike's?] by wliich the sight of it is intercepted. 
I should not have discovered the river myself had I 
not taken a view when I was searching for it from the 
high lands opposite, [probably Pilot Knob] which rise 
to a great height. Nearly over against this river I 



19 



20 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINTs^ESOTA 



was obliged to leave my eaiioe, on account of the ice, 
and travel by laud to the Falls of St. Anthony, where 
I arrived on the 17th of November. The ]\Iississippi 
from the St. Pierre to this place is rather more rapid 
than I had hitherto found it, and without islands of 
any consideration." 

No one that never visited this portion of the IMissis- 
sippi could have described it so accurately. Capt. 
Carver had no printed description to follow ; he must 
have seen the country himself. From where he left his 
canoe he was accompanied to the Falls by a young 
AVinnebago Indian, whom Carver calls "a prince," 
and who had come into the country on a visit to the 
Sioux. The Winnebago left his wife and children in 
the care of Capt. Carver's ^lohawk, while he. the cap- 
tain, and the French Canadian .iourneyed to the Falls. 

Carver says they could hear the roaring of the great 
cataract for several miles before reaching it. He says 
he was "greatlj- pleased and surjirised" when he ap- 
proached this astonishing work of nature. The AVin- 
uebago was profoundly and peculiarly impressed. 
Carver says : 

"The prince had no sooner gained the point that 
overlooks this wonderfid cascade than he began with an 
audible voice to address the Great Spirit, one of whose 
places of residence he imagined this to be. He told 
Him that he had come a long way to pay his adoration 
to Him, and now would make him the best offerings in 
his power. He accordingly first threw his pipe into the 
stream, theu the roll that contained his tobacco, the 
bracelets he wore on his arms and wrists, an ornament 
composed of beads and wires that was about his neck, 
— in short he presented to his god every part of his 
dress that was valuable, at last giving the car-rings 
from his ears. During this distribution he frequently 
smote his breast with great violence, threw his arms 
about, and seemed much agitated. All the while he 
continued his prayers and adorations, petitioning the 
Great Spirit for our protection on our travels." 

Carver says that instead of ridiciding the pagan 
Indian and his heathenish devotions, "as I observed 
my Roman Catholic servant did." he looked on the 
former with gi-eat respect and believed that his offer- 
ings and prayers "were as acceptable to the Universal 
Parent of JIankind as if they had l)een made with 
greater j)omp or in a consecrated place." The Con- 
necticut cajjtain's mention of St. Anthony Falls is 
most interesting. In part he writes: 

"The Palls of St. Anthony received their name from 
Father Louis Hennepin, a French missionary, who 
traveled into these parts about the year IGSO, and 
was the first European ever seen by the natives.* This 
amazing body of waters, which are above 250 yards 
over, form a most pleasing cataract ; they fall per- 
pendicularly about 30 feet, and the rapids below, in 
the space of 300 yards more, render the descent eon- 
sidci'ably greater; so that when viewed at a distance 
they appear to be much higher than they really are. 
The above-mentioned traveller has laid them down at 
above 60 feet. But he has made a greater error in cal- 



• Kviilently Capt. Carver was acquainteil with tlie history 
of tho Falls, and did not believe that Du Luth visited the 
Kamlowessie village at Mille I>acs a year prior to Hennepin. 



dilating the height of the Falls of Niagara, which he 
asserts to be 6UU feet, whereas, from latter observa- 
tions, accurately made, it is well known that it does 
not exceed 140 feet.* But the good father, I fear, too 
often had no other foundation for his accounts than 
report, or at best a slight inspection." 

Of what we now call Nicollet Island Capt. Carver 
interestingly says : 

"In the middle of the Falls stands a small island, 
about iO feet broad and somewhat [ I] longer, on which 
grow a few scragged hemlock [ ?] and spruce trees; 
and about half way between this island and the eastern 
shore is a rock, lying at the veiy edge of the Fall, in an 
oblique position, that appearecl to be about five or sis 
feet broad and 30 oi' 40 feet long. These Falls vary 
much from all the others I have seen, as you may ap- 
proach close to them without finding the least obstruc- 
tion from any intervening hill or precipice." 

Of the island afterwards known as Cheever's Island 
the following description is given : 

"At a little distance below the Falls stands a small 
island, of about an acre and a half, on which grow a 
great inimber of oak trees, every branch of which that 
was able to support the weight was full of eagles' nests. 
The reason that this kind of birds resort in such num- 
bers to this spot is that they are here secure from the 
attacks of either man or bea.st, their retreat being 
guarded by the rapids, which the Indians never attempt 
to pass. Another reason is that they find a constant 
supply of food for themselves and their young from 
the animals and fish which are dashed to pieces by the 
Falls and driven on the adjacent shores." 

APPE.VRANCE OF THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 

Deseril)ing the country surrounding the Falls the 
explorer is fairly enthiisiastic in their praise, thus: 

"The country around them is extremely beautiful. 
It is not an uninterrupted plain where the eye finds 
no relief, but is composed of many gentle ascents, 
which in the summer are covered with the finest 
verdure and interspersed with little groves that give 
a pleasing variety to the prospect. On the whole, 
when the Falls are included, which ma.v be seen 
at the distance of four miles, a more pleasing and 
picturesque view cannot, I believe, be found through- 
out the universe. I could have wished that I had hap- 
pened to enjoy this glorious sight at a more seasonable 
time of the year, whilst the trees and hillocks were 
clad in nature's gayest livery, as this must have 
greatly added to the pleasure I received ; however, 
even then, it exceeded my warmest expectations. I 
have eiuleavored to give the reader as just an idea of 
this enchanting spot as possible in the ])lan annexed, 
[alluding to an engraving of the Falls] but all de- 
scription, whether of pencil or pen, nuist fall infinitely 
short of the original." 

-VSCENDS TO RUM RIVER. 

Having observed the Falls until his curiosity was 
satisfied, Capt. Carver, accompanied by his Canadian 



* The best authorities give the total descent of Niagara 
Falls as 212 feet "from the head of the rapids." 



HISTORY OF MINNE/U^OLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, I\I1XXES0TA 



21 



Froucliman and his Wiiiiicbaf^o in-iiice, journeyed up 
till' .Mi.ssi.ssii)|)i until Xovciubei- 21, when he reached 
the mouth of the St. J-'rancis. He estimates the dis- 
tance from the Falls to this river at 60 miles, au over- 
estimate of some 20 miles. He says: "To this river 
Father Ilennepiu gave the name of St. Francis,* and 
this was the extent of his travels, as well as mine, 
towai-ds the northwest. The JNlississippi lias never 
been explored higher uj) than the River St. Francis, 
and only hy Father Hennepin and myself thus far." 

Of course he crossed Rum River, which he says is 
14 miles above the F'alls, an under-estimate, and when 
he crossed, it was 20 yards, or 60 feet. The St. 
Francis was ;}0 yards wide. On November 20 he says 
he passed "another stream called Goose River, 12 
yai-ds wide." The cold weather, he tells us, prevented 
ins making many observations of the country in this 
quarter. He noted, however, the mouth of the St. 
Francis. "Here," he says, "the I\Iississippi grows 
narrow, being not more than i)0 yards over, and it 
appears to be chiefly composed of small branches. 
The iee prevented me from noticing the depth of any 
of these rivers;" but he eould have added that it 
facilitated traveling on foot and especially his cross- 
ing sti'cams. Of the country he says: 

"The country in some i)laces is hilly, but without 
large mountains, and the land is tolerably good. I 
observed here many deer and earribboos, some elk, 
with abundance of beavers, otters, and other furs. A 
little above this, to the northeast, are a number of 
small lakes called the Thousand Lakes, [Mille Laes] 
the jiarts about which, though but little frequented, 
are the best within many miles for hunting, as the 
hunter never fails of returning loaded beyond his 
expectations." 

GOES UP THE JITXXESOTA. 

November 25 ("apt. Carver returned to his canoe 
or boat which he had left at the mouth of the St. 
Pierre. Here, he says, he bade good-bye to the Win- 
nebago prince, and set out to ex])lore the Minnesota, 
taking with him his Mohawk and Canadian French- 
man. He discovered and named Carver River and 
passed the Blue Earth, which he calls the Verd, 
or Green River, and which, he says, "forks at a little 
distance from the St. Pierre," the west fork being 
called the "Red IMarble River," meaning probably the 
Red Pi|)cstone. He says this fork had its source 
among some mountains containing red marble. 

Two hundred miles up the St. Peter, according to 
hi? estimate, he says he came to a large village of 
the NainloweSvSies or Sioux of the Plains, and here 
he asserts that be remained living with the Indians 
from December 7, 1766, to April 27, 1767. This 
period he says, on one page of his book, was five 
months, and on another he states that it w^as seven 
months. The truth probably is that he did not pass 
the winter in Minnesota at all. 



•See ilisdission on a |)rei'eiliiig iiage, (Hpnnoi)in's aci-oiint) 
as to whether or not the stream palled by Father Hennepin the 
St. Francis was nut ri'allv Rum River. 



As a geographical and topographical gazetteer of 
the Minnesota country, ('apt. Carver's book of 
travels is very faulty and misleading. He describes 
the country that he actually saw very well indeed; but 
he frankly says that he was obliged solely to the 
Indians for his knowledge of much of that which he 
diti not see but attempts to desi-ribe, ;uid these latter 
descriptions are almost worthless, being for the most 
part incorrect. Then, too, his estimates of distances, 
like the estimates of other early explorers, are not 
even approximately accurate in most instances. The 
early explorers did not cari-y odometers or other 
instruments for measuring distances traveled, and 
their calculations of s])aces traversed S(!em to have 
been based on the fatigue and labor involved in 
encompassing them, and so were always exaggera- 
tions. For example, Capt. (Carver says he ascended 
the ^linnesota for 200 miles; his nuip indicates that he 
went up to a jjoint a few miles below New Clm, or, 
taking into account the meanderiugs of the river, 
about 100 miles from Mendota. If he had gone 200 
miles, he would have stopped not far below Big Stone 
Lake. 

But Capt. Carver's worst fault was that of many 
another traveler. He was a great romancer and pre- 
varicator. He was probably not very nuieh worse 
than some other early explorers and chroniclers of 
Minnesota, and hi.s false statements did no gi'eat 
harm or particular injustice. He said he lived among 
the Sioux for several months and "perfectly acquired" 
their language; the iircteiided Sioux words and terms 
he gives in his book show that he had but a smat- 
tei'ing of the language. His description of their 
manners and customs, founded ujion his pretended 
personal observation of and ac(|uaintance with them, 
is (juite inaccurate and misleading. 

It is somewhat remarkable that in his book Carver 
gives so large a ntnnber of geographical names cor- 
rectly, as Lake Pi'pin. the St. Croix. St. Pierre. Rum, 
and St. Francis Rivers, as they were afterward known." 
This proves the truth that many of these names were 
bestowed a hundred years before and were well estab- 
lished. St. Anthony's Falls was doubtless then the 
best known geographical name in the Northwest. 
Thus, though ('apt. Carver's book is false in many 
things, it is not false in all. 

RETCKNR TO TIIP; MISSISSIPPI. 

In tlie lattri' jiarl of .\i>ril. 17(i7. Ca!)t. Cai'ver. 
still with his Mohawk and his Canadian, jiaddled 
down the ^linnesota, according to his statement, and 
returni'd to the "great cave" in the white sandstone 
bluffs at St. Paul. Here he says a grand council was 
held of representatives of all the Sioux bands, "as 
was their custom," although we know that this was 
not their custom. He further says that they brought 
with them the bones of their deceased relatives and 
friends who had died the preceding winter and 
deposited them on the crest of the bluff above the 
cave. "\Ve have long known, however, that the crest 
of Dayton's Blufl' was the last resting i)lace of only 
the liones nf the old-time Sioux that died in the near- 



22 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



by villages. The .remains of those that died in the 
remote villages were disposed of there. 

At the couucil, Carver says he delivered a grand 
speech to the Indians on May 1. He prints this 
speech in his hook, and purports to give a verbatim 
report (as if he took it down in short-hand) of the 
reply of one of the chiefs. He also says that on this 
occasion the Indians created him a chief, which is 
utter nonsense; the Sioux never made a ehief out of 
a white man. After his death Carver's heirs exhibited 
a document evidently written by their ancestor and 
which purported to be a deed to a vast extent of coun- 
trj- ea.st of St. Anthony's Falls, and which bore the 
pretended signatures of two alleged Sioux chiefs. 
Everything about this "deed" was bogus, and those 
that attempted to gain anything by it failed utterly. 

After attending the council in the Great Cave, Capt. 
Carver says he returned to Prairie du Chien and 
thence went to Lake Superior. He spent some time 
in exploring that region, finally returning to Boston 
by way of the Sault Ste. Marie. Detroit, and Niagara 
Falls. He reached Boston in October, 176S, ■"hav- 
ing," he says, "been absent from it on this expedi- 
tion two years and five months, and during that 
time travelled near 7,000 miles." Soon after he 
went to England and published the first edition 
of his book in 1769 : subseiiuently several editions 
were published and it wa.s transbited and printed in 
Dutch and French. 

CARVER, TOO, WAS A FALSIFIER. 

As has been said. Capt. Carver, as a writer was a 
prevaricator, and, like most other early explorers that 
narrated their own experiences and achievements, 
often mis-stated and perverted the faets. He wrote 
to please and interest his readers and imagined that 
to do so he must write of something extraordinary 
or at least remarkable. If his own adventures were 
not really remarkable, he must pretend they were. 
Imitating Simon ilagus, mentioned in Scripture, he 
meant to "give out that him.self was sonu^ great one." 

From what we now know, it seems most prol)able 
that Capt. Carver's experience in and about St. 
Anthony's Falls was not of high importance or verj' 
extraordinary. It may be admitted that he came to 
the locality ; that he saw and examined the great Falls; 
that he went up to the St. Francis; that he examined 
the shores of the ilississippi for two miles or so ou 
either side of the river; that he went up the Minne- 
sota to the mouth of the Blue Earth — and practically, 
no farther: that he then returned to the Jlississippi. 
Then he probably spent the winter about the mouth 
of the Jlinnesota or lie may have hastened back to 
the comfortable trading houses of the post on Oreen 
Baj', where he passed the ensuing season very well. 

He hardly spent several months with the Sioux 
near St. Peter or New Ulm, coming down to the mouth 
of the Minnesota in the spring of 17G8. If he had 
spent any considerable time with them he would have 
kiiown them and their country better and his descrip- 
tions would have been more accurate and in accord 
with established facts. 



He, in no sentence in his book, calls the Indians 
that he says he came to know so intimately by their 
proper and real names. Always and in ever}' case 
where he refers to them he calls them Nadowessies, 
with various spellings. Now, this term was an epithet 
bestowed upon the Indians about St. Anthony and 
on the ^Minnesota River by the Chippewas and the 
other tribes east of the ^Mississippi. The term signifies 
in the Algonquin dialect "snakes" and also "our 
enemies." 

If Capt. Carver had spent five months, or seven 
months, with the Jlinnesota Indians, and been treated 
by them with the great kindness and consideration 
he says he received from them, be certainly ought to 
have called them by their proper name, or the name 
they called themselves — Dakota — meaning the allied 
or banded together, the union of the "seven great 
council fires." They always called themselves 
Dakotas, resented any other name, and for a long 
time considered the term Naudowessies (or Naudowes- 
sioux and its contraction "Sioux") as an insulting 
epithet. Nowhere in Capt. Carver's book is it even 
intimated that the name of these Indians was Dakota, 
nor does the word Dakota appear. Imagine a traveler 
spending seven jdeasant months in Mexico and then 
writing a book descriptive of his experience in which 
he refers to the people of that country only as ' ' Greas- 
ers. " Or a European writing of the United States 
and calling our people by the sole name of "Yanks." 

If Capt. Carver had spent five months with the 
Indians in the present St. Peter or New Ulm region, 
he would have learned that there was no "Red ilarble 
River," a fork of the Blue Earth and which rose in 
"some mountains containing red marble." Some- 
body told him of the Watonwan and that this insignifi- 
cant stream had its source out in the direction of 
the Coteaus and the Red Pipestone Quarrj', and his 
imagination made mountains of the Coteaus, and 
marble of the pipestone. 

His pretended council with the Indians in the 
"great cave," at St. Paul, when he says they gave 
him, merely as an expression of good will, a vast 
expanse of country, was never held. His so-called 
deed was a palpable and very clumsy forgery. It pur- 
ported to be signed by two Sioux chiefs, in their tribal 
vernacular ; but there are no such names in the Sioux 
vocabulary as he gives to them, and no such words 
with the translations he presents: his pretended trans- 
lations are preposterous. Then it is pretended that 
with their signatures the grantor chiefs affixed totem 
marks, when it is well known that the Sioux did not 
have totem distinctions or use totem marks. It is 
only necessary- to add that the greater part of the land 
which the deed pretended to convey to Capt. Carver 
was not Sioux land at all; nearly all the described 
tract lay east of the St. Croix and belonged to the 
Chippewas, the "Winnebagos, and tlie Menominees. 

Another evidence that Capt. Carver falsified his 
account of his so.iourn among the Sioux for several 
months is presented by the many errors he makes in 
his descriptions of their character, their manners and 
customs, etc. He copies nuich of this matter from the 
great liar La Ilontan. and well nigh imagines all the 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



23 



rest. He foully and inexcusably slaiulei-s the Sioux 
women whom all other writers i)raise for their virtue, 
purity, and innate nobility of character. 

For a correct analysis and estimate of Carver's 
account the invest if?ator is referred to Keating 's 
article in his Journal of Lonpr's Expedition of 1S23. 

Some respectable historians, like Robert Greenhow, 
the historian of Oregon and California, and the re- 
nowned Henry R. Schoolcraft, allege that Carver 
never wrote the book of "Travels, '"etc., which appears 
under his name. Defending him against this charge 
his principal champion. Mr. J. Thomas Lee, of ]\Iadi- 
son, AVis., goes on to make this candid and harmful 
admission: "That some parts of the 'Travels' were 
plagiarized from Hennepin, La Ilontan, Charlevoix, 
and Adair, is a fact well established." Mr. Lee be- 
lieves that Carver himself wrot(> the book, but readily 
admits that it is full of larcenies and lies. 

Prof. E. G. Bourne, late of Yale College, in an 
article in the Am. Hi.st. Review, Vol. XI (1906) proves 
that many portions of Carver's book were plagiarized 
and many others stolen bodily from La Hontan's 
"New Voyages." Charlevoi.x' "Journal." Vol. I. and 
Adair's "History of the American Indians." Since 
the appearance of Prof. Bourne's scathing but con- 
vincing presentation of the facts, other writers have, 
as J\Ir. Lee says, "dismissed Carver with little cere- 
mony." 

C-\RVEB NOT WHOLLY B.\D. 

But whatever Capt. Carver's demerits were as a 
descriptive writer of his own travels, he certainly 
did a great deal for JMinnesota and especially for the 
Falls of St. Anthony. He caused them to be still bet- 
ter known to the civilized world. He described the 
entire region as well-nigh all that was desirable. If 
he had been the advertising agent of a big real estate 
firm owning all the country and desiring to sell it, 
he could scarcely have written more attractively. His 
descriptions were glowingly interesting and glaringly 
false. There was, he said, "an abundance of copper" 
on the St. Croix, western Wisconsin aljounded in 
"heavenly spots," and nature had showered "a pro- 
fusion of blessings" over the entire country of west- 
ern Wisconsin, except in some places along the shore 
of Lake Superior. 

LiECT. pike's visit IN 1805-1806. 

Capt. Carver was born and reared in Connecticut 
and was in America until 1769; but, because he was 
always a British subject, some writers claim that he 
was not the first American citizen proper to see St. 
Anthony's Palls, but that to Lieut. Zebulon Mont- 
gomery Pike belongs that distinction. 

The War of the Revolution virtually terminated in 
1782 and by the treaty of Paris in 1783, between 
Great Britain and the United States, the former gov- 
. ernment ceded to the latter all of its former territory 
in North America below the Canada line. This gave 
the United States all the territory ea.st of the Mis- 
sissippi, including the eastern end of the Falls of St. 
Anthony and the adjacent land. The country west 
of the Mississippi, to an indefinite extent, belonged. 



after 1769, to Spain, fi'oiii Lake Itasca to the Gulf of 
Mexico; but in 1800, by a secret treaty, Spain ret- 
roceded it back to France. This country included 
the site of what is now the western and principal part 
of i\linncapolis. 

In 1803, by what is commonly called the Louisiana 
Purchase, the United States acquired the French 
country west of the Mississijjpi. Strangely enough, 
as it seems to-day, there was great dissatisfaction 
among a large part of the Amei'icau peoi)le, especially 
those of New England, with the Louisiana Purchase. 
President Jefferson, who had been the jirincipal agent 
in its negotiation, was strenuously denounced ; the 
price paid for the countiy, $15,000,000, was declared 
to be "outrageously extravagant;" the country itself 
was declared to be "a howling wilderness, the abode 
of wild and savage beasts and wilder and more savage 
men, and it cannot be subdued in 200 years," etc., etc. 
It has long been the condition that any two wards of 
the western division of Minneapolis are worth far 
more than the price Thomas Jefferson caused to be 
paid for the entire and vast Louisiana Purchase. 

To silence the clamor against the new ac(iuisition, 
because he believed in its value, and to inform him- 
self and the country about it, President Jefferson had 
the country examined. The southern part, now in- 
eluding the States of jMissouri, Arkansas, and Louis- 
iana, were fairly well known, but surveyors and 
exploiters were sent in considerable numbei's to lay 
it out for settlement and to report upon it. Two 
important expeditions, semi-military in character, 
were ordered to ascend respectively the Missouri 
and the Mississippi Rivers to their sources, and see if 
the northern part of the country was really a ' ' hyper- 
borean region under Arctic conditions," as had been 
alleged, and to assist President Jefferson in the con- 
firmation of his opinion that he had not bought a piece 
of blue sky, but that the country he had purchased 
was worth the money ]iaid for it. Captains Lewis 
and Clark, with a considerable expedition, went up 
the JMissouri in 180-1 and Lieut. Pike, with another 
party of soldiers, ascended the ^Mississippi in 1805-6, 
both expeditions setting out from St. Louis. 

Lieutenant Pike, a New Jerseyman, was but 29 years 
of age when he first saw the Palls of St. Anthony. He 
set out from his encanii)meiit near St. Louis, August 
9, 1805, in a keel-boat, 70 feet long, with a crew of 
regular soldiers consisting of one sergeant, two cor- 
porals, and 17 privates, and with rations and pro- 
visions for four months. He was equipped with math- 
ematical instruments for calculating latitude and long- 
itude, measuring elevations and distances, etc., and 
with barometers and tiiermomctcrs, drawing appa- 
ratus, etc. ; he was accomplished in the use of all these. 
On the 21st of September he reached Pig's Eye Slough 
and what is now Dayton's Bluff, St. Paul, when; then 
was a Sioux village of cabins presided over by Chief 
Little Crow HI, the third of the Corvidean dynasty of 
Sioux sub-chii'fs. The same day he passed old Jean 
Bapfiste Faribault's trading post, on the west side of 
the river, below Mendota, and that night encamped on 
the northeast point of what is now Pike's Island, oppo- 
site the mouth of the St. Peter's or Minnesota. 



24 



HISTORY OP JIINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



THE TRE.\TY OF PIKE S ISLAND. 

On the 23d he held a council niuler an arbor on 
Pike's Island with the following Sioux chiefs: Little 
Crow III, of the Kaposia or "light" band; the Son of 
Penechon, of the band at Black Dog's Lake; Shakopee 
of the band living near where the town of Shakopee 
is now ; Stands Suddenly, whose real Indian name was 
Wokanko Enahzhe, though Pike gives it as Wayago 
Enagee also called the "Son of Penishon," and who 
was a chief of the Wah-pay Kootas. or Leaf Shooters, 
down on the Cannon River, and Tah-tonka jManne, 
(Walking Buffalo) of the Red Wing band. There also 
took part in the treaty, or conference, thi-ee Indian 
head-soldiers, the Big Soldier, the Rising Moose, and 
the Supernatural Deer's Head (Waukon Tahpay). 
The deed made at the conference was signed by but 
two chiefs. Little Crow III and the son of Penishon 
or Stands Suddenly — "Wayago Enagee." Pike also 
mentions the Supernatural Deer's Head by the French 
designation of "Le Becasse," meaning a woodcock. 

Under the deed signed by the two chiefs, the Sioux 
nation granted of their eoiiutry to the United States, 
"for the establishment of military posts," nine miles 
square at the motith of the St. Croix; "and also from 
below the confluence of the Mississippi and the St. 
Peter's up the Mississippi to include the Palls of St. 
Anthony, extending nine miles on each side of the 
river." The amount to be paid the Indians was left 
to the U. S. Senate, which fixed the sum at !i*12,000, 
which was subsequently paid mostly in goods. 

Although only two chiefs touched the goose-quill 
and made their marks to this deed, none of the tribe 
ever attempted to repudiate it for any reason what- 
ever. There are some interesting features of this so- 
called treaty and deed which may be passed over here. 

PIKE SURVEYS AND PASSES ST. ANTHONY 's FALLS. 

On the 23d of September, from his camp on his 
island, Lieut. Pike sent up three of his men to make 
a preliminary obsei-vation of St. Anthony's Falls, but 
"their reports were so contradictory." he says, "that 
no opinion can be formed from them." But on the 
25th he broke camp and renewed his voyage to see them 
for himself. That night he encamped opposite the 
mouth of Minnehaha Creek, but did not notice or com- 
ment upon the stream or the beautiful little waterfall 
only a few hundred yards away. As for his itinerary 
the ensuing four days, the following extracts from 
his Journal comprise a sufficient account: 

"Sept. 26 — Embarked at the usual hour, and after 
much labor in passing through the rapids, arrived at 
the foot of the Palls about 3 or 4 o'clock ; unloaded my 
boat and had the principal part of her cargo carried 
over the portage. With the other boat [his barge] 
full loaded, however, they were not able to get over the 
last .shoot, [chute] and encamped about 600 yards be- 
low. I pitched my tent and encamped above the shoot 
[chute]. The rapids mentioned in this day's marcli 
might propei-ly be called a continuation of the Falls of 
St. Anthony, for they ai'e equally entitled to this ap- 
pellation with the falls of the Delaware and Su» 



quehanua. Distance nine [ ?] miles. Killed one deer.* 

"Sept. 27 — Brought over the residue of my lading 
this morning. Two men arrived from Mr. Frazer, on 
St. Peter's, for my dispatches. Sent a large packet 
to the general [Gen. James Wilkinson] and a letter 
to Mrs. Pike, with a short note to Mr. Frazer. This 
business of closing and sealing [letters and dispatches] 
appeared like a last adieu to the civilized world. 
* * * Carried our boats out of the river as far as the 
bottom of the hill. 

"Sept. 28 — Brought my barge over and put her in 
the river above the falls. While we were engaged with 
her, three-quarters of a mile from camp, seven Indians, 
painted black, appeared on the heights. 

"We had left our guns at camp and were entirely 
defenseless. It occurred to nie that they were the 
small party of Sioux who were obstinate and would 
go to war when the other part of the bands came in. 
These they proved to be. They were better armed than 
any I had ever seen, having guns, bows, arrows, clubs, 
speai'S, and some of them even a case of pistols. 

"I was at that time giving my men a dram, and 
giving the cup of liquor to the first Indian he drank 
it off; but I was more cautious with the remainder [ !] 
I sent my interpreter [Joseph Renville] to camp with 
them to await my coming, wishing to purchase one of 
their war-clubs, wliich was made of elk-horn and deco- 
rated with inlaid work. This and a set of bows and 
arrows I wished to get as a curiosity. But the liquor 
I had given the Indian beginning to operate, he came 
back for me ; refusing to go till I brought my boat he 
returned, and (I suppose being offended) borrowed a 
canoe and crossed the river. 

"In the afternoon we got the other boat [the keel- 
boat, 70 feet long,] near the top of the hill, when the 
props gave wa\' and she slid all the way down to the 
bottom, but fortunately without injuring any person. 
It raining veiy hard, we left her. Killed one goose 
and a raccoon. 

"Sunday, Sept. 29 — I killed a remarkably large 
raccoon. Got our large boat over the portage and put 
her in the river at the upper landing. This night the 
men gave sufficient proof of their fatigue by all throw- 
ing themselves down to sleep, preferring rest to supper. 
This day I had but 15 men out of 22; the others were 
sick. ' ' 

Even at this day, when it can do no good, one cannot 
but sympathize with Pike's poor soldiers that per- 
formed so nuich hard work during his entire expedi- 
tion, and especially with the 15 that performed the 
heavy and greatly fatiguing labor of carrying the 
heavy boats, the baggage, and the provisions up the 
high and steep banks of the river and around the falls 
for a distance of at least a mile. The big keelboat was 
70 feet long and must have weighed not less than 30 
pounds to the foot, or 2,100 pounds, a weight of 140 
pounds to each of the 15 soldiers. The Lieutenant's 
barge was of course smaller, but heavy enough in all 
conscience. No wonder that Pike gave his men fre- 



*A K'eat dral of the space in Pike's Journal is taken up 
with notiees of his hunting and fishing exploits. Whenever 
he shot a deer or a raccoon or a duck or caught a catfish, be 
made a note of it. 



niSTORV OF :\[INNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



25 



queiit "ilraiiis'" to t'liuouragc ami .stiiiiulato them; no 
woiuler that the bijr boat .slid hack ilown the high 
blutf, which Dr. Cones and others thiuk was ou the 
east side ; no wouder that 7 nieu out of 22 were sick 
and unable to work ; no wonder that on the evening 
of that memorable Sunday the 15 that had worked 
fell exhausteii and prostrated, cheerfully foregoing 
their suppers for a few minutes more of sleep. Con- 
tinuing his journal, Lieut. Pike writes: 

"Sept. 30 — Loaded my boat, moved over, and en- 
camped on the Island. | Nicollet.'] The large boat 
loading likewise we went over and i)ut on board, (sic) 
In the meantime I took a survey of tlie Falls, the poi-t- 
age, etc. If it be possible to pass the falls at high 
water, of which 1 am doubtful, it must be on the east 
side, about SO yards from shore, as there are three lay- 
ers of roeks, one below the other. The pitch-off of 
either is not more than five feet, but of this I can say 
more on my return. [After his return Pike added to 
the foregoing as to the practicability of passing the 
Falls at either end ; ' It is never possible, as ascertained 
on my return.'] 

"October 1 — Embarked late. The river at fir.st ap- 
peared mild and sutKciently deep ; but after about four 
miles the shoals counuenced and we had very hard 
water the remainder of the day. This day the sun 
shone after I had left the Falls, but whilst there it 
was always cloudy. Killed one goose and two ducks.'' 



THE COUNTRY THEX FROM ST. P.UL TO RUM RIVER. 

Describing the country along the Jlississipjii from 
what is now St. Paul to the mouth of Rum River the 
Lieutenant w-rites well, although exaggerating dis- 
tances between geographical points: 

"About 20 [!] miles below the entrance of the 
St. Peter's, on the E. .shore, at a place called the 
Grande ^larais [Big ^larsh, now Pig's Eye Lake] is 
situated Petit Corbeau's [Little Crow's] village of 11 
log houses. 

"From the St. Peter's to the Falls of St. Anthony 
the river is contracted between high hills, and is one 
continual rapid or fall, the bottom being covered with 
rocks which in low- water are some feet above the 
surface, leaving narrow channels between them. The 
rapidity of the current is likewise much augmented 
by the numerous small, rock,y islands which obstruct 
the navigation. The shores have many large and 
beautiful springs issuing forth which form small 
cascades as they tuml)le over the cliffs into the Mis- 
sissippi. The timber is generally maple." 

He also says that the river between the St. Peter's 
and the Falls is "noted for the great quantity of wild 
fowl." Of the Falls themselves, having surveyed 
them, he is able to give us actual dimensions and 
correct descrii^tious : 

"As I a.scended the ^lississippi the Falls of St. 
Anthony did not strike me with that ma.jestic appear- 
ance winch I had been taught to expect from the 
descriptions of former travelei-s. On an actual survey 
I find the portage to be 2f)0 poles (4,290 feet) ; but 
when the river is not very low- boats ascending may 
be put in 31 poles below, at a large cedar tree, and 



this would reduce it to 22!) poles. The hill over which, 
the portage is made is 6!) feet in a.scent, with an 
elevation at the point of debarkation of 45 degrees. 
The fall of the water between the place of debarkation 
and reloading is 58 feet ; the perpendicular fall of the 
shoot [chute] is IbVo feet. The width of the river 
above the shoot [chute] is 627 yards; below 20'J. In 
high water the appearance is much more sublime, as 
the great quantity of water then forms a spray, which 
in clear weather reflects from some positions the 
colors of the rainbow, and when the sky is overcast 
covers the Falls in gloom and chaotic ma.iesty." 

Just what is meant by "" chaotic majesty" is not 
certain, but the nuitter is not important. The gal- 
lant explorer continued his voyage under the adversi- 
ties of low water and cold weather. On the 3d of 
October he left the mouth of the Rum River with the 
mercury at zero and ice forming. That day, however, 
he killed three geese, a raccoon, and a badger, and was 
happy, and the next day it rained and he killed 
two geese, a grouse, and a wolf. 

Proceeding with some difficulty up the Jlississipiii, 
the explorer and his party were overtaken by early 
snow and cold October 16, and forced to go into winter 
quarters at Pike Rapids, in what is now .Morrison 
County; the site of their stockaded encampment or 
fort has been identified. Though they had made fine 
game-bags every day, killing dozens of geese, ducks, 
prairie hens, pheasants, etc., there was more hardship 
than sport among the party. Of the distresses among 
the men the la.s1 day, Pike tells us: 

"After four hours' work we became so benumbed 
with cold that our limbs were perfectly useless. We 
put to shore, built a large fire, and then discovered 
that our boats were nearly half full of water. My 
sergeant [Henry] Kennerman, one of the stoutest 
men I ever knew, broke a blood-vessel and vomited 
nearly two quarts of blood. One of my corporals, 
[Samuel] Bradley, also evacuated nearly a pint of 
blood. These unhappy circumstances, in addition to 
the inability of four other men, whom we \yere obliged 
to leave on shore, convinced me that if 1 had no 
regard for my own constitution, I should have some 
for those poor fellows who were killing themselvi'S 
to obey my ordei-s. « * * We immediately un- 
loaded our boats and secured their cargoes." 



EXPLORES THE ri'l'EK MISSISSIPI'I ON FOOT. 

Setting out December 10. Pike advanced^ up the 
Mississippi with Corporal Bradley and a few men, 
who dragged a sled in which were provisions and on 
which rested one end of a small canoe or i)irogue. His 
object was not only to examine the country but to 
reprimand the English traders at Sandy, Leech, and 
Cass Lakes. These men were Hying the British Hag 
over their posts and occasionally giving out British 
medals to the Indians. Pike visited them, made them 
haul down their I'nion Jacks and substitute the Stars 
and Stri]ies aiul also made them pi-omise to thereafter 
comport themselves as law-abiding residents of the 
United States. 



26 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



The brave and gallant officer returned to his fort 
at Pike Rapids on March 6, 1806. Ou the 6th of 
April he set out ou his return vojage and on the 10th 
arrived at St. Anthony's Falls, and that day trans- 
ported the boats and baggage around the Falls and 
put them into the water below. The job of making 
the portage on this occasion was far less arduous than 
on the up trip. 

ST. Anthony's falls in the spring of 1S06. 

Of the appearance of the Falls ou the lOth of April 
Lieut. Pike says: 

"The appearance of the Falls was much more tre- 
mendous than when we ascended ; the increase of 
water occasioned the spray to rise much higher, and 
the mist appeared like clouds. How different my sen- 
sations now from what they were when at this place 
before. * » * Ours was the tirst [ ?] canoe 
that had ever crossed this portage. * * * '^ow 
we have accomplished every wish, peace reigns 
throughout the vast extent, we have returned this 
far on our voyage without the loss of a single man, 
and hope soon to be blessed with the society of our 
relatives and friends. The river this morning was 
covered wtli ice wliich continued floating all day; 
the shores were still barricaded with it." 

THE GRAND COUNCIJ^ WITH THE SIOUX. 

April 11 it "snowed veiy hard." Lieut. Pike en- 
camped on the island which still bears his name. The 
same evening he held a council (perhaps on the 
mainland) with 600 Sioux. These were of two west- 
ern bands and one eastern. The western were the 
Sissetons (Pike calls them "Sussitongs") and Wah- 
pay-tons (Pike calls them "Gens des Feuilles;" or 
People of the Leaves) and the Medawakantons, or 
People of the Spirit Lake, (Pike calls them "Gens 
du Lac") were the eastern band. The council had 
been arranged a month or so before, while Pike was 
still on the upper river. The Yanktons, (or "Yank- 
tongs," as Pike calls them) whose homes were out in 
what is now South Dakota, were expected to be pres- 
ent, but Pike says, "they had not yet come down." 

The council was held in an improvised room which 
had been i)repared by Wayago Enagee, the Son of 
Penishoii, and the Chief of the Walipaykootas or I^eaf 
Shooters. Its proceedings related to an arrangement 
for a treaty of permanent peace between tbe Sioux 
and the Chippewns, and amounted to nothing because 
the Indians could not understand Pike's interpreters, 
who were tlieii two Chippewa half breeds named Rous- 
seau and Roy. The Chippewas bad sent liy Pike some 
pipes to tlie Sioux with a request to smoke them if 
they wanted peace. The Sioux smoked them. 

Lieut. Pike invited Chief Stands Suddenly, alias 
Wayago Eiuige(>, alias Son of Penishon, and the son 
of a Sis.seton Chief, named Red Eagle, to supper with 
him. Red Eagle's son had visited Pike on the upper 
River the previous winter. Pike translates the chief's 
name into French as "Killeur Rouge," the term 
Killeur being a corruption of "Killiou," the French- 
Canadian patois for eagle. 



LIEI'T. PIKE AND OLD LITTLE CROW. 

April 12 the return voyage was resumed, and soon 
the present site of St. Paul was reached. Pierre Rous- 
seau had been up the river frequently, but Pike says : 
"He could not tell me where the cave spoken of by 
Carver could be found ; we carefully searched for it 
but in vain." Of Little Crow's village at Dayton's 
Bluff and of Little Crow himself, Lieut. Pike says : 

"We were about to pass a few lodges, but on i-eceiv- 
iug a very particular invitation to come ashore, we 
landed and were received in a lodge kindly ; they pre- 
sented us sugar, etc. I gave thfe proprietor a dram 
and was about to depart, when he demanded a kettle 
of liquor; on being refused and after I had left the 
shore he told me that he did not like the arrangements 
and that he would go to war this summer. I directed 
the interpreter to tell him that if I returned to the 
St. Peter's with troops I would settle that affair with 
him ! ' ' 

Old Little Crow and the most of his people were 
not in the village at the time of Pike's visit, being 
out on a hunting expedition on the lower St. Croix. 
Pike tells us: 

"On our arrival at the St. Croix I found Petit 
Corbeau [Little Crow] with his people and IMessrs. 
Frazer and Wood. [The latter were two white men, 
formerly with the old Hudson's Bay Company.] We 
had a conference, when Petit Corbeau made many 
apologies for the misconduct of his people. He rep- 
resented to us the different manners in wliich his 
young warriors had been inducing [ ?] hira to go to 
war [against the Chippewas] ; that he had been much 
blamed for dismissing his war party last full, but that 
he was determined to adhere to our instructions at 
that time; that he thought it most prudent to 
remain here and restrain the warriors [from fighting 
the Chippewas.] He then presented me with a beaver 
robe and a pipe and gave me a message to the general 
[Wilkinson] that he was determined to preserve peace 
in his band and 'make the road clear.' He also 
wanted it remembered that he had been promised an 
American medal." 

On this 12th of April. Pike .says he observed the 
trees beginning to Inul for the first lime. Going on 
to Red Wing's village, he found Lake Pepin closed 
and had to wait until the 15tli for the ice to go out. 
lie reached St. Louis on the last of April. 

LIEUT, pike's SOUTHWEST EXPEDITION. 

A few weeks after reaching St. Louis, Lieut. Pike 
was again ilispatched by Gen. Wilkinson upon an 
imi:)ortant expedition. His ordei'S were to take an 
escort of a party of soldiers, ascend the Missouri 
and Osage Rivers, penetrate to the head waters of the 
Arkansas and the Red Rivers and, en route, to treat 
with the Iiuiiaii tribes and explore the country west 
and southwest of St. Louis. In this second expedition, 
December 3, 1S06, he measured the height of the 
mountain in central Colorado which has ever since 
been called Pike's Peak. Proceeding southward he 
(perhaps intentionally) stumbled across the then line 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



27 



between Spanish America and the United States and 
he and his men were made prisoners by the Spanish 
military' authorities. Pike was taken before the Span- 
ish Government at Santa Fe, and finally after much 
delay, was escorted out of Spanish territory and 
allowed to return to the United States. In 1813, dur- 
ing the Second War with Great Britain, Pike was 
made a brigadier general and given a command. At 
the attack on York (now Toronto) in Canada, April 
27, 1813, he. with many others of the troops of the 
American and British armies, was mortally wounded 
by the explosion of a British magazine. His body 



was buried at Fort Tompkins, a little distance from 
Sackett's Harbor, N. Y. 

IMPORTANCE OF LIEUT. PIKE's MINNESOTA EXPEDITION. 

Pike 's expedition to near the headwaters of the Mis- 
sissippi was of the greatest importance to the Min- 
nesota country. He reported upon it fully and made 
it much better and far more favorably known than 
it ever had been before. Several printed editions of 
his journal were issued, containing an engraving and 
description of St. Anthony's Falls, etc., and these 
were largely circulated. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ADVENT OF CIVILIZATION. 



TRESPASSES OF BRITISH TRADERS HASTEN THE COMING OF THE AMERICANS — THE BUILDING OF FORT ST. ANTHONY OR 

FORT SNELLING THE OLD MILLS AT ST. ANTHONY 's PALLS THEIR ERECTION THE FIRST DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

SITE OF MINNEAPOLIS — MAJOR LONG'S EXPEDITIONS AND INVESTIGATIONS DISCOVERY OF LAKE MINNETONKA BY 

"joey" BROWN, THE DRUMMER BOY — NAMING OF LAKES HARRIET, AMELIA, AND OTHERS — FIRST ATTEMPTS AT 
GRAIN GROWING IN MINNESOTA, ETC. 



DURING THE WAR OF 1812. 

Soon after Lieut. Pike went down the Mississippi, 
in 1806, tlie British ti'aders in the jMinnesota country 
began a persistent violation of the promises they had 
given him. They took down their American tiags, 
sold whisky freely to the Indians, and poached and 
trespassed on the American territory as far south as 
the lower Des ^loines and as far eastward as the 
Chippewa River of Wisconsin. 

During the War of 1812 (or "last war with Great 
Britain") every trading post in Minnesota was a re- 
cruiting station for the British army. British officers 
enlisted Sioux from the villages on and near the .Min- 
nesota and took them to their main armies in ^lichi- 
gan and northern Ohio. The warriors of the liands of 
Little Crow and Wabasha, led by their respective 
chiefs, furnished the most men for the Ohio expedi- 
tion; but the other bands sent representatives. 

^Vt the siege of Fort JMeigs. in Northern Ohio, in 
May, 1813, the Northwest Indians took a prominent 
part. The Winnebagoes captured some American sol- 
diers, killed them, roasted and served them up 
for dinner, and sent word to the Sioux to come and 
partake of the feast. Little Crow and Wabasha went 
over and found the cannibals at their horrible repast, 
with gorgeously uniformed Britisli officers looking on 
and laughing. The Sioux chiefs roundly denounced 
the officers for permitting such a horrible and heath- 
enish thing. They said they came out to fif/ht Ameri- 
cans, not to eat them, and were going home if such 
a thing were i)erniitted.* Little C'row had a nephew 
named Big Hunter who had been persiuided to sit at 
the loathsome table. His uncle took him by the nape 
of the neck, .ierked him from his seat, struck him with 
the flat of his tomahawk, and drove him away. Not 
long after, the Sioux left the army and returned to 
Minnesota. (See Ncill's Hist, of Minn., pp. 281-2: 
McAfee's "Late War in the Western Country." and 
other publications on tlie siege of Fort Meigs during 
the War of 1812.) 

INDIANS PIGHt FOB THE BRITISH. 

A))Out 2G0 Canadians and several hundred Sioux, 
Chippewas, Winnebagoes, and Menominees captured 

* f'ol. Robert Dick,son, a prominent early trader in Min- 
nesota, and who had recruited the Sioux and cundui'tod them 
to Ohio, interfered and broke up the feast. 



the American post at ^lackinaw in July, 1812; and 
among their leaders were Joseph Rolette, Sr., and 
^lichael Cadotte, both afterward well known in ilin- 
nesota. 

In July, 1814, a force of British and Indians 
captured Fort Shelby, an American post at Prairie du 
Chien. Among the captors were Capt. Joseph Rolette, 
Sr., Lieut. Joseph Renville, Sr., Louis Provencalle, 
and even old Jean Baptiste Faribault, all of whoni 
became prominent in Minnesota affairs. In 1812 they 
were loyal to their country, which then was Canada : 
and, when they became American citizens, they were 
truly loyal to the United States. Among the Indians 
who helped the British capture Fort Shelby were some 
Sissetons. For their seiwices on this occasion the 
British promised to give them two boat-loads of goods 
and a cannon, which debt the Indians afterward tried 
to collect, to the great annoyance of ller jMajesty's 
officials. In 1859 old Chief Sleepy Eye was returning 
from Winnipeg, where he had been to try to get the 
long past-due cannon and goods, when he died. Late 
in 1814, Little Crow and many of his warriors went 
down to Prairie du Chien to help defend tlic place 
from a threatened attack by the Americans, but the 
latter, under Zachary Taylor, came no farther than 
Rock Island. 

The onl.y Sioux that were truly faithful to their 
promises to Lieut. Pike and loyal to the United States 
during the War of 1812 were Tah-mah-hah (accent on 
the first syllable) Pike's "Rising I\loose." a ^Icdawa- 
kanton, and llay-pee-dan, (meaning the second child 
if a son) a Wahi)aykoota. Tah-mah-hah had but oiu» 



BRITISH TRADERS TRESPASS ON AMERICAN TEHIUTORV. 

In 1811 the Briti.sh established an Indian trading 
post on Pike's Island, at the mouth of the Minnesota, 
and maintaiiu'd it for some years. It was a big post, 
sold whisky freely, and did a large business. For 
some time it was in charge of Capt. Thos. G. Ander- 
son, who bad an Indian wife. lie educated his two 
mixed-blood daughtei's, and some of their descendants 
became prominent in jMiiniesota affairs. At that time 
there wsis no other trading post near St. Anthony's 
Falls. (See Neill's Hist, of Miini. and also of St. 



28 



HISTORY OF :\ITNXEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COFNTY, :\HXNESOTA 



2» 



Paul: ('apt. Aiulcrson's " Personal Recollections," in 
Wisconsin Hist, Socy., Collections, vols. 2 and 3; 
]\Iinn. Socy. Coll., etc.) 

For some years after the War of 1812, which en- 
tirely closed in the early part of the year 1815, the 
British traders swarmed in the Minnesota country. 
Rohert Dickson. — ■"the red-head." as he was called — 
established Joseph Renville on the Minnesota, up about 
Lac qui Parle, and Jolm B. Faribault was back down 
about Mendota. Other traders were near .Meudota. 
for all the old Indian villajres in the Jlinnesota River 
section iiad been re-jn'opled after havino; been par- 
tially abandoned during the War. Up in the Chip- 
pewa country, at Leech Lake, Cass Lake, Red Lake, 
and other northern lakes, were luuuerous posts Hying 
the liritish thig; American tiadei-s were practically 
crowded out. 

The Americans had complained that the English- 
men had seized all of the best tra<ling sites in the 
northern country, and Congress had enacted that no 
man should receive a trader's license unless he first 
becanu' an American citizen. The British merchants 
in the ^liiuiesota counti-y simply derided the law, 
thinking that the Fnited States would not go to the 
trouble and expense of trying to enforce it. In this 
they were mistakeu. The Secretary of War in 1819 
was Jtjhn C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, the fiery old 
nullitier and radical States" rights man. He was de- 
termined, however, that the laws of the United States 
should be obeyed and respected, at least over territory 
they owned, and which had not been formed into 
States. 

ESTABLISHMENT OF FORT SNELLING. 

The location and establishment of the militai-y 
post now and long since called Fort Snelling con- 
stituted an important and influential event in the 
history of JMinneapolis. It brought civilization near 
to the great Falls of St. Anthony and hastened the 
time of their improvement, which meant a city at 
their site. 

It was the bad conduct of the English traders in 
]\Iinnesota which caused the establishment of Fort 
Snelling, in the early autumn of 1819. But for their • 
disreputable course, the fort would probably not 
have been l)uilt until twenty yt-ars later. 

By what is known as the Treaty of London, betweeu 
the United States and (treat Britain, in 1794, the 
English obtained the right of trade and intercourse 
with the Indians of the northwestern portion of the 
United States. The western boundary of the Repub- 
lic was then the Jlississippi River. This valuable 
privilege gave the British traders practically a 
monopoly of the trade with the various savage tribes 
in northern ^liehigan, Wisconsin and northern ^lin- 
nesota east of the Jlississippi, all Amerii'an territory, 
and without saying "by your leave." they occupied 
the country owned by France, which lay about the 
headwaters of the Mississipjn and the Missouri. In 
return for their license to occupy American soil, the 
traders were bound, morally at least, to obey the 
authority of the United States and commit no offense 



against their sovereignty and interests; but they failed 
in these duties most disgracefully ami to the practical 
in.jury of our country and its people. 

In northern — or rather north central — Minnesota 
Lieut. Pike nuide these dealers pull down their British 
flags, but as soon as he had left the country they 
jnilled ihem up again. Then, as has been stated, dur- 
ing the War of 181'J they were in open and armed hos- 
tility to the United States and the Americans. After 
the close of the war their conduct continued bad and 
menacing. Among other thinirs British emissaries 
arrange(i fre(|Uent "talks" lietween them.selves and 
the Iiulians of the country, and these talks were held 
at the trading iiosts. These affairs were always accom- 
panied by a ])rofuse distribution of presents and Brit- 
ish flags and medals among the savages, and many 
other means were resorted to in order to win their 
regard for His Britannic ^Majesty and his subjects and 
to pi'omote a dislike for Americans. 

In 181G Congress authorized the President to pro- 
hibit all foreigners from trading with the Indians 
within the limits of the United States; if they wanted 
licenses to trade, they nuist take out naturalization 
papers and become American citizens. The British 
traders sought to evade and avoid this law by having 
licenses issued to their American employes, the trad- 
ers really owning and conducting the business and 
sharing the profits: but many a trader sna])ped his 
fingers at the United States and, continued to flaunt 
the T^nion Jack before the faces of the Americans and 
the American aufhoi-ity. 

The Uniteil States adopted stringent measures to 
remove this evil. In the early ]y,\rt of 1819 Secretary 
Calhoun arranged to establish military posts at (Coun- 
cil Bluffs and the mouth of the Yellow Stone, on the 
^Missouri River, and at the mouth of the St. Peter's, 
for Minnesota) on the IMississippi. and at the Sault 
Ste. ]\Iarie. "The occupation of the eontemnlated 
posts.'" he wrote to the House Committee on ^Military 
Affairs, December 29, 1819, "will put into our hands 
the power to correct the evils." Of the St. Peter's 
post he wrote : 

"The post at the mouth of the St. Peter's is at the 
head of navigation of the ^lississippi, and, in addition 
to its commanding position in relation to the Indians, 
it possesses great advantages, either to protect our 
trade or to prevent that of foreigners." He further 
said that, when the lioundary line between the United 
States and Canada was definitely drawn and tlie mil- 
itary i)0sts established and garrisoned. "AVe will have 
the power to exclud(> foreigners from trade and inter- 
course with the Indians residing within our limits." 

It is Rlain that the jiriucipal olt.ject of the establish- 
ment of what is now Fort Snelling was to bring the 
British traders to subjection, or drive them fi-om the 
country. Dr. Xeill (Hist, of :\Iinn., Chap. Hi) and 
others following him say that the founding of Lord 
Selkirk's colony, in the lower Red River region, was 
the chief reason for th(> building of the fort. But 
Lord Selkirk's colony is not mentioned or hinted at 
in Secretarj' Calhoun's letters or in any of the 
records in the case. 



30 



HISTORY OP MINNB^VPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



TROOPS ORDERED PROM DETROIT TO BUILD THE FORT. 

In February, 1819, Secretary Calhoun ordered the 
Fifth U. S. Infantry to concentrate at Detroit with a 
view to go, by way of the Lakes and Fox River, to 
Prairie du Chien. After leaving a garrison for Fort 
Crawford, at the latter place, and another for Fort 
Armstrong, at Rock Island, the commander and the 
remainder of his men were to go on and build the new 
post at the mouth of the St. Peter's. From Fort 
Dearborn, at Chicago, the baggage was to be hauled in 
wagons drawn by horses and o.xen to Prairie du Chien. 
The commander of the Fifth was Lieut. Col. Henry 
Leavenworth. 

Having re-enforced the garrisons at Prairie du 
Chien and Rock Island, Lieut. Col. Leavenworth set 
out with the balance of his command, via the ]\Iissis- 
sippi, for the St. Peter's. His troops numbered "98 
rank and file." They were in fourteen batteaux or 
keelboats, and were accompanied by 20 voyageurs or 
boatmen ; thus the entire force numbered 118. Besides 
the batteaux, which .served as troop-ships, there were 
two large boats loaded witli provisions, ordnance, etc., 
the barges of Col. Leavenworth, and the boat of ]\Ia.j. 
Forsyth, or in all 18 boats, which were propelled by 
oars, poles, and sails. 

The expedition left Prairie du Chien August 8, 
(1819) and arrived at the mouth of the St. Peter's 
on Tuesday morning. August 2-t, having made the trip 
of 234 miles, by the river, in sixteen days, an average 
progress of 20 miles a day. Of the live stock belong- 
ing to the detachment only some cows were brought 
by land from Prairie du Chien that fall, but next 
spring all the cattle were driven from the Prairie du 
Chien to St. Peter's; all the driving was done by John 
Baptiste Faribault and other members of his family. 
With Col. Leavenworth from Prairie du Chien came 
Maj. Thomas Forsyth, from St. Louis, with the $2,000 
worth of goods to be given the Sioux in payment for 
the lands deeded by them to the United States at 
Pike's council, in 1806. 

En route, at the mouth of the Ouisconsin River, 
the wife of Lieut. Nathan Clark, of the Fifth Regi- 
ment, gave birth to a daughter, who was christened 
Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark, and who became the wife 
of Gen. Horatio P. Van Cleve and a well known and 
highly esteemed lady citizen of Minneapolis. She 
always spelled the first syllable of lier middle name 
according to the French method. 

At Pig's Eye Slough, now a part of St. Paul, the 
boats were detained by head winds for two days. The 
officers visited old Chief Little Crow's Sioux village, 
then, as on Pike's visit, under the eastern wall of Day- 
ton's Bluff. The Kapozia band (as Little Crow's was 
called) then numbered about 70 warriors and in all 
about 200 people. They lived in very comfortable 
cabins, which had palisaded walls of tamarack poles 
and roofs of brush covered with bark. The chief had 
a large cabin, 30 feet long, divided into two rooms. 

THE EXPEDITION ARRIVES AT ITS DESTINATION. 

As soon as the soldiers arrived at the mOuth of the 
St. Peter's, they left their boats and went into a tem- 



porary camp on the right bank of the stream, near 
its mouth. Col. Leavenworth selected the site, which 
comprised the fiat land between Mendota and the St. 
Peter's. Perhaps the Sibley and Faribault houses 
now stand on tlie eastern end of the old site. 

The Sioux called the place "]\I'do-ta," meaning a 
.iunction of one water with another, which has been 
corrupted to Mendota. The Indian word is really a 
contraction of "minne-dota ;" minne means water but 
dota means throat, and hence the phrase may mean 
the throat of the water, or the place where water 
passes through a narrow channel into a larger recep- 
tacle. 

When the.y arrived at the St. Peter's, more than 
half of Col. Leavenworth's 98 soldiers were sick from 
drinking the warm and unhealthy river water during 
their voyage. The remainder, less than 40 men, "were 
immediately set to work in making roads up the bank 
of the river, cutting down trees, etc.," says Maj. For- 
.syth, in his journal. The first tree was felled by Dan- 
iel W. Hubbard, one of the soldiers. In a compara- 
tively short time a sufficient number of log cabins had 
been built to accommodate those present, and the work 
of clearing off the camp gi'ound was continued in antic- 
ipation of the imminent arrival of re-enforcements 
known to be en route, and which, to the number of 
218 men, rank and file, arrived September 3. 

FIRST W^HITE LADY VISITOR TO ST. ANTHONY 's F.-VLLS. 

Saturday, August 28, a party, composed of Col. 
Leavenworth and other officers and also the wife of 
Capt. Gooding, with an escort of soldiers, visited St. 
Anthony's Falls. Mrs. Gooding was the first white 
woman to see them. The excursion was made in Llaj. 
Forsyth's boat, and in his journal the ]\Iajor writes: 

<< # # # rpj^g sight to me was beautiful. The 
white sheet of water falling perpendicularly about 
twenty feet, as I should suppose, over the difl'erent 
precipices: in other parts rolls of water, at different 
distances, falling like so many silver cords, while about 
the island large bodies of water were rushing through 
great blocks of rocks, tumbling every way, as if deter- 
mined to make war against anything that dared to 
approach them. After viewing the Falls from the 
prairie for some time, we approached nearer, and by 
the time we got up to the Falls the noise of the falling 
water appeared to me to be awful. I sat down on the 
bank and feasted my eyes, for a considerable time, in 
viewing the falling waters and the rushing of large 
torrents through and among the broken and large 
blocks of rocks thrown in every direction ])y some 
great convulsion of nature. Several of the company 
crossed over to the island fNicoUetl above the Falls, 
the water being shallow. Having returned from the 
island, they told me that they had attempted to cross 
over the channel on the other side of the island, but 
that the water was too deep; they say the greatest 
quantity of water desceiuls on the other (the north- 
east) side of the island."— (See Minn. Hist. Socy. 
Coll., Vol. 3.) 

Maj. Forsyth's graphic description of St. Anthony's 
Falls may be said to describe Minneapolis in 1819, 




Till-: OLD FKRRY AT FOKT S.\ lOI.LINi I 




\II-:\V UV THE FALLS LV l.So4 




rill': (iLii i.i)\ Ki;\\ii;\ r mills a i iiih; kali 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



31 



since they were the most important feature of the 
city's site at the time. Not a white man, or even an 
Indian, lived there then ; the locality was entirely vir- 
gin and unimproved. 

Col. Leavenworth calle<l his lirst establishment or 
cantonment on the south siile of the ^Minnesota "New 
Hope.'' There was a propriety in the name, for it 
was tile foundation of a new liope for the country and 
the 0[)euing of a new era for its imi)rovement and 
general welfare. 

A SEASON OF PRIVATION AND DEATH. 

The winter of 1819-20 was very trying on the men 
of Cantonment New Hope. The cold weather was of 
a severitj' unknown to them. Then in December 
scurvy broke out and became epidemic. Before it 
had passed 40 men had died. At one period Ihere 
were so many sick that for several days garrison duty 
was suspended. The disease was supposed to be 
caused by a long and continuous diet of stale rations 
— pork, beans, hard bread, cracked corn, ("small 
hominy") with a little rice and molasses infrequently. 
No tea, coffee, vegetables, or vinegar then formed a 
part of a soldier's rations. Surgeon Purcell finally 
cheeked the disease by administering a tea made from 
the spruce branches of the country, which proved ver- 
itable "leaves of healing," and by doses of vinegar 
brought up from Prairie du Chien by runners sent 
after it on snow-shoes. One account is that the spruce 
branehes from which the healing tea was decocted 
were brought from the St. Croix. 

THE FIRST FORT BUILDINGS. 

In the spring of 1820 Col. Leavenworth began the 
erection of the permanent post on the high plateau on 
the north side of the Jlinnesota, on the eastern end of 
its present site. The first buildings erected on the 
new site were mainly of logs. In May the command 
was removed to the crest of the IMississippi bluff, a 
little to the northward of the permanent site selected 
for the post, and convenient to a large spring which 
furnish(>d a bountiful and excellent supi)ly of pure 
water. From this circnmstnnee the Colonel called his 
new encampment Camp Coldwater. The men were 
quartered in tents during the spring and summer, but 
passed the late fall and winter months in their for- 
mer log ealiins at New Hope. September 20 of this 
year (1820) the corner-stone of the commandant's 
quarters — commoidy considered the corner-stone of 
the Fort^was laid. In August Col. Leavenworth, 
W'ho had been promoted to colonel of the Sixth Infan- 
try and ordered to the Southwest, turned over the 
command of the new post to Col. Josiah Snelling. of 
the Fifth Infantry, who had l)een ordei'cd to complete 
it. Col. Leavenworth went down to the Kansas coun- 
try and built the fort which still l)ears his name. 

Fortunately we have on record an account of the 
building of Fort Snelling from one who assisted in 
the work, Mr. Philander Prescott, who came to Can- 
tonment New Hope in 1819 as a sutler's clerk. He 
lived in INIinnesota ever after or initil his death in 



August, 1862, when he was murdered the first day of 
the great outbreak of tlie Sioux Indians. He was an 
intelligent and educated man and a few years before 
his death wrote a brief autobiography, which is 
printed in Volume 6 of the IMinnesota Historical 
Society's Collections. 

According to IMr. Prescott 's account, which is en- 
tirely reliable, not much was accomplished toward the 
building of the fort in the summer of 1820. A few 
soldiers were employed in cutting trees and hewing 
the logs and hauling them to the site selected. This 
site, it may be noted, was 300 yards west of the one 
finally determined upon and where the fort was 
eventually eonstrucfcd. Although the buildings of the 
post were to be mainly of logs, a considerable quan- 
tity of boards and other sawed lumber was needed. 
The Hrst lot of this material used was cut with whip- 
saws, worked by two men to each saw, and the sawing 
was not easy. By this method of preparing boards 
the work was toilsome and the amount of hunber pro- 
duced in a day by one saw was insignificant. 

It was determined to build a sawmill in the vicinity 
— and this practically led to the founding of Jlinne- 
apolis. 

THE MEMORABLE OLD MILL. 

The first building erected on the present site of 
Minneapolis presaged the future chief character of 
the city. For the first building was a mill for the 
manufacture of lumber and breadstuff, and the manu- 
facture of lumber and breadstuffs has been the indus- 
try which has made Minneapolis famous. 

Col. Snelling determined to raise corn and wheat 
on the prairies about the Fort, and he wanted a mill 
for grinding. He also needed a great deal of lumber 
for the proper construction of the permanent fort 
buildings — plaid\s, boards, and sawed timbei-s. To 
whip-saw these into suitable shape and proper quan- 
tities would require too nuieh time, and the lumber 
would be imperfect. He concluded to build fir.st a 
sawmill in the vicinity of the fort. At that time 
steam was not in general use as a motive power, and 
mill machinery was commonly driven by water power. 

Tlie Colonel sought a site for a null as near to the 
Fort as it could be found. An examination of what 
were then commonly called the "little falls," or 
Brown's Falls, (now called Minnehaha,) was made 
and it was hoped to find a suitable site at the little 
cataract, or somewhere near by on the stream which 
formed it. But very little water was running over 
the falls when the examination was made, and it was 
learned that although the creek had an abundant 
"fall," it could not be depended upon to furnish a 
sufficient volume of water at all seasons to turn the 
big water-wheel of a mill. At last a site at the great 
St. Anthiniy's Falls, only a few miles away, was se- 
lected. In his autobiography, before mentioned. 
Philander Prescott thus describes milling operations 
at Fort Snelling in 1820-21-22: 

"An officer and some men had been sent up Rum 
River to examine the pine and see if it could be got 
to the river by hand — that is, without hauling the logs 



32 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



with auiuials from where they were cut to the river 
hank. The party returned and made a favorable re- 
port, and in the winter of 1820-21 a party was sent 
to cut pine logs and to raft them down in the spring. 
They brought down about 2,0U0 logs by hand. Some 
ten or lifteen men would haul on a sled one log from 
where it was cut a ((uarter or half a mile and lay it on 
the bank of Rum River. In the spring, when the 
stream broke up, the logs were rolled into the river 
and floated down to the Jlississippi, where thej' were 
formed into small rafts and Hoated down to the Falls. 

"The sawmill was commenced in the fall and winter 
of 1820-21, and finished in 1822, and a large quantity 
of lumber was made for the whole fort and for all the 
furniture and outbuildings. All the logs were 
brought to the mill from the river landing by teams. 
Lieut. "William E. Cruger * lived at the mill and had 
charge of the mill part}-. " 

The area of the mill was 50 b.y 70 feet. The work 
of building it and the adjoining building in which 
Lieut. Cruger lived was conducted by Lieut. John B. 
P. Russell, acting quartermaster of the post at the 
time. He was a Massachusetts man, a graduate of the 
Military Academy at West Point, became a captain in 
the Pifth Infantry in 1830, resigned from the service 
in 1837, and died in 1861. 

According to Rufus J. Baldwin, in the Atwater 
History, (Vol. 1, p. 23) the mill stood, "on the west 
bank of the river, a few rods below the brink of the 
Palls. Water was carried to the big, breast-wheel by 
a wooden flume." The mill was equipped with an up- 
right, quick-acting saw known to lumbermen as a 
"muley." 

COIIPLETION OP A GRISTMILL. 

In 1823 a gristmill for grinding wheat and corn was 
completed near the sawmill. Its machiner}- was 
driven by an overshot wheel turned by water from 
another flume connecting directly with the cataract. 
Col. Snelling was experimenting in grain-growing. 
West and north of the Port, in the spring and sum- 
mer of 1823, he had large fields of corn and wheat, 
and he expected to be able to furnish fresh bread- 
stuff to his troops. 

In the summer of 1823, when Ma.j. Long's expedi- 
tion was at the Fort, the agricultural operations and 
conditions of the garrison were noted. Prof. Keat- 
ing, the historian of the expedition, (in Chap. 6 of 
Vol. 1) thus describes them: 

"The quarters of the garrison are well built and 
comforta])le; those of the commanding officers are 
even elegant. * * * There were at the time we 
visited it al)0ut 210 acres of land under cultivation, of 
which 100 were in wheat, 60 in Indian corn, 15 in oats, 
14 in potatoes, and 20 in garden vegetables, which sup- 
ply the tables of the officers and men with an abund- 
ant supply of vegeta])les. " 

To aid him in his enterprise the IT. S. Commissary 
at St. Louis, by order of the Department at Washing- 



* In Vol. 6 Minn. Hist. Soi'.v. Coll. tliis officer is ealle<l Lieut. 
Cronzer; in Vol. 2, Minn, in Tliree Cents, he is ealleil 
Lieut. Kruger. The spelling here is from the Army Register. 



ton, sent up a pair of biflir millstones, 337 pounds of 
jdaster, and two dozen sickles to cut the wheat when 
it siiould be ready. The gristmill had at first only one 
run of buhrs, and consisted of a small room only six- 
teen or eighteen feet sipiare, but its size was ample. 
There was no bolting or screening machinery. The 
grain went into the hopper just as it came from the 
threshing floor and the flour was unbolted and the 
corn meal unsifted. The wheat was usually adultei'- 
ated with unripe and smutty grains, bits of weeds, 
dirt, etc., and the effect on the unbolted flour may be 
imagined. Mrs. Ann Adams lived in the fort in 1823 
and was 13 years of age at the time. In her printed 
■•Reminiscences" (Vol. 6, Ilist. Soey. Coll.) she makes 
this reference to the bread baked from the floiir 
ground at the old Government Mill: 

"Col. Snelling had sown some wheat that season 
(1823) and had it ground at a mill which the Govern- 
ment had built at the Palls; but the wheat had be- 
come moldy or sprouted and was dirty and it made 
wretched, black, bitter-tasting bread. This was issued 
to the troops, who got mad because the.y could not eat 
it and brought it to the parade ground and threw it 
down there. Colonel Snelling came out and remon- 
strated with them. There was much inconvenience 
that winter (1823-2-4) on account of the scarcity of 
provisions. Some soldiers died of scurvy. ' ' 

COL. SNELLING A MARTINET. 

It is surprising that the soldiers dared to treat the 
bread issued to them so contemptuously, and that the 
Colonel's remonstrance did not take a violent form. 
For Col. Snelling was a great martinet, and really a 
military brute. At that date many military officers 
treated their men with great cruelty. The army reg- 
ulations permitted flogging and other brutal punish- 
ments, and a common soldier had no rights that his 
superior was bound to respect. The Colonel drank 
heavily and when in his cups his brutal conduct was 
repulsive and horrible. Mrs. Adams says: 

■■ Intemiieraiice among officers and men was com- 
mon, and the commandant was no exception to the 
ride. When one of his convivial spells occurred he 
would act furiously, sometimes getting up in the 
night and nuiking a scene. But he was very severe in 
his treatment of the men, when tliey got drunk or com- 
mitted any trifling offense, if he was intoxicated. He 
would take them to his room and compel them to strip 
and then flog and beat them unmercifully. I have 
heard them beg him to spare them and 'have mercy 
for God's sake.' " 

In August, 1827. Col. Snelling and the Fifth Reg- 
iment were ordered away from the Port bearing his 
name to St. Louis. In August of that year, while tem- 
porarily in Washington City, he died of delirium tre- 
mens, although the surgeon charitably reported that 
his death was from "l)rain fever." He was of portly 
proportions, had a nibicund visage, and his hair was 
sandy or red, although he was partially bald. 

FINAL DISPOSITION OF THE GRISTMILL. 

The gristmill was operated by the military atithori- 
ties until in 184!), when it was sold to Hon. Robert 



HISTORY OF .MINXEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, -MINNESOTA 



33 



Smith, of Alton. Illinois, I)y whom it was rented to 
Calvin Tuttle, who opcrateil it until 1855. According 
to the St. Paul Pioneer of Fehniary 21), 1850, the mill 
ground over 4,000 l)ushels of corn for the Indian trade 
and the settlers, "and about \\\v same quantity of corn 
remains to be ground." The sawmill was then uiuler- 
going repairs, expecting to run next season. Baldwin 
says that the mill remained in use with .some additions 
and repairs, until after the canal of the Jlinneapolis 
Mill Company wa.s constructed, when its site was re- 
quired for a large moilei-n tlouiing mill and it was 
removeil. 

EARLY .\TTE.M1'TS .\T WIIKAT UAISING. 

Colonel Snelling's attemi^ts to raise wheat in Minne- 
sota were practically failures, and he did not succeed 
much better in corn-raising. The trouble seemed to 
be that the seed was not .selected with good .iudgment. 
It came from about St. Louis, from Kentucky, and 
from other Southern latitudes, and was not acclimated 
to ^Minnesota conditions. The seasons were not long 
enough for its maturing and it was caught by the 
frost at one end or the other of them. Col. Snelling's 
successors had but little l)etter results than he. In 
time seed wheat was obtained from northern Illinois 
and seed corn from the Indians and from ^ViscoDsin, 
and then there were better results. The fields of win- 
ter wheat sown at first were invariably killed out by 
the hard winters. 

The wheat was cut with .sickles, as in the time of 
Ruth and Boaz, and it was thrashed with flails and 
sometimes was thrown into a cleared ring, resembling 
a circus ring, and horses were driven around and 
around upon it until the grain was tlirashed from the 
straw. Then the grain was separated from the chaff 
by winnowing or pouring the mass from an elevation 
when a wind was blowing: the wind would l)low away 
the chaff, and the grain fell on a sheet. The trouble 
was that dirt and trash fell with the grain. Ft was 
several years before windmills or fanning mills came. 

WA.J. longV expeditions. 

In the spring of 1817 -Ma.j. Stephen II. Long, of the 
Topographical Engineers Deiiartment connected with 
the regular army, was ordered by the Department to 
make a topographical and engineering exannnation of 
a portion of the upper Mississipjii country. It was 
two yi'ars after the close of tiic War of 1S12, and the 
Department designed Iniilding a nuiuber of forts in 
the region in order, as already .stated, to prevent a 
recurrence of certain incidents that had occurred in 
1812-14, and to remove certain conditions then ex- 
isting. 

He was directed to go by water to the |)()rtage 
between the AVisc-onsin and Fox Rivers, in Wisconsin, 
and then to St. Anthony's Falls. Having returned 
from his visit to the i)ortage. he began the ascent of 
the Mississippi from Prairie du Chien. 

Ma.j. Long left Prairie du Chien July i) (1817) in a 
large six-oared skiff pi-escnted to him by Gov. \Vm. 
Clark (of Lewis and Clark) at St. Louis. His entire 



party consisted of fifteen men, and he had provisions 
for them for 20 days when he started. He had a crew 
of seven soldiers for boatmen; he also had two inter- 
pi-efers, Augustine Roc(iue, a haU'-l)lood, who spoke 
Sioux and French, and Stephen Hempstead (after- 
ward Governor of Iowa) who spoke French and Eng- 
lish. With his party, but in a separate boat, were 
two men named King and Gunn, who were grandsons 
of Capt. Jonathan Carver, and three men accompany- 
ing thein. 

Of Carver's gi'andsons Ma.j. Long writes: 

"They had taken a bai-k canoe at (ireen Bay and 
were on their way to the northward on a visit to the 
Sauteurs, [Chippewas] for the pui-j)Ose of establishing 
their claims to a tract of land granted by those Indians 
to their grandfather. They had waited at Prairie du 
Chien, during my triji up the Ouisconsin, in order to 
ascend the .Mississii)pi with me." 

The gi'andsons had their own l)oat. Two days out 
from Prairie du Chien, at the mouth of Black River, 
they tied up their boat and remained for a time. It 
will be noted that ila.]. Long says they claimed that 
their grandfather had been given his land by the 
Sauteurs, or Ciii])pewas. The Sauteurs (pronounced 
Soo-tee-urs) were so called by the Fi'cncii, because at 
one time large numbers of them lived at the Sault or 
Falls of Sainte Marie. The Sioux called them "Ilkah- 
hkah tonwan," or people of the waterfalls, from hkah- 
hkah — waterfalls — and tonwan — ])eople or village. 
Now Carve)-, or whoevei- wrote the deed, claims in it 
that it was given liy the Sioux, and it nowhere men- 
tions the Chippewas. Further pi'oof of its fraudulent 
character is that the alleged names of the chiefs pur- 
I)orfing to have signed the deed are corruptions of 
either Chiiipewa, ilenominee, or Winnebago names, 
and that each signature has a totem .symbol — one a 
snake and the other a turtle — peculiar to these tribes, 
while the Sioux never iised a totem, and the names 
to the deed are not and never were Sioux. 

On his return, 20 miles below the St. Croix, Maj. 
Long met the party of Capt. Carver's gi-aiidsons. 
They were en route to the "great cave" mentioned by 
their grandfather, and Ma.j. Long told them liow to 
find it. Thei'e is no other record of their journt'y. It 
will lie borne in nuud that had the Carver deed been 
established, the site of Minneai>olis would have be- 
longed to the Carver heirs. 



TIjr. fiUKAT FAI.I.S 



MA.I. l.dNi; SAW TIIE.M IN 1817. 



Jla.j. Long made an exf ended examination and 
report upon the Falls of St. Anthony. His report was 
printed by the Government and rather widely circu- 
lated for the time. He arrived at theni on the morn- 
ing of July 1() and cncaini)cd on the east shore just 
below the catarait. In liis .jouriud for that day he 
says : 

"Till' rajiids below the Falls of St. .\ntliony com- 
mence al)out two miles above the confluence of the 
Mississipin and the St. Peter's, and are so strong that 
we could hardly ascend them by rowing, sailing, and 
jioliiig, with a strong wind all at the sauu^ time. 
About four nnles up the rapids we could make no 



34 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



headway by all these means and were obliged to sub- 
stitute the cordelle in place of the poles and oars. ' ' 
In his journal for Thursday, July 17, he writes : 
"Thursday, 17 — The place where we encamped last 
night needed no embellishments to render it romantic 
in the highest degree. The banks on both sides of the 
river are about 100 feet high, decorated with trees 
and shrubbery of various kinds. The post oak, hick- 
ory, [?] walnut, linden, sugar tree, white birch, and 
the American box ; also various evergreens, such as the 
pine, cedar, and juniper, added their embellishments 
to the scene. Amongst the shrubbery were tlie prickly 
ash, plum, and cherry tree, the gooseberry, the black 
and red raspberry, the chokeberry, grapevine, etc. 
There were also various kinds of herbage and flowers, 
among which were the wild parsley, rue, spikenard, 
etc., and also red and white roses, morning glory, 
and various other handsome flowers. A few yards 
below us was a beautiful cascade of fine spring water 
[the waterfall formerly kno^\^l as the Bridal Veil] 
pouring down from a projecting precipice about 100 
feet high. 

"On our left was the ^Mississippi hurrying through 
its channel with great velocity, and about three-quar- 
ters of a mile above us in plain view was the majestic 
cataract of the Palls of St. Anthony. The murmuring 
of the cascade, the roaring of the river, and the thun- 
der of the cataract all contributed to make the scene 
the most interesting and magnificent of any I ever be- 
fore witnessed." 

Of the Falls themselves Maj. Long makes this de- 
scription : 

"The perpendicular fall of the water at the cat- 
aract, as stated by Lieut. Pike, is IGVa feet. To this 
height, however, four or five feet may be added for 
the rapid descent which immediately succeeds the per- 
pendicular fall within a few yards below. 

"Immediately at the cataract the river is divided 
into two parts "by an island [Nicollet] which extends 
considerablv above and below the cataract, and is 
about 500 yards long. The channel on the right side 
of the island is about three times the width of that on 
the left. The quantity of water passing through them 
is not, however, in the same proportion, as about one- 
third part of the whole passes through the left chan- 
nel. In the broadest channel, just below the cataract, 
is a small island [Hennepin] about fifty yards in 
length and 30 in breadth. Both of these islands con- 
tain the same kind of rocky formation as the banks 
of the river, and are nearly as high. Besides these 
there are, immediately at the foot of the cataract, 
two islands of very inconsiderable size situated in the 
right channel also. 

"The rapids commence several hundred yards above 
the cataract and continue about eight miles below. 
The fall of the water, beginning at the head of the 
rapids and extending 260 rods down the river to 
where the portage road commences, below the cata- 
ract, is, according to Pike, 58 feet. The whole fall, 
from the head to the foot of the rapids, is not much 
less than 100 feet. * * * On the east, or rather 
the north side of the river, at the Falls, are high 
grounds, at the distance of half a mile from the river, 



considerably more elevated than the bluffs and of a 
hilly aspect." 

VERIFIES THE SAD STORIES OP VTINONA AND BLACK DAY. 

i\Iaj. Long was impressed by the stories told him 
by the Indians of the melancholy fate of the two noted 
Sioux Indian women of Minnesota that in the long 
ago committed suicide because of disappointment in 
love. These were Winona, (meaning the first-born 
child if a daughter) of Wabasha's baud, who threw 
herself from the ^Maiden Rock, at Lake Pepin, because 
her parents sought to make her marrj' against her 
will, and Ampatu Sappa-win (black day woman) who 
put her two children into a canoe and floated with 
them over St. Anthony's Falls because her husband 
had taken a second wife. Wahzee Koota (Pine 
Shooter) told Maj. Long that Winona belonged to the 
Wabasha band, which was his band, and that her sui- 
cide was committed within his recollection. He also 
said that his mother witnessed the tragic death of 
Black Day and her two little ones. Wahzee Koota 
also related the stories to Prof. Keating, when Maj. 
Long made his second expedition, in 1823. ilany 
other old Indians related them to Joseph Suelling and 
others about Fort St. Anthony in early days. The 
sad stories are certainly true. Indian women did not 
often kill themselves, but sometimes they did. 

Jlaj. Long recommended that a fort "of consider- 
able magnitude" be built on the "commanding 
ground" between the St. Peter's and the Mississippi, 
and when he came up six years later he had the satis- 
faction of seeing svich an establishment nearly con- 
structed. He left the mouth of the St. Peter's on his 
return trip July 18, and arrived at Camp Belle Fon- 
taine, near St. Louis, August 15, after an absence of 
76 days. 

MAJ. long's second EXPEDITION. 

In the spring of 1823 President James Monroe or- 
dered, "That an expedition be immediately fitted out 
for exploring the river St. Peter's and the country 
situated on the northern boundary of the United 
States, between the Red River of Hudson's Bay and 
Lake Superior. ' ' The command of the expedition was 
given to Maj. Stephen H. Long, who had made the 
skiff voyage six years before, and with him were sent 
the learned Thomas Say, a very noted zoologist and 
antiquarian ; Prof. William H. Keating, mineralogist 
and geologist ; Samuel Sejnnour, landscape painter ; 
James E. Colhoun, astronomer. Profs. Sa.y and Keat- 
ing were appointed joint journalists to the expedition 
and charged with the collection of the requisite infor- 
mation concerning the Indian tribes encountered en 
route. 

The route commenced at Philadelphia and was from 
thence by wayof Wheeling, (Va.) Fort Wayne, (Ind.) 
Fort Armstrong, (at the Dubuque lead mines) and 
thence up the Mississippi to Fort St. Anthony, 
(mouth of the St. Peter's) : thence to the source of the 
St. Peter's; thence to the point of intersection between 
Red River and latitude 49° ; thence along the northern 



HISTORY OF I\IINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



35 



boundary of the United States to Lake Superior, and 
thence lionieward bj' the Lakes. 

The party set out from Philadelphia April 30. 
From the mouth of the Fevre River, at the Galena 
lead mines, the route up the ^lississijipi was on horse- 
back. At Fort Crawford, or Prairie du Chien, the 
party was re-enforced by Lieut. JMartin Scott and a 
corporal and nine men from Col. Snelling's Fifth 
Regiment of Infantry. Augustine R«c(iue, (or Rock) 
ila.i. Long's interpreter of 1S17, was secured as Sioux 
interpreter for this expedition; as he could not speak 
English, his French was translated by Mr. Colhoun 
and y\v. Say. 

At Prairie du Chien, also, Ma.ior Long divided the 
expedition into two parties, one of which proceeded by 
land on liorseback and the other by water, on a keel- 
boat. Tile ila.ior headed the horseback party, which 
was composed of him.self, ^Ir. Colhoun, a soldier 
named George Bunker, a slave boy named Andrew, 
owned by Mr. Colhoun, John Wade, the Sioux inter- 
preter, and the ever faithful guide, Tah-mah-hah, or 
the Rising iloose. 

FORT SNELLING WHEN FIRST COMPLETED. 

The boat party reached Fort Snelling, July 2 ; 
Maj. Long and his little party arrived a few days 
before. Keating 's description of the fort as it was at 
the time may be of interest : 

"The fort is in the form of a hexagon, surrounded 
by a stone wall ; it stands on an elevated position which 
.commands both rivers. The height of the half-moon 
battery, wliieh fronts the river, is 105 feet above the 
level of the Mississippi. It is not, however, secure 
from attacks from all quarters, as a position within 
ordinary cannon shot fwliere the present line of offi- 
cere' quartei's begins] rises to a greater elevation; 
but as long as we have to oppose a savage foe alone, 
no danger can be appi-ehended from this. But if it 
were recpiired to resist a civilized enemy having artil- 
lery, possession might be taken of the other position, 
which would command the country to a considerable 
distance and protect the present fort, which is in the 
best situation for a control of the two rivers. The 
garrison consists of five ■companies under the com- 
mand of Col. Snelling." 

No mention is made of the old tower, although it 
was built at the time. 

THE FALLS ON MAJ. LONG "S SECOND VISIT. 

A few days after their arrival at the St. Peter's, 
Maj. Long again visited the Falls of St. Anthony and 
this time lie was accompanied by the scientific mem- 
bers of the partv. Prof. Keating writes: 

' ' On the fith of July we walked to the Falls of St. 
Anthony, which are situated nine miles by the course 
of the river and seven miles by land above the fort. 
• * • We discovered that nothing could be more 
picturesque than this cascade. * • * "\ye have 
seen many falls, but few wiiich present a wilder and 
more picturesque aspect than thos(> of St. Anthony. 
The vegetation which grows around them is of a cor- 



responding character. The thick growth upon the 
island imparts to it a gloomy aspect, contrasting pleas- 
ingly with the bright surface of the watery sheet 
which retiects the sun in many differently colored 
hues." 

The force of the current immediately above the fall 
was very great, but the water was only about two 
feet deep, and though it flowed over a flat slippery 
rock tile party waded across from tlie west shore to 
Nicollet Island ; Profs. Say and Colhoun forded from 
the Island across to the east shore ; they had, however, 
to be assisted by a stout soldier on their return. Keat- 
ing notes : 

"Two mills have been ei'ected for the rise of the 
garrison, and a sergeant's guard (five men) is kept 
here at all times. On our return from the Island we 
recruited our strength by a copious and palatable 
meal prepared for us by the old sergeant. Whether 
from the violent exercise of the day or from its intrin- 
sic merit we know not, but the black bass of which 
we partook appeared to us excellent." 

Of the dimensions, Keating puts on record some fig- 
ures well worth keeping here : 

"Concerning the height of the fall and the breadth 
of the river af this place, much incorrect information 
has been published. Hennepin, who was the first 
European that visited it, states it to be 50 or 60 feet 
high. He says of it that it, 'indeed of itself is terri- 
ble and hath something very astonishing.' This height 
is by Carver reduced to about 30 feet; his strictures 
upon Hennepin, whom he taxes with exaggeration, 
might, with great propriety be retorted upon himself, 
and we are strongly inclined to say of him as he said 
of his predecessor: 'The good father, T fear, too 
often has no other foundation for his accounts than 
report, or at least a slight inspection.' Pike, who is 
more correct than any other traveler, states the per- 
pendicular fall at I61/0 feet. Maj. Long, in 1817, 
from the table rock, found it about the same. Mr. 
Colhoun measured it while we were there and made 
it about 15 feet. We cannot account for the state- 
ment made by Mr. Schoolcraft that the river has a 
perpendicular pitch of 40 feet, and this only 14 years 
after Pike's measurement. 

"Mr. Schoolcraft also states the breadth of the 
river, near the brink of the fall, to be 227 yards, while 
Pike found it to be 627 yards, which agrees tolerably 
well with a measurement made on the ice. Messrs. 
Say and Colhoun obtained an approximate measure- 
ment of 594 yards, the result of a trigonometrical cal- 
culation ; but the angles had been measured by an im- 
perfect compii.ss and the base line not well obtained. 
Below the fall the river contracts to about 200 yards. 
The portage from a proper distance above to a proper 
distance below the Falls is 260 poles." 

MINNEHAHA AND OTHER NATURAL FEATURES NOTED. 

The party was delighted with certain natural fea- 
tures of the country about the Fort, and especially 
with the well known ca.scade which has long been 
called ^Minnehaha Falls, then called Brown's Falls. 
Prof. Keating anves us the following somewhat impas- 
sioned description : 



36 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



"The country about the fort contains several other 
waterfalls, which are represented as worthy of being 
seen. One of them, which is but two miles and a half 
from the garrison, and on tlie road to St. Anthony's, 
is very interesting. It is known by the name of 
Brown's Falls, and is remarkable for tlie soft beauties 
which it presents. Essentially different from St. 
Anthony's, it appears as if all its native wilduess has 
been removed by the hand of art. A small but beau- 
tiful stream, about tive yards wide, Hows gently until 
it reaches the verge of a rock from which it is precipi- 
tated to a depth of -13 feet, j)i-esenting a beautiful 
parabolic sheet, which drops without interruption to 
its lower level, when it resumes its course unchanged, 
save that its surface is half covered with a beautiful 
white foam. 

' ' The spray which this cascade emits is very consid- 
erable, and, when the rays of the sun shine upon it, 
produces a beautiful iris. Upon the surrounding veg- 
etation the eifect of this spray is marked; it vivifies 
all the plants, imparts to them an intense green color, 
and gives rise to a stouter growth than is observed 
upon the surrounding country. On the neighboring 
rock the effect is as characteristic, though of a de- 
structive nature. The spray, striking against the rock, 
has undermined it in a curved manner, so as to pro- 
duce an excavation, similar in form to a Saxon arch, 
between the surface of the rock and the sheet of 
water; under this large arch we passed with no other 
inconvenience than that which arose from the spray. 

"There is nothing sublime or awfully impressive 
in this cascade, but it has every feature that is re- 
quired to constitute beauty. It is such a fall as the 
hand of opulence daily attempts to produce in the 
midst of those gardens upon which treasures have 
been lavished for the purpose of imitating natui'e ; 
but it has the difference that these natural falls pos- 
sess an easy grace, destitute of the stiffness which 
generally distinguishes the works of man from those 
of nature. ' ' 

Of ]\linnehaha Creek, then called Brown's Creek, 
Keating makes this mention : 

"The stream that exhibits this cascade falls into 
the ;\Iississippi about two miles above the fort ; it 
issues from a lake situated a few miles above." 

And this of Lake Calhoun : 

"A liody of water, which is not re])resented upon 
any map we know of has 1)een discovered in this vicin- 
ity witliin a few years, and has received tlie name of 
Lake Calhoun, in honor of the Secretary of War. 
[John C. Calhoun.] Its dimensions are small." 

Aiul this of Lake Minnetonka : 

"Another lake, of a much larger size, is said to 
have been discovered about ;50 or 40 miles to the north- 
west of the fort. Its size, which is variously stated, 
is l)y some supposed to be ei|ual to that of Lake Cham- 
plain, wliicli, however, from the nature of the country, 
and the knowledge we have of the course of rivers, 
seems searcelj' possible." 

L.\KE MINNETOXK.V AND ITS DI>;C()VKUER. 

The last lake mentioned then had no distinctive geo- 
graphic name; it was called by the general Sioux term 



for a great water, or a large quantity of water — i\Iiune 
(water) tonka (big, large, or great) — which has be- 
come its i)articular name. The Indians did not even 
call it a big lake, meday (or m'da) tonka ; they termed 
it simply a l)ig water. Tlie lake had been first vis- 
ited and reported upon l)j' white men in the summer 
of 1822, the year preceding Long's second expedition. 
Joseph R. Brown, then a fifer and drummer boy of 
the Fort. St. Anthony garrison, and aged but 17, had 
set out to exi)lore ilinnehaha Creek from the falls to 
its source. There accompanied him a great part of 
the way the gifted but erratic Wm. Joseph Suelling, 
son of the commandant, and two soldiers of the garri- 
son. In his letters descriptive of the early Northwest 
Joe Suelling mentions this trip, saying he was driven 
liack l)y the swaiMiis of mosquitoes before reaching 
the lake. The young drummer boy's exploit is noted 
by Neill in his History of i\Iinnesota, p. ;J31, chapter 
16, narrating the events of 1822. 

Dr. Neill upon the authority of ^Maj. Taliaferro, 
("ToUiver") the Indian agent at Fort Suelling, says 
that the noted cataract was first called Brown's Fall, 
in honor of Gen. Jacob Brown, of the regular army. 
Taliaferro and Neill were both personal enemies of 
Joseph R. Hrown, who became very prominent in iMiii- 
nesota public life; neither of them gave him the credit 
or full and projjer distinction due him. It has been 
freiiuently stated, and it seems proliable. that the old 
Brown's Fall (now the Minnehaha) was named for 
Joseph R. Brown, the drummer boy, and not for Gen. 
Jacob Brown, who never saw the beautiful cataract, 
or even any part of Minnesota or the Northwest. 

It cannot be disputed that the young fifer and 
drummer was the first white man to exploi-e Minne- 
haha Creek and to discover Lake ]\Iinnetonka and 
make report upon it. Old settlers and even old records 
mention the stream as "Brown's Creek," because Joe 
Brown was first to explore it. From this circumstance 
it is plausible that the falls of the creek came to be 
called Brown's Falls. Keating, who came the year 
following the young soldier's exploring feat, calls 
it Brown's Fall, but does not say it was named for 
Gen. Jacob Brown, or for whom it was named. 

In 1826. the year after Joe Brown, the drummer, 
left the army, he made the first land claim ever made 
in Hennepin County. (See Warner & Foote's Hist, 
of Ilenn. Co., p. 175.) He was but 21 at the time he 
made his claim and this was before the land was sub- 
ject to entry, but while it could be "claimed." His 
claim was near the mouth of ]\Iinnehaha Creek. 
Brown built the first cabin or claim house on the 
creek and lived there a short time, without making 
many improvements. Subsequently he owned a little 
mill on the creek, near its mouth, but it cannot be 
stated tliat he built it; the mill dam wa.shed away and 
the mill was abandoned. Years later another mill 
was built, by other parties, and again the dam washed 
away. Early pioneers used to say that not only were 
the stream and the Fall named for the drummer, but 
that they were often called "Joe Brown's Creek" and 
"Joe Brown's Fall," making it almost certain for 
whom they were named. Of course they are now 




.i(isi:iMi i!h;\siiAW I'.uowx 

I'ir-t ilniiiiMiit to land in llrnni>|iiu ('(iiinty iind .Minnesota's 
most dibtiMj;iii-lH.I ciniv piunwr. (From photo ol' ISGS.) 



IIISTOIJV OF MINNE.U'OIJS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



37 



cullctl .MiiiiR'luilia, and iioliody wauls tlii' iiaiiiL' 
changed. 

Joseph R. lirown had attached to him vei'V many 
distinctions which wei'i' undisimted. No other man 
tliat ever lived in I^Iiiuiesota had so many. To him 
belongs the erowuing honor ot" suggesting and plan- 
ning the organization of JMinnesota Territory; he 
drew the l)ill for creating the Territory, which was 
first introduced in 18-K), and when the final organiza- 
tion was arranged for at the Stillwater Convention 
it was he who suggested the name and its proper spell- 
ing. (See Vol. 2 .Minn, in Thi-e<' Centuries, pp. 350- 
51; also \'ol. 1 ^linn. Hist. Socy. Coll., pp. 55-59.) In 
Minnesota he laid out the first town, (Stillwater) the 
first wagon road, (from Fort Snelling to Prairie du 
Chien) wa.s the first lumberman to cut and raft logs, 
etc. He lield many important jMiblic positions, and 
could have held many more had he wished. He was 
for a eonsideral)le period editor and proprietor of 
the ^Minnesota Pioneer, now the Pioneer Press, was a 
Major in the great Sioux Outbreak, and commauded 
the whites in the battle of Birch Coulie. 

In her book, "Three Score Years," etc., ^Mrs. Van 
Cleve who came to Fort Snelling in 1819, when an 
infant, says of ^Maj. Brown: '"He came up the river 
with the first troops of tiie Fifth Kegiment as a drum- 
mer boy, and was always considered a faithful, well- 
behaved soldier." On his di'um lie beat the first 
reveille ever sounded by Americans in Minnesota. 

The officers of the first garrison of Fort St. Anthony 
named other lakes in the vicinity Harriet, Eliza, Abi- 
gail, Lucy, etc., for the Christian names of their lovely 
w'ives, l)ut none of them have retained the original 
name Init Harriet. Col. Snelling named Calhoun for 
the Secretarj' of War, who had given him his 
promotion. 

THE FIRST STE.VIIBOAT COMES TO FORT SNELLING IN 1823. 

In ilay, 1823. the first steaml)oat in Minnesota, the 
Virginia, landed at Fort Snelling, having left St. 
Louis, May 2. No perfect description of this craft 
can now l)e made. It is known, however, that she w'as 
118 feet in length, 22 feet in width, and drew si.x 
feet of water. She had a single engine, one smoke- 
stack, and was a side-wheeler. 

Her cabin was fairly well arranged. It w-as a long 
trip up file river. Every few miles the boat had to 
stop and tlie crew go ashore and cut wood and carry 
it aboard for the engine, there being no other fuel; 
indeed, at that early day steamboats liurned nothing 
but wood, and "stone coal" was hardly known. 

Among file pas.sengers wlien the boat left St. Louis 
were IMa.j. Lawrence Taliaferro, the newly appointed 
Indian Agent for the Minnesota country: J. Constan- 
tine Beltrami, an Italian count, but who was then a 
lioiifical refugee: Big Eagle, a Sac chief, and some 
immigrants for Galena, then already the site of a 
considerable lead-mining industry. 

"When the steamboat arrived at Fort Snelling the 
entire population of the section, white and red. turned 
out 1o welcome it. The Indians from the near-by 
villages swarmed about to see the strange thing, un- 



certain whether it was a watt-r craft or a "Waukon" 
monster. The red people looked intently at tlie unac- 
customed spectacle of a huge moving wooden bulk, 
with jtaint and polisii and glitter and smell. They had 
managed to hold their ground and stare stolidly when 
the whistle sounded and the bell rang and tiierc were 
other strange noises as the lioat tied up at the bank 
and nestled close to shore, imt they were as full of 
excitement and apprehension as tiiey could hold, and 
when the boat "let off" steam, with a terrible swish- 
ing and clouds of vapor, it was too mucli. Women, 
children, boys, warriors, and even head soldiers and 
chiefs, tumliled over one another and, yelling and 
screaming, tied up the ^Minnesota valley toward their 
villages and tepees. 

COL'NT BELTR.VllI WRn'ES OF TIIE COfNTRY. 

Beltrami had for a patron of his expedition a very 
wealthy Italian countess. She, it seems, paid all the 
expenses of his journey. The articles in his book, 
"Pilgrimage in Europe and America," are addressed 
to her. Describing conditions at Fort Snelling at the 
time of his visit he says : 

"Our J) resent ramlile, my dear iladam, will begin 
and end arouiiil this fort. * * « There are no 
buildings around the fort, except three or four log 
houses on the banks of the river, in which some subal- 
tern agents of the fur company live among the frogs. 
There is no otlier lodging to lie had than in the fort. 
The land around the fort is cultivated by the soldiers, 
\vhom the Colonel thus keeps out of idleness, which is 
dangerous to all classes of men, but particularly to this 
class. It yields as much as (iO to 1 of wheat and 
God knows what proportion of maize. Each officer, 
each company, each employe, has a garden and might 
have a farm if there were hands to cultivate it." 

Of St. Anthony Falls. Beltrami gives a very fioritl 
and somewliat bewildering description, which in the 
original Italian may be pictures(|ue and engaging but 
which in English is hardly satisfactory : 

■'What a new scene ])resents itself to my eyes, my 
dear madam! How shall 1 liring it before you with- 
out the aid of either painting or j)oetry ? I will give 
you the best outline I can and your imagination must 
fill it up. Seated on the top of an elevated i)romon- 
tory, I see, at half a mile distance, two great masses 
of water unite at the foot of an island which they 
encircle, and whose majestic trees deck them with the 
loveliest hues in which all the magic jilay of light 
and shade are rcHected on their brilliant surface. 
From this point they rush down a rapid descent about 
200 feet long, and, breaking against the scattered 
rocks which obstruct their passiige, they spray up 
and dash together in a thousand varied forms. They 
then fall into a transverse basin in the form of a 
cradle and are urged upward by the force of gravita- 
tion iigainst the side of a precipice, which seems 
to stop them a moment only to increase the violence 
with which they fling themselves down a depth of 
twenty feet, 'file rocks against which these great 
volumes of wafer dash throw them back in white 
foam and glittering si)ray; then, jilunging into the 



38 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



cavities which this mighty fall has hollowed, they rush 
forth again in tumultuous waves, and once more break 
against a great mass of sandstone forming a little 
island in the midst of their bed, on which two thick 
maples spread their shady bi-anches. 

"This is the spot called the Falls of St. Anthony, 
eight miles above the fort ; a name which, I believe, 
was given to it by Father Hanepin [sic] to commem- 
orate the day of the discovery of the great falls of 
the Mississippi. A mill and a few little cottages, built 
by the Colonel for the use of the gari-ison, and the sur- 
rounding country adorned with romantic scenes, com- 
plete the magnificent picture." 

Beltrami attempts to describe the country now 
called Minnesota, but makes a sad job of it. His 
accounts are full of errors. His geographic and other 
proper names are so distorted as to spelling, etc., that 
they are scarcely recognizable. He spells the name of 
chief Wabasha "Wabiscihouwa," Shakopee's name, 
"Sciakape, " the term Naudowessioux, applied to the 
Dakota nation by the Chippewas, " Nordowekies, " 
while the Mankato is ■written "JIakatohose," etc. He 
calls the Chippewas, the "Cypowais, " and very few 
of his names are rightly spelled and very few of his 
items of history are correctly stated. 

MAJ. LONG RESUMES HIS JOUEKEY. 

On the 9th of July Maj. Long and his party 
renewed their journey of exploration, setting out by 
way of the St. Peter's River. In the aggregate the 
party was composed of 33 persons. Col. Snelling had 
furnished a new detail of soldiers, consisting of a 
sergeant, two corporals, and 18 soldiers to be under 
Lieuts. Martin Scott and St. Clair Denny. The inter- 
preters were the noted half-Sioux, Joseph Renville, 
(for whom the county is named) and Wm. Joseph 



Snelling. The expedition was divided into a land and 
a water party. Four canoes transported the provi- 
sions and the water party, headed by Maj. Long. 
The land party was composed of Lieut. Denny, Profs. 
Say and Colhouu, and Count Beltrami, the last named 
a g-uest. Beltrami quarreled with the officers of the 
expedition, which he left in northern Minnesota, and 
descended the Mississippi. The military escort re- 
turned to Fort Snelling from Mackinaw. 

Jlaj. Long returned to Philadelphia Oct. 26, having 
pursued the route designated for him and having fully 
accomplished the objects of his expedition after a 
tour of 4, .500 miles which lasted six months. 

In the latter part of 1824 Gen. Winfield Scott, then 
the Commanding General of the army, visited Fort St. 
Anthony on a tour of inspection. On his recommen- 
dation the War Department changed the name of 
the fort to Fort Snelling, in honor of the Command- 
ant, Col. Josiah Snelling. The General said of the 
fort, then newly completed: "This work reflects the 
highest credit on Col. Snelling, his officers and his 
men," and he suggested the new name as a compli- 
ment to "the meritorious officer under whom it has 
been erected. ' ' He gave other reasons for the change, 
saying: "The present name is foreign to all our 
associations, and it is besides geographically incorrect, 
as the work stands at the junction of the Mississippi 
and St. Peter's Rivers, and eight [?] miles below the 
great falls called after St. Anthony." 

Improvements connected with the fort were con- 
tinued. In 1830 stone buildings were erected large 
enough to accommodate four companies of infantry; 
a stone wall nine feet high and a stone hospital were 
also built, although these improvements were not fully 
completed until some time after the close of the Mexi- 
can War, in 1848. 



CHAPTER V. 
FIRST OCCUPANTS OF THE CITY'S SITE. 

THE SIOUX INDIANS HAD THE FIRST HABITATIONS — CLOUD MAN 'S BAND AT LAKE CALHOUN — OTHER SIOUX BANDS IN 

THE VICINITY THE " FIRSTS" NAME OP FORT ST. ANTHONY CHANGED TO FORT SNELLING THE TREATY OP 

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN — EARLY INCIDENTS OF FORT SNELIJNG HISTORY THE FIRST WHITE IMMIGRANTS COME FROM 

RED RIVER THE POND BROTHERS COME AS INDIAN MISSIONARIES AND BUILD THE FIRST HOUSE ON THE CITY 'S 

PRESENT SITE — H. H. SIBLEY COMES TO MENDOTA ZACHARY TAYLOR COMMANDS AT FORT SNELLING AND IJVES 

TO APPOINT THE FIRST TERRITORIAL OFFICERS FOR MINNESOTA OLD INDIAN FIGHTS AND TRAGEDIES NEAR THE 

SITE OF MINNEAPOLIS THE FIRST SHOT OP THE GREAT INDIAN BATTLES BETWEEN THE SIOUX AND CHIPPEWAS 

AT RUM RIVER AND STILLWATER, IN JULY, 1839, IS FIRED AT LAKE HARRIET. 



THE ABORIGINES OP MINNEAPOLIS. 

Of the original human inhabitants of the site of 
^Minneapolis nothing definite is known. There is no 
worthy i-eeord more remote than 1670. Even since 
that date, up to within comparatively recent periods, 
the knowledge of them is limited and much of it vague 
and uncertain. A great deal is left to conjecture and 
speculation, and neither conjecture or speculation, or 
guesswork, ought to be set down as history. 

The only evidences that" the Mound Builders ever 
lived on the site were the two small mounds noted 
by Gov. Marshall, on the St. Anthony side, and the 
two elevations only about three feet high, noted by 
Alfred J. Hill, on the shores of Lake Calhoun, and 
which maj' not have been the work of Mound Build 
ers at all. From the time when the ob.servations and 
knowledge of travelers iu the region began to be re- 
duced to writing, (which was after Father Marquette 
and the Sieur Joliet descended the Mississippi from 
the mouth of the Wisconsin, in 1673), the inhabitants 
of the country surrounding the present site of Minn- 
eapolis, for from 50 to 100 miles, were members of 
the gi-eat Dakotah nation of Indians, called by the 
Indians east of them Nah-do-way-soos, or "our ene- 
mies;" in time the last syllable of the reproachful 
word was contracted by the French writers to Siou.x, 
and was fastened upon the people who even yet call 
themselves "Dah-ko-tah," or the allied bands of the 
same general family bound together by the ties of 
blood, friendship, and self-interest. 

About the middle of the 18th century a band of 
Cheyenne Indians, separated from their tribe, lived 
for years in the Minnesota Valley, coming eastward 
as far as the mouth of the Blue Earth ; but in about 
1770 they went into what is now Ransom County, in 
Southeastern North Dakota, and built a large village 
near the present town of Lisbon, on the Sheyenne 
River. The name of th(! tribe and of the river, though 
spelled differenti.v. art' iironouiifM'il alik(>. Contem- 
porary with the Cheyennes was a band of Iowa In- 
dians, who had a considerable village at the mouth 
of the Minnesota, on the south side, on the site of 
Mendota and the Bald Knob. At one period they 



were allies of the Sioux. When, however, in about 
1765, the Chippewas, supplied with guns and other 
metallic weapons by the French traders, drove away 
the Sioux from the Mille Lacs region across the JVIis- 
sissippi, the latter, in turn, fell upon the lowas 
and drove them away from the ilinnesota down into 
what is now the State named for them. 

So it was that for 200 years before the southern 
Minnesota country was settled by the whites the land 
was occupied in part by the Dakota or Sioux Indians. 
Only a small portion of the country was really so 
occupied. The Indian villages were commonly located 
on the streams and in a few instances on the lakes.* 
The great Dakota nation extended from the Medawak- 
antons, on the Mississippi, to the Mandans and Tetons, 
high up on the IMissouri, and practically at the Rocky 
jMountains. These people spoke a common language; 
each great band had its peculiar dialect of that 
language, but a Medawakauton could talk intelligently 
with a JIandan. 

An Indian tribe is, properly speaking, a nation. 
The Sioux ti-ibe was the Sioux nation. It was divided 
into bands, and often these bands were divided into 
sub-bands, the latter having a sub-chief. The Man- 
dans constituted a band ; the Tetons a band ; the Yank- 
tons a band; the Medawakantons a band, etc. East of 
the Mississippi, to the Delaware river, was the former 
great and mighty Algomjuin (or Algonkin) nation, 
and the most western of these Indians were the 
Odjibwai, (Schoolcraft's Discovery, etc., p. 459) or 
Ojibway (Warren, Vol. 5, Hist. Socy. Coll.) or 
Ochipwe (Rev. Fr. Baraga's Die.) or Chipioue, 
Cypoue, and Otchipoua (French) or Chipeway, Chip- 
peway, and Chippewa, (English) the inveterate and 
everlasting enemies of the Sioux. But the Chippewas 
became so great that they constituted a tribe or nation, 
although their dialect was as well miderstood by the 
Jliamis of Indiana as the speech of the Wurtemberger 
is comprehended by the Austi'ian. 



* ' ' There was a small village at Lake Calhoun, one on Can- 
non River, and one at Two Woods, south of Lae qui Parle. 
With these exceptions all the Dakota villages were near the 
tuo rivers and Big Stone and Traverse Lakes." — S. \V. Pond, 
Vol. IL' Hist. Socv. Coll. 



39 



40 



HISTORY OF MINNE.4P0LIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



As set down by the early travelers and historians 
the original names of the Indians (or at least the 
spelling) were different from those in modern vogue, 
and this is true of most geographie names. Down as 
late as 1847 Peatherstonhaugli, the great geologist, 
who explored the Minnesota Kiver from mouth to 
source, in 1835, spelled its name "Minnay Sotor." 
The Wisconsin, among other spellings, was early "Mis- 
kousing" and " Meschonsing, " and it was generally 
spelled by both P"'rench and English according to the 
French, " Ouiscousin, " up to and after 1825. The 
Mississippi was spelled a score of ways before the 
present form was adopted, as Messibi, ileschasebe, 
Jlisipe, etc. The French explorers called it Concep- 
tion, Colbert, etc. ilany names were doubtless mis- 
spelled by cojjyists and printers because an n was mis- 
taken for a u and vice versa, as Miscousin, Issauti (for 
Isanti) Mankato (for Maukahto), etc. 

The Indians who are known to have been nearest to 
the present site of Jlinneapolis from 1780 to 185li 
belonged to the Medawakanton })and of the Sioux or 
Dakota Indians of Minnesota. In its entirety the big 
Indian word is pronounced correctly "JM'day-wah- 
kon-tonwans" with the accent on the second syllable, 
(wah) as is the case with most Sioux words; no mat- 
ter how long they are, or of how many syllables the.y 
are composed, the accent is nearly always on the 
second syllable. As has been said the name is inter- 
preted "M'day, " a lake; "wah-kon," a spirit; "ton- 
wan," a people or a village — the People of the Spii'it 
Lake; "tonwan," has been contracted to "ton," the 
common Sioux expression, and "m'day" has been 
changed to "meda," as it is generally pronounced. 

The Medawakantons were the descendants of the 
people met by Father Hennepin and his two com- 
panions at Mille Lacs in 1680, and called by him 
Nadouessioux. Their name for the big Mille Lac was 
M'day Wah-kon, meaning spirit or supernatural lake; 
hence their name. Du Luth called the liig lake, La(! 
Buade, the family name of Gov. Fr'ontenac of Canada. 
Le Sueur called them (or perhaps his copyists did) 
' ' Mendeoucantons. ' ' 

Now, from about 1798 forward there were in the 
Minnesota country four principal liands of the Min- 
nesota Sioux, or Dakotas viz. : The Medawakantons 
and Wah-pay-kootas. in the eastern part, and the 
Wah-pay-tons a)id Sis-se-tons, in the western. The 
second name means the People That Shoot Leaves, 
based on a .ioke whereby they were indiiced to shoot 
into some leaf piles believing them to be Chippewas 
asleep ; the second name means the People That Live 
in the Leaves, because at one time when they lived 
on the upper Minnesota River they often slept in trees 
to keep away from rattlesnakes; the Sissetons were 
the People That Live by the Marish. Then in what is 
now the eastern part of Soiith Dakota lived the 
Ehanketonwans. or People Living at the' End, from 
ehanke (or Ihanke, meaning end).* In time this term 
became Yankton, which is now well known. These 
people were and are Sioux, but their dialect differs 
from the Minnesota vai'ietv. Thev have no sound of 



' Owehanke, inkjiii, ami Yiish-tank]io, oacli, also means end. 



D and substitute L for it, saving Lakota for Dakota, 
etc. 

In the Atwater History (Chapter 2, p. 18) the 
scholarly pioneer, ]\Ir. Baldwin, makes the strange 
mistake of saying that, "the aborigines of the coun- 
try surrounding .Minneapolis at the time of the advent 
of the white race belonged to the Ihanktonwan or 
Yanktcn branch of the Sioux nation." The Yank- 
tons never came nearer St. Anthony's Falls than to 
the Traverse des Sioux, and then only a small band 
came and did not remain long. 

The Sioux Indians that lived near St. Anthony's 
Falls all belonged to the big Medawakanton or Spirit 
Lake band. When this band was driven down from 
INIille Lacs by the Chippewas with their French guns, 
they established a village a few miles above the mouth 
of the Mirmesota, near the trading post of a French- 
man named Penichon (or Penneshon, etc.). At that 
time they constituted but one band, perhaps under 
Wapasha (or Wahpashaw) the first of the name. 
(Neill, Ed. 1858, p. 331.) In a comparatively short 
time, however, they were divided into sub-bands. 
Wapasha 's sub-band was down by Winona; it was 
called the "Ke-yu-ksah" band, from the Sioux, unk- 
ke-yu-ksah-pe, meaning violating a law, because mem- 
bers of this band inter-married with cousins, step- 
brothers, and step-sisters, and even with half-brothers 
and half-sisters. At Red Wing was old Red Wing's 
(afterwards Wahcouta's) band; at what is now 
St. Paul was Little Crow's Kaposia band; on the 
lower Minnesota were the bands of Black Dog, the 
Son of Penichon, (or Pennishon, or Penesha, etc.) 
Cloud Man, Eagle Head, and Shah-kpay Cor 
Shakopee). 

According to Saml. W. Pond, the old missionarv, 
(See Vol. 12, State Hist. Soey. Coll.,) the location of 
the bands in 1830-34 was clearly fixed. Wabasha's 
was lielow Lake Pepin and at Winona; Wahcouta was 
chief of the Red Wing band ; Big Thunder was chief 
of the Kaposia band; Black Dog's villatre was two or 
three miles above the mouth of the Minnesota, and 
Great War Eagle (or Big Eagle) was chief; Penne- 
shon 's village was on the ^Minnesota, near the mouth 
of Nine Mille Creek, and Good Road (Tchank-oo 
Washtay) was chief; the band of Cloud JIan (^Makh- 
pea Wechashta) had its village on Lake Calhoun and 
their town was called Kay-.yah-ta Otonwa, meaning 
a village whose houses have roofs; Eagle Head's 
(Hkxi-ah pah's) band was at the mouth of Eagle 
Creek, called Tewahpa, or the place of lily roots, and 
Shakopee 's band (called the Tintah-tonwans, or Prai- 
rie People) were at the present site of the town of 
Shakopee; in English Shakopee (or shah-kpa.y) means 
six. 

There were various spellings of the names of the 
old Indian bands. In 1703 Le Sueur wrote of the 
^Medawakantons as the "Mendeoucantons;" the Wah- 
paytons as the "Ouapetons;" the Wat-pa-tons (the 
River People) as the "Oua-del)a-tons:" the Shonka- 
ska-tons (White Dog People) as the "Songa-squi- 
tons," while he called the Wah-pay-kootas (Shooters 
in the Leaves) the "Oua-pe-ton-te-tons, " and trans- 
lated their name as meaning "those who shoot in the 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



41 



large pine." As tlir iciiowiu'd disi-ovt'i-er, iligm'r, 
ciud shij)])!'!' of lihif flay and green mud spells it, the 
last name means peoi)le of the leaf living on the prai- 
ries, sinee '"tetons" is a eorruption of the Sioux word 
tintah, meaning a prairie, the n having the French 
nasal sound. M. Le Sueur, referring to the iledawak- 
aiitons, translates their name to meau People (or vil- 
lage) of the Si)irit Lake, ("Gens du Lae d' Esprit"). 
Seldom do any two early writers, whether Englisli 
or French, spell hulian ])ropei' names alike; a stand- 
ard orthograi)hy seems iiartl to establish. 

Of the Indians located nearest ^linneapolis from 
1820 to 18"):^ — in wliich latter year they were removed 
to the upix-r Minnesota — it must be borne in mind 
that they were Dakotas, or Siou.x, belonging to the 
Spirit Lake band of that tri1)e and to the old sub- 
bands of Penneshon. Black Dog. and Cloud ^lan. 

The original Penechon ( however he spelled his 
name) was a French Canadian trader that had a post 
on Lake Pepin in the days of old Fort Beauharnois 
(1745). He had an Indian wife and by her had a son 
who was chosen cliief of a banii. In time this band 
came up to the mouth of the ^linnesota and while the 
Indian name of the chief was Wayago Enagee, he 
was called "the Son of Penechon" by the whites. He 
signed his Indian name to Pike's deed or agreement, 
but Pike always calls him tlie Son of Penechon, or in 
French, "Fils de Pinchon." Ofttimes his name was 
spelled Penneshaw. Upon his death his son succeeded 
him as chief of the suli-band, but when he died an 
Indian named Great War Eagle became chief; when 
he died Good Road, his son, succeeded him, and when 
Good Road died his son succeeded him and took the 
name of jMahkah-toe, (now written .Mankato) mean- 
ing Blue Earth. lie led his warriors in the Sioux 
Outbreak, was killed by a cannon ball in the battle of 
"Wood Lake, Septeml)er 23, 1862, and was the last 
chief of his band. 

Prior to 1840 Black Dog's Iiand lived for many 
years near Hamilton Station and on the lake and 
marsh still bearing tlie name of the old chief. He 
died in about 1840 and was succeeded by his son, 
Wamb'dee Tonka, or the Gi-eat War Eagle; he died 
in a few years and was succeeded by his son. Gray 
Iron, 01- i\Iahzah llkotah. When Old Gray Iron died, 
in 18,').'), his son succeeded him and took the name of 
his graniifather. the (ii'eat War Eagle, but was com- 
monly called Big Eagle. He, too, led his band in the 
outbreak and was in tlie most important battles. He 
surrendered at Camp Release, "graduated" from 
Rock Island prison, became a Presbyterian farmer, 
and diiMl near Gi-anite Falls in the winter of lOOli. 

The band of Cloud -Man, or :\Iakh-iiea (cloud) Wi- 
chashta, (man), lived on the eastern shore of Lake 
Calhoun, between Calhoun and Harriet, literally on 
a part of tlie present site of Minneapolis. Cloud Man 
was not a hereditary chief: he became such in about 
1835. The previous winter he and some other Indians, 
while hunting tniffaloes out on the jilains, near the 
Jlissoui'i River, wei'i' overwhelmed by a bli/.zard and 
snowed under. Sanmel W. Pond says Cloud Man 
told him that while he lay buried beneath the snow, 
starving and freezing, he remembered how often Ma.]. 



Taliaferi-o, the Indian Agent at Fort Snelling, had 
tried to induce him and other Indians to bi'come farm- 
ers of tile rich land about Lake Calhoun and raise 
bountifid supplies of pi'ovisions. and not be de])endent 
upon the uncertain results of the chase aiul the hunt 
for subsistence in the long, cold winters, and indeed 
in all seasons. Cloud ilan said that while shivering 
ill his snow bed he solemnly vowed that if he lived 
til return to Fort Snelling he would become a farmer 
and induce others of his band to .join him. 

He lived to return to his village on the Minnesota 
and gathering a few families about him he started 
"the Village of Roofed Cabins," on Lake Calhoun. 
His village was not very large, but it was thrifty; 
its people always had enough to eat. ]\Iany of the 
other Indians were indignant at his proceedings and 
looked with scorn and sorrow upon the departure of 
their brethren from the ancient ways and methods. It 
took a long time for the Cloud Alan and iiis fellow 
progressives to convince the old stand-patters that the 
new way was the best. The U. S. authorities encour- 
aged Cloud Jlan in his undertakings. They recog- 
nized his authority as chief of the Lake Calhoun 
Indians ; furnished them with seed and tools : plowed 
much of their land for them ; gave them, first Peter 
Quiiin and then Philander Preseott, as teachers to 
instruct them in farming, and even put up buildings 
for them. 

Cloud Man was popular among the whites and 
always friendly toward them. A dashing and accom- 
plished officer at the fort, Capt. Seth Eastman, 
became enamored of one of the chief's daughters, 
about 1833, and. Pond says was married to her "in 
Indian form." By her he had one child, a daughter, 
whom the whites called Nancy, but who was called by 
the Indians the Hol.y Spirit woman, because she was 
a professed Christian. After Capt. Eastman aban- 
doned his Indian wife and married a gifted white 
woman, who was an accomplished poetess, the dis- 
carded Siou.x woman — who subsequently marned an 
Indian — came to Air. Pond with her half-blood daugh- 
ter and wanted him to take the maiden and i-aise her 
as a white girl, saying: "Her father is a white man 
and a Christian ; I am not able to keep her. for I have 
no husband ; my grandmother has kept her for a long 
time, but now she is 12 years old. and must either 
work hard or somebody must care for her.'' 

The missionary said he would gladly take the girl, 
who was bright and smart, although with a hot temper, 
inherited from her mother and grandmother. But 
"tah-kunkshe," her grandmother, interfered. The old 
woman said: "I have brought up the girl to do noth- 
ing, but now that she is able to hel]) me you will take 
her away and make a fine hnly of her; you shall not 
have her unless you giv'e me a horse." The missionary 
had no hor.se, and so Nancy remained with her kunk- 
she, who worked her very iiard and scolded her in- 
cessantly. Nancy was high-spirited, but bided her 
time, and when she was about 15 she elojx'd with an 
Indian named Wah-kah-au-de Ota. (or Many Light- 
nings) of another band, anil the grandmother got no 
hor.se to ride, or .so much as a dog to roast I It was 
a great scandal and disgrace. 



42 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Nancy Eastman, as she was called, remained an 
Indian, although she was nominally a Christian. The 
M-hite people made her numerous presents, which she 
stored in the Pond brothers' mission house at Oak 
Orove. Learning this, the grandmother came to the 
Mission and took away everything her grandchild had 
in keeping there, whereat Nancy was very sorry. 
Many Lightnings was a good husband to Nancy. She 
bore him sons and daughters and two of her sous. Rev. 
John Eastman, a licensed minister, and Dr. Charles 
Eastman, the noted author of books on Indian life 
and the husband of the white authoress, Elaine Good- 
ale, have become noted and useful characters. j\Iany 
Lightnings was badly wounded while fighting the 
whites in the battle of Wood Lake. Brig. Gen. Seth 
Eastman, gi-andfather of the Eastman brothers, died 
in 1875. 

Eagle Head became chief of the' "Village where the 
Lily Roots are," at the mouth of Eagle Creek, also 
by election. lie fonnerly belonged to Shakopee's 
band, but he killed a woman of that band, and fearing 
the vengeance of her relatives fled, with some of his 
relatives and friends, to the new location at the mouth 
of the stream which has since been called Eagle Creek. 
The township of Eagle Creek, in Scott County, also 
helps perpetuate his name. 

The people of Minneapolis may well be proud that 
such an Indian as Cloud Jlan lived for many years 
on what became a prominent part of their city. He 
was an industrious and prudent man and always 
advised his people for the best. He never ceased to 
tell his fellow Dakotas that the time had come when, 
if they wished to save their nation from ruin, they 
must change their mode of life and adopt that of 
the white man; but only a few heeded him. Their 
gardens and fields in what is now southern Minn- 
eapolis were a great credit to their industry and 
sagacity, and enabled them to live in comfort. Many 
of the warriors worked in these fields, but the prin- 
cipal part of the farming and gardening was done by 
the women, who usually dug up the ground with hoes, 
planted and hoed the crop, and aided by tlie children 
drove and kept away the vast swarms of blackbirds 
that attacked the corn from the time it was planted 
until it was gathered, and sometimes destroyed entire 
fiekls. 

When the treaty of Mendota was made, in July, 
1851, Cloud Man accepted the inevitable and signed. 
His head soldier, the Star, (Wechankpe) and his 
principal men. Little Standing Wind, Scarlet Bov, 
Smoky Day, Iron Elk, Whistling Wind, Strikes Walk- 
ing, Sacred Cloud, and Iron Tomahawk, also "touched 
the goosequill" and legalized their marks to the 
treaty. Some of Cloud Man's people often camped 
temporarily on Bridge Square in 1852 and 1853, when 
they were no longer afraid of tlie Onktayhee living 
under the falls. In the latter year, however, pursuant 
to the ]\Iendota treaty, old Cloud Man led his people 
to their new reservation on the upper Minnesota, and 
they began life anew. AVlien the great Outbreak 
occurred, many of his band became hostiles, hut the 
old chief remained loyal and faithful in his friendship 
for the whites. He died in the first month of the great 



and bloody uprising, which really hastened his death. 
Almost with his last words he lamented the conduct 
and the infatuation of his people and predicted the 
bad results that followed. 

Some Indians of the Lake Calhoun village were 
noted. Take Smok-y Day (Ampatu Shota) for ex- 
ample. On one occasion he and another Indian, dis- 
regarding the commands of Agent Taliaferro, went 
away down into Iowa and fell upon a Sac and Fox 
village in the night, put 14 people to the tomahawk, 
and brought back their scalps. Iron Elk (Hay-Kah- 
Kah jMahzah) was another noted character. 

BEFORE THE WHITES OWNED THE LAND. 

Early incidents of Fort Snelling history may be 
referred to in connection with the record of the city, 
since the relations of the military- post and the munic- 
ipality have always been so influential and so 
involved. 

FIRST WHITE CHILDREN BORN. 

In August, 1820, Col. Josiah Snelliug arrived and 
relieved Lieut. Col. Leavenworth, and on the 10th of 
September the corner-stone of the commandant's 
quarters, the first building of the new fort, was laid. 
Mrs. Snelling accompanied her husband, and a few 
days after her arrival a little daughter was born to 
her. Perhaps this was the first full-blooded white 
child born in Minnesota. The cliild died when but 
thirteen months old and its interment was the first 
in the new fort cemetery; previous interments had 
been made on the Mendota side of the Minnesota. 
Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve (nee Clark) was born 
earlier than Mrs. Snelling 's baby, but in Wiscoasin. 

THE FIRST WHITE WOMEN. 

The year 1821 was busily spent by the garrison in 
the construction of the new fort and of the mill at 
St. Anthony's Falls. October 1, when the work at 
the mill was being supervised by Lieut. R. A. IMcCabe, 
a party composed of Ma.i. Taliaferro, some officers of 
the fort, and the accomplished Jlrs. Gooding, visited 
the mill on horseback. Two weeks later Mrs. Gooding, 
accompanied by Col. Snelling. Agent Taliaferro, and 
Lieut. J. M. Baxley, went down the river, in the big 
keelboat "Saucy Jack," to Prairie du Chien, where 
her hu.sband, formerly Capt. George Gooding, was post 
sutler at Fort Crawford, having resigned from the 
service. It has been noted that Mrs. Gooding was the 
first white woman to .see St. Anthony's Falls. The first 
white women in Minnesota were the wives of the 
officers at Fort St. Anthony, and of these ladies I\Irs. 
Gooding seems to have been the leader in accomplish- 
ments and general attractions. 

In the fall of 1822 the buildings of the new Fort 
St. Anthony were sufficiently completed to admit of its 
occupancy by the troops. In 1823 came the steamboat 
Virginia and Long's expedition. 

ANENT THE TREATY OF PRAIRIE DU CHIEN. 

In 1824 Gen. Scott visited the fort and changed 
its name to Fort Snelling. The same year Maj. Talia- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



43 



ferro escorted a delegatiou of Chippewas and Sioux to 
Washingtou and arranged for tlie holding of a great 
treaty at Prairie du L'liien the following year. Little 
Crow, Wahnatah, (the Charger) Wapasha, and 
Sleepy Eye were the leading Sioux chiefs. Wahnatah 
was a Yankton, from Lake Traverse, and Sleepy Eye's 
band was at Lac <iui Parle. All four had tlieir 
pictures painted in Washington and these were after- 
wards lithographed and shown in McKenny & Hall's 
"Indian Tribes." The Dakotas returned to iMinne- 
sota by way of New York. In tlie big city the party 
met Rev. Samuel Peters, who said he was the owner 
b}' purchase of the Carver deed, and he gave Little 
Crow a line double-barrelled gun and asked him to 
have his band declare that the deed was legitimate 
and legal. The next year Rev. Peters sent Robert 
Dickson, a half-blood, some presents for him and his 
Indian wife ; and in the same package sent a copy 
of tile alleged deed and a long letter asking Dickson 
to secure evidence among the Indians that the deed 
was genuine, promising a large reward in event of suc- 
cess, etc. Dickson investigated but could not tind the 
slightest evidence in favor of the authenticity of tlie 
preposterous paper. 

THE STEAMBOAT PUTNAM. 

April 5, 1825, the steamboat Rufus Putnam, Capt. 
Moses D. Bates commander, fi'om St. Louis, arrived 
at Fort Snelling. The boat closely resembled the 
Virginia ; it was built in Cincinnati and named for 
the founder of the ilarietta (Ohio) Colony and not 
for Gen. Israel Putnam, of the Revolution. Capt. 
Bates resided at Palmyra, Mo., aud laid out tlii' 
town of Hannibal. Jlay 2 the Putnam came to Fort 
Snelling again, this time with goods for the Columbia 
Fur Company, which, at a point aliout a mile up the 
iliiinesota, had a trading post called Land s End. 
Here the goods were delivered and thus the Putnam 
was the first steamboat to ascend the Jlinnesota for 
any distance. 

THE TRE;VTY OF PRAIRIE DU CHIEN. 

August 19, 1825, the great treaty of Prairie du Chien 
was held. Govs. Wm. Clark and Lewis Cass repre- 
sented the Ciiited States ami the Indian participants 
were chiefs from the Sioux, Chippeways, Winneba- 
goes, iMenoinonies, Sacs and Foxes, loways, and 
Ottawas. The most important feature of the treaty, 
.so far as iMinnesota history is concerned, was that 
Little Crow's band and all other Sioux were com- 
pelled to remove permanently from the ca.sl side to 
the wi'st side of the ]\Iissi.ssi[>j>i. Little Crow soon 
removed his village from Dayton's Bluff and Pig's 
Eye, St. Paul, to Kaposia, where Swift & Co. 's pack- 
ing house now stands, at South St. Paul 

INFREQUENT MAILS. 

Except in summer seasons, in early times the mail 
for Fort Snelling was carried by soldiers or "coureurs 



du bois" to and from Prairie du Chien, and between 
that point and the outside world it was conveyed in 
sleighs. January 26, 1826, Lieuts. Baxley and Russell, 
of the Fort Snelling gan-ison, returned from fur- 
lough, bringing with them the first mail that had 
been received for five months. 

A BLIZZARD CAUSES CANNIBALISM. 

In Februarj' and March deep snows fell, blizzarda 
prevailed, and the Indians suffered greatly. Thirty 
lodges of Sissetons, men, women, and children, were 
caught in a blizzard on the Pomme de Terre River, 
and then cut off by the deep snow. Nearly all the 
members of the party perished; the survivors existed 
only by cannibalism. One woman named Plenty of 
151ankets ate her young child. She was brought to 
Fort Snelling helplessly and liopelesslj' insane, but 
with a craving for human flesh. She begged Capt. 
Jouett to let her kill and eat his .servant girl, saying 
she was ' ' fat and good. ' ' A few days later slie jumped 
from the liijrli bliift' in front of the fort into the river 
and drowned herself; the body was recovered and 
decently buried. 

MEETINGS ON THE "FIELD OP HONOR." 

In the summer of 1826 there were two duels between 
officers of the garrison. Dueling was not uncommon. 
Col. Snelling encouraged it. When drunk he would 
swagger about and offer to waive his rank and fight 
with any of his ofificers, even his subalterns. Capt. 
Martin Scott was hndly wounded in one of the en- 
counters in 1826, but he mortall.y hurt his aaitagonist. 

SOCIAL LIFE AT THE FORT. 

Nearly all of the officers of the Fifth Infantry at 
Fort Snelling between 1823 and 1827 were married. 
The ranking officials were Col. Snelling, Surgeon Mc- 
Mahon, ]\Ia.i. Hamilton, Maj. Clark, Captain after- 
wards Ma.joi-, Joseph Plympton, and Captains Cruger, 
Denny and Wilcox. Lieutenants Piatt Green, Jlelanc- 
thon Smith, and R. A. McCabe were married, and a 
child of each of the first two was buried in the Fort 
cemetery. The ladies were all accomplished and of 
good families and the society was excellent. They 
had numerous social gatherings, and even entertain- 
ments. The wife of Capt. Plympton brought the first 
l)iano to Fort Snelling and ;\Iinnesota, in 1826. A 
favorite diversion was horseback riding. There were 
several good horses owned in the garrison and a 
gallop up and back to the F'alls was freipiently 
indulged in. MaiTied ladies were generally aci'Oiii- 
paiiied on these occasions by gentlemen other than 
their husbands. Mrs. Snelling was an accom]ilished 
horsewoman and her escort was usually Capt. Martin 
Scott.* He was a splendid rider, and as Lieutenant 



* Capt. Si'ott was a Vernionter and a famous shot with a 
hiiTitinf; rifle. He was the hero of the ridiculous story oon- 
nei'ting liis name with a treed raccoon which he was about to 
shoot. "Don't shoot, Capt. Scott," it is alleged the coon 
cried; "don't shoot; save your powder. I'll come down and 
you can kill me with a club. You'll be sure to hit me if you 
shoot, and I don't want my hide spoiled." 



44 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Colonel lie was leading his regiment on horseback at 
the battle of Molino del Rey, (near the city of Mexico) 
during the Mexican War-, MJien a sharpshooter's bullet 
pierced his heart and he died gallantly. 

FIRST MARRIAGES. 

The first marriage service in ^Minnesota, wherein a 
clergyman officiated was performed by Rev. Dr. Thos. 
S. Williamson, the missionary, in the summer of 1S35. 
The contracting parties were Lieut. Edmund A. 
Ogden and iliss Cordelia Loomis, daughter of the 
then Captain (afterwards Lieutenant Colonel) Gus- 
tavus Loomis. The bride had been a former sweet- 
heart of the young trader, Henry H. Sibley, and 
according to letters found among the Sibley papei-s 
she never forgot her old love. 

The first marriage at the Fort occurred in August, 
1820. The contracting parties were Adjutant Piatt 
R. Green and the young daughter of Capt. and Mrs. 
George Gooding. Perhaps Maj. Taliaferro perfonned 
the service in his official capacity of Indian Agent, 
which gave him certain magisterial powera. He sub- 
se(|ucntly performed marriages between white persons 
and between whites and Indians and mixed bloods 

EARLY STEAMBOATS AT THE FORT. 

Up to ^lay, 1826. the following named steamboats 
had arrived" at the Fort : Virginia, May 10, 1823; 
Neville, in 182-4; Rufus Putnam, April 2. and May 2, 
182.5 ; Mandan and Indian, later in the year 1826 ; 
Lawrence, May 2, 1826; Scioto, Eclipse, Josephine, 
Fulton, Red Rover, Black Rover, Warrior, Enter- 
prise, and Volant, at various dates in 1825 and 1826. 

IMMIGRANTS FROM RED RI\ER. 

In 1821, disheartened by the misfortunes and priva- 
tions they had endured in that locality, five Swiss 
families abandoned Lord Selkirk's Colony, on the 
Red River, in Canada, south of Winnipeg, and made 
their way to Fort Snelling. They were kindly received 
by Col. Snelling and permitted to settle on the mili- 
tarj^ reservation. In 1822 the gras.shoppers destroyed 
the crops of Selkirk's colonists, and the following 
year other Swiss families left the inhospitable country 
and came to Fort Snelling. Some went on to Prairie 
du Chien, to Galena, to St. Louis, and even as far as 
to Vevay, Indiana. 

After a great flood in 1826 more families, chiefly 
French-Swiss came. Among the heads of these fami- 
lies were Abraham Perret (or Perry) Joseph Rondo, 
Pierre and Benjamin Gervais, Louis Massie. and 
others, who were among the first settlers and citizens 
of St. Paul. July 25. 1881, twenty more families of 
the unfortunate Red River colonists came to the Fort: 
they had been fold that the United States would give 
them land near the post, and farming implements and 
provisions to last them until they could raise a crop. 
These refugees wer(> settled on the level lands a little 
north and west of Fort Snelling and if they had been 
allowed to remain in that locality a mighty city, in 



compact and developed form, would have been built 
between the Palls and the ilinnesota River — and there 
never would have been a St. Paul. 

THE INDIAN COLONY OF EATOXVILLE. 

Indian Agent Taliaferro encouraged Cloud Man to 
farm at Lake Calhoun by establishing a sort of Indian 
colony there and furnishing its members with seetl, 
implements, and in time with two-horse plowing out- 
fits. It was difficult to plow and bi-eak up the virgin 
tough prairie sod, however, for the plows were frail, 
cast-iron affairs which would l)i'eak easily and when 
broken could not be mended. So the Indian women 
often dug up the stubborn sod the first year, and 
after that the soil could be plowed very easily. Maj. 
Taliaferro called the colony Eatonville, in honor of 
the then President Jackson's Seei-etary of War, Hon. 
John II. Eaton. The colony was established in 1829 
with twelve families, and Peter Quinn, a Red River 
refugee, was the first instructor. lie was suceeeded 
the following year by Philander Prescott. In 1832 
the colon.v had increased to 125 Indians, men and 
women, and great cornfields were planted about Lake 
Calhoun and over a great part of what is now the 
southern pai"t of the city. During the Sioux Outbreak 
of 1862 the Indians killed both Prescott and Quinn, 
each of whom had an Indian wife. They cut off Pres- 
cott 's head and stuck it on a pole, and they pierced 
Quinn 's body with a dozen arrows at the battle of Red- 
wood Ferry. 

ADVENT OF THE POND BROTHERS. 

In 1834 the Pond brothers, Gideon H. and Samuel 
W. Pond, came to the Fort directly from Galena, 
although they were Connecticut men. They came as 
volunteer Christian missionaries to labor for the con- 
version of the Minnesota Indians. They were not 
licensed ministers, nor were thej* sent by any church 
or society. They were almost "without scrip or 
purse." but simply i-eligious enthusiasts, who believed 
they had a heaven-inspii-ed mission, which they must 
fulfill at all hazards. They endured all sorts of hard- 
ship and privation, and, although they did not make 
very many converts among the Indians, they labored 
steadfastly and unselfi.shly and did much good in 
other ways. These worthy and good men passed the 
rest of their lives in ^linnesota engaged in the work 
to which they had consecrated themselves, and died 
near the principal field of their labors near ]Minne- 
apolis, some years ago.* 

THE FIRST RESIDENCE IN MINNEAPOLIS. 

When the Ponds first came to Fort Snelling Agent 
Taliaferro sent them o\it to his Indian colony on Lake 
Calhoun. That summer (1834) they built a log cabin, 
12 by 16 feet in area and eight feet high, on a site a 
little east of the lake and where afterward the Pavilion 
Hotel stood. Unless the little rude hut connected with 
the Government Mill at the Falls is considered a dwell- 



♦ See S. W. Pond's book, "Two Volunteer Mi.ssion.iries"' 
and other Minnesota histories. 



HISTORY OF .MINNEAPOLIS AND IIENXEI'IX rOIXTY. :\IIXNESOTA 



45 



iug liousi', the cabin of the Pond hrothcrs was the 
first white luau's residence built on the j)resent site of 
Jliiineapolis ; at any rate it was the second structure 
erected. It was certainly a residence, for here the 
brothers kept bachelors' hall and cooked, ate, slept, 
and passeil their leisure time, while the hut at the mill 
was only occupied by soldiers tenqiorarily detailed 
to work the mill. 

It is but fair to state that the Pond brothers' luunble 
hut was the actual home of tiie first actual citizen 
settlers in Hennepin County and on the present area 
of ilinneapolis ; the people of the fort were neither 
settlers nor citizens in the proper sense of these terms. 
The cabin was also the first mission house, the first 
house of divine worship, and strictly speakinji; it was 
the first school room; the school teacher Haker, who 
came to Fort Snelling in lS"J-t, taught only the officers' 
children in their own homes. 

II. H. SIBLEY COMES TO MENDOTA. 

In 18;5-I, also, came to Fort Snelling — or to the 
American Fur Company's trading post at ilendota — 
the accomi)lished Henry Hastings Sibley, who became 
so prominent and distinguished in Minnesota history. 
He came as chief factor of the Fur Company, suc- 
ceeding the talented and gifted Alexis Bailly, a French 
and Ottawa mixed blood, educated and accomplished, 
polished as a courtier, but as sharp as a hawk. Tie 
wrote and spoke French as well as Talleyrand; but 
he .seemed to enjoy life in iliimesota as much because 
he could torment Agent Taliaferro to the verge of 
distraction as for any other reason. After being 
deposed as the chief factor of the Fur Company, he 
was employed for j'ears as a trader under it. 

DEED SCOTT AT FORT SNELLINe;. 

;\[ajor Lawrence Taliaferro (commonly pronounced 
Tolliver), the Indian Agent, was not then connected 
with the regular army, although he had been a lieu- 
tenant. He had his military title of Major by virtue 
of his office as Indian Agent, f(n' in ^linnesota Indian 
agents were always called "^lajor," and Indian 
Superintendents '"Colonel," no matter if they had 
never smelled powder. Ma.i. Taliaferro was from 
Fredericksburg, Va., and was a slave owner. 

In his " Antoiiiography" (Vol. 6, Hist. Socy. Coll.), 
the Jla.ioi' says that he was accustomed to hire his 
slaves to liie officers of the gai-rison, because he had no 
use for them himself. In his journal, as (pioted by 
Neill, he says that in 1831 Capt. Plympton wanted to 
purchase his negro girl Eliza, but he would not sell 
her "because." he says, "it was my intention to free 
all my slaves ultimately." He, however, afterward 
.sold a l)lack man to ('apt. Gale and one of his slave 
girls, Harriet Robinson, to Dr. John Emerson, the 
post surgeon. And thereby hangs a tale. 

]\Iaj. Taliaferro brought the girl Harriet to the 
Fort in 1835. Dr. Emerson, who had come to the 
Fort fi-oin service at Rock Island, had a black man 
named Drcd Scott, that he had imrchascd from the 
Scott family at St. Louis. In 1836 Dr. Emerson pur- 



chaseil Harriet from Maj. Taliaferro ami married her 
to his man Dred. The couple had two children, one 
l)orn at Fort Snelling and one on the steamboat Uipsy 
while her nujthcr was accompanying her mistress to 
St. Louis. In l!S38 Surgeon Emerson was transferred 
back to Jelferson Barracks, near St. Louis, and took 
his negroes with him. Dr. Emerson died in LS43 
and the negroes were inherited by his wife, Mrs. Irene 
Emerson. Nine years later arose the famous Dred 
Scott case which was so much talked about in the 
country fi'oni 1857 to 1861. 

In 1852, instigated by certain prominent anti- 
slavery people of St. Louis, Dred Scott w-as made to 
appear against his mistre.ss as a suitor for his free- 
dom in a district court of that city. He claimed that 
he and his family were entitled to their freedom be- 
cause he had livi'tl in two free districts, viz.: at Rock 
Island, 111., and Ft. Snelling, then in Iowa Territory, 
in both of which places slavery vias prohibited ; that 
by virtue of being taken to such free soil (not running 
away to it) he became free, and once free he must 
be always free. 

The St. Louis district judge, himself a slave owner, 
said that all such suits as Duetl's should be ilecided 
if possible on the side of freedom, and virtually gave 
him his free papers. The Supreme Court of Mis- 
souri, however, (two judges to one), reversed this 
decision and, as it were, remanded Dred and his 
family back to slavery. Mrs. Emerson then sold Scott 
and Harriet to a man named Sandford, a wealthy 
resident of New York City, but who kept his negroes 
in St. Louis. In 1853 the anti-slavery people of St. 
Louis again had Dred Scott suing for his freedom, this 
time against Sandford and in the U. S. Circuit Court. 
In Jlay, 1854, that court rendered a decree that Scott 
and his family "are negro slaves, the lawful jn-op- 
erty of the defendant," John F. A. Sandford. Scott's 
attorneys appealed the decision by a writ of error to 
the Supreme Co\irt of the United States. In March, 
1857, that Court directed the Circuit Court to dis- 
miss the case, saying that Dred Scott was a slave and 
not a citizen and had no right to sue and no standing 
in court : that he did not become free by reason of his 
four years' residence on free soil. Col. Sandford, 
Scott's owner was prominently connected with the 
Chouteau Fur Company of St. Louis and well known 
on the ^Missouri River, although his residence was in 
New York ; he was also well known to the traders of 
]\Iinnesota. 

But in the meantime Sandford had died and the 
.slaves had descended to certain of his heirs, the family 
of a Brpuhlicnn member of Congress from Massa- 
chusetts! This family hired out the negroes for some 
time in St. Louis, but finally sold them to certain 
Iihilantliropi(; people that wished to set them free. 
These peoi)le conveyed them to Ta.ylor Blow, a drug- 
gist of St. Louis, who emaiu-ipated them Jlay 26. 
1857, two months after the U. S. Supreme (^ourt had 
consigned them to slaverv during their life time. 
(See Scott vs. Emerson, 10 Howard, p. 3!)3 : Nie. & 
Hay. Life of Lincoln, Vol. 2. Chap. 5 and also foot- 
note p. 81. Jlinn. in Three Cents., Vol. 2.) 

A few old citizens who were vouths in 1835-38, and 



46 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



who have died recently, remembered Dred Scott and 
Harriet when they were at Fort SnellLiig. Wm. L. 
Quinn, the noted half-blood scout, son of Peter Quinu, 
who lived near the fort, often said that Dred and 
his wife were apparently of pure African blood, jet 
black and shiny ; that they were mildly disposed, in- 
offensive people, but of a low order of intelligence 
and did not like the Indians. Dred was fond of 
hunting and quite successful as a deer-stalker. 

The only resident of Minnesota that was a slave 
owner was Alexis Bailly, who purchased a black 
woinan (Neill says a man) from Alaj. Garland, and 
used her as a house servant and as a maid for his 
mixed blood Indian wife, the daughter of John B. 
and Pelagie Faribault. At tirst the Sioux were 
greatly diverted by the negroes. They called the black 
people "black Frenchmen," (Wahsechon Sappa) fol- 
lowed them about, felt their woolly heads, and then 
laughed heartily. Another negro slave, James Thomp- 
son, was purchased by the missionaries at Kaposia 
from a Fort Snelling officer. He had an Indian wife 
and had acquired the Sioux language, and the mission 
people wanted him for an interpreter. Of course 
they set him free. He seemed to be a devout Chris- 
tian, but soon fell from grace and went wrong. After 
a time he fell back again, then fell out again and sold 
whisky, and finally became a Methodist and died in 
hope of eternal happiness. 

GEN. ZACHART TAYLOR AT FORT SNELLING. 

The first commanders of Fort Sneliing were Lieut. 
Col. Henry Leavenworth from September, 1819, to 
June, 1821 ; Col. Josiah Snelling. from June. 1821, to 
May, 182.5 ; Capt. Thomas Hamilton, in Jlay and 
June, 1825, and then Lieut. Col. Willougliby Morgan 
to December, 1825 ; Col. Snelling again until Novem- 
ber, 1827, and then Maj. J. H. Vose, to ]\Iay 24, 1828. 
All these officers were of the Fifth Infantry. Then 
came Lieut. Col. Zachary Taj'lor, of the First Infantry, 
who commanded from May, 1828, to July 12, 1829, or 
fourteen months. 

In after years, when he had become so distinguished 
as a fighting general and had been elected President 
of the United States, the Lieut. Colonel commanding 
Fort Snelling in 1828-29 was again connected with the 
history of Minnesota. Among his very fir.st duties 
after he became President was the appointment of the 
officials for the then new Territory, now the North 
Star State. He appointed Alexander Ramsey the 
first Governor, Chas. K. Smith the first Secretary, etc. 
To Delegate H. H. Sibley President Taylor expressed 
his regret that he had not been permitted to sign the 
bill creating IMinnesota Territory, because he had 
been connertcd with its early history and believed it 
would become a great State. "Your winters are long 
and cold," said the President to the Delegate; "I 
know, for I spent one there. But your climate is 
exceedingly bracing and probably the healthiest in the 
Union. With proper care good crops can be raised 
there, for I have seen them growing — as good wheat 
as I ever saw — and we raised very fine vegetables of 
all kinds at the Fort. Then you have vast forests of 



lumber which alone will make your State great, and 
St. Anthony Falls is probably the greatest water 
power in the world." 

While at Fort Snelling Gen. Taylor had with him 
his wife, his four daughters, and his three-year-old 
sou, Richard, who became a distinguished Confederate 
general. One of the daughters, Sarah Knox, familiarly 
called "Knox," mairied Jefferson Davis, a few years 
later, at the home of her aunt, a few miles in the 
rear of Louisville, Ky. It is often said that the mar- 
riage was the result of an elopement, but it was not 
even clandestine ; a number of her near relatives were 
present, although her father had refused his consent. 
She died three months later. 

INDIAN FIGHTS AND TR,VGEDIES NEAR MINNEAPOLIS. 

Perhaps the most noted incidents of early history 
which occurred in the near vicinity of Minneapolis 
between 1820 and 1840 were certain hostile encounters 
between the Sioux and Chippewa Indians wherein 
many lives were lost. So many of these affairs 
occurred throughout the State that their enumeration 
and description at this late day would be most diffi- 
cult. Some of them were rather formidable, but none 
of them were of any more consequence and influence 
on the interests of the country than fights between 
packs of wolves. 

On a night in May, 1827, some Chippewa Indians, 
under the old Flat Mouth, were asleep in their camp 
in front of JMaj. Taliaferro's agency house and under 
the guns of Foi't Snelling. Nine Sioux from Pene- 
chon's village, with guns and tomahawks, crept up in 
the darkness and fired into the sleeping Chippewas, 
killing four and wounding eight. Within two days 
Col. Snelling forced four of the Sioux that had fired 
so cowardly and cinielly upon sleeping men, women, 
and children to run the gauntlet before the guns of 
the Chippewas. All ran gallantly, but all were shot 
down and killed before they had proceeded a hundred 
yards. The Chippewas rubbed their hands in the 
blood.v wounds of their dead enemies and tlien licked 
their fingers with great reli.sh. After scalping and 
mutilating the bodies they pitched them over the 
bluff. 

BATTLES AT RUM RIVER AND STILLWATER. 

In July, 1839, there was a stirring, tragic, and alto- 
gether a most remarkable affair between the two i\lin- 
nesota tribes in the perpetuation of their feud. Pre- 
liminary to this incident, which in effect was a great 
dual tragedy, several hundred Chippewas came down 
from their country to Fort Snelling with the mistaken 
idea that they were to receive some money under the 
treaty of 1837. They came in two columns. Hole-in- 
the-Day led the Pillager Band and the Mille Laes 
down the Missi.ssippi in canoes to St. Anthony's Falls, 
where they encamped. The St. Croix Chippewas came 
down that river from Pokegama to Stillwater in canoes 
and then marched across the country to Fort Snelling, 
and encamped a mile or so north of the fort, near 
Cloud Man's band at Lake Calhoun. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



47 



All the Sioux bands in the neighborhood came for- 
ward and greeted their old time enemies very cor- 
dially, and they and the V. S. authorities entertained 
them most bountifully and hospitably. Hole-in-the- 
Day's Indians came down to Lake Calhoun and joined 
in the feasting and the fraternizing. Everybody said 
the tomahawk was buried forever and henceforth there 
would be profound peace between Chippewa and 
Sioux. This most exemplary condition lasted four 
days, and then the Chippewas set out to return to 
their homes, each column taking the route over which 
it liad come. By special invitation the Pokegama 
Cliippewas went first to Little Crow's Kaposia village 
(now South St. Paul) and spent some hours in friendly 
visit and then went on to Stillwater. 

But two young men of Hole-in-the-Day's contingent 
had "bad hearts" all this time. They were from 
Mille Lacs and claimed that tlie Sioux had killed their 
father the year before. When their party set out 
to return home they remained behind. The next 
morning, well armed, they slipped down to near 
Cloud Man's village and hid themselves on the south- 
eastern side of Lake Harriet, in the tall grass, by a 
path that ran on the east side of tlie lake and then 
on to "a great body of timber, a wild pigeon grove, 
on the ilinnesota. 

Just after daylight on the morning of July 2, an 
Indian wliose proper name was Hku-pah Choki Jlah- 
zah, or Middle Iron Wing, came along the path where 
the Chippewas were ambushed. He was on his way to 
the pigeon roost to kill pigeons before early morning 
came, when they would Hy away, returning at dark. 
He had a boy of 12 * with him and each had a gun. 
He was often called the Badger, and this is the name 
given him in some histories. He was a son-in-law of 
Chief Cloud ilan and a nephew of Zitkahda Doota, 
(or Red Bird) the "medicine man" of the band, but 
who in this instance became its head soldier. 

In the tall grass and weeds lay tlie two Chippewas, 
every muscle strained and tense and their eyes gleam- 
ing with excitement and hate, like tigers in a jungle 
about to leap upon their pre.v. When the Badger 
came up within eas.v gunshot they fired at the same 
instant and both bullets struck him, killing him in- 
stantly. The.v rushed forward and took his scalp 
and then slunk awa.v through the tall grass towards 
Minnehaha, or the "Little Falls," as they were often 
called. The boy had tlirown himself in the grass be- 
side the path and was lying still. The Indians said 
the.v saw liim. but forbore to kill him. As soon as 
they had gone the lad sprang up and ran back to the 
village, crying with all his might, "Ilkah-hkah Ton- 
wan! Hkah-hkah-Tonwan!" ** or, "the Chippewas! 
the Chippewas!" 

The boy 's soprano screams rang like silver fire-bells 
and were heard at the mission house as soon as at the 



•In the spring of 189.5 the writer inter\'iewed this "boy," 
but he was then 68 and bearing the white man 's name of 
David Watson. He was then at Flandrau, S. D., where he died 
a few years later. He was a nephew of .Middle Iron Wing 
and well remembered the incident. 

*' Meaning literally People of the Waterfalls, the Sioux 
name for the Chippewa-s who, when the Sioux first knew them, 
lived at the Falls of Sault Ste. Marie. 



Indian tepees. The Pond brothers were at the side 
of the murdered warrior as soon as his comrades were, 
and it is from Saml. W. Pond's printed record (see 
"Two Missionaries") that we get the details of the 
murder and of tlie terrible events that followed. The 
body of the Badger was borne back to the village, 
where, as it were, it lay in state. 

A crowd soon gathered about the scalpless, bloody 
corpse. Red Bird bent over it and kissed it, though 
the blood was yet oozing. Then he removed from 
the body the ornaments which liad bedecked it, and, 
holding them up where all could see, he solemnly 
swore: "1 will avenge you, O, my nephew, though 
I too am killed ! ' ' Turning to the assembled warriors 
he demanded that they too avenge their comrade, and 
they fairly yelled that they would. 

There was a sudden and a very wild excitement 
among the Sioux tliat morning. Swift messengers 
bore the startling and astounding news from village 
to village and from tepee to tepee, crying out wildly : 
"The Chippewiis! The Chippewas! They have turned 
treacherously back from their homeward journey and 
are butchering us! ^Middle Ii'on Wing is already 
killed ! On the liank of Lake Harriet — there lies his 
dead body, all bloody! Go and see it. But get your 
fighting implements ready first!" 

In two hours Cloud Man's warriors, Red Bird at 
the head, stripped almost as naked as Adam, but 
painted and armed for fight, were all read.y and eager 
for the war path. Then in another hour the warriors 
from the other villages began to arrive. The}' came 
from Good Road's village, from Bad Hail's, from 
Black Dog's, from Eagle Head's, and even from 
Shakopee's. Little Crow's men did not come, as will 
be explained, but the plan was made known to him. 

The plan was soon arranged. The Chippewas were 
to be pursued on both of the routes they had taken. 
Little Crow (or Big Thunder) and his Kaposia band, 
because the,y were miles nearer to them, were to fol- 
low after the St. Croix Chippewas, with whom they 
had an old account to settle anyhow, and overtake 
them at Stillwater if possible. The other liands were 
to pursue Hole-in-the-Day's people and those from 
the ]\lille Lacs. Each pursuing party largely out- 
numbered the Chippewas it pursued, the latter being 
composed largely of women and children, while the 
Sioux were all warriors. 

The Sioux came to the war path painted, armed, 
moccasined, and victualed, and all eager as wolves 
on the scent. In eft'ect the warriors were sworn into 
service. The oath or pledge was brief but strong. 
It bound him who took it to fight to the death and to 
show no quarter to any living Chippewa thing. No 
mercy was to be asked and none was to be given. 
The babe was to be served as the grandsire and the 
virgin as the warrior. 

The authorities at the Fort did not offer to inter- 
fere: it would not have been of any use. The Sioux 
hurried up to St. Anthony's Falls and cro,s,sed the 
river by detachments in canoes, landing on the east 
bank, just above the head of Nicollet Island. Samuel 
W. Pond went up and viewed the cros.sing. which was 
not effected until near sundown. Red Bird, so Pond 



48 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



tells us, caused his 400 \varrioi"s to be seated in a line, 
down which he marched, naked except for breech-clout 
and war paint, laying his hand on every warrior's 
head and bidding him fight to the last for the sake of 
the Dakota gods and the honor of the Dakota nation. 
It had been a hot July day. but the war party 
started as soon as the favor of its gods had been 
invoked, marched all nigiit. and .iust before day 
reached Hole-in-the-Day"s camp on Rum River. Lit- 
tle Crow and his warriors marched all night and 
arrived at Stillwater at daylight, finding the Chippe- 
was in camp, but ready to embark on the St. Croix 
for their homes. 

Red Bird managed well at Rum River. He waited 
untU the Chippewa hunters had gone ahead on the 
trail and dispersed themselves on either side of the 
road to kill game for the subsistence of the party, and 
these hunters were half of the Chippewa warriors. 
Not every warrior had a gun. hut every gun was 
loaded only with bird shot. The camp had .just been 
broken up and the morning column, composed largely 
of women and children, was stringing out when Red 
Bird gave the signal for attack by a loud and long 
war whoop. The Sioux sprang forward with gun and 
spear and tomahawk. The Chippewa women and chil- 
dren fled in horror and dismay ; the Sioux leaped 
upon them and cut them down. The men present 
with guns fought as best they could, but what could 
they do with bird shot? 

In a little time the Chippewa hunters had come 
back and then the killing was not all on ojie side. 
Oh. no I Hole in the Da.v and his warriors always 
did their share of killing in a battle. The Chippe- 
"was, frenzied at the sight of their dead and mangled 
women and children, fought with such despei-ation 
that in twenty minutes the Sioux were retreating 
from the field, leaving their dead, and some of their 
disabled. Shakopee * and his Prairieville band were 
made the rearguard and had all the.v could do to keep 
back the infuriated Chippewas. Once, when hard 
pressed and his men were not supported, he rode 
among the other chiefs and complained : ' " You have 
poured blood on me," he said, "and now you run 
away and leave me." 

Shakopee. Red Bird, and some others were on horse- 
back, having made their horses swim the ilississippi. 
Red Bird was killed. He rode upon a Chippewa who 
was in his death agonies, but still held his loaded gun. 
Red Bird dismounted to finish him with his knife, 
when the d.ving warrior shot him througli the neck 
and the noted medicine man and fighter fell a corpse 
and into the hands of his enemies. His son, a lad of 
15, was mortally wounded. As they were bearing him 
from the field he noticed that his intestines were dan- 
gling from his wound and he said : "I wish my father 
could see this." Told that his father was killed, he 
did not utter a word more, but closed his eyes and 
wan! Hkah-hkah-Tonwan !"*** or, "'the Chippewas! 
The Chippewas followed the Sioux for some miles, 
and killed three and wounded 2.5 of Shakopee 's rear 
guard. At last they turned back to bury their dead. 



Father of the chief hung at Fort Snelling. 



to care for their stricken ones, and to chop to pieces 
the bodies of the dead and wounded of their enemies 
left on the slaughter field. The Sioux bore away 70 
scalps, at least 50 of which were those of women 
and children. Some of the Chippewas killed were not 
scalped. The Sioux had 12 warriors killed and car- 
ried off about 50 wounded, some of whom afterward 
died, one when he was being lifted from a canoe on 
the west bank of the ^Mississippi. (See '"Two ilission- 
aries;" also Vol. 2, Minn, in Three Cents.) 

Jleanwhile Big Thunder's Kaposia warriors had 
been successful to a degree : for the.v too were forced 
to retreat from the field. The Chippewas were in 
their camp at Stillwater in the big ravine where the 
penitentiary now stands. At the same hour when 
Red Bird attacked the Chippewas on Rum River, Big 
Thunder attacked the St. Croix and Pokegama people. 
The Sioux had crept up within gunshot and bowshot, 
and, without warning, suddenly poured a plunging 
and deadly fire from the crest of the bluff upon their 
enemies' camp. The Chippewas behaved well. Tliey 
retreated toward the St, Croix, women and children 
going first, and the men protecting the rear, fighting 
bravely. Near the shore the.v halted and checked the 
Sioux, finally driving them back and away from the 
battle ground, but not in time to prevent them from 
taking about 20 scalps and cutting off and carrying 
away half a dozen heads. The Sioux retreated in a 
panic, although the Chippewas did not pursue them 
beyond the crest of the bluffs. The fighting was wit- 
nessed by "Wm. A. Aitkin, the trader, (for whom the 
count.v was named) and by Mrs. Lydia Ann Carli, a 
sister of Joseph R. Brown, who lived in the big log 
castle at Stillwater (then called "Dakota") which 
her brother had built. 

In both battles the Chippewas lost 95 killed. 75 
at Rum River and 20 at Stillwater. The Sioux lost 
12 killed at Rum River and five at Stillwater, or 17 
in all. The whole number of wounded cannot well 
be estimated. The Chippewas carried aU of their 
wounded back to their villages, those from Rum River 
on litters and those from Stillwater in canoes, at least 
a great part of the wa.v. 

The scene at Fort Snelling when the Sioux returned 
from their victories was one of wild and fierce exulta- 
tion. Rev. Gideon H. Pond, who was present, wrote: 
"It seemed as if hell had emptied itself here." They 
paraded their blood.v scalps and ghastly heads with 
great ostentation as if for the delectation of the white 
spectators. The.v yelled and danced until the.v 
worked themselves into a state of delirium and 
frenzy. They kept up the scalp dance in all their vil- 
lages for a month. "Why not? They had 95 scalps! 
The Pond brothers and the officers of the Fort saw 
the great and horrid celebration but did not inter- 
fere. There were other witnesses. There were at 
Fort Snelling at the time the Right Reverend Bishop 
Mathias Loras and his assistant, the Abbe Pelamonr- 
gues. Catholic ecclesiastics stationed at Dubuque, who 
had come up to look after the interests of the ^lother 
Church in this quarter. The gentle-souled, mild- 
mannered Bishop was inexpressably shocked at the 
loathsome and hideous spectacle of the dancing and 



HISTORY OF MINNE^VPOLTS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



49 



howling: Sioux and their ghastly trophies, and he shed 
tears of heartsiekness antl liorroi' as he looketl ui)ou it. 

One of the two young I'hippewas that shot the 
Badger and brought the disasters upon their people 
died at .Mille Laes in 1903. To the late AVm. L. 
l^uinn, of St. Paul, wlio at one time was a trader 
among them and who himself had Chippewa blood in 
his veins, they told the story. It is now w'ell known 
that after they had done the shooting they made their 
way to the "Ijittle Falls," now the Falls of Minne- 
iiaha, and effected their escape as they planned to. 
]ieliind the broad sheet of water that formed the 
cataract proper, snug under the deep shelving bluff 
over which the water poured, they crawled and hid 
themselves. Here they renuiined that day and night 
and the following day. They reasoned that the Sioux 
would not search carefully for them, but would fol- 
low their lirethren ; and when the Dakota warriors 
had gone tliey \»f)uld slip away in the darkness and 
go back to -Alille Lacs. All about the Falls there 
were bramliles and brushwood, and the sheet of fall- 
ing water hid them as if they were behind a big 
white blanket. On the second night the.y crept away, 
swam the JMis.sissippi by the aid of a log, and got 
safely back to their village. They were very sorry 
that the fire they kindled had caused so much distress 
and sadness, but their people forgave them because 
they had meant well and from the Indian ponit of 
view had acted bravely. 

The battles between the Sioux and Chippewas in 
the tirst days of July, 1839, arc to he remembered in 
coiuiection with the history of Minneapolis. They 
were the largest affairs of the kind that occurred in 
Minnesota after the supposed great battles between 
the two tribes near Mille Lacs about 1750, or perhaps 



about ITtiO, and they were planned on the present 
site of Minneapolis. Nearly all the Sioux warriors 
that fougiit in it were from or near the city's site, 
set out from here, and returned here. At least 115 
Indians of both sides were killed — moi-e than the 
aggregate of all the Indians that died on Minnesota 
battle fields after 1760, including those killed in tight 
and hung at Mankato during the Sioux Outbreak of 
1862. 

Intelligence of the affairs, generally exaggerated as 
to details, went to all parts of the country. Writing 
from St. Louis July 26, 1839, Robert E. Lee, then a 
captain of U. S. Engineers and who had been en- 
gaged in engineering work on the ^lississippi up as 
far as Prairie du Chien, wrote to his associate ollicer, 
Lieut. Joseph E. Johnston, about these Indian battles. 
(It will be understood that both these officers were 
afterwards the two principal Confederate generals.) 
After mentioning an excursion party tliat had re- 
cently' gone up the river on a steamboat to the Falls 
of St. Antiiony. '"with music pla\ing and colors fly- 
ing," and which their mutual friend "Dick" (who- 
ever he was) had accompanied from Galena, Capt. 
Lee wrote : 

"News recently arrived that the Sioux had fallen 
upon the Chippewas and taken 130 [sic| scalps. The 
Hole in the Day, Dick's friend, had gone in advance 
with the larger party and they did not come up with 
him. It is ex])ected that this chief, who is i-epresented 
as an uncommon man, will take ample revenge, and 
this may give rise to fresh trouble. You will see the 
full account in the papers." 

The letter in full is printed in Gen. Long's "Jlem- 
oirs of R. E. Lee," and in Dr. J. William Jones's 
"Life and Letters of Lee," at page 35, but it has never 
before been noticed in a Minnesota publication. 



CHAPTER VI. 
PREPARING FOR THE WHITE MAN'S COMING. 

THE CHIPPEWA AND SIOUX TREATIES OP 1837 THE INDIAN TITLE TO THE EAST BANK OF THE Mik,BISSIPPI PURCHASED; 

MAKING POSSIBLE SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT AT ST. ANTHONY FALLS OPERATIONS BEGUN HERE AND ON 

THE ST. CROrX — FRANKLIN STEELE LAYS THE FIRST FOUNDATIONS OF MINNEAPOLIS AT ST. ANTHONY — LATER 

VISITORS AND EXPLORERS EX.\MINE THE COUNTRY FEATHERSTONHAUGH, CATLIN, AND NICOLLET MINNEAPOLIS 

CAME NEAR BEING IN PERMANENT INDIAN TERRITORY — CERTAIN DANGEROUS CRISES IN THE HISTORY OF THE 
COUNTRY NARROWT^Y PASSED A MIGHTY METROPOLIS ON THE FORT SNELLING SITE PREVENTED BY THE ILL CON- 
DUCT OF A MILITARY BOSS THE BANISHMENT OF WORTHY SETTLERS LEADS TO THE BUILDING OF ST. PAUL. 



THE TREATIES OF 1837 OPENING THE WAY FOR 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

Prior to the year 1837 every foot of land in what 
is now the State of Minnesota — except the little 
reservation about Fort Snelling — was in primeval 
condition and barbaric ownership. The country was 
red-peopled and virgin, and a white man might not 
make his home anywhere in all that great expanse 
w-ithout permission of the Indians. These people held 
the land solely by the right of conquest and the rule 
of might, having taken it by force from weaker breth- 
ren and defended it against stronger. It was theirs, 
therefore, under Rob Roy's rule: 

" « * * the simple plan, 
That they should take who have the power, 
And they should keep who can." 

The mighty resources of the counti-y, the iron, the 
granite, the soil, the water-power, were as they had 
been for thousands of 3-ears. The great water-power 
at St. Anthon.v's Falls was unharnessed and undi- 
verted and the ^Mississippi flowed "unvexed to the 
sea." But in 1837 a breach was made in the barriers 
that had shut out the forces of civilization, and 
through the gap soon came the advance guard of the 
great army of progress whose many battalions were 
not far to the rear. A foothold was obtained whereon 
white men eould stand and from whence they could 
not be driven. It was made possible and lawful to 
take away the great Falls of St. Anthony of Padua 
from the Oiiktayhee or Indian gods that controlled 
them and make them subserve the uses of mankind, 
and the way was clear to found a great city at their 
site. Two treaties were made with the Chippewa and 
Sioux which opened the lands east of the Jlississippi 
in this quarter to white settlement. It would follow 
that the lands west of the river would soon pass 
under the same control. 

In July, 1837, Governor Ilcnry Dodge, of Wiscon- 
sin Territory, — to which division of the national 
domain the country east of the IMississippi and now in 
southeastern Minnesota then belonged — made a treaty 
with the Chippewa Indians at Fort Snelling for the 
cession of their lands in southeastern Minnesota and 



southwestern Wisconsin. The treaty was signed July 
29, but was not ratified by the Senate until June 15 
of the following year. It was a great occasion. Maj. 
Taliaferro's journal says there were 1,200 Chippewas 
present. They came from all their villages between 
Lake Superior and the Mille Lacs, and this was the 
largest convocation of the tribe ever assembled in 
ilinnesota. 

Under present conditions the boundary line of the 
ceded territory ran from the mouth of the Crow Wing 
River ("Kah-gee .Wugwan Sebe" in Chippewa) 
almost directly east to the Upper Lake St. Croix, 
about 30 miles southeast of Duluth ; thoice, generally 
east, to within 30 miles of the jMichigan line ; thence 
south about 60 miles, or due w^est of Menomonie, Wis- 
consin ; thence, in a general direction south, by way 
of Plover Portage to a point twelve miles south of 
Chippewa Falls ; thence, northwesterly, to the mouth 
of the Watab River, eight miles above St. Cloud, and 
thence to the mouth of the Crow Wing, the place of 
beginning. 

Within what is now ]\Iinnesota the boundary line 
included the southern part of the counties of Crow 
Wing, Aitkin, and Pine ; all of Morrison east of the 
Jlississippi : all of Mille Lacs, Kanabec, Benton, Isanti, 
Chisago, Sherburne, Anoka, Washington, and Ramsey. 
It also included the greater part of northern and 
western Wisconsin, practically confining the Chip- 
pewas of that then Territoi-y to the comparatively 
narrow strip along the southern shore of Lake 
Superior. 

In consideration of the cession of this vast expanse 
of country, amounting to fully 60,000,000 acres, the 
Indians were to receive less tlwn two cents an acre, 
or $810,000 in goods and money, payable in twenty 
annual installments to the members of the tribe: and 
the further sum of .$200,000 to be divided,— $100,000 
to the half breeds of the Chippewa nation, and 
$100,000 for debts due by members of the nation to 
traders and other whites. Of this latter $100,000, 
there was to be paid to Wm. A. Aitkin, $25,000; to 
Lyman JI. Warren, $25,000; to Hercules L. Dous- 
man, $5,000. Aitkin and Warren were married to 
Chippewa women. Many of Warren's descendants 
are yet prominent members of the Chippewas of Min- 



50 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



51 



nesota. Not until June 15, 1838, however, did the 
U. S. Senate ratify and confirm the provisions of this 
treaty, so that it did not become effective until that 
date. 

The treaty was signed by Gov. Henry Dodge, as 
the U. S. Commissioner, and by the following named 
Chippewas of ^Minnesota — Wisconsin Chippewas not 
named : 

From Leech Lake — Chiefs: Flat Mouth and Elder 
Brother. AVarriors: Young Buffalo, The Trap, Chief 
of the Eartii, Big Cloud, Rabbit, Sounding Sky, and 
Yellow Robe. 

From (JuU Lake and Swan River — Chiefs: Hole 
in the Day and Strong Ground. Warriors: White 
Fisher and Bear's Heai't. 

From St. Croix River — Chiefs: Buffalo and Flat 
Jloufh. Warriors: Young Buck, Cut Ear, and Com- 
ing Home Hallooing. 

From Mille Lacs — Chiefs: Rat's Liver and First 
Dav. Warriors : The Sparrow and Both Ends of the 
Ski'. 

From Sandy Lake— Chiefs : The Brooch, Bad Boy, 
and Big Frenchman. Warriors: Spunk and Man 
That Stands First. 

From Snake River — Chiefs : The Wind, Little Six, 
Lone Man, The Feather. Warriors: Little French- 
man and Silver. 

From Red Lake — Francis Goumeau, a Chippewa 
half-blood. 

Among the white witnesses to the signatures were 
Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro, Capt. Martin Scott, 
Surgeon Dr. John Emerson, H. H. Sibley, H. L. Dous- 
man, Lyman M. Warren. Wm. H. Forbes, J. N. Nicol- 
let, Rev. D. P. Bushnell, Peter Quiuu, and Scott 
Campbell. The last two, with Stephen Bonga and 
Baptiste Dubay, were Indian interpreters. 

By this treaty the United States secured the most 
valuable pine lands in southeastern ilinnesota and 
western Wisconsin from the Chippewas, who claimed 
them. The timber districts then obtained were not 
entirely cut over in forty years, and not until the.v 
had yielded many millions of dollars in as good lum- 
ber as was ever cut. 

This treaty, also, — in connection with the treaty 
with the Sioux, made two months later, — opened the 
whole of what are now AVashington and Ramsey 
Counties and the small part of Hennepin County 
which is east of the Alississippi, but which was large 
enough to contain St. Anthony, now tbat part of Jlin- 
neapolis on that side of the river. And of course this 
included the land at the east end of St. Anthony's 
Falls where the first iiTiprovements of the Falls were to 
be made by civilians. The vast cession contained pine 
timber enough to supply the entire country of Min- 
nesota as well as many other markets, and the mills 
at the east end of St. Anthony's Falls would reduce 
this timber to lumber. 

The xvny teas oprnrd, therefore, for the building of 
a great citu at the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, and 
when the foundations of that city were fairly laid it 
was called Minneapolis. 

The treaties also opened to permanent white occu- 
pation and settlement the land in Minnesota on which 



the first settlements were really made, viz. : at Gray 
Cloud Island, at Stillwater, at St. Paul, and at East 
or North Jliuneapolis. Therefore these treaties are 
important to be considered among the incidents per- 
taining to the foundation of Minneapolis. They were 
the first authoritative measures and proceedings which 
made the city possible. All information about them, 
therefore, ought to be of interest to every Minnea- 
politan. 

THE SIOUX TREATY. 

Notwithstanding that, by the treaty of Prairie du 
Chien, of 1824, the Sioux apparently ceded away all 
their lands in ^Minnesota east of the Mississippi for 
the benefit of the Chippewas, yet the Government 
recognized and admitted that they still held a sort 
of title to them. So in 18;57 there was made with 
them another treaty, which in effect was a sort of 
quit-claim deed from them to the land east of the 
river. 

In September, pursuant to orders from the Indian 
Department, a delegation of about 20 chiefs and 
"head men'' of the Medawakanton band of Sioux, in 
charge of the agent, Maj. Taliaferro, left Fort Snel- 
ling on the steamboat Pavilion, Captain Lafferty, for 
Washington to nmke the ti-eaty referred to. At Ka- 
posia village, below St. Paul, the chief of the band. Big 
Thunder, (or Little Crow IV.) and his ()ii)e-bcarer 
(Wind That Upsets) came aboard; at Red Wing the 
Walking Buffalo and his head soldier, and at Winona 
Chief AVabasha and his head soldier, took passage, 
making in all a delegation of 26. 

A number of white men, chiefly fur traders, inter- 
ested in the treaty, accompanied the delegation. The 
American Fur Company sent H. H. Sibley, its chief 
factor; also Alexis Bailly, Joseph La Framboise, Alex. 
Rocque, Francois La Bathe, Alexander and Oliver 
Faribault, and other traders. They wanted to secure 
a provision in the treaty that about .$100,000 should 
be paid them out of the money allowed the Indians 
in discharge of the debts due them from said Indians 
for goods had and obtained. 

The treaty was concluded and signed September 
29, (1837) "by Joel R. Poinsett, then Secretary of 
AA^ar, who was, by special appointment, the Commis- 
sioner on the part of the Government. None but 
Indians of the Aledawakanton band signed, for they 
were the only ones interested. The cession included 
"all their land east of the Mississippi River and all 
their islands in said river." The land east of the 
river was a strip varying from a mile to a few miles 
in width from the mouth of the Bad Ax (opposite 
the extreme southeastern corner of Alinnesota) up to 
the mouth of the AA^atab. It was an indefinite extent 
of country and there was no possible way of comput- 
ing its area. It could not be said that the Indians 
had a good title to the country, since they had already 
surrendered it to other Indians and had abandoned 
it twelve years before. Under all tiie circumstances, 
therefore they were fairly well paid for it, receiving, 
and to receive, the following sums: 

The interest on $300,000 at five per cent forever; 



52 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



for their mixed blood relatives and friends, $110,000; 
to pay their debts to the ti-aders, $90,000 ; an annuity 
for twenty years of $10,000 in goods, or $200,000; 
for the purchase for themselves of medicines, farming 
implements, and live stock, and the support of a 
physician, farmers, and blacksmiths, etc., $8,250 
annually for twenty years; for a supply of useful 
articles, to be furnished immediately, $10,000; for 
the purchase of provisions, to be delivered free by 
the United States, $5,500 a year for twenty years; 
"for the chiefs and braves signing this treaty, $6,000 
in goods upon their arrival in St. Louis." The Sioux 
received for the laud which they virtually only quit- 
claimed at this time far more, in proportion to its area, 
than they obtained for any other land that they ever 
released to the United States. 

On the part of the Indians the treaty was signed 
by the following chiefs and "head men" of the 
Jledawakanton liaud: Chiefs — Big Thunder, Grey 
Iron, Walking Buffalo, CtOocI Road, Cloud Man, Eagle 
Head, and Bad Hail. Head Men — Standing Cloud. 
Upsetting Wind, Afloat, Iron Cloud, Conies Last, 
Iron with Pleasant Voice, Dancer, Big Iron, Shakes 
the Earth, Red Road, Runs After Clouds, Walking 
Circle, Stands on Both Sides, and Red Lodge. These 
were all of the upper sub-bands of the Medawakantous. 

For some reason which cannot here be explained 
neither Wabasha or any of his sub-band signed the 
treat.v, although he was present and he was head chief 
of the entire Medawakanton band. A considerable 
portion of the ceded country along the Wisconsin 
shore of the Mississippi was only immediately across 
the river, from the Minnesota lands of Wabasha and 
his people, and they nnist have had an interest in its 
disposition ; but their signatures to the treaty do not 
appear in the printed copj'.* 

In 1820 the Sioux bands about Mendota gave, or 
attempted to give, the island in the ilississippi 
opposite Fort Snelling, and commonly called Pike's 
Island, to their kinswoman, Mrs. Pelagic Faribault, 
the mixed-blood wife of old Jean Baptiste Faribault, 
the trader that lived on the island. At this treaty of 
1837 Alexis Bailly, her son-in-law, presented the deed 
given Mrs. Faribault by the Indians and sought to 
have it acknowledged in one of the treaty provisions, 
but the demand was refused. Following is an extract 
from the deed itself, which is dated August 9, 1820, 
and fully signed : 

"Also, we do hereby reserve, give, grant, and con- 
vey to Pelagic Farribault, wife of John Baptist Farri- 
bault, and to her heirs forever, the island at the mouth 
of the River St. Pierre, being the large island con- 
taining by estimation 320 acres • * * the said 
Pelagic Farribault being the daughter of Francois 
Kinie, by a woman of our nation." 

At one time Pike's Island — or Faribault's Islaiul, 
as it came to be called, — was considered valuable. 
John B. Faribault lived on it in a somewhat pre- 
tentious establishment, and had the greater part of it 
under cultivation. It was thought that, from its 



• See U. S. Stats, at Large, Vol. 7, ■Indian Treaties," pp. 
539-40. 



situation, it was destined to be a great ti'ading site. 
Samuel C. Stambaugh, at one time post sutler of 
Fort Snelling, and later a trader, oifered $10,000 for 
it, but the otfer was refused. But in 1838 came a 
Mississippi River Hood which submerged the island 
and well nigh swept away everything upon it, Fari- 
bault's buildings included; in 1839 came another 
which completed the destruction and nearly every 
vestige of improvement was washed off. Mrs. Fari- 
bault 's ownership was refused in the treaty ; the Gov- 
ernment finally decided that the island belonged to 
the United States, under the Pike treaty ; the Fari- 
baults were refused anything for their improvements, 
and not long afterward, in indignation and disgust, 
and mortified because they had refused Stambaugh 's 
offer of $10,000 for it, they abandoned it permanently, 
leaving if in the ownership of the Government and at 
the mei'cy of the Great Father of Waters when he 
indulges in his customary sprees in the spring. 

THE "SOONERS" BEGIN OPERATIONS. 

Gov. Dodge's treaty with the Chippewas at Fort 
Snelling for the cession of the St. Croix country was 
signed July 29, or practically August 1, 1837. 
Hardly was the ink of the signatures dry on the paper 
when Franklin Steele, Dr. Fitch. Jeremiah Russell, 
and a man named Maginnis and eight laborers set 
out from Fort Snelling to make claims commanding 
the water-power of the river at the St. Croix Falls. In 
advance of them, however, was the alei't and sagacious 
Joseph R. Brown, who had come over from Gray 
Cloud Island, established a trading house, and begun 
cutting pine at the present site of Taylor's Palls. 
These men were what are now called ' ' sooners ; ' ' they 
went upon the country and made claims "sooner" 
than anybody else and before it was legally open for 
filing claims and making entries. 

Franklin Steele was born in Chester County, Pa., 
May 12, 1813. He came of a good family, was fairly 
well educated, and early in life he manifested the 
traits of character which afterwards so distinguished 
him. His father. Dr. John H. Steele, was a prominent 
Democratic politician, and President Andrew Jack- 
son became the friend and adviser of young Frank 
and urged him to go to the St. Peter's country and 
make his fortune. He came to Port Snelling as the 
post sutler in the spring of 1837, when he was but 
24 years of age. After a brief study of the situation 
he saw that the country had large advantages and 
possibilities, and he determined to nuike if his home. 
In 1837, even after the treaty was signed, the St. 
Croix Falls seemed a better site for business operations 
than the Falls of St. Anthony, for at the St. Croix 
site both sides of the river were open to occupation, 
while at St. Anthony only the east side could be 
settled upon by the whites. Of his venture and 0])era- 
tions on the St. Croix at this time, Mr. Steele has left 
us a good account, (Vol. 2 Minn, in 3 Cents., P. 137) 
as follows: 

"In September f ?] 1837, immediately after the 
treaty was made ceding the St. Croix Valley to the 
Government, I with Dr. Fitch, of Bloomiugton, [now 



HISTORY OP^ MINNEAPOLIS AND IIENXEPIX COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



53 



Muscatiuo] Iowa, started from Fort Siielling in a 
bai'k canoe, aeeonipauied by a scow loaded with tools, 
supplies, and laborers. We descended tbe IMississippi 
to tlie nioutli of the St. Croix, and thence ascended the 
St. Croix to the Dalles. We clambered over tlie rocks 
to the Fid Is. where we made two large claims, eover- 
ing the Falls on the east side and the ajjproach in the 
Dalles. We built a log cabin at the Falls and a sec- 
ond log house we built in the Dalles, at the head of 
navigation. While we were building, four other 
parties arrived to make claims to the water power. 

'"I found the veritable Joe Brown on the west side, 
cutting tind)er and trading with the Indians, where 
now stands the town of Taylor's P^dls. His were the 
first pine logs cut in the St. Croix Valley, and they 
were used mostly in building a mill." 

Steele and ^lagiunis remained at the Falls with the 
laborers. Two cruising parties, under Russell and 
Dr. Fitch, were sent out to search for good pine lands. 
Jesse U. Taylor and a man named Robinette came 
over to the site in the interest of B. F. Baker, who 
was often called "Blue Beard," the old time trader of 
Fort Snelling and the head of '"Baker's settlement." 
The foundations of a milling industry were laid, but 
for some time no town was pro.iected — none was 
needed, none was wanted. Of operations the follow- 
ing year Mr. Steele, in his account referred to, says : 

"In February, 1838, I made a trip from Fort Snell- 
ing to Snake River, (via St. Croix Falls) where I 
had a crew of men cutting logs. While I was there 
Peshig, the local Chippewa chief, came to me and 
said : ' We have received no money for our lands and 
these logs can't go until we do.' He further said that, 
if trouble arose between the whites and the Indians 
over the matter, he could not control his young men, 
and he would not be responsible for their acts. The 
treaty was ratified, however, in time for the logs to be 
moved. ' ' 

But as payment for the Chippewa lands was not 
made for nearly two years after the ratification of the 
treaty. Chief Peshig, and his warriors nuisT have been 
placated in some other way if they allowed the logs 
to be moved in 1838. Joseph R. Brown, however, 
rafted a lot of his logs down the river in the fall of 
1837. and the Indians did not try to stop him. 

The dissatisfaction of Chief Peshig and his war- 
riors with the delay in the payment under the treat.v 
and his covert threats to l\Ir. Steele seem to have con- 
stituted the beginning of Ihe long series of troubles, 
not yet (>nded, betwt'eii the Chippewas on one side and 
the Uunber cutters and the Government on the other 
over the Indian pine timber. Millions of dollars' 
worth of pine timber have been taken from the Chip- 
pewa Indians of Minnesota illegally and without 
proper compensation. 

Mr. Steele further states that in the spring of 1838 
"we" descended the Mississippi to St. liOuis, where 
he and others organized the St. Croix Falls Lundiei'- 
ing Company. The co-i)artners were Mr. Steele, Dr. 
Fitch, of ^^uscatine ; Washington Libby, of Alton ; W. 
S. Hungerford and James Livingston, of St. Louis; 
Hill and Wm. Ilolcombe (afterwards Lieuten- 
ant Governor) of Quiney. 



While at St. Louis the parties heard of the ratifica- 
tion of the treaties. At once they chartered the 
steamer Palmyra, (owned in and named for Palmyra, 
i\Io.,) loaded her with materials for building a saw- 
mill, took on l)oard 3G laborers, and set out for the St. 
Croix and St. Peter's. What Mr. Steele did when he 
reached the latter port, at Fort Snelling is told on 
subse<iuent pages. 

LATER VISITORS TO ST. A.VTIIO.V V FALLS. 

Perhaps a brief statement of later visits to Fort 
Snelling and St. Anthony's Falls by scientific men, 
who came pi-ior to 1840, is propi'r in this history. 

FEATIIERSTONIIAITGII 's VISIT. 

Ill September and October, 1835, a geological exami- 
nation of certain parts of Southwestern Minnesota 
was made, under Government authority, by an Eng- 
lish geologist named Geo. W. Featherstonhaugh (pro- 
nounced in England "Frestonhaw") and his assist- 
ant, Prof. W. W. Mather, an American, and a gradu- 
ate of West Point. Featherstonhaugh had made a 
somewhat extensive .journe.y. He left Washington 
July 8, (1837) by canal, and went to Cumberland, 
Md.. thence by land to Pitt.sburg and Detroit ; thence 
by lake to Mackinaw and Green Bay; thence, over 
the old route of Joliet, ^Marquette, Carver, and others, 
by canoe, via F'ox River and its Portage, to the Wis- 
consin, then down the Wisconsin to Prairie du Chien 
and up the river from the Prairie to Fort Snelling. 

The results of Featherstonhaugh and Mather's 1i-ii> 
are preserved in the former's two volumes which he 
brought out in London in 1847, and entitled, "A 
Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor. " The volumes 
contain some singular statements. The author's 
si>i'lliiigs of Indian names are invariabl.v incorrect and 
without authority. lie sa.\-s he plainly heard the 
roaring of the Falls of St. Anthony when he was at 
Lake Pepin ; he was the only explorer to say that he 
believed in Carver's "extensive ancient fortifications," 
west of Lake Pepin, which he sa.vs he visited and 
studied. He thought the ridges and other elevations 
and the depressions which he saw were not foiMiied by 
the action of the strong jirairie winds upon the loose, 
sandy soil. He denounced, and ridiculed the mis- 
sionaries. He criticised nearly everybody that did not 
ab.stain from the use of tobacco in his presence, and 
did not furnish him all the good wines and li(|Uors 
he desii-ed. At the same time. chieH.v from what his 
guide, Henry Jlilord (an intelligent half-blood in 
Trader Sible.v's employ) told him, he put on record 
some interesting items of historv, espeeiall.v concern- 
ing the "IMinnay Sotor" and its valle.v. Of St. 
Anthony's Falls, in addition to what has been already 
quoted, he says : 

"They perhaps look best at a distance; for although 
upon drawing near to them they present a very pleas- 
ing object still, from their average height, which does 
not exceed perhaps 16 feet, they appeared less inter- 
esting tiuin any other of the great cascades I had seen 
in North Aniei-ica.'' 



54 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



And yet in the next paragraph, describing the fall, 
he says: 

' ' In its details this is a cascade of very great beauty. 
Its incessant liveliness contrasts pleasingly with the 
sombre appearance of the densely wooded island, and 
presents to the observer that element in motion which 
has so much modified the whole channel of the ]\Iissis- 
sippi. The current above the cascade is very strong 
and comes dashing over the fractured limestone of 
this irregular curvature, where it recedes and 
advances with a great variety of plays, etc., etc." 

Featherstonhaugh and Mather, with Henry Milord 
for a guide and a crew of mixed-blood boatmen, set 
out in a big canoe from Fort Snelling on the 16th and 
after a month's paddling reached Lake Traverse and 
were entertained at Joseph R. Brown's trading post. 
Returning he reached Fort Snelling in a cold snap, 
with ice forming in the Minnesota. October 23, he 
left Fort Snelling and descended the Mississippi in 
a boat to Galena. He took with him a young lad of 
14, John Bliss, Jr., the son of Major John Bliss, the 
commandant of Fort Snelling at the time. The boy's 
parents desired and sent him to attend school in the 
Eastern States. At Galena they took the steamboat 
Warrior for St. Louis. From St. Louis Featherstou- 
haugli made an overland journey through Tennessee, 
Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia 
to Washington City, where he arrived October 9, 1S86. 

Featherstonhaugh 's survey was not of much advan- 
tage to Minnesota wlien it was made. His description 
of the country was not printed in time. Not appear- 
ing until in 1847, it came too late to be of much advan- 
tage as an advertisement of the new land of promise. 

"Mr. Frestonhaw," as his countrymen called him, 
did not conduct himself seemingly when he was in 
Minnesota. Sibley assisted and befriended him 
greatly, and in return he abused Sibley and all other 
traders severely. Joseph R. Brown entertained him 
■ and gratuitously furnished him with goods and sup- 
plies, and in return he slandered Brown outrageously. 

GEORGE CATLIN, THE PAINTER, COMES. 

In the summers of 1835 and 1836 George Catlin, the 
noted American painter of Indian and frontier scenes, 
came to Fort Snelling. He painted the portraits of 
several Indian chiefs of the vicinity, and he made the 
first pretentious painting of St. Anthony's Falls. Pre- 
viously many little imperfect sketches of the Falls 
had been made, chiefly by officers' wives at the Fort, 
but his painting was of valuable character and of fair 
proportions. 

Catlin came first to Fort Snelling in June, 1835, by 
a steamer from St. Louis ; he returned in a canoe. The 
next year in the early summer he came again, travel- 
ing in a birch canoe from Green Bay to Prairie du 
Chien and thence up the Mississippi to Fort Snelling. 
In the autunni he returned in a dug-out canoe to Rock 
Island and from thence went east. He spent several 
years in touring among the American Indians, painted 
hundreds of pictures illustrating them and the lives 
they led, and finally took a delegation of them to 
Europe. He also published several books describing 



his travels, Indian life, the country, etc. His pictures 
are in a collection called "the George Catlin Indian 
Gallery," and are hung in the U. S. Museum at Wash- 
ington. D. C. 

While in Minnesota Catlin 's greatest single piece of 
work was his journey on horseback, via Traverse des 
Sioux and Little Rock, to the Red Pipestone Quarries, 
and his accurate sketch of that remarkable natural 
formation. His printed description of the country 
and of his experience en route is of value and great 
interest. He rode a horse given him by Gen. Sibley. 
Joseph La Framboise, Jr., son of the old trader at 
Little Rock, was his guide and his main guard. From 
the Rock, on the Minnesota, four miles below Fort 
Ridgely, to the Quarry the route was over a prairie 
trail never before followed by a white man of full 
blood. Joe La Framboise (who died but a few years 
since) was a mixed-blood Sioux. Catlin was the first 
white man to visit and describe the noted Quarry with 
pen and pencil. The peculiar red s.venitic stone was 
and still is called catlinite. 

Catlin 's ^Minnesota pictures are still in the U. S. 
National ]\Iuseum at Washington. They include views 
of Fort Snelling, St. Anthony's Falls, the "Little 
Falls," (Minnehaha) Cloud Man's village at Lake 
Calhoun in 1835, and portraits of old Great War 
Eagle, Chief of the Black Dog band; Toe Wahkon 
Dah-pe (or Blue Sacred Clay) the medicine man of 
Shakopee's band; Tah-tonka ]\Ianue (or Walking 
Buffalo) of Red Wing's band, etc. Copies of these 
sketches ought to be in the State's public halls and 
galleries. 

In his printed reports Catlin gives a bright and 
interesting description of Minnesota country gen- 
erally ))ut makes very brief mention of St. Anthony's 
Falls, saying: 

"The Falls of St. Anthony, which are 900 miles 
above St. Louis, are the natural curiosity of this coun- 
try. They are nine miles above the mouth of the St. 
Peter's, where I am now writing. The Falls are also 
about nine miles above this fort (Snelling) and the 
junction of the two rivers, (ilississippi and ^linne- 
sota) and although the fall is a picturesque and spir- 
ited scene, it is but a pygmy in size to Niagara. The 
actual pei-pendicular fall is but 18 feet, though of 
half a mile or so in extent, which is the width of the 
river, with brisk and leaping rapids above and below, 
giving life and spirit to the scene. * * * 

"To him or her of too little relish for Nature's rude 
works, there will be found a redeeming pleasure at 
the mouth of St. Peter's and the Fall of St. Anthony. 
These scenes have often been described, and I leave 
them for the world to come and gaze upon for them- 
selves. At the same time, I recommend to all people 
to make their next 'fashionable tour' a trip to St. 
Louis; thence by steamer to Rock Island, Galena, 
Dubuque, Prairie du Chien, Lake Pepin, the St. 
Peter's, Falls of St. Anthony; then back to Prairie 
du Chien, etc." 

Catlin, too, was ungrateful for favors. He could 
not have made the trip to Pipestone Quarry without 
the help of Sibley and La Framboise, and yet in his 
report he denounced them unjustly and shamefully. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAl^OLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



55 



Nicollet's four visits, 1836-37-38-39. 

The first large and almost exactly correct map of 
nearly all of the area of Jlinnesota and of much other 
portions of the western and northwestern parts of the 
United States was drafted by Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, 
a French astronomer and civil engineer, and pub- 
lished by the U. S. Government a short time after his 
death, in 1843, in connection with his rejjort of his 
extensive ofHeial surveys. Nicollet was born in Savoy, 
France, in 1786. He came to the United States in 
1832 and not long afterward entered the engineering 
service of the regular army. 

In 1S3() he came first to Fort Snelling and ascended 
the Mississippi to its sources, surveying the country 
en route. He passed the winter of 1836-37 at Fort 
Snelling, and he says, "was a witness that $15 was 
paid for a barrel of tlour and $25 for barreled pork at 
St. Peter, which had probably cost respectively $5 
and $8 at St. Louis." 

In 1838 he surveyed the valley of the Minnesota 
and much adjoining territory, ascended that river to 
Lake Traverse and then went south by way of Lake 
Shetek to the Red Pipestone Quarry. Here on the 
crest of the "leaping rock," on July 1, he carved his 
name ; the other members of his party, including the 
afterwards distinguished John C. Fremont (who then 
wrote his name Charles Fremont simply) cut their 
initials. In the almost adamantine jasper rock the 
carved letters are as plain to-day as when made. 

In 1839 he ascended the Missouri as high as to 
Fort Pierre Chouteau. This place was then a trading 
post owned by the American Fur Company, of which 
Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, was a prominent mem- 
ber. The name of the fort was afterwards contracted 
to Fort Pierre ; now there stands opposite the site of 
the old fort the city of Pierre, the capital of South 
Dakota. 

He surveyed the country as far north as to Devil's 
Lake, and then came back across the prairies to the 
Minnesota, or St. Peter's, as it was then called.- His 
maji of the country over which he passed was by all 
odds the best made up to that time. His descriptions 
of the lands are accurate, his spelling of Indian names 
uniformly correct, or so that they can be distinctly 
and rightly pronounced, and altogether his report is 
in certain respects invaluable. Of the; locality called 
"St. Peter's," which included the trading houses then 
on the Mendota side of the Minnesota, Fort Snelling, 
and the ])lateau upon which it is situated, Nicollet 
says spiritedly : 

"St. Peter's is, in ray opinion, the finest site on the 
Mississippi River. 'The natural beauties of its 
environs add to its importance and grandeur. Upon 
reaching this place, the traveler is already premon- 
ished of the magnificent scenery which he will enjoy 
in ascending the river tlirough its long, narrow, and 
deej) valley. At the confluence of the St. Peter's and 
the Mississippi there is an extensive and fertile 
platt»au. This reaches far to the west and presents to 
the delighted gaze a level country, interrupted by 
moderate undulations of the surface and beautified by 
intervening prairies, tracts of woodland and lakes." 

Of Minnehaha P'alls he writes: 



"Three miles from Fort Snelling, and on the right 
bank of the Mississippi, there is a very pretty cas- 
cade." Of St. Anthony's Falls he makes but brief 
mention, viz. : 

"Four miles further up from the Little Falls we 
reach the celebrated Falls of St. Anthony. This fall 
— examined in detail, with the noi.sy boiling of its 
waters, rebounding in jets from the accumulated 
debris at its foot, its ascending vapors, and the long 
and verdant island that separates the two portions of 
the falls, with the solitary rocky island that stands in 
front — altogether form a grand and imposing 
si)cctacle." 

The possibilities and the probabilities of the utiliza- 
tion of the tremendous power of St. Anthony's Falls, 
and of the necessary and resultant foundation of a 
great city at their site, are not even hinted at by Nicol- 
let, or indeed by any other of the; distinguished early 
visitors to the great cataract. The Falls, in their 
entirety, seem to have impressed them only as a 
natural beauty, a thing of picturesqueness and charm, 
worth traveling hundreds of miles to see. 

Nor did the country of jMinuesota impress them as 
a promising future seat of a great civilization. They 
gave favorable descriptions thereof, wrote rhapsodical 
delineations of its topogi-aphy, its scenery, its rich 
soil, its beautiful lakes and streams, but said no word 
of recommendation concerning its fitness as a site for 
future permanent white settlement, occupation, and 
development. Only the pine timber was mentioned 
as the resource of the country likely to become of 
some, but not of great, importance. They seemed to 
be keeping back or withholding some information and 
ideas; doubtless they were, and these ideas were prob- 
ably those given them by certain white men to the 
efi'ect, that, owing to its high latitude and extremely 
cold seasons, the country would not, because it could 
not, even be a valuable agricultural region or attain 
to a high state of civilization and development. 

Nicollet's descriptions of the country and his map 
were embodied in a little volume printed and widely 
circulated by the Government in 1843. His map 
became a standard one; it was often cited in treaties, 
State and Territorial boundaries, etc., and "accord- 
ing to Nicollet's map" appeared frequently in the 
printed documents connected with such matters. His 
descriptions of the country hardly induced immigra- 
tion to it. He made no reference to a future city of 
the proportions of Minneapolis at the Falls, and all 
he said of the country aliout the great cataract was: 

"From St. Antliony's Falls may be visited the Lake 
of the Isles, Lake Calhoun. Lake Harriet, and other 
lakes. Then, crossing the St. Peter's near its mouth, 
the traveler ascends the Pilot Knob, from the summit 
of which he enjoys a magnificent view, embracing the 
whole surrounding horizon; and if he will conclude 
his excursion by going to two natural grottoes [Car- 
ver's and the Fountain Cave, St. Paul] in the vicinity, 
he may flatter himself that it has been most actively 
and pleasurably performed." 

Of the more remote country on the prairies, he 
thought none of it liardly worth settling upon save at 
"the oases of timber" dispersed here and there. He 



56 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



thought Traverse des Sioux eligible to become a place 
of importance, but the only other available sites for 
villages in the JMinnesota country which impressed 
him favorably were the shores of Lac qui Parle, Lake 
Benton, Lake Shetek, Lake Tetouka, Spirit Lake (now 
in Iowa) and two or three other lakes. Tetonka was 
then the site of Alexander Faribault's trading jjost 
which he afterwards removed to Lake Sakatah, near 

by. 

Moreover tlie accomplislied engineer favored and 
recommended the proposed establishment of the north- 
ern boundarj' of the forthcoming State of Iowa as 
the parallel of latitude passing through the present 
site of the village of Hanska, Brown County, and the 
mouth of the Blue Earth and extending eastward to 
the Mississippi above ^linnesota Citj% in the northern 
part of Winona County. He preferred that the west- 
ern boundary of Iowa be a meridian running due 
south of the mouth of the Blue Earth. 

In 18-44 a proper convention of the people of the 
Territorj' submitted a constitution to Congress for 
the proposed new State of Iowa, with boundaries 
detined, etc. March 3, 1845, Congress rejected these 
proposed boundaries, and substituted others embody- 
ing the Nicollet ielea regarding the northern and west- 
ern, save that the latter should be the meridian of 
Hanska, a few miles south of New Ulm. The constitu- 
tion as amended had to be adopted by the voters of 
Iowa Territory and at the election in the fall of 1845 
they rejected it, but by the narrow margin of 596 
votes. Had oUO electors who voted against it cast their 
ballots in its favor, it would have been adopted. 
Then all of the present part of Minnesota east of the 
meridian of Hanska and south of the parallel between 
ilankato and "Whitman City would now be in Iowa ! 
Our State would not include the eleven fine counties 
of Southeastern Minnesota — Houston, Winona, Fill- 
more, Olmsted, Dodge, ilower, Fi-eeborn, Steele, 
Waseca, Faribault, and Blue Earth, nor all of Brown, 
Watonwan, and Martin. Just to what extent Nicol- 
let's declared preference infiuenced Congress to fix 
the boundaries as it did cannot be said ; but as other 
points were described in the act as "according to 
Nicollet's map," it may be presumed that his opinions 
were at least given consideration. 

Nicollet's proposition would have been a good 
thing for Iowa, but bad for ^Minnesota, Minneapolis 
included. That he did not carefully forecast the 
future of the country is evidenced. He was an accom- 
plislied engineer and his surveys of the country were 
accurate almost to a dot ; but the adapta))ility of a 
country to civilization is not computed by theodolitic 
measurements or calculations by sines and tangents. 

The great surveyor failed to note the importance 
of the St. Peter's country; failed to conceive that 
white men would invade it ; failed to discern that a 
conllict between the forces of civilization and of bar- 
bai'ism for the permanent possession of this and the 
vast regions surrounding was certain to ensue, and 
that civilizalion would win : and failed to discover that 
in this conflict the Falls of St. Anthony would con- 
stitute th(> key-point of the battlefield. 



MINNESOTA PASSES PERILOUS CRISES. 

ilinnesota passed many crises in early days. The 
Iowa boundary proposition was only one. The north- 
ern boundary proposed first by the Iowa people, and 
which Congress rejected for the one they rejected in 
1845, was worse for Minnesota than the latter. It 
was fixed as a line from the mouth of the Big Sioux 
to the mouth of the Blue Earth then down the JMinne- 
sota to the Mississippi and thence down that river to 
the Missouri line. If this bouudai-y had been adopted 
by Congress — and it came near adoption — and rati- 
fied by the people, Jlendota and all of the present 
Southeastern Minnesota south of the Minnesota and 
west of the i\Iississippi would be now a part of Iowa. 

Another crisis was the Doty treaty of 1841, made 
at Traverse des Sioux between Gov. James D. Doty, 
then Governor of Wisconsin Territory, and the Sioux 
chiefs of Mimiesota. The Sioux agi-eed to sell all their 
lands in what are now Minnesota, the Dakotas, and 
Northwestern Iowa, except some small reservations. 
The country acquired was to be made a Northern 
Indian Territory, the equivalent of the Southern 
Indian Territory, (now Oklahoma) and used as a 
dumping gi-ound for all the Indian tribes and frag- 
ments of tribes east of the Mississippi and north of 
the Ohio. The Democratic Senators in Congress killed 
this treaty, because they considered it a Whig meas- 
ure authorized and promoted by Jolm Bell, of Ten- 
nessee, then Secretary of War. Had they ratified it, 
^Minneapolis and Minnesota would not have come into 
existence when and as they did. Indian occupation 
might have held them in the clutches of barbarism 
until in 1!)07, when Oklahoma became a State in the 
Union. 

THE FIRST FOUNDATIONS OP MINNEAPOLIS AND THE 
MEN WHO LAID THEM. 

The now distinguished men that visited the site of 
Minneapolis advertised it. The Indian treaties of 
1837 opened the country on the eastern side of the 
ilississippi to white occupation, and as soon as the 
news of their ratification reached the St. Peter 's coun- 
try that occupation began. In the case of Minne- 
apolis that beginning had to be confined for a con- 
siderable time to the east side of the river. The Fort 
Snelling reservation and the Indian title to the Trans- 
Mississippi country forbade settlement on that side. 
The boundaries of the reservation were not well 
defined, but when Lieut. Pike treated for it the reser\'e 
itself was described merely as nine miles square about 
an indefinite point somewhere "below the mouth of 
the St. Peter's." However, this was sufficient to keep 
off settlers from the vicinity of the west end of St. 
Anthony's Falls, unless the military authorities per- 
mitted them to come. 

The U. S. Senate ratified the Indian treaties of 
1837 on June 15. 1838, but not until a month later did 
the authentic news reach ?"'ort Snelling per the 
steamboat Palmyra. Capt. John Holland master, nine 
days up from St. Louis. The boat first carried the 
news up the St. Croix to the Falls, whither it went 
with .some mill machinery and other supplies for 



lirsTOKY OF .MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



57 



Frank Sttule's lumbering company, with something of 
the same sort for Joseph K. Brown, who, foreseeing 
that tile treaties would soon be ratilied, had already 
begun the cutting of pine timber to be sawed in a mill 
already in process of erection. 

The Palmyra witli her good news came to Fort 
Suelling a few ilays later, or July 15, 183S, and soon 
afterward Franklin Steele, the new sutler at Fort 
Snelliug, and more justly entitled to be called the 
foiiiidir of Minneapolis than any other person, began 
preparations for building a city at the great tumultu- 
ous Falls of St. Anthony of Padua. On the eastern 
shore of the river, at the north end of the ledge over 
which rolled the cataract he made a "claim" to 160 
acres of land. All he could do was to "claim" the 
laud and occupy it ; it was not then subject to regular 
entry ami ditl not become so until in 18-17. The 
particulars of Mr. Steele's "claim" of the laud are 
given on subsequent pages. 

THE CRITICAL YEABS OF 1838-39. 

The year 1837 was a memorable one in Minnesota 
and Minneapolis history, for during that year were 
made tiie important treaties before described; also, 
during that year something occurred which had an 
important bearing upon the founding and future 
destiny of Minneapolis. This something was the 
action taken by the military authorities of Fort 
Snelliug to eject and evict the settlers on the reserva- 
tion in the vicinity of the Fort. 

JMaj. Joseph Plymjjton, a Massachusetts man, took 
comnuiud of Fort Snelliug in the summer of this year, 
and it was he who instituted the action. The ilajor 
was an anomalous character. The descendant of 
Puritans and himself a psalm-singing Presbyterian 
from the Bay State, he desired to own slaves, pur- 
chased two from brother otifieers, but failed to buy a 
woman from Agent Taliaferro. An officei' of the U. 
S. army, with a sworn duty to i)rotect American citi- 
zens and settlers, he was especially hostile to those 
about Fort Snelliug. He -had arrested and confined 
in the guard-house those well-meaning and God-fear- 
ing men, Abraham Perret, the Frent^h-Swiss watch- 
nuiki'i-, and Louis Massie, the Canadian farmer, and 
I'onlined them in the guard-house because their cattle 
broke into the enclosures of the Fort. Maj. Plymi)ton 
was typical of the then' commanders of the Fort, of 
whom Col. John II. Stevens, in an address before the 
Miinieapolis Lyceum, iu 1856, said: 

"At that time, as often before and since, the com- 
manding officers at tiie Fort were 'the Lords of the 
North.' They ruled supreme. The citizens iu the 
neighborhood of the Fort were at any time liable to be 
thrust into the guard-hous<'. While the commander 
of the Fort w-as the King, the officers were the princes, 
and persons were deprivd of their liberty and 
impi'isoned by these tyrants for the most trivial wrong, 
or even for some imaginai'y ofTense." 

It was perhaps not best that ^laj. Plympton should 
have been in couunand at Fort Snelliug at any time; 
it cei'taiidy was not well that he had that authority 
in 1837-38-30 and that he inaugurated and enforced 
a particularly unjust and hai-mful policy. 



In October, 1837, by order of Major Plympton, a 
survey was made by Lieutenant Ephraim Kirby 
Smith.* The white inhabitants iu the vicinity of the 
Fort were found to number 157. On the Fort Snell- 
iug side, in what was called Baker's settlemeul, 
(around the old Camp Coldwater) and at Massie 's 
Landing, (three or four cabins strung along under the 
blull) there were 82 people; on the south side of the 
Jliunesota, including those at the Fur Company 's 
establishments presided over by Sibley, Alex. Fari- 
bault, and Antoine Le Claire, there were 75. Seven 
families were living opposite the Fort, on the east 
bank of the Slississippi, and the head of one of them 
was Francois Desire, alias Francois Fronchet, who 
had been a soldier under Napoleon and also of the 
American army, mustered out from the latter service 
at Fort Suelling. He was iu the service of Nicollet 
when the latter made his explorations in this quarter. 
Lieut. Smith further reported that the settlers had 
"nearly 200 horses and cattle.'' 

In transmitting Lieut. Smith's report to the War 
Department Maj. Plympton indicated his determina- 
tion to eject the settlers from the reserve, alleging 
that they were cousinning the wood on the tract 
which was needed by the garrison. The Secretary 
thought Plympton must know best, ami directed him 
to mark over on a map an area of land necessary to 
be reserved. In IMarch, 1838, he traaismitted such a 
map and upon it was marked an extensive tract, 
embracing a considerable quantity of land on the 
east side — now- the St. Paul side — of the Mississipjii. 

About the same time Plympton wrote and caused 
other letters to be written to the Department favor- 
ing a large reservation. Writing himself, he declared 
that the interests of the military post (the future of 
the country and the welfare of the people being tlis- 
regarded) demanded the reservation he had marked 
on his map. Surgeon John Emerson (Dred Scott's 
owner) wrote, in April, that the reservation ought to 
be "twenty miles square, or to the mouth of the 
St. Croix River." 

In July (1838) following, Plymjiton ordered away 
all the settlers from the reserve. Ilis order forbade: 

"All persons not attached to the military from 
erecting any building or buildings, fence or fences, 
or cutting timber for any but for public use within 
said line, which has been surveyed and forwarded to 
the War Department subject to the final decision 
thereof. 'Sly order must, as a matter of right, more 
particularly aliiule to jiersons urging themselves 
within the lines at this tinu\" 

Meanwhile the settlers had not been idle and 
unconcerned. About the time of the making of the 
treaties, in 1837, they had a hint that they were to be 
turned out of and awa.v from their homes and from 
the reservation as soon as the treaties w-ent into effect. 
Thereupon they sent a memorial to President Van 
Buren upon the subject of their ini|)ei-iled situation. 
They said that they had settled upon lands which they 



* A Connecticut man, a West Pointer, killoii at Molino (let 
Rev. in tlie ^texican War. He I'as sometimes lieen cont'onmleiJ 
with Kdinnnd Kirby Smith, who liecamc a prominent Confed- 
erate general. 



58 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



were assured belonged to the public domain; that 
they had only exercised the privileges extended to 
them by the benign and salutary laws under whose 
operation other parts of the Western country had 
been peopled ; that they had erected houses and culti- 
vated fields upon the tracts they occupied ; that many 
of them had large families of children that had no 
other homes; that the labor of years had been 
invested in these homes, and they appealed to the 
President for protection in them. They further asked 
that, if in the pending treaty the lauds they occupied 
should be purchased from the Indians for a military 
reservation and they ejected from them, then, and in 
that case, a provision should be inserted in the treaty 
providing for a just payment to them for their 
improvements. 

This memorial seems to have been prepared by 
H. H. Sibley and among its many signers (some of 
whom could not write) were Louis Massie, Abraham 
Perret, Peter Quiun, Antoine Pepin, Duncan Graham, 
Oliver Cratte, Joseph Bisson, Louis Dirgulee, Jacob 
Falstrom, and Joseph Reasche. Numerous descend- 
ants of the first seven named now live in the State. 
Jacob Falstrom, subsequently connected with the 
Methodist missionary service, and who was married 
to a Chippewa woman, was the first Swede to perma- 
nently settle in Minnesota. All the signers were white 
men but all those named except Perret and Jlassie 
had Indian wives. 

Yet the impassioned remonstrances of the settlers 
were without avail. No provision to pay them for 
the improvements they had made was inserted in 
eitlier of the treaties, and they were commanded to 
abandon their homes and little farms and go across 
the river, to the east side, into the Territory of Wis- 
consin, and outside of the reservation. Some of them 
left during the summer of 1838: a few left the 
country entirely, going down to Prairie du Chien. 
Those who remained did so in the hope that there 
would be an intervention in their favor — that some- 
thing would turn up. Certain influential persons 
endeavored to have Maj. Plympton become satisfied 
with the departure of several settlers, and for a time 
he was quiet and let those who had remained dwell 
in peace in their humble homes. 

But in 1839 Plympton broke out again. He declared 
that all settlers sliould be driven from the reserva- 
tion at the muzzle of the musket and point of the 
bayonet if necessary. The reason he assigned was 
that some of them were selling whisky on the east side 
of the river, and that therefore everybody on both 
sides should be driven away. Now, there was an 
illegal and very harmful liquor traffic being carried 
on by four I'stnblishmeiits east of the river. These 
were conducted by Theodore j\Ienk and "Nigger Jim" 
Thompson, on the east bank; Pierre Parrant, down at 
the Fountain Cave, and Donald McDonald, on the 
plateau back of the Cave. For this misconduct some 
40 or 50 innocent men and their families were 
expelled from their homes on the west side to make 
new homes on the east side. There were no excep- 



tions. The wife of Abraham Perry, good old "Aunt 
Mary Ann," was an accomplished and expert mid- 
wife, or accoucheuse, and the married ladies of the 
garrison at the Fort begged Plympton to allow her 
and her husband to remain, but the ofiSeer was 
inexorable. 

The result was that the settlers went away from the 
west side of the river to the east side — though some 
of them did not go far enough eastward until in 1840, 
when they were again evicted by the U. S. Marshal 
from Prairie du Chien with two companies from Fort 
Snelling. The people were forced to move all their 
property away. The soldiers, under the direction of 
Marshal Ira B. Brunson, threw their furniture and 
other belongings out of their cabins and then burned 
the cabins. The settlers went down to about where 
the "Seven Corners" now are in St. Paul, and some 
of them farther below. The whisky sellers also moved 
farther down; Jlenk and "Nigger Jim" were closed 
up, but ilcDonald and Parrant kept on selling whisky. 

EFFECTS OF THE EVICTIO.N. 

Had the unjust and unreasoning ]\Iajor Plympton 
(really he was only a brevet-major at the time) 
allowed the settlers to remain on the west side of the 
Mississippi, about Fort Snelling, what mighty and 
everlasting good would have been effected! 

The people he drove away formed a settlement 
which in time became St. Paul. Had Plympton 
allowed them to remain near Fort Snelling, their 
settlement would in time have become the nucleus of a 
great and powerful city extending from south of the 
Minnesota northward to beyond St. Anthony Fails 
and east and west from the Mississippi to beyond 
Lake Harriet. Within these boundaries would now 
be a solid, compact city ; suburbs would be beyond 
these borders. 

Fort Snelling, if not abolished, wonld now stand 
on the east side of the river. The State capitol build- 
ings would probably stand where Stephen A. Douglas 
wanted Ihem to stand, on that "heaven-kissing hill" 
which we call Pilot Knob, with the State House on 
the crest visible 50 miles away in every direction. 

There would be no St. Paul, no Twin Cities, but 
one great, magnificent city, larger by far and better 
in all respects than the aggregated cities as they 
now are. 

The 157 souls, "in no way connected with the mili- 
tary," which Lieut. E. K. Smith found in the fall of 
1837, were enough, with their 200 horses and cattle, 
to start a city with. The first plat, after old St. 
Anthony, might have been laid out near Fort Snell- 
ing, but in time it would have extended clear up to 
the Falls. 

But for the ungenerous and even tyrannical dispo- 
sition of Major Joseph Plympton. dressed in his lirief 
authority, Minneapolis might today, or in the near 
future, be a strong rival of Chicago. It is a very 
good and a very great city as it stands ; perhaps there 
is no use in making it any better, but it may well be 
made greater. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PRELIMINARIES OF THE CITY'S FOUNDING. 

claim-making follows treaty r.vtification franklin steele makes the first legal land claims at st. 

Anthony's falls — who his associates were — building the first mill on the east side — the work op 

development proceeds slowly for want of a little money first homes and occupants at st. 

anthony — the country and the general situation in 1847, etc., etc. 



Among all the white men that came to Minnesota 
prior to 1840 only the refugees from Red River and 
perhaps four missionaries came with the intention of 
making liomes, identifying themselves with the coun- 
try, and remaining permanently. All the rest had 
come as transients, as soldiers, as traders, as employes, 
under engagements for a certain length of time, and 
wlien this time expired they expected to and generally 
did leave the country. A few voyageurs and other 
engagees of the fur company aiul a few discharged 
soldiers from Fort Snelling concluded to remain and 
take chances. They had no settled purposes in life or 
abiding places, and might as well be one place as 
another. Like most of their comrades and associates, 
tliey were mere birds of passage, flitting from one 
locality to another, and never resting long on any 
perch. 

One reason why the duration of the existence of 
these people in Jlinnesota was, practically speaking, 
merely ephemeral, was because they could not make 
jiermanent homes worthy of the name. They could 
not marry according to their tastes and ideals, and a 
home withnut a wife is practically no home. Thei'e 
were no nuirriageable white women in the country — ■ 
or but very few — and to many a. white man the idea 
of miscegenation or union with a woman of an alien 
and barbaric race was disagreeable, if not repulsive. 
Yet it was an Indian wife or none ! It is the natural 
desire of men to perpetuate their names through their 
children. And some men insisted that theirs should 
be white children only, and so they left the region 
where there were no white women and went elsew'here. 

Other men selected Indian women for wives and 
had children by them. Uniformly, with hardl.v an 
exception, these Indian women made most excellent 
wives for their husbands. They were chaste and 
pure; they were domestic and affectionate; they were 
industrious and economical ; they loved their hus- 
bands and children devotedly and would make any 
sacrifice for them. Some of the best people in Minne- 
sota are the descendants of early mixed-blood families, 
and the women as a rule manifest the exemplary traits 
of their Indian grandmothers. 

THE PIONEER.S WERE NOT PLUTOCRATS. 

In 1840 one might count on the fingers of his hands 
the men in the Minnesota country with money, or 
resources convertible into money on sight, to the value 



of $5,000. The wealthiest man was Franklin Steele, 
who probably could command $15,000. Sibley, the 
trader, was working for a salary of $1,000 a year and 
house rent and a percentage of the profits of the Fur 
Company above a certain sum ; sometimes this commis- 
sion amounted to $1,500, but generally to about half 
that amount, and sometimes it was nothing. Joseph 
R. Brown had some means ; but his operations were so 
diversified, and he moved from one place to another 
so frei|uently, that it was difficult to keep track of 
him, and to ti'll what he was worth at any i)articular 
time. The mill men had a snug sum in the aggregate, 
but perhaps their average wealth per man did not 
exceed $5,000. By combining, they were able to build 
a mill and conduct lumbering operations at St. Croix 
Falls. 

But no comhiiMtion of men could be found with 
disposition and capital to build adequate mills at St. 
Anthonij's Falls. Franklin Steele had to do the work 
practicalhj alone. 

FRANK STEELE AND JOE BROWN BELIEVED IN MINNESOTA. 

Steele and Joseph R. Brown were the most promi- 
nent of the men in the St. Peter's country who were 
determined to make ^Minnesota their pennanent homes. 
Sibley, a few years before his death, told the present 
writer that in 1840 he had no thought of passing the 
remainder of his days here. As soon as he had secured 
a comfortal)le "stake" from his business in the fur 
trade he meant to return to Detroit and settle down. 
He did not think the country would be any farther 
developed in fifty years, or by the year 1890, than the 
region in Canada north of Lake Superior. 

Brown said he would stay. There were so many 
chances for an energetic man. Grain could be grown 
successfully here, for he bad grown it. The country 
was finely adapted to stock raising, to growing corn, 
and to raising all kinds of vegetables ; hence it would 
be a farmer's country. The vast forests of the best 
pine timber were practically inexhaustible : the water 
power was incalculable and would last forever. A 
great deal of the country could be reached by steam- 
boats, and all these things woiild nmke a country of 
cities and towns and a large, thrifty population. (See 
Brown's letter to B. II. Eastman, Sibley papers."* 

Soon after the treaties of 1S.']7 had been ratified. 
Brown planned the creation of a new Territory of the 



59 



60 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



United States, whieli was to comprise a great deal of 
the country west of the Chippewa River in Wisconsin 
and north of the Iowa boundary, and this Territory 
was to be called ^linnesota, for its principal river, 
wholly within the State. In the prosecution of this 
plan iie went to the present site of Stillwater in 1839, 
laid out the first town, which he called "Dakotah," 
and wiiicli he designed sliould be the eapitol of the 
new Tcri-itory, and he built a huge two-story log 
building which he expected would be the eapitol 
building. 

Steele believed that the timber and water power of 
the country alone insured its fviture, and he was 
determined to venture his existence in that future. 
Although a young man, and without experience in 
milling or a.s a lumberman, he resolved to build big 
saw mills at St. Anthony and St. Croix and run them 
in connection with his .sutler store at Fort Snelling. 

FIRST CLAIMANTS AND LAND 0"«T^EES AT ST. ANTHONY. 

In 1836, before the land was subject to entry, the 
Indian title not having been relinquished, Major 
Joseph Plvmpton, Capt. ]\Iartin Scott, and another 
officer of tile Fifth U. S. Infantry from Fort Sneiling, 
made "claims" to a tract of land on the east side of 
the river, at St. Anthony 's Falls, and built a log cabin 
upon it. jMaj. Plympton liad succeeded Ma.j. John 
Bliss in command of the Fort, and subsequently drove 
away the settlers from the Fort reservation. In 1837 
Serg(>ant Nathaniel Carpenter, also of the Fifth 
Infantry, made a "claim" adjoining the Plympton 
claim. 

Although it was illegal for a military officer to pre- 
empt land while holding a military commission, yet 
Maj. Plympton and his a.ssociates continued to claim 
their lands until after the time of the ratification of 
the treaty, or in Jul.y, 1838, and they were called "the 
Plvmpton claim" hv manv as late as in 1845. About 
the 16th of July, 1838, however. Frank Steele 
"jumped" the claim and continued to hold it. 

i\lr. Steele had spent the winter of 1837-38 in Wash- 
ington, endeavoring to secure the ratification of the 
Indian treaties. He returned from St. Louis to Fort 
Sni'lling June 13, 18.38, on the steamboat Burlington, 
Capt. Joseph Throckmorton. Among his fellow pas- 
.seiigcrs were Benj. F. Baker ("old Blue Beard''), a 
trader at Fort Snelling or "Coldwater"; Capt. Fred- 
erick IMarryat, the novelist, but then of the British 
navy, and Gen. Atkinson, of the U. S. army. The next 
day after their arrival the entire party rode up to 
the Falls of St. Anthony. 

Five days later, on June 18, came the steamer Ariel, 
also from St. Louis. One of its passengers, a Mr. 
Beebee, ainiounced that when be left there was a 
"rumor" current in St. Louis that the treaties had 
been ratified. The "rumor" was premature, for tlu^ 
ratification was not made until three days before the 
Ariel arrived at Fort Snelling. It was generally 
believed, however, and created much interest among 
Steele, Brown, and others who had already made 
"claims" to certain sites. 



MR. STEELE " JUMPS " THE PLYMPTON CLAIM. 

The night of the arrival of the Palmyi'a (July 15) 
ilr. Steele made due preparations and set out from 
Fort Snelling for the Plympton claim at the north 
end of the 1* alls. He cro.sscd the river at the Fort, 
went up on the east side, and at daylight had his tent 
pitched on the claim, and with his men went to work 
making '■improvements." Capt. Martin Scott, one of 
the partners in the Plympton claim, appeared on the 
west side of the Falls about the time Steele appeared 
on the east side. The captain had come up to "cinch" 
the title of the partners to the claim by occupying 
and "working" it; but he did not succeecl in crossing 
the river until Steele and his forces were securely in 
adverse possession and boasting of the fact. 

Capt. Scott protested against Steele's "jumping" 
tactics. He pointed to the cabin built by Plympton 
the year before as evidence of prior ownership of the 
claim by the partners. But Steele confidently replied: 
"You and Major Plympton know full well that you 
have no good claim to this site. You made your claim 
to it a year before it was subject to claiming; and, 
moreover, the law is plain and imperative that army 
officers are wholly incapable of either claiming or pre- 
empting land while they are in the military service. 
You have neither a moral or a legal claim here." 

The officer had to admit the correctness of Steele's 
position and retired. Jlr. Steele soon had another 
cabin readj' in which to receive visitors, and in a little 
while, late as was the season, planted a few vegetables. 
He placed a French-Canadian voyageur named La 
Gnie and his wife in ciiarge, and they so remained 
until the fall of 1839, when a sad tragedy terminated 
their occupancy. 

POOR UNFORTUNATE MRS. LA GRUE ! 

Mrs. La Grue may have had a little Indian blood 
in her veins, but she was almost white in appearance. 
La Grue was a good sportsman and fond of hunting 
and fishing. Returning from a hunting trip, at the 
time mentioned, he found his cal)in burned to the 
ground, with everything it had contained, and the 
charred body of his wife lay among the smoking ruins. 
How the house came to take fire, or why ]\Irs. La Grue 
did not save her.self, was never explained. There were 
no witnesses and the dead woman could tell no tales. 
No censure was ever placed upon the husband, how- 
ever. 

After gazing upon his loss for a little time. La Grue 
started to cross the river below the Falls in an efi:'ort 
to reach the old Government mill, where he hoped to 
pass the night, before going to j\Ir. Steele with a 
report of his loss. But on the bluff, where the Univer- 
sity buildings now stand, he encountered a war party 
of Chippewas, hidden and in bivouac in the dense 
grove of oaks. They had .slipped down from ^lille 
Lacs and hoped to surprise some unwary Sioux from 
about Fort Snelling and take their scalps. They, 
however, received La Grue kindly, commiserated him 
because of his misfortune and bereavement, and enter- 
tained him as best they could, aiding him to cross the 
river next morning. 



HISTORY OF .MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



61 



It was believed by many that this band of Chip- 
pewas were the murderers of La Urue's wife and the 
incendiaries tliat first plundered and then burned his 
cabin. Why they did not kill hiiu wliere they found 
liini cannot be explained. A few weeks after the 
tragedy. La Grue left the country and never returned. 
Mrs. La G rue's death was the first of a person living 
in cirilization on the present site of Minneapolis. 
The (late was in tlic fall of 1S39, probably in October. 

FURTHER HISTORY OP STEELE'S CL.\IXI. 

A singularly incorrect version of Frank Steele's 
occupation of the Plympton claim has frequently been 
made and printed. It is said tliat when Mr. Steele 
made his claim it was mid-winter and very cold ; that 
he crossed the Mississippi on tlie ice; that he built a 
board sliack and "planted" potatoes in the snow, etc., 
etc. Even the late Gen. R. W. Johnson, of St. Paul, 
who was 'Sir. Steele's brother-in-law, and was pre- 
sumed to know the facts, gives the version above in 
his otherwise historically correct Ft. Snelling sketch 
which appears in Volume 8 of the State Historical 
Society's "Collections." The fact that Steele 
".jumped" the Plympton claim Ji;ly 16, (the next 
day after the arrival of tlie steamboat Palmyra at 
Fort Snelling) makes it impossible that the arctic con- 
ditions mentioned in Gen. Johnson's account could 
have existed when the noted pioneer made his claim. 

.\fter La Grue left the country, heart broken over 
the fate of his wife. Charles Landr.v, (or Laundry) 
another Frencli-Canadian voyageur, was, according 
to the best evidence obtainable, placed in charge of 
the Steele claim. It seems that La Grue had lived in 
the cabin built b.v Plympton and Scott, and this hav- 
ing been burned Landry occupied the one built by 
Steele. A postscript to a note from Steele to Sibley 
dated in December, 1839. sa.vs : "Do not let C. Lan- 
diy have anything on my account without a written 
order." 

Landry was not as faithful a steward as La Grue 
had been. He was wont to ab.sent himself from the 
Steele claim frequentl.y and remain away for days. 
It was the rule, if not the law, that the occupation l)y 
a claimant i by himself or agent) of a claim must be 
continuous. If he was absent from it 24 hours, it 
might be, during his absence, held and occupied by 
another. On one occasion when Landry, after an 
absence of some days, returned to his cabin he found 
it (X'iMipied liy James (or Theodore) Menk. (or ]Menke 
oi- Jlink) the afore-mentioned discharged soldier and 
whisky seller. Jim JMenk was as daring as he was 
unscrupulous. He sat with a rifle ])etween his knees 
and swore he would "blow out the brains" of any 
man that attcmiited to enter the cabin or to possess 
tile claim against him ! 

In great alarm and distress L;inili'y left Menk and 
hurried to Mr. Steele and reported the forcible entry 
and detainer of the bold, bad Englishman. Steele 
promptly and vigorously kicked Landry from his pres- 
ence for his negligence and faithlessness, and then 
proceeded to make terms with Jim .Menk. He was 
forced to pay Jim $200 in cash and $100 in store 
goods to relinquish the claim. Mr. Steele then decided 



to put on the claim the head of a family as his agent 
and steward, so that when the agent was oti the 
claim .some member of his family would remain to 
hold it. 

So Stole sent over- from the Fort, Jcseph Reasche, 
another Canailian, with an Indian wife, w-ho was 
industrious, faithful, and prolific. She had five sons 
and two daughters. Keasche had been a trader's 
assistant, and even a trader, among the Sioux, and 
was well known in the country. He could read, write, 
and cast accounts, while nearly every one of his asso- 
ciates couUI, like Jack Cade, thank God that he could 
do neither, but signed his name with a mark, "like an 
honest, plain-dealing man.'" But among them all "the 
wonder grew" that one snudi head, like Joe Reasche 's, 
could "carry all he knew." Reasche died at his home 
in North St. Anthony in 1854. Landry died near 
Bottineau Prairie in 1853. 

So that, without counting Charles Wilson, tlie first 
four white men to reside on any part of the present 
site of ^Minneapolis were La Grue, James Menk, 
Charles Landry, and Joseph Reasche — not taking into 
account the men that lived in the little house at the 
Government mill, on the south side of the river; for 
they were soldiers and their home — if it be proper to 
call it a home — was properly Fort Snelling. And tlie 
occupation of these people was in 1838 and 1839. It 
may well be borne in mind that at the beginning of the 
year 1840 there were but three human dwellings here, 
and one was the hut at the Government mill ; one was 
Steele's log hut occupied ])y Keasche and famil.v. and 
the other was a log hut on the Carpenter & (^>uiini 
claim, north of Steele's, occupant now unknown. 

WHERE THE FHiST CLAIMS LAY. 

Ml'. St.*ele"s claim (the old Pl.vmjjton claim) was 
noted in the written claim as "bountled on the north 
by a line beginning at a large cedar tree, situated on 
the east bank of the river," opposite the Falls, and 
"running thence in right angles to the river" to an 
indefinite extent. The first boundary lines of the 
claims were almost admirably luicertain and confused. 
If the land had been wortli -$100 a square foot, as it 
is to-day. perhaps the claimants would have been more 
careful. 

Sergeant Nathaniel Carpenter's claim, which has 
been alluded to as having been made in 1837, before 
the treaties were ratified, was l)()undcd, "on the south 
b.v the claim of Majoi' J. Plympton," and on the west 
"by the river." The northern and eastern bounds 
bafWe description and understanding, but the whole 
tract was to "contain about 320 acres." The two 
claims of Steele and Carpenter comprised all the lands 
on the east side of the Falls then considered worth 
claiming! 

On November 3, 1838, Sergeant Carpenter trans- 
ferred a half interest in his claim to Thomas Brown, 
for a consideration of $25. Brown is described in the 
certificate of transfer as "Private Thomas Brown, of 
Compan.v A, Fifth United Stati's Infantry." One- 
half of 360 acres of I\Iinneai)olis town site for $25! 
A log house was soon after built on the claim by the 



62 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



joint owners. It was situated near the river, on land 
between what are now Third and Fourth Avenues 
Northeast. The certificate (still owned by the heirs 
of the late John B. Bottineau) states that the land 
referred to is "in the County of Crawford, and Terri- 
tory of Wisconsin;" it is dated at "Fort Snelling, 
Iowa Territory," and is signed by Nathaniel Car- 
penter, in the presence of George W. P. Leonard. 
Who occupied the Carpenter cabin is not known. 

May 6, 18-iO, Thomas Brown transferred his inter- 
est in the claim to Peter Quinn, who was described as 
"of St. Peter, Iowa Territory." The deed of transfer, 
which is attached to the deed from Carpenter to 
Brown, is signed by Brown and witnessed by Norman 
W. Kittson, then a young fur trader at the Cold 
Spring, near Fort Snelling. Kittson wrote his name, 
but Brown, who would have been described by Jack 
Cade as "an honest, plain-dealing man," could not 
write, but made his X mark. 

Kittson was born in Lower Canada in 1814 and 
came to Fort Snelling in 1834. Later in life he set- 
tled in St. Paul and became very wealthy, prominent, 
and influential in Northwestern commercial life. He 
died in 1888. Peter Quinn was born in Ireland and 
came to Fort Snelling in 1824 from Winnipeg : his 
half-blood Cree Indian wife (maiden name Mary 
Louise Findley) came the following winter on snow- 
shoes, losing her baby en route in a storm. Quinn 
became a trader's clerk, Sioux and Chippewa inter- 
preter, Indian farmer, etc., at Fort Snelling and was 
acting as Indian interpreter for the Minnesota volun- 
teers when he was killed at Redwood Ferry, Aug. 
18, 1862, at the beginning of the great Sioux Out- 
break. 

ilay 1, 184.5, Peter Quinn sold his interest in the 
claim to Samuel J. Findley and Roswell P. Russell. 
The transfers were very loosely made, without seals 
and without naming a consideration. While Quinn 
had become entitled to an undivided half, in his deed 
to Finley and Russell he attempts to divide the claim 
and describes the part sold as "half of claim — say, 
north portion." But nobody questioned the deed 
then. Findley (or Finley) was a Canadian Scotch- 
man and at the time he bought the Quinn interest he 
was a clerk in Steele's sutler store at Fort Snelling; 
the following year (1846) he married Quinn 's daugh- 
ter, Jlargaret ; subsequently he ran the ferry at Fort 
Snelling for many years. He died in 1855. Russell 
came to Fort Snelling with Henry M. Rice, in 1839. 
He established the first store in Minneapolis, was 
receiver of the land office, and became a very promi- 
nent and useful citizen. 

JMay 9, 1846, Findley and Russell deeded their 
interest to Pierre Bottineau, (often pronounced 
Burch-e-noe) one of the most honorably noted mixed- 
bloods in Minnesota. The deed to Bottineau describes 
the property as, " a certain tract of United States land 
in the Territory of Wisconsin, St. Croix County, on 
the Mississipi)i Rivrr, above the Falls of St. Anthony, 
containing one hundred and sixty (160) acres, more 
or less." The consideration is named as .$150. The 
deed was written by Joseph R. Brown, and of course 
is in correct and proper form. It is witnessed by 



Brown and Philander Prescott. Mention has already 
been made that Brown made the first "claim" to land 
in Hennepin County, selecting a tract on Minnehaha 
Creek, near its mouth. Prescott was long connected 
with the Government sendee at Fort Snelling, as 
Indian farmer, etc. Although his wife was one of 
their tribe and he had children by her, he was mur- 
dered by the Sioux on the upper Minnesota, the first 
day of the outbreak of 1862. 

PIERRE BOTTINEAU, ELI PETTIJOHN, AND JOSEPH KONDO. 

Pierre Bottineau had come to Fort Snelling in 1837, 
with Martin McLeod, (for whom a eounty is named) 
having lost two companions on the way. The men 
lost were two officers, who had been in the British 
military service and were coming into the United 
States from Winnipeg. One, Lieut. Hayes, was of 
Irish extraction ; the other, Lieut. Parys, was a Polish 
gentleman of long experience in military life. They 
were lost in a heavy blizzard west of Lake Traverse. 
Bottineau was the largest real estate owner in East 
Minneapolis for several years in the beginning. 

From the papers of J. B. Bottineau it has been 
learned that Pierre Bottineau became the owner of the 
remainder of the Carpenter claim in 1844, and thus 
came to own and control all of the original Carpenter 
tract of 320 acres. 

In 1842 came Eli Pettijohn, an Ohio man. He has 
resided in ilinneapolis nearly ever since, and now 
(July, 1914) still resides here, aged 96. Strangely 
enough, his name is given in Warner & Foote's, Hud- 
son's, and At water's and other histories as "Petit 
John, " as if his family name were John and his Chris- 
tian name Petit. He made a claim south of Steele's 
claim, or down the river, where the University build- 
ings now stand. Ever since 1842 this noble old pioneer 
has lived continuously on the site of ilinneapolis and 
it is passing strange whj- the historians Atwater and 
Hudson have failed to make proper mention of him. 
In 1845 Pierre Bottineau purchased Pettijohn 's claim 
and then was, by odds, the largest landholder in the 
locality. His possessions extended down the river, 
or eastward, almost indefinitely. 

The same year that Eli Pettijohn made his claim, 
or in 1842, came another French-Canadian, Joseph 
Rondo (or Rondeau), and made a claim north of the 
Carpenter claim. He was a Red River refugee, and 
one of those evicted by ilaj. Plympton's order from 
the Fort Snelling reservation. He came up from 
down St. Paul way and made a claim with such uncer- 
tain boundaries that he was alwaj'S in trouble about 
them. He was 46 years of age then, and could not 
brook opposition from the younger men of the settle- 
ment. Then he was aggressive and troublesome, and 
was continually trying to encroach upon the Carpen- 
ter claim, especially upon Boom Island. 

In 1845, after Bottineau had bought the Pettijohn 
claim, he began to have trouble with Rondo, but 
settled it in a summary and effective way. Rondo had 
a claim down at "St. Paul's Landing," as it was then 
called, and spent some time upon it. One day, when 
he was absent from his St. Anthony claim, Bottineau 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



63 



and others tore down his little eabin and with a yoke 
of oxen hauled away the logs a mile or more north- 
ward and piled them up. Then Bottineau proceeded 
to "jump" the Rondo claim and hold it. Rondo gave 
over all attempts to get his claim back, and in the fall 
of 1845 settled permanently vn his St. Paul holdings. 
He lived at St. Paul the remainder of his life, died 
wealthy, and had a street named for him. 

In a subsequent controversy over land that had 
been included iu the original Rondo claim testimony 
was introduced to show that it was really included in 
the Frank Steele claim. Herewith is given a copy of 
a certificate, preserved among the Bottineau papers, 
which was introduced as evidence in the controversy 
referred to : 

"This is to certify that I helped James Mink to run 
certain lines on claims belonging to ^Ir. Mink (now 
said claim belonging to Mr. F. Steele) and one belong- 
ing to Jlr. QuiuD, lying on the east side of the ]\lissis- 
sippi River, near the Falls of St. Anthony. I do 
hereby further certify that the northern line of the 
claim, now belonging to S. J. Findley and R. P. Rus- 
sell, was run by me, in the year 183S, it then belong- 
ing to Mr. P. Quinn. The said line was marked to 
commence on a large elm tree, near the shore, above 
the small island in the Mississippi River opposite said 
claiming. The said nortliern line was marked accord- 
ing to law. The trees were all in a line, running due 
northeast from the river, or from above said elm tree, 
and were blazed on all four sides as well as could be 
done then. 

"This is further to certify that, according to the 
way the above said northern line of said claim was 
drawn, that Joseph Rondo has no claim whatever to 
it ; that said Rondo drew his line inside of the above 
said line, some two or three years after. 

"Sept. 9th, 18-t5. Witness: Peter Ilayden. 

''Bcrptistc S pence." 

(For an interesting and generally correct account 
of these early land claims at St. Anthony, now East 
Minneapolis, see Warner & Foote's History of Henne- 
pin County, 1881, chap. 5.5; also, John H. Stevens's 
"Minnesota and Its People.") 

THE SITUATION IN 1845. 

In 1845 the former Petti.iohn hou.se was occupied 
by Baptiste Turpin, a French half-breed voyageur, 
though the claim was still owned by Pierre Bottineau. 
Paschal and Sauverre St. Martin, Canadian-French- 
men, came this year and made a claim below the 
Pettijohn claim, which extended down the river below 
what is now East Washington Avenue and perhaps 
Riverside Park. 

The population of Minneapolis in 1845 was prob- 
ably 50. AVe may speak of the place as Afinneapnlis, 
although it then had, properly considered, neither "a 
local habitation or a name." It had not been chris- 
tened or even laid out. The place comprised a few 
log cabins scattered along the east side of the river 
and the head of the household in each case, with but 
one exception, was a French-Canadian or a French- 
Indian. All of them were cither guarding their own 



claims or those of employers. Old 



^laloney 



was living at the Government mill, on the west bank of 
the river, but he was a soldier and an Irishman. 
Chas. Wilson, an ex-soldier from the Fort and long in 
the employ of Steele as a teamster, was a white man 
and born in Maryland; he held Steele's claim for him 
at intervals, but the greater part of the time was 
engaged in teaming. His wife died in 1838 and when 
he became a single man, his home was under his hat, 
wherever that was, and lie spent the most of his time 
at Fort Snelling. Col. Stevens and Judge Atwater, 
however, considered him the first American settler. 
Only one house in the place had a shingled roof, and 
that was Steele's eabin, which was occupied by Joseph 
Reasche. The other roofs wei-e of elm bark or birch 
bark or sod. 

APPEARANCE OP MINNKiVPOLIS IN THE LATE FORTIES. 

In 1842 the east side of the river at the Falls was 
practically an unbroken forest, with little clearings 
about the cabins. Nicollet Island was covered with 
magnificent sugar maples, and for successive years, 
until the trees were cut downi, three or fouj* sugar 
camps were opened by the families living near. These 
sugar makers were invariably assisted by Indian 
women from Cloud Man's and Good Road's villages. 
As the trees were on an island constantly surrounded 
by water, their roots drew up plenty of moisture at 
all times and in the .spring the sap was very abundant 
and sweet and never failed. Considerable iiuantities 
of sugar were made each spring, although the machin- 
ery was primitive and rude. Birch-bark pans caught 
the sap as it flowed from gashes in the trees made with 
axes, and it was boiled down and reduced first to 
syrup and then to sugar in kettles swung from a pole 
supported by forked sticks. The presence of flakes 
of ashes, bits of dead leaves, etc., did not atl'ect the 
taste of the sugar, which indeed was verj^ toothsome. 

AS SEEN BY COL. STEVENS IN 1847. 

The west side was then Indian country and back 
from the river to the Indian villages and mission sta- 
tion on Lake Calhoun and on to Fort Snelling was a 
stretch of prairie, with oases of timber and brush- 
wood and grass-bordered lakes here and there. In 
the spring of 1847, when John IT. Stevens first visited 
the locality, he was impressed with it and in his 
"i\[innesota and Its People" (pp. 20 et seq.) he de- 
scribes it as he then saw it: 

"From the mouth of Crow River to the western 
bank of the Falls of St. Anthony was an unbroken but 
beautified wilderness. With the exception of the old 
military building, [the Oovernment mill] on the bank, 
opposite Spirit Island, there was not, — and, for aught 
I know, never had been — a [white man's] house, or a 
sign of [white] habitation, on the west bank of the 
^Mississippi from Crow River to a mile or two below 
]\Iiiinehaha. 

"The scenery was picturesque, with woodland, 
prairies, and oak openings. Cold springs, silvery 
lakes, and clear streams alioundcd. Except the niili- 



64 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



tary reservation, from what is now known as Bassett's 
Creek to the mouth of the St. Peter's River, the laud 
all belonged to the Sioux Indians, and we were tres- 
passers when we walked upon it. 

"We were particularly charmed with the lay of the 
land on the west bank of the Falls, which includes the 
present site of Minneapolis. A few Indians belong- 
ing to Good Road's band had their tepees up, and 
were living teinijorarily in them, in the oak-opeuiugs 
on the hill a little west of the landing of the old ferry. 
There was an eagle's nest in a tall cedar on Spirit 
Island, and the birds that occupied it seemed to dis- 
pute our right to visit the crags below the Palls * * * 
"Many Government mule wMgons from Port Snell- 
ing, loaded with supplies for Port Gaines, were ford- 
ing the broad, smooth river near the brink of the 
trembling Falls. Here the dark water turned white 
and with a roar leaped into 'the boiling depth and 
gurgled on its rapid way to the Gulf of Mexico. 

"The banks of the river above the Palls were 
skirted with a few pines, some white birch, many 
hard maples, and several elms, with many native 
grape vines climbing over them, (which formed 
delightful bowers) up to the first creek above the 
Palls. The table land back from the river was cov- 
ered with oak. There were some thickets of hazel 
and prickly pear. On the second bench, below the 
Palls, from a quarter to a half mile back, there was 
a dense growth of poplar [Populus tremuloides, or 
quaking aspen] that had escaped the annual prairie 
fires. These trees were very pretty on that spring 
day, with the foliage just bursting from the buds. 

"Here and there were fine rolling prairies, of a 
few acres in extent, in the immediate neighborhood 
of the Palls ; but toward Minnehaha the prairies were 
two or three miles long and extended to Lake Calhoun 
and Lake Harriet. Near the Falls was a deep slough 
of two or three acres. It was seeirdngly bottomless. 
This and a few deep ravines and grassy pouds were 
the only things to mar the beauty of the scene around 
the Pails. 

"On the old road, from the west side landing to the 
rapids where teams crossed the river, [the ford being 
.iust below Spirit Island — Compiler.] was a fine large 
spring witli a copious flow of clear cold water. It 
seemed to be a place of summer resort for Indians and 
soldiers. Large linden trees, with wide-spreading 
branches, made a grateful shade. In after years the 
water of the spring was much used by the early set- 
tlers. Picnic parties were common in those days from 
Fort Snelling. The officers, with ladies, would come 
up and spend the long, hot days in the shade of the 
trees and drink the cool spring water. 

"For many years after 1821 all the beef cattle 
required for the Fort were pastured, wintered, and 
slaughtered near the old Government buildings. The 
locality to the wi'st of the Fort, in the gi-owing sea- 
sons, was often so covered with cattle that it seemed 
more like a New England or Middle States pasture 
■ than the border of a vast wilderness. 

"On the way from the Falls to Fort Snelling, about 
half way to Little Falls (Minnehaha) creek was a 
lone tree. It was a species of poplar [perhaps cotton- 



wood] and had escaped the prairie fires. Its trunk 
was full of bullet holes. This was the only landmark 
then on the prairie between Minnehaha Falls and the 
west bank of the Falls of St. Anthony. It was far 
from being a pretty tree, but it served an excellent 
purpose during the winter months, when the Indian 
trail was covered with snow, and there is not a pioneer 
that had occasion to use the old trail in the winter who 
will not hold it in grateful remembrance." 

HOW THE EAST SIDE .\PPEARED IN 1847. 

According to other settlers, Col. Stevens's descrip- 
tion of Minneapolis in the fall of 1847 was fairly 
faitliful and certainly not overdrawn. It is well to 
contrast the appearance of JMinneapolis in 1847, the 
year before any portion of its site was legally and 
fully acquired, with its condition in 1914. 

Visitors arriving on foot — a very common mode of 
travel in those days from the Fort to the cataract — 
obtained their first view of the Palls from the high 
grounds where now the University buildings stand. 
At this point, according to the late Gov. Marshall and 
others, they would halt and take in the fine view 
presented to the west and north. 

The Palls themselves constituted the central feature 
and the principal attraction. The i-iver seemed to 
leap over the rocks and fall 25 or 30 feet to the foot 
of a precipice which extended in nearly a straight line 
from Hennepin Island to the east ])ank, forming a 
gentle curve from tlie Island to the west bank. With 
a full current in the river, the roaring of the plung- 
ing waters seemed to almost threaten the solid land. 
In the mist which rose above them, however, there 
appeared in the sunshine a beautiful rainbow, a bow 
of promise that no danger was present or threatening, 
and that the traveler would be richly rewarded by a 
fui'tlier and closer approach. 

Just below tlie Falls, but showered by their spray, 
was the little green islet called "Spirit Island." Both 
this and Hennepin Island were covered with beautiful 
tamaracks and other evergreens. The Indian story 
of the suicide of Ampatu-Sapa-win, or the Black Day 
woman, has been referred to on preceding page.';. In 
general this story is true ; it is not a mere legend or 
tradition. The woman committed suicide and mur- 
dered her little children, by floating over the terrible 
cataract into the Maelstrom-like whirling waters 
below. The Indian assertion that the spirit of the 
wretched woman dwelt among the tamaracks, and 
that her apparition was often seen, and her voice as 
she wailed her death song often heard, cannot of 
course be certainly vouched for. 

On the east side of the river the banks sloped gently 
from the high lands above down to the bank of the 
river. Still farther eastward from the highlands was 
a level expanse varied by clusters of oak trees of low, 
scrubby growth, so that they looked like apple trees, at 
a distance, and the collection resembled an old orchard. 
Still farther to the east and nortlieast the expanse 
continued, back to the Rose Hills, with oases of oak 
and a considerable cranberry marsh intervening. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



65 



THE WEST SIDE AND THE ISLANDS. 

On the west side a l)eautiful rolling prairie, virgin 
as when first created, stretched out beyond Cedar 
Lake. On the bank of tlie river, at the lower part of 
the Falls, was the old Governnient Mill and tlie 
miller's little hut adjoining. The mill had two depart- 
ments, one for sawing and the other for grinding. The 
latter liad but one run of buhrs — one old-fashioned 
granite millstone — and the gauge had to be altered 
when the miller changed from wheat to corn. There 
was only one saw in 1847, an upright. It did its work 
well, l)ut required great eare in its management, 
because if broken its replacement would bo diflicult. 
At a distance the buildings, with their gray, weather- 
stained surfaces, resembled piles of limestone. 

In 18-47 the Falls were nearly perpendicular for 
the most part, but the wall was irregular and broken, 
and on its crest upraised and broken rocks, against 
which parts of trees and other timber had lodged, 
were freciuent. Spirit Island, only a little way below 
the Falls, with its evergreen covering has long since 
disappeared. Cataract, Hennepin, and Nicollet 



Islands, then without names, were also densely 
wooded. 

THE PIONEERS OF ST. ANTHONY IN 1847. 

Opposite the F'alls, but a little removed from the 
bank on the east side, stood the log cabin of Frank 
Steele, with a few acres of corn — one account says 
seven acres — growing in a fenced patch near it; its 
location was at what is now the corner of Second 
Avenue South and ]\Iain Street East. What was then 
called the block house was being built. Pierre Bot- 
tineau's liouse, on the hank of the river, above the 
head of Nicollet Island; Calvin A. Tuttle's claim 
shanty, near the ravine north of the University; 
Steele's house, then occupied by Luther Patch with 
his family, including his two pretty daughtei-s, Marion 
and Cora, and a few humlile cabins occupied by 
obscure Canadian Frenchmen, were all the human 
habitations in the little settlement which became 
Saint Anthony and is now the wealthy and highly 
improved seat of civilization sometimes called East 
jMinneapolis. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
THE FOUNDING AND EARLY HISTORY OF ST. ANTHONY. 

MINNESOTA OPENED TO WHITE SETTLEMENT FRANK STEELE 's MILL AT ST. .\NTHONY IS COMPLETED AND A BUSINESS 

BOOM RESULTS FIRST BUSINESS HOUSES OPENED ADVERSITIES FOLLOW AND FALL UPON THE FOUNDER OF THE. 

PLACE FIRST TIMBER-CUTTING ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI — STEELE'S MILL-WHEELS TLTIN AND THE VILL-^GE 

GROWS CREATION OF MINNESOTA TERRITORY WM. R. MARSHALL SURVEYS THE TOWN SITE IN 1849 AND 

ANOTHER BOOM FOLLOWS THE FIRST FERRY ADVENTURE OP MISS SALLIE BEAN MINNESOTA'S GOVERN- 

MENT.AL MACHINERY SET IN MOTION WHAT THE FIRST CENSUS DECLARED, ETC. 



THE LAND IS SURVEYED AND COMES INTO MARKET. 

Up to 18-48 the land in that part of modern Minne- 
apolis east of the Mississippi was not properly in mar- 
ket. The Indian title to it had been extinguished, but 
until it had been surveyed, and the survey recorded 
and notice of sale at the Land Office given, it could not 
be fully and legallj' acquired. It might be "claimed" 
before final acquirement, but if a ", jumper " went to 
the Land Office and entered the land so claimed and 
paid for it his title was supeiuor to that of the unfortu- 
nate claimant, or "squatter," as he was sometimes 
called. 

In 1847 President Polk establislied a Government 
Land Office at St. Croix Falls for the portion of Wis- 
consin Territory lying west of the St. Croix River. It 
will be borne in mind that at that time what is now the 
portion of Minnesota below Rum River and east of 
the Mississippi belonged to Wisconsin, and the coun- 
try west and south of the ^Mississippi practically was 
a part of Clayton County, Iowa. So that until 1849, 
when Minnesota Territory was organized, the portion 
of Minneapolis east of the big river was in Wisconsin. 
Gen. Saml. Leech, of Illinois, was appointed Receiver 
and C. S. Whitney Register of the St. Croix Land 
Office, which was where all the lands in the Minne- 
sota district and those in the Western Wisconsin dis- 
trict were to be sold. The country west of the 
Mississippi was Indian land. 

Considerable time was required to survey the lands 
— to lay them off into sections, town.ships. and ranges 
— and it was not until August 15. 1848, when the first 
tracts were offered for sale ; this sale continued for 
two weeks, but only 3,326 acres were sold, at the uni- 
form price of $1.25 an acre. The second sale com- 
menced September 15, and also continued for two 
weeks. At this latter sale were disposed the lands now 
comprised within the lower peninsula between the St. 
Croix and the Minnesota, including the town sites of 
St. Paul, St. Anthony (or East Mimieapolis") and 
Stillwater. Only a score or so of white settlers then 
lived outside of these towns. 

At that time, and for some years afterward, St. 
Paul was the commercial center of the Northwest. 
It had a store, a Catholic Church, a hundred or so 
inhabitants, largely French-Canadians by birth or 
descent, and waa known down tr> St. Louis as St. 



Paul's or St. Paul's Landing. St. Anthony — by 
which name the little settlement at the Falls was. 
known before it was laid out and regularly named — 
was not so important in 1848. It had neither store 
nor church. The citizens bought their goods at the 
sutler's store of "Mo-seer Steele," at Fort Snelling, 
and when they attended church (which, to tell the- 
truth, was not very often) the greater part of them 
knelt in Father Ravoux's and Father Lucian Galtier's- 
sei-viees in a part of their dwelling hou.se at Mendota. 
A few Catholics went to their duties down to the 
little log chapel M-hich good Father Galtier had built 
in 1841 and named St. Paul's, and which finally fur- 
nished the town its name. Every house in both St. 
Paul and St. Anthony was in 1848 of logs, but there- 
were as happy households in the two places then as- 
now. 

It was at the September land sales, as has been said, 
when the sites of St. Anthony, St. Paul, and Still- 
water were purchased from the Government. The 
only way of obtaining Government land then was 
by purchase ; the homestead law was not enacted until 
thirteen years later. To be sure the greater part of 
the claims had already been selected, occupied, and 
improved ; but no man could safely say that he owned 
his land until he had the Government's patent for 
it. There had been a little apprehension that "jump- 
ers" might appear at the sale and bid in some of 
the improved claims, but nothing of the kind was at- 
tempted. There were no speculators present at either 
the August or September sale. There was only one 
contra bid, which was in a friendly way between 
two settlers of Cottage Grove, Washington County, 
one bidding ten cents per acre more than the other. 

The most exciting period of the September sale was 
when the town site of St. Paul was offered. Some of 
the settlers who had selected lots and built cabins 
upon them were disturbed by a rumor that specula- 
tors would be present to bid on the homesteads which 
tlie bona fide settlers of St. Paul had selected. Trader 
Sibley had been selected as the agent of all the St. 
Paul settlers to bid in the lands they wanted, and pay 
for them. This he did to the general satisfaction ; in 
some instances he advanced the money to help out 
the impecunious home-seekers. Quite a number of 
St. Paul men accompanied him to the sale. 



66 












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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



67 



In one of his " Reminiscences, " printed in the 
State Historical Society's "Collections," Gen. Sib- 
ley says: 

"I was selected by the actual settlers to bid off 
their portions of the laud for them, and when the 
hour for business had arrived my seat was invariably 
surrounded by a number of men with huge bludgeons. 
What this meant I could only surmise, but I should 
not have envied the fate of the individual that would 
have ventured to bid against me." 

In the case of St. Anthony there was no trouble 
and apparently no apprehension of any. Franklin 
Steele was practically the only bidder. A few others 
bid and secured lands, but seemingly they were bid- 
ding for i\Ir. Steele's interests, as it has been stated, 
and not denied, that soon after the land sale he owned 
a tract extending from University Avenue to the 
northern limits of St. Anthony village, another tract 
at the upper end of the village, and all of Boom 
Island. It seems from the records that he took meas- 
ures to secure for himself such lands as he thought 
most valuable, particularly the site of his mill, and 
that for some reason he employed others to purchase 
and hold certain claims and then transfer them to 
him. 

Steele's mill dam completed 

In the spring of 1847 Wm. A. Cheever made a 
claim near the present site of the University. He had 
an acquaintance with certain men of Boston then 
regarded as wealthy, and through him and his brother, 
Benjamin Cheever, Mr. Steele conducted negotiations 
for the purchase of a portion of tlie water-power of 
St. Anthony Falls at the site of Steele's projected 
mill, tlie money received to be applied to the erec- 
tion of the mill. On the 10th of July the deal was 
closed, and Steele transferred nine-tenths of the 
water-power owned by him to Caleb Cushing, Robert 
Rantoul, and others, of Boston, for a consideration of 
$12,000. 

As soon as the money was promised measures were 
at once taken for the erection of a mill. Mr. Ard 
Godfrey, of the Penobscot country in Maine, an ex- 
perienced millwright, was secured to superintend its 
construction, and he arrived on the ground in the 
spring of 1847. Before Godfrey's arrival, however, 
considerable work had been done on .what was called 
the dam. Jacob Fisher, who liad worked for Steele 
over on the St. Croix, directed the construction of 
the water power and other preliminary work before 
Godfrey's arrival. The dam was not fully completed 
until in the spring of 1848. 

THE FIR.ST BfSINESS BOOM. 

In the first part of this year (1847) St. Anthony 
(or perhaps we should say Minneapolis) had its first 
business boom. Work was commenced on the mill and 
carried well along, the money to assure its completion 
was promised, and what was considered a large num- 
ber of settlers came to the place. A few of the names 
have been lost, but the following list is worth looking 
at and preserving. Besides Ard Godfrey, who came 



late in tlie fall, there were Wra. A. Cheever, Robert 
W. Cummings, Caleb D. Dorr, Sumner W. Farnham, 
Samuel Ferrald, John McDonald, Wm. R. Marshall, 
Joseph M. ^larshall, Luther P. Patch, Edward Patch, 
John Rollins, R. P. Russell, Daniel Stanchfield, Chas. 
W. Stimpson, and Calvin A. Tuttle. 

One account says that Cheever came to Minnesota 
in December, 1846, but it seems that he did not set- 
tle in St. Anthony until in the spring of 1847. 

As before stated, Luther Patch occupied Steele's 
log house, with his family, which included his two 
daughters, IMai'ion and Cora. Calvin Tuttle also had 
a family. The other families of the place had come 
in previous years. It is claimed that the female mem- 
bers of the Patch family were the first full-blood 
white women in the place; but unless La Grue's wife, 
of sad fate and memory, was a mixed blood — and 
some who knew her declared she was not — she was 
the first white woman. Mrs. and the Misses Patch 
were the first white American women, for Mrs. La 
Grue was a Canadian. 

THE FIKST STORES. 

The year 1847 saw the establishment of the first 
"store," if it be proper to call it a store. R. P. 
Russell had for some time been engaged in mer- 
chandising at Fort Snelling. He moved over a small 
stock of goods to St. Anthony and exposed them for 
sale in a room of the Patch building, where he 
boarded. One account is that the store-room was im- 
provised for the purpose, by partitioning otf one of 
the lower rooms of the building, and that all of the 
entire stock of goods, including the counter, made 
only one small wagon load. When Gov. Marshall 
established his store, in 1849, he declared that it was 
the first in the place, because Russell's little stock in 
a dwelling house could not be called a store. 

Russell's intimacy with the Patch family as a 
boarder and tenant resulted iu his marriage, October 
3, 1848, to Miss Marion Patch, and this was the first 
marriage of -white people in Minneapolis. Not long 
afterward Cora Patch married Joe Marshall. Mar- 
riageable white girls were in demand in St. Anthony 
at that time. The men were very largely in the 
majority, and nearly all of them were fine young 
bachelors. 

Wm. R. ]\Iarshall, who became one of Minnesota's 
greatest and most gallant soldiei-s and also one of its 
ablest and best Governors, walked across from St. 
Croix Falls to St. Anthony in the spring of 1847, 
while the ground was yet frozen. He carried a rather 
heavy pack in which were a blanket and some pro- 
visions. He liked the place, made a claim, bought 
an ax from Russell, and cut logs enough for a cabin. 
The next year he and bis brother Joseph came over 
and built the house. Marshall had heard good ac- 
counts of St. Anthony, but he was a Missourian, born 
in Boone County, and had to be "shown." The 
place was exhibited to him and he liked it. 

THE ADVERSITIES OP 1847-48. 

Things went well enough for the new settlement 
until came the winter of 1847-48. The new-comers 



68 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



were nearly all New Yorkers. They had come to the 
country by steamboat and had not brought much bag- 
gage with them. The Sioux would have called them 
"Kaposia, " as being lightly burdened. They had 
ordered the greater part of their supplies to follow 
them, first loading them on a canal boat on the Erie 
Canal. 

In December a slow-traveling mail brought bad 
news to the New Yorkers at St. Anthony. The canal 
boat in which their supplies were being conveyed had 
sunk in the Erie Canal and the supplies were an 
almost total loss. The hardware and tools, which they 
greatly needed, were wholly a loss. This caused a 
gi-eat scarcity of tools, which were so necessary in 
their building operations. 

The winter came on and it was severe. Provisions 
were scarce and high, and money was also scarce 
and hard to obtain. There were all sorts of discom- 
forts. There was not much to cook, but female cooks 
were very rare, and in most instances men did the 
cooking, with unsatisfactory results. The work of 
building went on, for the men were improving their 
cabins with sawed lumber. Among the New Yorkers 
were some carpenters and they were very busy. Ed- 
ward Patch was a carpenter, and a good one, and he 
became a contractor. But the old Government saw- 
mill, which was depended upon for lumber, was a 
weak affair. It worked slowly and imperfectly and 
could not be counted upon for more than 300 or 400 
feet per day. Big sleds were made and considerable 
lumber was hauled from the St. Croi.K Mills, by 
slowly-moving ox teams, over the snow covered roads, 
with the thermometer below zero. Fond hopes were 
entertained that Steele's new mill would be com- 
pleted the following spring in time to do all necessary 
building in 1848. 

Then word came to Mr. Steele that Cushing, Ran- 
toul, et alii, would not be able to let him have the 
promised money. The ilexiean War was on. Because 
American success meant the acquisition of Texas and 
more slave territory, old anti-slavery Massachusetts 
would not furnish either men or money to contrilnite 
to that success. But Caleb Cushing, and others were 
more patriotic. They raised a good regiment of fight- 
ing Bay State men, and it was armed and equipped 
largely by Cushing 's personal expenditures. He was 
made Colonel of the regiment and led it to the field. 
The expenses his patriotism caused him drained his 
putse so that he had scarcely any money left to build 
mills at St. Anthony. 

SOME OF FR.VNK STEELE'S EARLY EXPERIENCES. 

For some time in his early experience in Minne- 
sota, JIi-. Steele was often in straits for money, 
although lie was always active and busy and engaged 
in business ciilci'ijrises. 

In April, 1842, hi' was in Philadelphia, where he 
had purchased a bill of goods for his sutler's store at 
Fort Snelling. These goods he meant to ship over 
one of the few railroads then in the country to New 
York, where they would be transferred to a ship and 
carried to New Orleans by sea. From New Orleans 
thev would be carried liy steamboat to St. Louis, and 



from St. Louis, by another steamboat, they would be 
brought to Fort Snelling. 

The Sibley papers, in possession of the State His- 
torical Societ}% show that at this time Steele wrote 
to Sibley (who became his brothei'-in-law) then in 
Washington City two letters which are most intei-- 
esting. April 6, he wrote that he was to marry "Miss 

B , of Baltimore," and take her with him when 

he returned to Fort Snelling. Sibley was earnestly 
invited to attend the wedding, which he did. "Miss 
B." was Miss Ann Barney, a granddaughter of Com- 
modore Joshua Barne}% the noted naval commander, 
and also of Samuel Chase, a signer of the Declaration. 
In the letter of invitation to the wedding J\Ir. Steele 
wrote further to Sibley : 

"Now, dear Sibley, permit me to ask a favour of 
you. Can you assist me, in some way through ilr. 
Chouteau, to about $900? I am willing to pay well 
for the aeconunodation and shall be able to repay it 
in St. Louis or at St. Peter's. * * * If you can 
aiTange it for me, I shall consider myself under last- 
ing obligations to you, and shall always be most 
happy to reciprocate so great a kindness. * * * 
We shall leave inunediately after the marriage for the 
West, my youngest sister accompanying us." 

Tile '"youngest sister" referred to was ^liss Sarah 
J. Steele, who. in the following May, became the wife 
of the then chief trader, Sibley, her brother's friend. 
Three days after the letter quoted from was written, 
Steele wrote again from Philadelphia to Sibley at 
Washington, thanking him for his answer and the 
assurance that he would be present at the wedding on 
the 14th, and earnestly importuning him again to 
procure the loan, saying: 

"I hope that Mv. Chouteau will be able to manage 
the money matter; if not, I shall be under the neces- 
sity of returning here from Baltimore, as I have a 
number of bills to pay for the folks at Fort Snelling, 
as well as the insurance on my goods. Now, my dear 
fellow, if you ever expect to do me a favour, do try 
and assist me in arranging this matter, as a neglect 
may injure me at Fort Snelling, Money matters are 
so tight here that it is entirely out of the question to 
do anvthing. I hope to see you in Baltimore on the 
14th.'"' 

Jlr. Steele's straitened circumstances continued for 
many years, .just at the critical periods of his life, 
when he was striving to lay the foundations of com- 
mercial enterprise in Minnesota and to accumulate 
a conit'ortable fortune. Yet his condition did not dis- 
hearten him, or even daunt him. lie had eonfidence 
that everything would come out all right in the end 
and he infused a part of this confidence into the sys- 
tems of his associates and fellow-pioneers. His credit 
was never impaired. P^ven the workmen whom he 
had been unable to pay after the failure of the Mas- 
sachusetts capitalists, trusted him and continued to 
work for him, and in the end were paid in full. His 
I, O. U.'s were as good as the best paper money. 

FIRST TIMBER-CUTTING ON THE UPPER MISS1SS1PP7. 

In September, 1847, Daniel Stanehfield. Severe Bot- 
tineau (Pierre's brother'), and Charles Manock went 



HISTORY OF MINNEAl^OLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, JHNNESOTA 



69 



up tlic Mississippi aiul Rum Kivur in a birth-bark 
caiioo iu the capacity of what would now be called 
"cruisers" for pine timber. Steele wanted to assure 
himself and Cushing, Kantoul, et al., that there was 
abundant standing pine timber in .Minnesota to jus- 
tify the erection of at least two good saw-mills at St. 
Anthony. Tlien L'ushing et al. would loan him the 
money he needed. Another object of the cruise was 
to procure the proper timber out of which to con- 
struct the mill-dam. Especially were some long pine 
logs wanted. ^loreover, it would be well if logs 
enough for the first sawing could be .secured. 

Stanchtield, another Elaine lumberman, was tlie 
leader of the three cruisers. A logging party accom- 
panied the cruisers but went on foot except for one 
canoe carrying supplies. In the country on the Rum 
River and south of ]\Iille Lacs they found plenty of 
timber. StanchHeld reported to Steele that there was 
"more than 70 saw-mills can saw in 70 years." He 
soon established a logging camp and began cutting. 

Accompanying the "eruisei's" or explorers were 
about 20 men, who were to march along the shore, 
keeping pace with the explorers in the canoe, until 
pine was discovered. Then they were to ft)rm a 
logging camp, while the explorers went on to find 
more pine, and when the camp had been constructed 
they were to begin cutting and "banking" the logs, 
until the explorers returned and further plans shouhl 
be made. Both explorers and cutters worked hard, 
and, though the mosquitoes and gnats nearly ate them 
up, they cut a great many logs, and by the first week 
in November had them piled on the bank. 

Calel) D. Dorr and John JIcDonald had been sent 
up Swan River from the camp for some pieces of big 
timber that could not be obtained on Rum River. They 
had secured the long and big logs, had rojled them 
into Swan River, (which tiows eastward and comes 
into the Mississippi on the west side, near Little Falls) 
then floated them down the jMississippi to the mouth 
of Rum River. Here a great boom of the logs from 
Rum and Swan Rivers was formed. It was a bad 
night, about November 1. The snow was falling fast 
and freezing to the surfaces of the logs as it fell. 
Cold weather had come and apparently to stay. Dorr 
and StanchHeld had talked over their operations. 
They were glad and congratulated themselves that 
they had more logs for Mr. Steele than he could saw 
during the entire winter, even if he ran his saws 
night and day. 

But lo ! at midnight the frail supjiorts of the boom 
gave way, the boom itself broke up. and the logs went 
whirling swiftly down on the bosom of the river, 
da.shed over the Falls of St. Anthony, and were lost 
forever! Mr. Steele stood on the high bank of the 
river at Fort Snelling and saw them floating by. and 
he had no power to stop them. His hopes for a pros- 
])erous and useful season floated away with them, and 
there was a painful hour of discouragement for this 
man of enterprise. Luckily, however, Caleb Dorr suc- 
ceeded in saving most of the fine logs he had cut and 
delivered them safely at St. Anthony the next spring. 



UENNEPIN ISLAND TIMBEK USED. 

The late pioneer lumberman, Daniel Stanchtield, 
has left iu imperishable form much of his recollection 
of events pertaining to the beginnings of St. Anthony 
and ^linneapolis. In a |)aper which is published in 
Volume 9 of the State Historical Collections, and en- 
titled "Pioneer Lundicringon the Upper Missis.sippi," 
he has set down many items of interest and value. 
This article is freely ([noted from in this chapter. 

Mr. Stanchfield says that upon his return to St. 
Anthony after the disastrous boom break, it was at 
his suggestion and on his advice that Ard Godfrey 
built the dam largely of local timber. The logs used 
were cut on Hennepin Island, without waiting to pro- 
cure othei's from the pine forests of the upjjer ilissis- 
sippi. The logs were of hard wood and used without 
hewing or dressing and proved really superior to 
hewn pine timbers. Then they were procured within 
a stone's throw of whei'e they were used, which was 
a decided advantage. The planks u.sed for nailing 
over the cracks, etc., were brought from the St. Croix 
mills. 

When the sviceess of the dam was a.ssured, the next 
thing w-as to procure a stock of pine timber for saw- 
ing. In the fall of 1847, as has been stated, prepara- 
tions were made for logging on the upper Mississippi, 
in the region of the Crow Wing River. Teiims to 
haul the cut logs to the river bank, log sled.s to bear 
them, and men to drive and care for them, were ob- 
tained in what is now Washington County. It was 
the first of December, and snow covered the ground, 
when the outfit started ; ten days later it reached the 
lumber district and its scene of operations, below the 
Crow Wing River, a mile back from the ilississipjii. 

TIMBER PURCHASED FROM THE CIHPPEWAS. 

Through the assistance of Henry M. Rice, who then 
had a trading post at the mouth of the Crow Wing, 
and Allan ;Morrison, who had long lived in that quar- 
ter and had a Chippewa wife, trees were purchased 
from the Chippewa Chief "Pug-o-na-ge-shig," or 
Hole in the Sky, (commonly called Hole in the Day) 
for a consideration of ")0 cents a tree. Hole in the 
Day was then chief of the old Pillager band of Chip- 
pewas, having succeeded to the name and rank of his 
father, who had been nuu'dered the previous year. 
The Indian village was, in the winter of 1847-18. on 
an island in the JMississippi, opposite the mouth of 
the Crow Wing. 

Work was pro.secuted vigorously through the win- 
ter and with much success. A great deal of the haul- 
ing was done by ox teams, which traveled slowly but 
steadily. March 1 work was stopped and Mr. Stanch- 
field ordered the camj) broken, and he and numy of 
the cutters set out for St. Anthony. A suflicient num- 
ber of drivers was left in cam]) to l)ring down the logs 
when the iNIississippi should be o]ien, a month or so 
later. 

Stanchfield tells us that he found Mr. Steele sick 
in bed, perhaps from over-work and worry. The him- 



70 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



berman, by Steele's direction, went down to Galena, 
and from bankers there he says he received, "two 
remittances of $5,000 each from Gushing and Com- 
pany, their investment for lumber manufacturing at 
St. Anthony." 

DID STANCHFIELD GET THE MONEY? 

But Mr. Stanchfield's positive assertion that he re- 
ceived for Mr. Steele $10,000 from Cushing and Com- 
pany, is clearly disputed by other good authorities that 
declare the Boston men, Cushing and Rantoul, did 
not pay Mr. Steele $10,000 or any other sum. By their 
default, it is claimed, Cushing and Rantoul forfeited 
their contract and lost all interest in the St. Anthony 
property. Warner & Foote's History, (printed in 
1881, when many old pioneers conversant with the 
facts were living and presumably were interviewed 
for historical data) states positively that these were 
the facts. Goodhue's historical sketch, written in 
1849, apparently from data furnished by Mr. Steele, 
says : " A few months since Cushing and Company, of 
Massachusetts, having failed to comply with the con- 
ditions of their purchase of a part of this property to 
JMr. Steele, he sold one-half of the water power to ilr. 
A. W. Taylor, of Boston," etc. 

Regarding the starting of the mill aiid other inci- 
dents connected therewith, Stanchfield says: 

"The first sawmill that the company built began to 
saw luml)er September 1, 1848, just one year from the 
time when the exploring party in the little canoe 
started up the Mississippi to estimate its supply of 
pine. Following that exploration, the town was sur- 
veyed and lots were placed on sale. The real estate 
office and the lumber office were together. Later in 
the autumn a gang-saw mill and two shingle mills 
were to be erected, to be ready for business in the 
spring of 1849. Sumner W. Farnham ran the first 
sawmill during the autumn, until he took charge of 
one of my logging parties for the winter. As soon 
as the mill wa.s started, it was run night and day, in 
order to supply enough lumber for the houses of immi- 
grants, who were pouring in from the whole country." 

JONATHAN CAm'ER's HEIR COMES FORWARD. 

While Steele was completing and when he had com- 
pleted the mill he was annoyed for a time by a Phil- 
adelphia man. Dr. Hartwell Carver, who claimed to 
be one of the heirs of Capt. Jonathan Caiwer, the ex- 
plorer of 1767. Capt. Carver, as has been stated, 
claimed that the Indians had given him a large grant 
of land in this region, including the site of St. An- 
thony Falls. This Hartwell Carver claimed that he 
was a descendant of the old explorer and that he 
had purchased the interests of some of the other Car- 
ver heirs in their ancestor's claim. Jn November 
after the mill was completed he wrote Steele that he 
had borrowed $;30.000 in cash from Hon. Lewis Cass 
with which to purchase the interests of the remaining 
heirs. In the same letter, (which is among the Sib- 
ley papers, and which smells of blackmail,) he warns 
the people of St. Anthony that he can do much for 



them if they will approach him in the proper way. 
To Jlr. Steele he hints that he has a strong legal claim 
on the mill and says: 

"I can prove to you, sir, that I was offered by some 
men in St. Louis ten thousand dollars in cash for a 
quit-claim deed to your claim. The temptation, sir, 
was great, for I wanted the money badly. But, sir, 
come to go oh there and .see what you had done and 
how you was situated, and after talking with some of 
the people I concluded not to do it." 

Two years before, or in 1846, Dr. Carver had vis- 
ited St. Anthony in the interest of his claim. How- 
ever sincerely he really believed in its rightfulness, 
it is reasonably plain that he was trying to frighten 
Mr. Steele into paying him some money in return for 
a quit-claim deed to the site of his mill. It seems 
that his intention was to practice a species of black- 
mail, first upon Steele and next upon the settlers of 
St. Anthonj", whose lands he pretended to own under 
a mythical grant by the Indians to his ancestor, the 
unreliable Capt. Jonathan Carver. 

But Mr. Steele was not "taken in." He knew 
enough of the facts in the case not to be imposed upon. 
He rejected all of Dr. Hartwell Carver's overtures, 
and curtly and emphatically informed him that he 
would have naught to do with his proposition or with 
him, save that if he came any more to St. Anthony 
and endeavored to blackmail the citizens he would be 
treated as he deserved to be. There was no more of 
Dr. Hartwell Carver. 

STEELE THE FIRST POSTMASTER. 

In 1840 Mr. Steele was commissioned U. S. post- 
master at Fort Snelling — the first postmaster in what 
is now Minnesota. At that day postmasters had the 
franking privilege and could send their mail matter 
free of charge to wherever the mails were carried. 
But this emolument, while it helped Jlr. Steele some, 
did not go far towards helping him build mills and to 
improve the Falls of St. Anthony. 

THE MILL WHEELS TURN AND THE VILLAGE GROWS. 

Notwithstanding the adverse financial circum- 
stances prevailing, the work of building Steele's mill 
went cheerily on. In the spring of 1848, despite all 
obstacles, the mill was completed ; September follow- 
ing it began to run. There was great joy in the little 
settlement when the water-gates were opened and the 
wheels began to go round. And the joy was not con- 
fined to St. Anthony but extended to the other settle- 
ments at Fort Snelling, IMendota, St. Paul's, and up 
the jNlinnesota to the mission stations as far as to Lac- 
qui Parle. The mill had but two saws at first, but in 
a few months two more were added. 

Several new settlers came in and new houses were 
built. The first that was constructed of lumber from 
the new mill was the house of Sherburne Huse, (or 
Hughes) the next was an addition to the house of 
Richard Rogers, and it was built by Washington 
Cetchell ; the third was the house of Getchell himself. 
(See Warner & Foote's History.) 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



71 



In the spring of this year (lS-18) William A. Chee- 
ver, the enterprising Bostonian, platted a town on his 
land, now occupied hy some of the University Imild- 
ings. and sold some lots. Other settlers came and 
another boom was on. Cheever's plat was never re- 
corded, however. 

ORGANIZATION OF MINNESOTA TERRITORY. 

It was in the summer of 1848 when the first steps 
were taken for the organization of Minnesota Terri- 
tory. A bill, whose real autlior was Joseph R. lirown, 
and which provided for the Territory's organization, 
was introduced in Congress by Hon. Morgan L. Mar- 
tin, Delegate from Wisconsin Territory, in 1846. 
Brown and JIartin had been associates in the Wis- 
consin Territorial Legislature in 1841, and it is said 
that the organization scheme was then planned by 
them. The bill passed the House but failed in the 
Senate. It was apparent to the latter body that there 
were not 500 bona-fide white settlers in the proposed 
Territory ! 

Congress admitted Wisconsin as a State ^lay 29, 
1848. with boundaries as they are at present. The 
lower part of the country between the Mississippi and 
the St. Croix, including St. Anthony, had been St. 
Croix County. By the creation of Wisconsin, as a 
State, this St. Croix County was left out and became 
a no-man's land, as it were, and Stillwater, St. Paul's, 
and St. Anthony were under no law or government. 
And yet there was a court house, (at Stillwater) court 
records and clerk, justices of the peace, etc. 

The people were greatly dissatisfied, and finally 
decided to take action and have it determined that 
they were still under a republican form of govern- 
ment. They claimed that the country which had 
formerly belonged to Wisconsin Territory but had 
been left out of Wisconsin State, was, prima facie at 
least, still Wisconsin Territory and entitled to a Dele- 
gate in Congress. 

THE STILLWATER CONVENTION. 

Pursuant to certain preliminary meetings and a 
public call, a "general convention of all persons in- 
terested" was held at Stillwater, August 28. The 
number of men partici[)ating was 61. Franklin 
Steele, Jo.seph Reascbe, and Paschal St. Martin at- 
tended from St. Anthony. Mr. Steele was prominent 
in the proceedings. 

The Convention declared that the country west of 
St. Croix was still the Territory of Wisconsin and en- 
titled to have a Delegate in Congress. Whereupon 
Henry H. Sibley, of Mendota. was unanimously 
elected by the convention as such Delegate. Sibley 
had not lived in St. Croix County, Wisconsin, but 
always in Iowa, until it became a State, when he too 
became, a resident of a no-man's land. At a special 
election, held Octolier )10, Sitiley was elected Delegate 
by a decided majority over Henry M. Rice. The 
contest was spirited, but the result was accepted and 
Sibley went on to Washington, and. after some discus- 
sion, was admitted as a "Delegate from the Territory 



of Wisconsin," and took his seat in the House of 
Representatives. 

The Convention also resolved in favor of the organ- 
ization of a new Territory, to be called Minnesota, 
and it was understood that Delegate Sibley's chief 
duty would be to introduce a bill to that effect, and 
to press it to final passage. This he did, and the nec- 
essary enactment was secured at the ensuing Con- 
gress. One of the very last official acts of President 
Polk, March 3, lS4!t, was the signing of the bill which 
created ^Minnesota Territory. 

THE NEWS KEACHE,S ST. ANTUONY. 

The winter of 1848-49 was a hard one on the little 
settlement at St. Anthony. It was long and severe. 
A rather heavy snow fell November 1. To the people 
of St. Paul's, Fort Suelling, St. Anthony, and Still- 
water the long season was mo.st uncomfortable. In 
addition to the inclemencj' of the weather and the 
consequent privation, there was a loneliness hard to 
l)ear. The nearest point of mail distribution and sup- 
ply was at Prairie du Chien, nearly 200 miles down 
the river; but for four months of this season the river 
was ice-locked, and neither men, merchandise, nor mail 
could be brought up by water, and so for long periods 
the .settlements were entirely cut off from communica- 
tion with the outside world. 

There were no men and no merchandise en route 
to this locality, but the mail, scanty as it was, might 
be brought in and would be gladly welcomed. There 
were no horse teams available, and so dog sledges were 
constructed and made to serve as mail coaches. Teams 
of dogs were ti-ained to draw them and a coureur du 
bois, who was sometimes a white man but generally a 
mixed blood, was hired to di'ive and manage the dogs, 
having to carry rations for them and himself during 
the entire round trip. 

The mail route was over the ice on the river, and 
it was not always smooth. Ttie outfit encam])ed at 
night by a good fire which the driver kindled. On 
the return trip from Prairie du Chien a chilling, cut- 
ting, arctic wind blew steadily in the faces of man 
and dogs all the way. Under such circumstances the 
mail arrivals were always infrequent and uncertain. 
It was not until January that the news of Gen. Tay- 
lor's election to the Presidency, in the first week of 
November, reached Fort Suelling. About the 1st of 
Febniary. word came that Delegate Sil)ley had intro- 
duced his Territorial bill and was working for it, but 
there were only faint hopes of its passage. 

The snow began to melt about March 1. The track 
on the river became w'et, slushy, and impracticable, 
and the dog mail sh'dge was abandoned and the mails 
discontinued until the opening of steamboat' naviga- 
tion in the spring. It was not until the 9th of April 
when the steamer "Dr. Franklin No. 2." Capt. Rus- 
sell Blakeley, arrived at St. Paul's with the glad news 
that Minnesota Territory had been organized, and the 
cheering tidings soon spread to the other settlements. 
The organization was one of tlie most important 
epochs in our history. The full details, including the 
appointment of the first Territorial ofiScers, with 



72 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Alesaiidei- Ramsey as Goveruor, belong to other his- 
tories. (See Neill's Historj'; also "Miuuesota in 
Three Centuries," etc.) 

LEADING EVENTS OF 1849. 

The year 18-49 was not only of oonimanding influ- 
ence upon Minnesota, but upon the town of St. An- 
thony, and other towns in the new Territory. St. 
Anthony now belonged to something, and was no 
longer in a no-man's land or a neutral zone. It be- 
longed to a regular political organization of the 
United States, a Territory, with all the rights and 
powers of such a political division, and this fact 
helped wonderfully in the development of the little 
village. New settlers came, new buildings were 
erected, new capital invested. 

LAYING OUT THE TOV^'N. 

The first town laid out and established in Minne- 
sota was "Dahkota," on the St. Croix in 18.39 by 
Jo.scph R. Brown, who made the first claim to land 
in Hennepin County, was the first white visitor to 
Lake IMinnetonka, etc. In 1843 the name of "Dah- 
kota" was changed to Stillwater. St. Paul was laid 
out and named in 1847, but St. Anthony was not reg- 
ularly established until in the spring of 1849. 

In the latter season, Wm. R. [Marshall returned 
from the St. Croix to St. Anthony. It has already 
been stated that he came over in the fall of 1847, 
made a claim, cut some logs for a cabin, but, being 
unable to procure a team to haul them to the site 
selected, he returned to St. Croix. Now he was back 
at St. Anthony, determined to perfect his claim, build 
his cabin and make this his permanent home, and he 
had brought his brother Joseph with him. He soon 
built two houses, and in one of them, which was on 
Llain Street, "above the former residence of John 
Rollins," he and his brother Joe established their 
store, which Gov. Marshall always claimed was the 
first store or merchandising establishment in ^linne- 
apolis; he contended that R. P. Russell's "wheelbar- 
row load of goods" in the Patch residence was not, 
properly speaking, a store. The first weddings, it will 
be remembered, were those of the then young "mer- 
chant princes" of their time, R. P. Russell and Joe 
Marshall, and the two pretty Patch girls. 

W. R. Marshall was a man of various accomplish- 
ments. He was a good land surveyor, and soon after 
his arrival Frank Steele engaged him to survey his 
town niid lay it off into streets, alleys, blocks, and lots. 
Marshall had his own surveyor's compass and chain 
with him, and the work was soon properly done, for 
Marshall was n good surveyor. In his written account 
of his survey on this occasion, made many years sub- 
sequently, he said that he tried to secure good-sized 
lots and wide streets. The lots were generally 66 
feet wide and 16.^ Peet in depth. All the streets were 
80 feet wide. ]\Tain Street, running u]) and down the 
river, was .suiwe.ved as 80 feet wide, liut in places the 
survey did not include certain projections over the 
river bank, and where these unsurveycd portions were 
the street was often 100 feet wide or more. Warner 



& Foote say that [Main Street was "made 100 feet 
wide," by the survey, but this is a mistake. 

The State Historical Society has lately come into 
possession, by purchase, of Gov. [Marshall's plat or 
map of his surve.v of the original town site of St. 
Anthony, or as the plat calls it, "St. xVnthony Falls." 
This document is in fine preservation and not only 
intei-esting but instructive. The certificate attached 
is in Gov. Marshall's handwriting, quite legible, and 
reads : 

"St. Anthony Falls, Oct. 9th, 1849. 

"I hereby certifv that the map hereunto attached is 
a correct plat of a Town survey made by me for 
Arnold W. Taylor, Franklin Steele, and Ai-d God- 
fre.v. Said town being located on sections twentj-- 
three and twent.y-four, in Township No. twenty nine 
north (and) of Range No. twenty-four west of 4th 
Meridian. 

"W. R. Marshall, Surveyor." 

The map was recorded in the office of Hon. Win. 
Holcombe, (afterward Lieutenant Governor, etc.) 
then Register of Deeds "for "Washington County" 
(State or Teri-itory not named) at Stillwater, as per 
his certificate attached : 

"Register of Deeds' Office Count.v of Washington. 

"I hereby certify that the annexed Town Plat of 
St. Anthony Falls, certificate of survey, or acknowl- 
edgment was this day received in this office for record, 
at 6 o'clock P. 'SI., and was thereupon dul.v recorded 
in Book A of Town Plats, on pages 36, 37, and 38. 

"Done at Stillwater, Nov. 10, 1849. 

"W. Holcombe, Register." 

At that date Washington County had been created 
and its seat of justice established at Stillwater just 
14 da.vs; the Territorial Legislature had so enacted 
Oct. 27. Why the survey was recorded at Stillwater 
and not at St. Paul cannot be explained. At that 
day St. Anthony was in Ramsey County, whose county 
seat was St. Paul. 

It will l)e noted in [Marshall's certificate the names 
of Arnold W. Taylor and Ard Godfrey appear as co- 
partners with Mr. Steele in the ownership of the town. 
The truth is that Arnold W. Taylor, whom certain 
[Minneapolis histories call "Mr. Arnold," had pur- 
chased half of [Mr. Steele's interest for $20,000, but 
Ard Godfrey was best known as J\Ir. Steele's mill- 
builder, and certainly not regarded as prominently a 
town proprietor. What his real interest was cannot 
now be said. Mr. Taylor had visited the place the 
previous summer; Seymour saw him there. He was 
a rich Rostonian, and. like many other rich men, had 
imperfections of character which rendered him per- 
sonally disagreeable to others. In January, 1852, Mr. 
Steele was glad to purchase his intei-est in the town 
at an advance of $5,000, paying him $25,000. 

In [Marshall's survey Bottineau's interest is not 
referred to; Wanier & Foote 's History is authority 
for the account, on a subsequent page, of the surve.v 
of his lots. [Marshall's original survey was fourteen 
and one-half blocks up and down the river by four 
blocks back from the river. The streets parallel with 



HISTORY OF .Mii\.\EAl>OLlS AND HENXKIMX COrXTV, MINXIOSOTA 



73 



the river were iu onler. Main, Seeoiid, Third, Fourth, 
<iikI Fifth Streets. Tlie street starting opposite the 
Falls anil running haek from and perpendiculai'ly to 
the river northeasterly was called Cedar Street; it is 
now Third Avenue Southeast. The first street down 
the river from Cedar was Spruee, now Fourth Avenue 
Southeast : then eame in order Spring, Jlaple, Walnut, 
Aspen, Bireh, and Willow, now respectively Fifth, 
Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Avenues 
Southeast. 

Westward or up the river from Cedar Street (now 
Third Avenu: S. E.) and running parallel with it 
were, in order, Pine, I\lill, Bay, Linden, and Oak 
Streets, now respectively Second, First, and Second 
Avenues Southeast, Central Avenue, and P'irst and 
Second, Avenues Northeast. 

BOTTINEAU HAS HIS LOTS "fIXED. '' 

Pierre Bottim-au. the French half-blood, who had 
always been on the Northwestern frontier and had 
never seen a city, and who owned so much of St. 
Anthony realty, outside of the Steele & Arnold sur- 
vey, was impressed with what iMarshall had done for 
Frank Steele's property. He could not read, and 
therefore he had never read of a city and did irot 
know how one was constructed; but he heard Steele 
and ^Marshall and Cheever and others comment on 
^larshall's work, and some months afterward lie said 
to the surveyor: "you .iist take my land and fix him 
same lak ^I'sieu Steele land." Asked for particulars, 
he threw up his hands carelessly and replied: "0, fix 
him lak you please, same lak M'sieu Steele, but do as 
you please." Thereupon Marshall "fixed" it accord- 
ingly. 

Simeon P. Folsom, who had .iust come to the place 
from Prairie du Cliien, after a term of service in the 
Mexican War, had begun a survey before Mai-shall's, 
but it was incomplete, imperfect, and was superseded 
by the new survey. 

MARSHALL NAMES THE TOWN, "sT. ANTHONY FALLS." 

Mr. Steele had already chosen the name of his 
town, as simply St. Anthony; but Marshall added the 
word "Falls" to the designation on the map and it 
was so recorded. ^Marshall claimed that "St. 
Anthony Falls" was already so well known that the 
name would advei'tise the place and at once identify 
its locality. Everybody would know that a town had 
been laid out at the famous cataract. But in time 
Steele said "St. Anthony Falls" wa.s "too big a 
mouthful for a man to spit out at once," and plain 
St. Anthony was better because shorter. 

WILLI A. \I KAINEV MARSHALL. 

Marsliall was far above mediocrity as a man and as 
a character. He was l)orn in Boone County, ]\Io., but 
mainly reared in Illinois. lie was largely self-edu- 
cated, had acquired book-keeping and a knowledge of 
busines.s, had "picked up" sui-veying and civil engi- 
neering, and l(iuxned much else by reading and private 



study, lie liad been a farmer in Illinois, a lead miner 
at Galena and in Wisconsin, a hnnbernian on the St. 
Croix, was elected to the Wisconsin Legislature in 
18-48, and when he came to St. Anthony he was well 
prepared to tight the battle of life tliere or anywhere. 
Long afterward, when he had been Legislator, Com- 
missioner, colonel, brevet-brigadier. Governor, etc., he 
described, in a public address, (which was printed) 
his imi)ressions of his first view of St. Anthony Falls 
after he had hiked over from the St. Croix, with his 
kuajisack on his back, to see them : 

"When, with weary feet, I stood at last, in the 
afternoon of that day, on the brink of the Falls, I 
saw them in all their beauty and gi'andeur, unmarred 
by the hand of man, and in such beauty of nature as 
no one has seen them in the past 22 years. As the 
light of the fast-declining sun of tliat autumn day 
liathed the tops ol" the trees and the summits of the 
gentle hills and left the shadows of tlii; wooded islands 
darkling the waters, and as the plunging, seething, 
deafening Falls .sent up the mist and set its raiidiow 
arching tiie scene, I was tilled with a sense of the awe- 
inspiring in nature such as I have rarely since ex- 
perienced. At that time (October, 1847) two or three 
claim shanties were the onl.y human habitations 
there." 

Governor IMarsliall was a|)parently a meek and 
mild-maniiei'ed man. as gentle as a woman an<i as 
.sweet-voiced as a girl. But his stout arms and hard 
fists had carried him safel.y and triumi)haiitly through 
the battling lead miners of Galena, and he came to 
St. Anthony just after he had licked Jim Purrington, 
the bully of the St. Croix. Moreover, when he be- 
came Colonel of the Seventh Minnesota, he charged 
the Indians, sword in hand, at Wood Lake and rode 
them down and afterward captured hundreds at Wild 
Goose Nest Lake; and when be went South to Nash- 
ville and Tupelo he raged in battle like a son of 
thunder. In the attack on Mobile he received a grisl.v 
wound in the neck from a Confederate musket ball ;' 
yet, when the surgeons had bound it uj), he mounted 
his horse, and in liis capacity of general iu command 
i;f a division galloped at the head of his men scjuare 
up against the Confederate lino and disposed them 
for the fighting. This was the man that laid out 
St. Anthony, opened its first store, and made so many 
good fights for the town in its early existence. 

At different jieriods Gov. ^Marshall was prominent 
as a business man. He was a merchant, a baidcer, a 
real estate dealer, a iiewsj)aper pi-opriiitor and editor, 
etc. He was in ill health in the later years of his life 
and died at Pasadena, California, Jan. 8. 18!)(>. He 
was buried in Oakland Cemetery, St. Paul. 

THE FIRST FERRY. 

Meanwhile another important feature of improve- 
ment had been added to St. Anthony. For a long 
time the only means of crossing the river directly 
at the Falls was by fording on the ledge at the foot 
of Nicollet Island, and this could be done only at 
low wafer and b(>fore the dam was built. The cur- 
rent was swift and horses recpiired sharp shoes to 



74 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



prevent their slipping on tlie rocks. At Boom Island 
the current was less rapid, and here crossings were 
made in canoes. One old Indian woman, of Cloud 
Man's band, who, however, lived near the Govern- 
ment Mill and was noted for her skill in catching 
fish, ferried many persons across the river at this 
point in her log canoe. 

In 1847 Mr. Steele established the first ferry. It 
ran only between Nicollet Island and the west bank. 
Teams wishing to cross from the east side had to fol- 
low the ledge of the cataract to the foot of Nicollet 
Island, and thence up the Island to the feriy landing. 
The ferry was a fiatboat attached to a rope stretched 
across the stream and fastened to large posts at either 
end. The boat was constructed at Fort Snelling of 
lumber brought fi-om the St. Croix. The ferry was 
of great convenience in crossing the river between 
Fort Snelling and St. Anthony, and as time passed 
became indispensable. 

R. P. Russell, as Steele's agent, took charge of the 
ferry, whose track across the river was sulistantially 
where afterward was the route of the suspension 
bridge, and a little hut was built for the ferryman 
on the island. The first ferryman was a voyageur 
from the Fort named Dubois, (some Minneapolis 
histories call him "Dubey.") Edgar Folsom, a 
brother of Simeon P., came late in the fall of 1847, 
and the next summer took charge of the ferry and 
with the help of an employe ran it one season. He 
met with so many mishaps that he was quite dis- 
gusted with the business. On one occasion the boat 
rope threw him twenty feet into an ice-pack, and he 
nearly lost his life. 

At another time (and this story is vouched for as 
true) Miss Sallie B. Bean, the daughter of Reuben 
Bean, who lived at the old mill, on the west side, 
Mas out in her canoe above the falls. She was raised 
on the Illinois river and knew how to manage a 
canoe, but this time she lost her paddle and her little 
craft floated against the ferry rope. In an instant 
she was struggling for her life in the deep water. 
However she contrived to clutch the rope to which 
she clung until Folsom paddled out in anotlier canoe 
and rescued her. 

ESCAPES DEATH AND M.iTRIMONY. 

When he had borne lier safely ashore, Folsom 
nervily said to the girl that he thought she ought 
to marry him as a reward for having saved her life. 
"But for me you would have drowned," he said; 
"for you could hardly have saved yourself." Folsom 
was quite plain featured, and gazing at him a moment 
the satiric damsel, with aifeeted alarm, exclaimed: 
"0, put me liaek on the rope!" 

The incident became known and Folsom soon re- 
signed. He was succeeded by Captain John Tap- 
per, of noble memory, (and who died recently), and 
who operated it until the ]>ridge was built, in which 
work he assisted, and then he was given charge of 
the bridge and collected lolls on it for several years. 

In her usually correct narration of early incidents 
in her book "Floral Homes," (p. 203) Miss Harriet 



E. Bishop says that Miss Bean's father rescued her. 
Editor Goodhue, of the Minnesota Pioneer, got the 
particulars, from first hands. He was a member 
of Judge Meeker's grand jury which convened at the 
Government Mill in the summer of 1849 and took 
dinner at the hospitable table of Reuben Bean, in 
the little hut adjoining the Mill. From the family he 
obtained the details of the incident and thus related 
them in the next issue (August 16, 1849,) of the 
Pioneer : 

A Fortunate Rrsnir. 

"A few days since Miss S. E. Bean, a young lady 
residing on the west side of the Falls, experienced a 
scene of romantic peril. She left home for the school 
which she attends on the east side of the river. When 
she arrived at the ferry, the young man usually in 
attendance was absent ; she, therefore, took the canoe 
and proceeded alone. When about two-thirds of the 
way across the stream, a flaw of wind somehow car- 
ried away her paddle, leaving her helpless. A short 
distance below the ferry the current, which is every- 
where rapid, begins to accelerate in its descent 
towards the Falls, M'hich are only a few rods below. 
Had it not been for the ferry rope, which is stretched 
from shore to shore. Miss Bean must inevitably 
been carried to a swift destruction ; for the boat, 
after descending a short distance, was seized up by 
the rope and received such a jerk and lifting up that 
the young lady M'as thrown into the dangerous water. 
In an instant, however, she seized the rope and saved 
herself from either sinking or being swept over the 
Falls. She nerved her strength to the occasion, and 
even worked her way along the rope for some five rods. 
Wlien her strength was almost exhausted, Mr. Edgar 
Folsom, the ferryman, arrived with a boat and saved 
her." 

THE BOOM OP 1849. 

St. Anthony grew very steadily, even during the 
winter of 1849, and in the spring advanced rapidly. 
Stanchfield says that before Gov. Ramsey, the new 
Territorial Governor, proclaimed the organization of 
Minnesota Territory, which was June 1, 1849, "a busy 
town had grown up called St. Anthony, built mostly 
by New England immigrants and presenting the ap- 
pearance of a thriving New England village." 
Steele 's mill ran day and night in order to supply the 
demands for lumber for houses, which were going up 
all over the place. They were built chiefly of green 
pine lumber; there was no time to wait for it to 
become seasoned. When dry lumber had to lie used 
it was hauled across from Stillwater. Carpentei-s 
and other skilled workmen, as well as common labor- 
ers, were scarce, for Steele's mill company employed 
all that could possibly be used on the mill improve- 
ments. 

When river navigation opened in 1849 immigrants 
came in what for the time was considered gi-eat num- 
l)ers. They came to St. Paul by steamboat, and then 
in vehicles to St. Anthony, for at that date St. Paul 
was the head of navigation. Both St. Paul and St. 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Anthony doubled their improvements and popuhition 
iu KS4!I. At St. Anthony among tlie new improve- 
ments was a store in a fairly sized imildiug ureeted by 
Daniel Stanehfield, who put in a general stock of 
merchandise and did a thriving business. Anson 
Northruj) cnmmeiioed the erection of the St. Charles 
Hotel and linished it. the following year; in 1848 he 
had built the American House, (first called the Rice 
House) at St. Paul, and it was opened iu June, 1849. 

Minnesota's governmental machinery is set up. 

As has been stated the last official act of President 
James K. Polk, on the night of .March ;3, 1849, was the 
signing of the bill creating Jlinne-sota Territoiy. Polk 
was a Democrat, but his administration did not last 
long enough to allow him to appoint members of his 
party as officers of the new Territory. The incoming 
Whig President. Gen. Zachar.y Taylor, attended to 
the selection of the officials, with the result that they 
were all Whigs. He appointed Alexander Ramsey, 
an ex-member of Congress from Pennsylvania, to the 
position of Territorial Governor; Chas. K. Smith, of 
Ohio, Secretary; Henry L. ^loss, of Stillwater, Dis- 
trict Attorney; Col. Alexander M. Mitchell, of Ohio, 
Marslial ; Aaron Goodrich, of Tennessee, Ciiief Justice 
of the Territorial Court, and David Cooper, of Penii- 
sylvania, and Bradley B. Meeker, of Kentucky, As- 
sociate Justices. The Territory was divided into three 
districts, and each Judge presided over a district. 
In cases of appeal all three of the Judges sat en 
banc; but in every such case the Judge whose deci- 
sion' had been appealed from took no part in the 
final decision. 

All of the appointees reached the scene of their 
duties in proper course. The Governor and his wife 
arrived at St. Paul, ilay 27, but suitable quarters 
could not be found for them in the village which, 
according to Editor Goodhue, ((luoted iu Williams' 
History, p. 208) had but 30 buildings in April, 
although Seymour says (p. 99 of his sketches) that 
in Juue he counted 142. Governor and Mrs. Ramse.y, 
liy cordial invitation, were for some weeks the guests 
of ;\Fi-. and ilrs. Sibley in the historic old Sibley house 
(still preserved by the Daughters of the American 
Revolution) at .Mendota. The fii-st Governor's man- 
sion was a small frame cottage on West Third Street, 
St. Paul, (which afterward became the noted hotel 
called the New England House) and was first oc- 
cupied June 25, 1849.* 

June 1 (iov. Ramsey and the Judicial officers pre- 
pared and published the celebrated "First of June 
I'roclamation," which announced that Territorial 
officers had been appointed and had assumed their 
duties, and also declared: "Said Territorial Govern- 
ment is declared to be organized and established, and 



* St. Paul secured ttie Territorial Capital only by the efforts 
of Dole^ato Sibley. He prepared and introduced the organic 
act in which St. Paul was designated as the seat of govern- 
ment; but Senator Douglas, who had charge of the bill in 
Congress, struck out St. Paul, and inserted Mendota. He had 
visited the Territory and thought Pilot Knob w(ndd lie a fine 
site for a State House. It was with difficulty tliat Sibley 
ijiduced him to consent to the change to St. Paul. 



all persons are enjoined to obey, conform to, and re- 
spect the laws thereof accordingly." June 11, the 
Governor divided the Territory into three judicial 
districts. St. Anthony was iu the Second Di.strict; 
Associate Justice Meeker was appointed the Judge 
and ordered to hold court "at the Falls of St. 
Anthony" on the third Monday in August and Feb- 
ruary following. The boiuidaries of the district by 
political divisions could not be given, because there 
were no such divisions then. 

THE first BOI'ND.UUKS OF MINNESOTA. 

When Minnesota was made a Territory the boun- 
daries were more comprehensive than at present. The 
Territory lay between the St. Croix River on the east 
and the Missouri on the west, and between the Cana- 
dian boundary on the north and the Iowa line on the 
south, including, however, a great part of what is now 
South Dakota down to the Mi.ssouri River and east- 
ward to Sioux City. The southern boundary was as 
at present except that from the northwest corner of 
Iowa the line extended "southerly along the western 
boundary of said State to the point where said boun- 
dary strikes the Missouri River." 

The western boundary ran from Sioux City up the 
middle of tiie I\Iissouri to the mouth of the northern 
White Earth River (about 60 miles east of Fort 
Buford, or the western line of North Dakota), and 
thence up that river to the British boundary. The 
northern and eastern lines were as at present. The 
area of the entire Territory was about 150.000 square 
miles, or 90,000,000 acres in extent; but of this vast 
area less than a million acres were open to white 
settlement. 

THE FIRST CEXSfS. 

Pursuant to a provision in the Organic Act, the 
Governor ordered John Morgan, then sheriff of St. 
Croix County, to take an accurate enumeration of 
all the inhabitants within the Territoiy June 11, full- 
blood Indians excepted. The census was to include 
mixed-blood people who were living "in civilization," 
and to exclude those living in barbarism. The sheriff 
and his deputies worked hard, and some of them trav- 
eled far, in the prosecution of their duties, but doubt- 
less their work was quite inaccurate. Animated them- 
selves and stinuilated and encouraged by everybody 
to boom the Territory, their count by no means under- 
stated the population. 

The returns showed a population in the entire Ter- 
ritoiy of 3,058 males ami l.TOB females a total of 
4,764. ITnfortunately St. Anthony was counted with 
Little Canada, the French settlement north of St. 
Paul. The aggregate population of St. Anthony and 
Little Canada was 352 males and 219 females, or 571 
in all. 

The census gave St. Paul a white and mixed blood 
population of 840; Stillwater, 609; Pembina, 637; 
Crow Wing, both sides of the river, 244; Wabashaw 
and Root River, 114; Fort Snelling, 38; ^Fendota. 122; 
soldiers, women, and children in Forts Snelling and 
Ripley, 317, etc.. etc. 



76 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



As stated, St. Anthony and Little Canada, being 
in one election district, were counted together. In 
taking the census only the names of the heads of 
households were recorded; the number of inmates of 
each household was given numerically, by sexes, thus : 
"Calvin A. Tuttle, 4 males, 2 females; total 6." 

The following is from the Journals of the Ter- 
ritorial Council and House for 1849 — the Council 
Joui-nal printed by McLean & Owens and the House 
Journal by J. M. Goodhue, bound in one volume — and 
is believed to be a list of the families and heads of 
households in each in the St. Anthony sub-district 
of the Third Council District, on June 11, 1849, when 
the first census was taken : 

Heads of Households. Males. Females. Total. 

Calvin A. Tuttle 4 2 6 

E. P. Lewis 4 2 6 

C. A. Loomis 5 3 8 

Beuj. La Fou 2 2 4 

Edmond Brisette 3 3 6 

Charles Mousseau 7 4 11 

John Reynolds 7 3 10 

Ard Godfrey 43 7 50 

Wm. Marat 3 3 6 

Wm. D. Getchell 5 4 9 

S. Huse 7 5 12 

R. FimieU 10 5 15 

Daniel Stanchfield 4 4 

John Stanchfield 2 2 

G. M. Lowe 4 1 5 

A. E. C 7 3 10 

Rondo, (?) 5 3 8 

Joseph Reasche 6 5 11 

Peter Bottineau 17 5 22 

Michel Reasche 1 2 3 

John Banfil 7 2 9 

Wm. Line 3 1 4 

Wm. Freeborn 5 3 8 

Alex. Paul 4 3 7 



Heads of Households. 

Louis Auge 

Saml. J. PMudlay . . . 



Males. Females. Total. 
.... 4 6 10 

.... 4 3 7 



173 



80 



253 



Thus there were 26 households with an average 
of nearly 10 to the household. 

Of the foregoing it is known that several of the 
heads of households lived beyond the confines of St. 
Anthony. Charles Mousseau lived on the shore of 
Lake Harriet on the west side of the river, on the 
claim which had been occupied by the missionary 
brothers, Gideon H. and Saml. W. Pond, nearly 15 
years before. "Rondo," if it was Joseph Rondo that 
was meant, lived east of the village, as did William 
Marat, (or Marette. ) Louis Auge (pronounced 
0-zhay) and Saml. J. Findlay also lived on the west 
side, well down toward Fort Snelling. Benj. La 
Fou's residence may be considered doubtful. His 
name appears twice in the list of householders of the 
combined precincts, and he lived out Little Canada 
way. He and his household were counted twice. 

Circumstantial evidence indicates that the entire 
census of the Territory was "padded" largely and 
even shamefulh*. St. Anthony was not an excep- 
tion. It is difficult to believe that the little log cabins 
of the village accommodated an average of 10 per- 
sons to the cabin. Ard Godfrey is given 43 males, 
mill-hands or lumbermen : it is said he had only 25. 

FIRST POSTOFFICK AT ST. ANTHONY. 

In 1848 the population of the village of St. Anthony 
had increased until a postoffice %\;as demanded and 
made necessary. A petition to the National Postoffice 
Department was favorably considered ami the office 
established. T^pon the recommendation of Frank 
Steele, and nearly every citizen of the village. Ard 
Godfrey. Steele's millwright, was appointed post- 
master, and he held the position until in 1850. 



CHAPTER IX. 
PRIMITIVE SCENES AND CONDITIONS. 

ANTHONY IN ITS FIKST DAYS AS DESCRIBED BY WRITERS AND ACTUAL KESIDENTS E. S. SEYMOUR, THE NOTED 

NORTHW-ESTEBN TRAVELER AND DESCRIPTIVE WRITER, PRESENTS WORD PAINTINGS OF THE LITTLE FRONTIER VIL- 
LAGE IN IS'ia — EDITOR GOODUUE, OP THE FIRST illNN ESOTA NEWSPAPER, MAKES THE FIRST PRINTED MENTION 
OF THE TOWN ONE OP THE FIRST L.\DY RESIDENTS GI VES REMINISCENCES OF PIONEER DAYS AND DOINGS. 



Very early in its career, when there were but a few 
log ealiiiis on the site, descriptive writers visited St. 
Anthouy and its noted Falls and made thein known to 
the outside world. 

SEYMOUR DESCRIBES ST. ANTHONY IN 1849. 

In the summer of 1849 Mr. E. Sanford Seymour, of 
• ialena, an accomplished writer, (died in 1852) visited 
.Minnesota and spent several weeks in the vicinity of 
St. Paul and St. Anthony. In his volume of 
"Sketches of ^linuesota," printed in 1850. lie de- 
scribes (on page 120 et seq. ) the situation at St. An- 
thony in the summer of 1849 : 

" * <f * "VYe spent the forenoon in examining the 
curiosities about the Falls. The river at this point is 
627 yards in width, and is divided into two unequal 
channels by Cataract Island, which extends several 
rods above and below the Falls, and is about 100 yards 
wide. This is an elevated, rocky island, covered with 
trees and shrulibery. At the upper end of this island 
a dam is thrown across the eastern channel, so that a 
larger portion of the river flows through the western 
channel, wliieh is about 310 yards wide. There the 
rapids fommence many rods above the pei-pendicular 
fall, the water foaming and boiling with great vio- 
lence whenever it meets a rock or other obstruction. 
Reaching the verge of the i-ataract, it precipitates it- 
self perpendicularly about 16 feet. * * * 

■"The upper rock over which the water flows and 
falls is limestone, several feet in thickness. It rests 
upon a crumbling sandstone, whose ijarticles are so 
slightly cemented together that it is with diflficulty a 
solid specimen can be obtained. The water enters the 
extensive rents which cross the strata aluive the Falls, 
gradually waslu's out the particles of sand on wliich 
the limestone ledge rests, causes these particles to 
loo.scn and sink, and then huge blocks are detached 
and pi-ecipitated into the rapids beneath. This sand- 
stone is more easily wa.shed away than the shale under 
Niagara Falls. 

"These Falls were named liy Father Hennepin for 
bis patron saint. Saint Anthony of Padua. They are 
appropriately I'alled by the Chippewas 'K;di-Kali-be- 
Kah' or severed rock, and the Sioux call them, 
'Hkah-hkah,' from 'e-kah-kah,' to laugh." 

Here aa well as elsewhere it may be said that the 
Sioux did not name the Falls from their name for 



the verb to laugh ; they named them from their phrase 
for waterfalls, or water that falls and then takes a 
curling or w'hirling motion. In very many instances 
a Sioux noun in the plural is described by a double 
adjective of description. I'ah-shah means red head; 
but the Sioux for red heads, or more than one head, is 
pah shah-shah. The Sioux word for curl is hkah, 
which is difficult of pronunciation because of the 
hawking sound involved. The Sioux for water that 
falls and curls is ilinne hkah — that is water consid- 
ered in the singular number. Water composing a 
falls or cataract is considered in the plural, and the 
phra.se for a cataract, a rapids, or a waterfall is 
Minne hkah-hkah. 

The Sioux called the Falls of St. Anthony, ".Minne- 
likali-liknh." meaning, "where the curling and whirl- 
ing waters fall." The old Sioux now in the State 
still call them, and even Jlinneapolis, by the old name. 
They called and still call, the Chippewas, "Hkah- 
hkah Ton wan," or the Falls People, "Hkah-hkah," 
meaning waterfalls, or rapids, and "Tonwan" mean- 
ing people or village. When they first knew the Chi])- 
pewas the latter lived at the Falls, or Rapids, of Sault 
Ste. Marie, or St. :\lary's Falls, and the name given 
them then was always used. 

The l)eautiful and now celebrated little waterfall 
called Minnehaha — interpreted by those who don't 
know the Sioux language as meaning "laughing 
water," — was of course known to the old Sioux, hut 
they had no distinctive name for it, simply calling it. 
"minne-hkah che-stina, " or the little waterfall — che- 
.stina (accent on first syllable) means little. The Sioux 
word for laugh, as a verb, is e-khah, accent on first 
syllable. Laughing water in Sioux is Minue-e-hkah. 
St. -Vnthony Falls is the true "Minne-hkah-hkah" — 
or "Minnehaha." (See Riggs's or Williamson's Dic- 
tionaries of the Sioux Language.) 

Further describing conditions at St. Anthony, Mr. 
Seymour wrote : 

"There are various opinions with regard to tiie 
practicability of improving the river for .steamboat 
navigation to within a .short distance of the Falls. 
St. Anthony City, on the east side of the river, about 
a mile below the Falls, and l)elow the worst rapids, has 
been laid out with a view probably of its ultimately 
being the head of navigation : but the more general 
opinion seems to be that the improvement of the river 
to that point will be attended with too much expense 



77 



78 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, illNNESOTA 



to be attempted before the country above shall have 
become quite populous. * « « 

"A dam is thrown across the eastern channel from 
the main laud to the upper end of the island, a dis- 
tance of about 400 feet, and extending thence up 
stream about 350 feet to another island above, thus 
forming the two sides of a right-angled triangle, and 
affording, in the present stage of low water, an excel- 
lent promenade. The foundation on which the dam 
is constructed is a smooth limestone rock, presenting 
at its surface a level plane or floor, to which the tim- 
ber is attached by bolts, and the structure thus formed 
seems capable of resisting the utmost violence of the 
waters. This horizontal plane of limestone rock occu- 
pies the bed of the channel from the dam to the per- 
pendicular fall, some forty rods below, and affords 
an excellent foundation for the erection of mills. The 
dam is so constructed as to admit of 18 flumes, extend- 
ing at regular intervals along its course and capable 
of propelling 18 saws or other machinery. Two saws 
are now in operation and cutting at the lowest esti- 
mate, 13.000 feet of lumber daily. The head obtained 
at the low-est stage of water is eight feet. 

"Mr. Steele, the principal proprietor, informed me 
that he made a claim here in 1837. The improvement 
of the water power was commenced in the autumn of 
1847, and the saws commenced running in the autumn 
of 1848. The land, including the town-site and the 
water power, was entered at the I". S. Land Office last 
summer (1848) by ^Mr. Steele, at $1.25 per acre, under 
his claim or pre-emption. The expense of the im- 
provements are estimated by him at •'^35,000. Mr. 
A. W. Taylor, of Boston, who is here to-day, has re- 
centlv purchased one of the water powers for about 
$20,000. 

"The mill has not been able to supply the demand 
for lumber, which is taken as fast as it can be sawed 
at $12 per thousand feet for clear stuff and $10 for 
common. The logs were obtained this season on Rum 
and Crow Wing Rivers, which are tributaries of the 
Mis.sissippi. Pine timber is said to abound on the 
upper tributaries of the latter river in inexhaustible 
quantities. 

"Two long and narrow i.slands extending from the 
western end of the dam nearly a mile up the river 
form a secure harbor or mill-pond for an immense 
immber of logs. Another dam might be constructed 
below the other, across the eastern cliannel. where 
there is a perpendicular fall of 12 feet or more. 

"The land on the ojyposite side of the river is in- 
cluded in the military reservation of Fort Snelling: 
a house and mills were erected here for the use of tlie 
garrison nearly thirty years aso. They were formerly 
protected by a sergeant's guard, [five men] but have 
not been occupied recently. It is currently reported 
here tliat Hon. R(il)ert Smitli. of Illinois, has leased 
this propert\' of the Ceneral Government for a ti'fin 
of years, and that lie intends to put the mills in 
operation," 

There are iiulications tliat when Mr. Seymour was 
here in 1849 he was writing a .series of letters de- 
scriptive of the Minnesota country, probably to an 
Eastern iournal. and that a compilation of these 



sketches made up his "Sketches of Minnesota," a most 
admirable publication in every way. The expressions 
"to-day," "this moniing."' and the like, are common 
in the author's descriptions: apparently he neglected 
to omit them when he transferred his sketches to book 
form. Of St. Anthony in June-, 1849, he writes: 

' ' Saint Anthony, which is laid out on the east bank 
of the ^lississippi, directly opposite the cataract, is 
a beautiful town-site, A handsome elevated prairie, 
with a gentle inclination toward the river bank, aud 
of sufficient width for several parallel streets, extends 
indefinitely up and down the river. In the rear of 
this another bench of table land swells up some 30 feet 
high, forming a beautiful and elevated plateau. A 
year ago there was only one | ?] house here ; now there 
are about a dozen new^ framed buildings, including a 
store [^Marshall's] and a hotel, [Northi'up's] nearly 
completed. During the summer it is expected that a 
large number of houses will be erected. Lots are sold 
by the proprietor [Frank Steele] with a clause in the 
deed prohibiting the retail of ardent spirits on the 
premises [for two years]. 

"Saint Anthony is eight miles from St. Paul aud 
about the same distance from Meudota. It will prob- 
ably be connected with the former place at no very 
di.stant day by a railroad; its manufacturing 
facilities will soon render such an improvement 
indispensable. 

"Taking into consideration the amount of fall, the 
volume of water, the facility with which the water 
power may be appropriated, and the beautiful coun- 
try by which it is surrounded, its proximity to the 
head of 20,000 miles of steamboat navigation in the 
Mississippi vallej', and lastly its location in a healthy 
climate, there is not perhaps a superior water-power 
site in the United States than that of St, Anthony. 
That it will cventuallij Ixcome a grrat manufacturing 
toivii there is no doubt. Water-power in ilinnesota 
is abundant, but this at St, Anthony is so extensive 
aud so favorably situated, that it will invite a concen- 
tration of mechanical talent and of population where- 
by the jiecessary facilities for profitable manufactur- 
ing will be abundantly afforded. It is not, indeed, 
expected that a Lowell, of musliroom growth, will 
spriiig up here in a day ; such a state of things, if prac- 
ticable, is not desirable. But let the town only keep 
pace with the country and a- cify will spring up in 
these 'polar regions,' (as some people choose to call 
this country) sooner than is anticipated." 

Jlr. Se\-mour's predictions regarding the future 
of St. Anthony were tjie first of the kind made and 
published by a visitor. He lived to see them abun- 
dantly fulfilled. His description of the country too 
was remarkably accurate, as well as intere.stingly 
portrayed. 

HE SEES CHIEF HOLE IN THE D.\Y. 

While Mr. Seymour was at St. Anthony thr.-e 
Chippewa chiefs from Crow Wing River were there 
and he saw them and interviewed them. They came 
down to collect from Daniel Stanchfield the 50 cents 
per pine tree which he. as the agent of Mr. Steele, had 



HISTORY OF .MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



79 



promisftl to pay tiu'iii whi'ii the year before they were 
logging on the Crow Wing. Mr. Seymour writes: 

' ■ Three chiefs of the Chippewa tribe are iiere today 
from Crow Wing Kiver. They have had some diffi- 
culty with a person | Stanehficld] who has been en- 
gaged (hiring the past winter in cutting pine logs on 
their land for which a stipulated sum was to be paid. 
They detained the logs and have come down to ar- 
range tile matter. One of them (Hole in the Day) 
was dressed in a fine broadcloth frock coat, red leggins 
and moccasins, a line shirt, a fashionable fur hat, with 
a narrow brim antl surmounted l)y a hirge and beauti- 
ful military plume. About ")() silver trinkets were sus- 
pended from each ear. He held in his hand a pipe 
made of red pipestoue, which had a woodeu stem 
about four feet long.'' 

SEYMOUR SEES MORE. 

In the latter part of June (1849) Mr. Seymour 
and a companion set out in a spring-wagon from St. 
Paul for Sauk Rapids and other points on the upper 
Mississippi. At that date Willoughby & Powers ran 
a three-seated open spring-wagon on daily trips be- 
tween St. Paul and St. Anthony — Seymour calls it 
an '"open stage" — and there was no pu.blic convey- 
ance farther northward; but freight wagons, in con- 
siderable numbers, were always on the road betu'eeji 
St. Paul and Port Gaines, (afterward called Fort Rip- 
ley) on the east side of the river, six miles below the 
mouth of Crow AVing. 

St. Anthony liad no hotels or "taverns" then. Un- 
less a traveler met with a hospitable settler willing to 
share his crowded ([uarters, he had to "camp out." 
In all eases where a settler furnished entertainment 
be made no charge for it, although there was great 
complaint then at the high cost of living; for corn 
was .$1 per busliel, oats 50 cents, flour $11 a barrel, 
butter 3714 ceuts a pound, eggs 25 cents a dozen, but 
pork was only $6 a hundred and venison and other 
"wild meat" were very cheap. 

Passing by St. Anthony, on the road up the eastern 
bank of the river about three miles, Seymour says he 
saw a few houses and cultivated farms. Leaving the 
river he struck out northeast over Cold Spring Prairie 
for John Banfjl's house, or "tavei-n" whicli was eight 
miles from St. Anthony, on Rice Creek, near its ,iunc- 
tion with the Mississippi, and became the site of Frid- 
ley. Banfil had a big house, for the times, and a large 
framed barn, lint every night his house was filled 
with travelers and his barn, although it had stalls for 
4n horses, was overflowing. lie told Seymour that 
often 20 horses and nuiles had to stand out of doors 
all night liecanse there was no room for them. These 
teams belonged to freight wagons which were engaged 
in hauling troods and supplies to the upper country, 
and thcii- drivers wei-e. for the most part, the people 
that crowded the house. 

Between Banfll's and Sauk Rapids all of the few 
houses were "stojiping places" where the traveler 
might find food and shelter. At Antoine Robert's 
Rum River Ferry there was a log cabin occupied by 
Robert him.self and \Vm. Dahl. lioth liaclielors. This 



cabin was a tavern, too. Here is the site of Auoka, 
and it is said tluit Robert's cabin was the first house 
in the place. The tavern had no beds, and guests slept 
on the floor, using their own blankets. 

Cokl Spring Prairie, before mentioned, was named 
from a remarkable spring of water in the Mississippi, 
at the Prairie's eastern border. It boiled up, from a 
considerable depth, within a foot or so from the 
water's edge, and with such force that it threw up 
gravel and pebbles. It made a roaring, luibbling noise 
clearly audible 200 feet away. The spring was ten 
feet in diameter, and its water, wliere not mingled 
with that of the ^Mississippi, was ice-cold. Seymour 
caught a handful of pebbles as they were throwu up 
b}- the spring. 

Seymour weut ou up to Sauk Rapids, stopped at 
Gilmau's famous old frontier hotel, wliich was 
crowded with guests, and returned to Simeon P. Fol- 
som's hotel, on Elk River. Folsom iuid been at St. 
Anthony for some time and made the prelinnnary 
survey of the place, but his survey was afterward 
supplanted by J\Iarshall 's. Subsequeutly he was a 
surveyor and prominent citizen of St. Paul. 

FIRST NEWSPAPER IN MINNESOTA. 

The first newspaper in Minnesota was called the 
Jlinnesota Pioneer, and tlie first lumiber was issued 
at St. Paul, April 28. 1849. Under all the circum- 
stances the paper was a very creditable publication 
and did very much indeed to adverti.se Minnesota 
Territory; twice as many copies of every issue were 
mailed to persons in other States as were sent to local 
subscribers. 

Its editor and proprietor, James Madison Goodhue 
(for whom the county was named) was a scholar, a 
lawyer, and an accomplished writer, and in every 
number of his paper he set forth in attractive lan- 
guage the advantages presented by ^Minnesota to iiome- 
seekers and investors. He wrote without dictation 
from any one and had no master or boss. He had no 
mercy on bad men and their schemes and denounced 
them vigorously, and if he believed a man to be a 
thief or a scoundrel of any sort, he did not hesitate to 
say so — and he very often felt imi)elled to say so! 
He always had sometliing good to say of Minnesota — 
not something foolishly extravagant and ovei' lauda- 
tory, btit something that was plausible and convinc- 
ing and rang true. Hence what he said about the 
country was believed, ami as a publicity agent he and 
his paper did a great deal of good for the Territory 
at a very snudl expense. 

Goodhue's "^linnesota Pioneer" did nnich for St. 
Antho)iy at an early day. As soon as there was any- 
thing to be .said about the village, the ]iaper said it. 
The first Fourth of July celebration in the Territory 
was in 1849. and held at St. Paul. All outlying set- 
tlements particiiiated. There was a iirocession, ora- 
tions, etc., and at night a "grand ball" at the Amer- 
ican House. The Pioneer noted that St. Anthony con- 
tril)uted to the celebration. Franklin Steele was mar- 
shal of the day and W. R. Marshall one of tlie man- 
agers of the ball. 



80 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



GOODHl'E S MINNESOTA PIONEER BOOSTS ST. ANTHONY. 

In its issue of August 9, 1849. the Pioneer contained 
a two-column article di-seriptive of St. Anthony, the 
Palls, and general surroundings, and this paper, 
which was written by Editor Goodhue himself, was 
certainly of advantage to the place. Describing the 
mills, the paper said: 

"A very large sawmill, capable of making 2,000.000 
ft. of lumber per annum, has been erected, and 
another mill of the most substantial and thorough 
description is in process of erection. It is the plan of 
the proprietors to erect mills enough to employ 18 
or 20 saws, besides using all the water necessary for 
other machinery. For the present, lumber will be 
the leading interest of the i^lace. The saws went into 
operation last autnnni. and have had no rest since, 
night or day, except Sundays, and yet the demand for 
lumber at the Palls and at St. Paul has not nearly 
been supplied. But, however many mills may be 
built, there will not be a sufficient supply of lumber 
for years to keep pace with the growth of ^linnesota 
and our wants for building and fencing material." 

Of the pine woods to the north and the consequent 
supply of material for the mills to work upon, the 
article was sure that: — 

"There is no ground for apprehending a want of 
mill logs; for between the Palls of St. Anthony and 
the Pokagamon Palls [now near Grand Rapids and 
spelled Pokegama] which are said to be [but incor- 
rectly so] practically another St. Anthony, 400 miles 
north — is a vast body of pine timber, perhaps the 
most extensive in the world, and into which the axe 
has as j'et made no inroads. This region of pines is 
watered by the Crow Wing River, the Rabbit, and the 
Pine Rivers, and many other streams, and embosoms 
in its sombre shades of evergi-een trees Winnipic 
Lake, Ca.ss Lake. Leech Lake, Pokagamon Lake, and 
many other fine sheets of water. The pine region is 
also interspersed with many tracts of fine, rich lands 
which are destined to be cultivated and inhabited." 

John Rollins 's steamboat had not then been built. 
but the Mississippi above the Palls was being navi- 
gated, for the writer said : 

"Prom the Palls of St. Anthony to Sauk Rapids 
the Fur Company has already opened navigation. 
Boats have been constructed this season, under the 
direction of Mr. Henry M. Rice, for towing. A tow- 
path has been prepared, and a boat towed by two 
horses has made several trips, loaded each trip with 
100 barrels of flour. Mr. Rice thinks (he steamboat 
Senator could run the same trip, even as far as 
Pokagamon Falls; the only obstruction is a few 
boulders at Sauk Rapids, which could easily be re- 
moved in low water. If the experiment, which is 
about to be made, of running boats above the St. 
Peter's to the foot of the Palls shall succeed, there 
will then be only a mile or two of interruption to 
navigation [at St. .\nthony] between St. Louis and 
Pokagamon Palls." 

The editor was favorably impressed with the ap- 
pearance of the place, declaring that : — 

"The beauty of scenery at St. Anthony cannot be 



exaggerated. We are particularly delighted with that 
bench of table land back of Water Street, some 30 
feet high, running parallel with the river and from 
which one ovei-looks the Island and the Palls. Along 
this bench a row of houses has sprung into existence 
since our last visit. A healthier spot than St. 
Anthony cannot be found. Most of its inhabitants 
are from the lumber regions of ilaiue and are people 
of industry. energj% and enterprise. Those who are 
loafers and tipplers will find no encouragement at 
St. Anthony. Every person there works for a living. 
There is not a grog shop in town." 

Sketching the place historically — and becoming 
thereby its first historian — jMr. Goodhue wrote: 

"The water power here was first claimed by Mr. 
Franklin Steele twelve years ago [or in 1837.] Mr. 
Steele is the sutler at Port Snelling, a most worthy 
officer, and a man who has done more than a little for 
]\liunesofa. He built the first [ ?] mills on the St. 
Croix and here. He is emphatically a pioneer. 
Laboring under disadvantages which no other man 
can imagine, in obtaining labor, tools, and materials 
for the work, he succeeded in time in building the 
dam and setting things in motion. He has expended 
at these Palls over $50,000. 

"A few months since Cushing & Company, of 
Massachusetts, having failed to comply with the con- 
ditions of their purchase of a part of this property 
from ]Mr. Steele, he sold one-half of the water power 
to iMr. A. W. Taylor, of Boston, a gentleman who 
seems to have had a keen perception of the capabili- 
ties of the place. Mr. (iodfrey, [meaning Ard God- 
frey] who is also one of the mill proprietors, is the 
operating agent of the mills. Under his thorough and 
efficient management, the business of the concern now 
seems to be abundantly profitable, with high promise 
of still greater and better things. 

"Of St. Anthony we are constrained to say, in all 
sincerity, that a place more inviting to the invalid, 
the laborer, or the capitalist cannot be found in the 
East or the West, the North or the South. Nor can 
a more beautiful town site be found anywhere than 
St. Anthony, commencing at Mr. Cheever's landing — 
the head of navigation for the river below tlie Falls 
— and extending to the head of the Island, [Nicollet] 
where navigation above the Palls commences. 

"Among the gentlemen interested in St. Anthony, 
liesides those that reside here, we will mention the 
name of Franklin Steele, Hon. Mr. Sibley, Mr. Rice, 
Mr. Gilbert, Capt. Paul R. (Jeorge. and several others 
whose names do not now occur to us. All of these men 
will be the last in the world to let St. Anthony stand 
still for want of capital, energy, and enterprise and 
fail to develop those mighty resources which the 
Creator has placed here so lavishly. 

" * * * To say nothing of the payment of 
Indian annuities at Port Snelling and the demand 
for the productions of the lumber trade and indus- 
try, it is plain that other extensive mills and manu- 
factories nuist soon be built at St. Anthony ; and these 
will employ nniltitudes of hands in the maiuifacture 
of all articles not of a light character that are most 
needed in this region, and thus build up a trade of 
exchanges between the town and the counfrv'." 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



81 



As to the (iiialities ol' tlie surrouudiug country as 
ail agi-ifultural district he declared that: 

"Tliere is certainly no spot in our country where 
farming is likely to be so well rewarded as liere. 
I-'arraers, especially of New England, if they could 
but once see. our lands, would never think of settling 
on the bilious bottoms and the enervating prairies 
in the country south of us. The soils there may be 
a little more fertile, but the country is malarious and 
unhealthy, aiul what is fertility, what is wealth, with- 
out vigorous health and activity of body and mind? 
The considerations that will weigh more in future 
with the immigrants than heretofore will be our clear 
bracing air, an invigorating winter to give elasticity 
to the system, pure and balmy summers with no 
malaria and only iiealth in their breezes, and water 
as pure and wliolesome as the dews of heaven gushing 
from hill and valley." 

And this much by way of prophecy : 

"When we consider how soon the upper Missis- 
sippi will lie placed in direct communication with the 
Atlantic by a railroad extending eastward from 
Galena, and ]>y steamboat through the Wisconsin and 
Fox Rivers and the Great Lakes — -a work already well 
in progress — it is not too much to predii't for this 
young Territory and for the manufacturing interests 
of St. Anthony a rapidity of growth unparalleled 
even in the annals of Western progress." 

.\ PIONEEK L.\DY'S reminiscences. 

In the spring of 1848 Sherburn Huse.* who had 
fomierly resided at ^lachias, Maine, locatt>d with his 
family in St. Anthony, at what is now Eighth Avenue 
Southeast and IMain Street. He had a wife and six 
children, and his family made quite an addition to the 
little community. Mr. Huse lived but two years, hut 
some of his children have resided in ^linneapolis for 
more than three-score years. His daughter, Amanda 
I\I. Huse, married Lucius N. Parker and lived at St. 
Anthony Falls until her death, October 18, 1913. Not 
long hefoi-e her death ^Irs. Parker dictated an article 
detailing her reminiscences of her earliest days in 
I\rinneapolis and this article was printed in the ]\Iin- 
neapolis -Journal of October 19, 1913, the day after 
her death. 

The article itself is interesting and valuable history. 
Mrs. Parker was a lady of strong mental qualities. 
Her memoT-ies of early days were so ample and so 
accurate as to be well-nigh ])henomenal. Her state- 
ments accord witli established and undisputed histori- 
cal facts, and she pi-esents much tliat is new and 
original. Her article is well wortli preserving in tliis 
history and is here given : 

"My father was in poor health when we lived in 
the State of ]\Iaine. [so states Mrs. Parker in her 
articli'l and, believing that the much pi'aised climate 
of Wisconsin Territon- would be of beiielit to him, 
it was decided (lurin<j- the winter of 1S4.")-46 that 
in the following spring our family should undertake 
the .'onrney. So, late in March, 1846, we left ^lach- 
ias. .Me., by boat for Boston. Our party consisted of 



* The family name was originally spelleti Hugbes. 



our family only and included my father, Sherburu 
Huse; my mother, Hester Huse: my two brothers, 
Sanford and George S. Huse ; my three sisters, Elvira 
(who was afterwards Mrs. Calvin C. Church, and 
later Mrs. .John H. Noble); Jane, Evaline, and my- 
self. We went from Boston to Albany partly by 
train and partly by team. At Albany we took a canal 
boat to ButTalo. At Butfalo we embarked on another 
boat for Milwaukee, and from the latter place we 
went to Madison, Wis., by team. It was central Wis- 
consin tliat we had in view wlieu we left Maine, and, 
arriving at Madison, my fatlier built a small frame 
house and we I'euiained there until October, 1847. 
The attractions of the Dalles of St. (Jroix were even 
at that early date not unknown, and in the fall of 
1847 we engaged a team and started for them. We 
made the .iourney by team from Madison to La Crosse, 
Wis., where we took the steamer Jlenomouic, which 
was in charge of Captain ^t'l'i'i Smith, with its desti- 
nation Stillwater, then in Wisconsin. On the steamer 
my parents met a .Mr. Orange Walker, who was a mil- 
lei- in the little settlement of ^Marine, near Osceola, 
and near Stillwater. The result of many chats on the 
steamer caused my parents to change their destina- 
tion to Stillwater, where we arrived in October, 1847. 

"We were still in an unsettled condition in Still- 
water when my father, who was an able millwright, 
received a letter from Franklin Steele, at St. Antliouy, 
offering him interesting inducements to come to St. 
Anthony and assist liim in the building of a saw- 
mill. Among the other inducements that ilr. Steele 
held out if he would come to St. Anthony was, that 
in addition to his wages, he would give my father a 
lot of ground in the vicinity of the proposed mill site, 
on which to build himself a home and that the first 
lunibei' that the proposed mill shouUl saw when com- 
pleted would go for that purpose. 

"Mr. Steele's propositions being accepted, we left 
Stillwater for St. Anthony in May, 1848, and in- 
stalled ourselves in a log cabin, located at what is 
now about Eighth Avenue Sonthea.st and ^[ain Street. 
This cabin had been built by French traders, and the 
locality for years after we moved there was known 
as Huse's Creek, as a small stream of water flowed 
near the door and blew away in a pretty spray over 
the bank of the Mississippi not far from our new 
home. ]\Iy father at once took charge of the construc- 
tion of tlie new mill, together with Caleb Dorr, Ard 
Godfrey, a Mr. Roirers, and my two broth'-rs. While 
this mill was being built on the river bank at a point 
what now would be First Avenue Southeast. Caleb 
Doit, my brother Sanford, who was then about 20 
years old, and six others went up the Mississippi as 
far as Rum River, near where Anoka now stands, and 
cut down willi axes enough trees during June to sup- 
ply the new mill with lumber for a shoi-t time. 

"As per the terms of the contract with Mr. Steele, 
the very first lumber sawed in this mill was turned 
over to my father, who, with my two brothers, carried 
it on their backs to what is now Second Avenue 
Southeast and Second Street, where they innnediately 
besan the erection of a six-room frame house. It was 
this corner lot, the northeast comer, that my father 



82 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINTs^ESOTA 



had selected, as per contract with Mr. Steele, on 
which to build his home. Beyond all peradventure 
this was the first frame house built and occupied in 
the town of St. Anthony. We moved into this house 
in October, 1848, while the upper part of it was yet 
unfinished. Ard Godfrey — who was building a house 
along somewhat similar lines that my father was 
building his, except with two additional rooms — 
finished his house shortly after ours was finished and 
moved into it in Novemljer, one month after we had 
become settled in ours. My father died in this house 
in 1850, and the house was damaged by fire- upon 
two occasions, but was repaired along almost similar 
lines of the original, as my mother would permit of 
little modernizing. 

"The social center of the settlement St. Anthony 
during the winter of 1848-49 was a two-story log 
house that had been erected by the owners of the 
new mill and directly across the street from it. This 
house had been erected for the purpose of boarding 
those who were employed in the mill, nearly twenty 
persons. The landlord during this winter was Calvin 
C. Church, who afterwards married my sister Hes- 
ter. He was the Ward McAllister of the day and 
the principal mover in most social functions. There 
were a great many more Indians in and about St. 
Anthonj' during that winter than there were whites. 
They were always roaming and shifting about through 
the entire locality, and many of them were drawn 
there from many miles through curiosity to see the 
new mill and its wonders. 

"It was almost a daily occurrence to find Indians in 
my mother's best parlor. They would walk in and 
through the little house boldly and stoically, usually 
seating themselves on the floor, and the members of 
the family would have to walk around them. Often 
they brought cranberries or other fruit to sell or trade. 
As I look back at them from this year, 1913, they 
were an audacious and useless lot, but at that time 
their visits were received as a matter of course and 
little attention was paid to them. One incident, how- 
ever, that occurred on July 4, 1848, in my acquaint- 
ance with the 'noble red men,' was of more than pass- 
ing moment. 

"During the summer of 1848 there were only four 
marriageable white yoiing women in St. Anthony. 
These were Miss Marion Patch (afterwards Mrs. R. P. 
Russell), Cora Patch, her .sister, who afterward mar- 
ried Joseph Marshall, a brother of former Governor 
William R. Marshall: ray sister. Jane Huse, who 
afterward married Charles Kingsley, and myself. As 
there were also only about ten or fiftei n young un- 
married women in St. Paul, the total supply in both 
towns of young women for dance and other social 
functions was somewhat limited. Therefore, when a 
dance of any pretensions was announced to take place 
in St. Paul, it was necessary to call upon the reserve 
force of young women in Minneapolis to fill out the 
'sets.' When a dance took place in St. Anthony the 
four young women of that settlement were aiigraented 
by the buds and lilossoms from St. Paul. Without 
this co-operation, a successful, well-rounded social 



function — we called them 'parties' then — was im- 
possible. 

"On the evening of the Fourth of July in question, 
a dance had been announced to take place at Bass's 
hotel, in St. Paul. It was a small frame building on 
the same site at the corner of Tlrird /ind Jackson 
streets, where the ilerchants hotel now stands. Those 
who had the arrangements of the proposed dance in 
charge sent a Mr. Bissell as their emissary to collect 
the marriageable female contingent of St. Anthony. 
He arrived in an open Concord wagon, drawn by two 
horses. His disappointment was keen when Luther 
Patch, the father of the Patch sisters, would not let 
his daughters go. After many paternal instructions 
as to what constituted the proper conduct for young 
ladies who hoped for future social favors, mj' sister, 
Jane, and I climbed into the rear seat of the comfort- 
able Concord and we started. 

"At that time the government was transferring the 
Winnebago Indians from a reservation in Wisconsin 
to one above St. Anthon^y some distance. There were 
Indians everywhere, making the trip by slow stages. 
Thousands of them were camped on what is at present 
the campus of the State University, then known as 
Cheevertown. 

"W^hen we arrived at a point where a state reform 
school afterwards was built, between St. Paul and 
Minneapolis, we were stopped by a drunken Indian, 
who took hold of the bridle of one of the horses. He 
demanded whisky. He, and a sober companion had 
been to St. Paul, and, as was always the custom 
with all Indians, if one had gotten intoxicated, the 
other had remained sober to guard his associate. Mr. 
Bissell struck the Indian who had interrupted our 
journey over the head with the butt of his whip, and 
forced him to release his hold on the bridle. When 
the sober Indian saw this lie started for us, aiming an 
18-inch revolver at our driver. The horses by this 
time were on the dead run, but the fleet-footed Indian 
was not to be shaken off' so easily and he kept abreast 
of our buggy for more than a mile. Either caution or 
gallantry prevented him from aiming his ugly-looking 
weapon at either of us girls. This race against death 
was highly exciting, and when the half-crazed redman 
showed signs of exhaustion, and discovered that he 
could no longer keep abreast of our buggy, he fired at 
our driver, the shot knocking Mr. Bissell's hat into 
the road. After stopping at the first store in St. Paul 
so that Jlr. Bissell could purchase new headgear, we 
continued on our way to the dance and we did not 
])ermit the incident of the ride to mar in any way the 
festivities of Bass's hotel. Among those present at 
that dance were: A. L. Larpentenr and wife, Ben- 
.iamin Irvine, ^liss Presley. Jliss Amanda Irvine, and 
others, some tliirty in all. 

"The Indian's greeting, however, left its impres- 
sion, for on our return home the next day, we did not 
return by the 'old i-iver road.' through the avenues 
of tepees and lanes of the men of the forest, but 
more cautiously journeyed away around back of what 
is now Lake Como. 

"It was one day in June. 1849, when Simeon Fol- 
som. who. with his young wife, occupied a little log 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, ^MINNESOTA 



83 



house la-ar a Mr. Denoyi'i-'s, ou what was afterwards 
called "the old St. Anthony road,' now University 
Avenue, sent a team to St. Anthony for me anil Mis-s 
Margaret Karnham, who afterwards became Mrs. 
Frank llihii'eth. to come to hi.s house, as his wife had 
just died. When we arrived there the only other per- 
son at the liouse was Mrs. Patch. .Mrs. K. P. Kussell's 
mother. Miss Farnham anil 1 rendered such comfort 
to the bereaved pioneer as was within our power, and 
as Jlr. Folsom was worn out from his long watching 
and an.xious care of his sick wife, it remained the duty 
of us two girls to 'sit up with the corpse.' It was 
considerably after mi<lnight that we luul fallen asleep, 
liut were suddenly awakened liy the sound of a terrific 
turmoil .just outside of the door, caused by the dogs 
Having been attaelied by a pack of wolves. The eom- 
liat became so fierce that the wolves had the dogs re- 
treating and, finally, in their fear and confusion, the 
wliole pack, dogs and all, l)urst through the door and 
continued the war at our feet. 

"The howling and yelping of the desperate brutes 
had in the meantime arou.sed Mr. Folsom, and, as ]\Iiss 
Farnham and I made a dash for one door, Mr. Folsom 
opened another door and discharged his shotgun in 
the face of the pack. This caused confusion and fear 
among the wolves and gave the dogs renewed courage 
and the whole lot of them went racing across the 
prairie. Tlie outer door was then securely bolted and 
barred, but the uncertainties of the situation pre- 
vented us from getting further sleep during the rest 
of the night. 

■'Had a city directory been compiled in ilay, 1848, 
of St. Anthony, the total list of females in the settle- 
ment would have read as follows: iMrs. Luther Patch, 
Miss Marion Patch, Mi.ss Jane Huse, Mrs. Calvin Tut- 
tle. ^li.ss Cora Patch, ]Miss Amanda M. Huse, Mrs. 
Elvira Huse, Miss Evaline Huse, and not more than 
fifty males. 

"My other sister, Hester (Mrs. John H. Noble) had 
mairied ami remained in Stillwater. 

"My father, Sherburn Huse. died at St. Antlion\-. 
Jan. 5, 1S.')0, and as there was no such thing as a 
hearse in the .settlement at that time, the very plain 
coffin was placed in a small, very ordinary express 
wagon, drawn by one horse. Dr. Foster, who was then 
a boy of about 12 years, drove the express wagon. My 
father was the firet American buried in the old Maple 
Hill Cemeti'ry. 

"The Fourth of July ceremonies in St. Anthony 
took place where the exposition building now stands. 
The orator of the day — 1 have forgotti'u his name — 
was an imported one. He talked from an especially 
erected platform that was about three feet high. This 
platform was encircled by a single row of seats which 
was quite sufficient to accommodate all the w'hite in- 
habitants of the locality. Quite a scattering of In- 
dians stood around thi' outside of this circle. Such a 
thing as 'fireworks' were quite an unknown quantity, 
but what the celebration lacked in pyrotechnics it 
made up in enthusiasm. The real celebration that 
year was to be in the form of a dance at Bass's hotel. 
St. Paul. I left St. Anthony for this dance early in 
the afternoon and it w-as on this trip that T had one 
of my experiences with some Tigly Indians wliidi T 



have related elsewhere. The Fourth of July celebra- 
tion in 1849 was slightly more elaborate and the im- 
ported orator of the day came over from St. Paul. 

"Miss Lucy Russell, now the wife of William L. 
Colbrath, was the first female white child born in St. 
Anthony, and my son, (ieorge B. Parker, was tlie first 
male wliit*- child born in the settlement. My otiier 
children still living are Mrs. Augustine Tiiompson, .")6 
Eleventh street North, Minneapolis; Frank B. Parker, 
of Taeoma. Wash., and Charles A. Parker, of New 
York Cit}'. 

"There being no regularly ordained minister in St. 
Anthony at the time, I was married to Lucius N. 
Parker in my father's house, Sept. 16, 1849, by Rev. 
Jlr. Iloj't of St. Paul. This house, as I have said be- 
fore, was at what is now Second avenue Southeast and 
Second street. Just across the way was the Godfrey 
home. 

"As was the custom of the country at the time, my 
husband and I were given a rude serenade called a 
charivari (or 'shivarce') by some of the young men 
and boys of the village. The' ceremony proved to be 
very ill-timed. AVithin a short time of tlie hour that 
1 was married, Mrs. Godfrey's daughter, Ilattie. was 
born. Some eight or ten of the young men of the set- 
tlement had gathered under the shadows of the God- 
frey house well supplied with tin cans, a whistle or 
two and gloried in the possession of one long tin horn. 

"Almost simultaneously with the birth of Mrs. 
Godfi'ey's pretty little dausihter, the charivari broke 
forth in all of its pandeinoniiini, and the young mother 
became very much frightened, believing that the In- 
dians had broken out ori the warpath. Calei) Dorr, 
who boarded with ;\Ir. Godfrey, was summoned post- 
haste to summon St. Anthony's only physician. Dr. 
Kingsley. Jlr. Dorr's sudden dash out of the God- 
frey house into the night .scattered the charivari 
revelers in all directions, as they thought that the 
hurrying messeusjer was some chamiiion of oui's who 
had gone to summon others, and that vengeance was 
n])on them. 

"We. luy husband and I, were a little prenuiture 
in trying to establish our first pre-ein])tion at what 
is now Second Avemu' South and Third street, so we 
finally pre-empted 160 acres on the shores of Lake 
HaiTiet. adjoining the present home of (ieneral 
Charles McC. Reeve. This land we afterwards sold to 
Joel Bas.sett.* I reside at present at 622 East Fif- 
teenth street, ^finneapolis. 

"It would require an effort more than I would care 
to undertake to record from 1848 on down through the 
years the incidents, trials and triumphs of the valiant 
men and women who first settled at St. Anthony and 
Minneapolis. That task I leave to others. To them 
all a laurel wreath is due. As for myself, sixty-five 
years near the Falls of St. Anthony bring mists over 
pictures that were once vivid and declining age causes 
the eyes to turn toward a rainbow of another 
promise." 



* Tt sppms that tlie Parker claim of 160 acres was on the 
south shore of Ijike Tlrnriot. now known as T.inden Jlills, 
while Calvin C. Church, the first husbanJ of Mrs. Nohle. Mrs. 
Parker's sister, pre-empted where the National Hotel now 
stands, at Second .^vemie South and Washington Avenue. 



CHAPTER X. 
IN THE MORNING OP POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 



THE FIRST COURT CONVENES IN THE HOUSE OF THE GOVERNMENT MILLER — FIRST ELECTIONS — SPIRITED CANVASS IN 
1848 BETWEEN HENRY H. SIBLEY AND HENRY M. RICE, THE CAPTAINS OP THE FUR INDUSTRY, AND WHO CONTEST 
FOR THE POSITION OF DELEGATE IN CONGRESS FROM "WISCONSIN TERRITORY," AND SIBLEY WINS — ST. ANTHONY 

THEN IN WISCONSIN FIRST ELECTIONS IN MINNESOTA TERRITORY, 1849, AND SIBLEY AGAIN ELECTED DELEGATE 

THE CLOSE ELECTION OP 1850 — JOHN H. STEVENS APPEARS AND BECOMES PROMINENT IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS — 

LIST OF VOTERS IN ST. ANTHONY IN 1849 AND 1850 — THE FIRST SCHOOLS, STEAMBO.ATS, INDEPENDENCE DAY 
CELEBRATIONS, BUSINESS HOUSES, ETC., ETC. 



THE FIRST COURT AT ST. ANTHONY. 

In August, 1849, the few settlers at St. Anthony 
were reminded that they were again under the i-ule 
of law and order. A district court, with a real judge, 
a veritable sheriff, and a duly appointed foreman of a 
grand .jury, asisembled in tlieir midst, was regularly 
opened and speedily closed. Saturday, August 25, 
pursuant to order and notice, Hon. Bradley B. 
Meeker, of Kentucky, one of the Territorial Judges 
of Minnesota, and the particular Judge for the dis- 
trict to which St. Anthony had been assigned, came 
up from St. Paul and convened what was called a 
court. 

The proceedings of tliis tribunal were somewhat 
farcical. U. S. Marshal Henry L. Tilden was pi-es- 
ent. Judge Meeker appointed a crier and court was 
opened in due form. But there was no clerk, and 
therefore no records made with pen, ink, and paper 
and preserved. However, as there was nothing to 
record, no serious evil was done for the lack of a re- 
corder. Franklin Steele was appointed foreman of a 
grand jury, and the name of only one other member 
of that body is known. There was no business for a 
grand jury to do anyhow, — no indictments and pre- 
sentments demanded. Although it was a time when 
"there was no king in Israel," and "every man did 
that which was right in his own eyes," no offense 
against the law of nature, or of nations, or of the 
natural riglits of man, had been committed. 

The Minnesota Pioneer, tlie first newspaper in IMiu- 
nesota, lia<l lieen established just four months before 
Judge Meeker's court was held. Its editor, James 
M. Goodhue, attended and was the only other mem- 
ber of the grand jury besides Franklin Steele now 
certainly known. In the issue of the Pioneer of 
.\ugnst 30. he related liis experience in connection 
with the proceedings in the following article, never 
before re-printed : 

"We had the pleasure of attending at the opening 
and final adjournment of Judge Meeker's Court at 
St. Anthony, and have the satisfaction of having 
served on the first grand jury ever impaneled in the 
Second Judicial District of Miiniesota. Mr. Bean pro- 



vided an excellent dinner last Saturday,* embracing 
a very great variety of good things, for the people at 
Court. His Honor dismissed the jury with a very 
few handsome remarks. The crier adjourned the 
Court and the people took their departure. It was a 
day and an occasion which will long live in the 
memory of us all. 

"After court adjourned the ilarshal and several 
other gentlemen repaired to the Cavern under the 
Falls of St. Anthony. We made the entrance on the 
west side of the river under the west verge of the 
vast sheet of water. We found ourselves suddenly in 
a chamber nearly 100 feet in length and in width 
corresponding to the shape of an arc of a circle, the 
central width being about 15 or 20 feet and the eleva- 
tion about 20 feet. On the back side is a wall of 
shelving rock leaning fearfully forward ; overhead is 
a flat ledge over which the river pours; in front there 
is the grand curtain of water falling in an unbroken 
sheet, with a roar that might well pass for Nature's 
greatest bass notes. Compared with this exhibition 
the most superb melo-drama appears but insignifi- 
cant." 

The record of this so-called court is largely legend- 
ary. It has been often stated and printed that it 
convened in the old Government saw-mill, on the 
west bank; that the Judge sat on the saw-carriage 
and the spectators on the saw-logs and lumber ; that 
after a little deliberation "the Sheriff," as U. S. 
^Marshal ;\Iitchell was thought to be, or at least was 
called, produced a gallon of wliisky. which was soon 
drank, and as soon as it had fulfilled its mission, and 
every one felt that he could do anything but deliber- 
ate, the court adjourned "until Court in course." 

Probably the nearest correct account of this court 
is given by the late Gen. R. W. Johnson, of St. Paul, 
and who was Frank Steele's brother-in-law. In a 
historical article published in the St. Paul Globe, Jan. 
3, 1888, the General says that the court convened, 
not in the saw-mill, but in the little building hard by, 
then occupied as a residence by Reuben Bean, the 



* Court was ordererl for Monday, August 27, but for some 
veHsoTi and somehow the date was changed to Satur- 
day, August 25. 



84 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, IMINNESOTA 



85 



Goveruineut's miller; that, excupt opeuiug ami clos- 
ing the court, no business was transacted, and that 
"the entire session did not last an hour." 

In the first volume (p. 427) of the Atwater history, 
Judge Atwater records that the court was held "in 
the old lioverninent building erected in 1822." By 
"buiUliug"' is probably meant the miller's dwelling, 
for the writer says it was located "near the old 
Govei'nment mill" — not in the mill, but "near'' it. 
This location is now the intersection of Second Street 
and Eighth Avenue South. Tlius Atwater corrobor- 
ates Gen. Johnson as to the identity of the building 
where the "court'" was held. 

But the learned and well informed jurist, by an 
apparent lapse of memory, makes a singular but gross 
mistake as to the county in which the old mill stood 
at the time. He says: "At the time of holding the 
lirsl court, as above stated, the present site of Min- 
neapolis was in the County of La Pointe, which ex- 
tended from Lake Suiierior to the Minnesota River." 

Now. La I'ointe County did not comprise a foot of 
land in Southern ilinnesota after 18-10, in which year 
St. Croix County (Wisconsin) was created and as- 
signed to Crawford for judicial purposes. But in 
18-17 St. Croix became independent of Crawford in 
judicial resjjects and had a court of its own at Still- 
water, with Joseph R. Brown as clerk. Also, in that 
year St. Croix. Crawford, Cliipjiewa, and La Pointe 
Counties constituted a Legislative district ; and at 
the fall election Henry Jackson, the first merchant 
of St. Paul, was elected to represent it in the Legisla- 
ture, and was the last Representative in that body 
from what is now Minnesota. The St. Anthony set- 
tlement was in St. Croix County. 

In June, 1849, when Judge Meeker attempted to 
hold Court, Minnesota was an organized Territory, 
though not divided into counties. The mill whei-e the 
court convened was in the Indian country. Judge 
Meeker's "court," therefore, was not held in any 
proper county ! The Judge took up his residence at 
St. Anthony soon after his arrival in Minnesota. lie 
ac(|uired a considerable tract of land, a great part of 
which is now in the Midway district between St. 
Paul and ^Minneapolis. He w^as unmarried and kept 
bachelor's hall at ^Minneapolis for many years. 

It is not generally known that Judge Meeker's 
appointment as U. S. Territorial Judge was eon- 
firmed only after a long delay and against much 
opposition. He was then a Whig — or at least de- 
clared he was — and a Kentuckian ; but certain 
Kentucky Whigs of the variety knowni as "Old 
Hunkers" disliked him, and it was they who suc- 
ceeded in holding up his confirmation from .March, 
1840, until in September, 1850. He was always very 
popular in Minnesota, however. The Legislature 
named a county for him. and he was always honored 
and I'cspected here. When the Whig party was 
broken up, in 1853, he acted thereafter with the 
Democrats, as did many another former member of 
that old-time party, but he was never called a "turn- 
coat" for his action. He di(>d at I\Iilwaukee. in 
February, 1873. 



FIB.ST POLITICAL CANVASSES AND CONTESTS. 

The first public matter considered of essential con- 
sequence in a new American community is the elec- 
tion of the necessary officers and public servants to 
direct and manage the general welfare. The first 
election in which the few citizens of pioneer St. 
Anthony took part was held October 3tl, 1848, while 
they were yet citizens of "Wisconsin Territory," as 
w-as called the district west of the St. Croix left out 
by the admission of Wisconsin State. As has been 
stated, the Stillwater Convention chose II. H. Sibley 
Delegate to Congress from this district which was 
con.sidered reallj' Wisconsin Territory. It had once 
iudisi)utably formed a part of that Territory and its 
people were not to blame that they had been cut off 
from the State when it was organized. 

But the certificate of the Stillwater Convention was 
not considered all-surficient for the admission of Sib- 
ley to the Congress; another certificate was neces- 
sary. Hon. John H. Tweedy, the Delegate from 
Wisconsin Territory when the State was admitted, was 
the proper Representative (perhaps) of the St. Croix 
district, claiming to be the Territory, — if there was 
such a Territory. Hon. John Catli)i, the last Terri- 
torial Governor of Wisconsin, was very friendly to 
the project of organizing Minnesota. He suggested 
that, in order to strengthen Sibley's case, Delegate 
Tweed.y resign, and then he. the Governor, would 
call a special election to choose a Delegate to fill the 
vacancy. Sibley, of course, would be a candidate and 
would be elected ; then Gov. Catlin would give him a 
certificate of election by the people, and this and the 
Stillwater certificate ought to be sufficient credentials 
for the trader's admis.sion. Tweedy promptly re- 
signed. Gov. Catlin came over from Madison to Still- 
water, so as to be within Wisconsin "Territory" 
and outside of Wisconsin State, and issued a proc- 
lamation calling the election for October 30. 

There were two candidates for the position, Henry 
H. Sibley and Henry M. Rice. Tliere was much 
astonishment when it was learned that Sibley was to 
have opposition, and that his ojjponent would be 
Mr. Rice. They were rival Indian traders and the 
heads of rival fur companies, Sibley, the chief factor 
of Pierre Chouteau, Jr., & Co.. engaged in trade with 
the Sioux, and Rice, the chief representative of Ewing 
& Co., trading with the Chippewas in their country. 

While there wer(> Imf about 200 voters in the "Ter- 
ritory" — and unnaturalized residents and half-blood 
Indians were allowed to vote — the contest was spirited 
and warm. The issues were largel.y personal; the 
question was whether Sibley or Rice was the better 
man and which of the two great fur companies should 
dominate matters in the new Territory. Both candid- 
ates were Democrats and hoped that Gen. Cass would 
defeat Gen. Taylor for the Presidency at the Novem- 
ber election, in which, however, of course neither 
could participate, as he did not live in a State. 

Charges of personal unfitness, of corruption, of 
illegal practices, etc., were freely made by the can- 
didates themselves and their respective partisans! 



86 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Many letters passed and many promises were made, 
and some money, but not mueh, was spent. At first, 
polling places were established at Stillwater, ^larine, 
Prescott's, Sauk Rapids, Crow AVing, and Pokegama, 
but finally a voting district was established at Benj. 
Gervais"s Mill, at Gervais Lake, north of St. Paul, 
and St. Anthony was made a part of this election 
district, and also given a polling place. 

At the election all the qualified voters — and per- 
haps some that were not qualified — voted. Sibley 
was elected. The voting places controlled by the 
Chouteau Company went largely for him, aud the 
polls controlled by the Ewing Company and Jlr. Rice 
voted nearly or quite unanimously for that gentleman. 
There are no records obtainable of the election at 
Gervais 's Mill, but Gov. Marshall wrote down his 
recollection that Sibley had about 50 majority, and 
that every adult male at Fort Snelling (except the 
soldiers) voted and — under Sibley's and Frank 
Steele's influence — for Sibley. The action of the 
Stillwater Convention in endorsing him was power- 
fully efficient in securing his election. (See Chap. 
29, Vol. 2, Minn, in 3 Cents.) 

FIRST POLL LIST OF ST. ANTHONY 's FALLS, FOR THE 
ELECTION OF 1848. 

In May, 1856, Hon. R. P. Russell, then the Receiver 
of the Land Office at Minneapolis, furnished the St. 
Anthony Express with the annexed copy of the poll 
list of St. Anthony 's Falls precinct at the October .30 
election, 1848, for Delegate to Congress. It is to be 
regretted that there was not some way of recording 
the names of the Sibley men and the Rice partisans. 
All of the voters named lived at or near St. Anthony. 

••Poll List St. Anthony Pncinvt. 

"At an election held at the house of R. P. Russell, 
in the precinct of St. Anthony's Falls, township 29, in 
the County of St. Croix and Territory of Wisconsin, 
on the 30th day of October, 1848, the following per- 
sons received the number of votes annexed to their 
respective names for the following named offices, 
to-wit : 

"Henry H. Sibley had twelve (12) votes for Dele- 
gate to Congress. 

"Henry M. Rice had thirty (30) votes for Delegate 
to Congress. 



"Certified ))v us 



fCnlviu A. Tuttle, 
•JRnswell P. Russell, 
(Sherburn Huse. 
Judges of Election. 



The names of the voters w^re as follows: 

"Henry II. Angell, David Oilman. 

Stephen S. Angell, Sterling Gresshorn, 

John Banfield, Aai'on P. Howai'd, 

Benj. Bidgood. James M. Howard. 

Horace Booth, Sniiford Huse, 

Benj. Bowles, Sherburn Huse, 

Joseph Brown, Eli F. Lewis, 

Ira A. Burrows, John McDermott, 



John J. Carlton, 
David Chapman, 
Wm. A. Cheever, 
Louis Cross, 
Aiulrcw L. Cummings, 
Robert Cummings, 
John Dall, 
Joel B. Daman, 
Caleb D. Dorr, 
Dixon Farmer, 
Sumner W. P'ariihain. 
Edgar Folsom, 
Alplieus R. French, 



Isaac ilarks, 
Chas. L. Mitchell, 
Anthony Page, 
Edward Patch, 
John Rex. 

Alfred B. Robinson, 
Roswell P. Russell, 
Andrew Schwartz, 
Dennis Sherica, 
Iran Sincere, 
Daniel Stanchfield, 
Calvin A. Tuttle, 
Wm. J. Whaland."' 



Writing a note to W. H. Forbes, Sibley's chief 
clerk at ilendota, the da.y after the election, Wm. 
Dugas, (pronounced Du-gaw) a prominent Canadian 
Frenchman of the St. Anthony district, aud a zealous 
Siblej' man, described how the election passed otf and 
was conducted in his precinct : 

"Our election went of yesterday & considerable 
briefly we should have don beter but they co'mence 
buying votes quite early in the Morning, this morning 
two young men was at my house and sa.y that they 
was threteud to be kilt in the morning for saying 
hooraw for Sibley the other says they oft'erd him a 
dollar to vote for Rice but he answer that they were 
all his friends but that he shold vote for Sibley but he 
says now that before he voted he got vei-y Drunk 
and they some of them changed his vote and conse- 
quently got a vot out of him for Rice when he 
entered to vote for Sibley. My Sellfe and all my 
friends around me have I believed save our money 
and not have offered to any one pay for his vote. We 
thought best to pattering after the Honorable Mr. 
Sibley, save our money to buy, lands for our friends 
and our selves rather than buying votes with it, we 
now think that Mr. Sibley is safely elected and may 
God grant." (See Sibley papers, unpublished, 1840- 
50; Chap. 29, Yol. 2, Minn, in Three Centuries.) 

ELECTIONS IN 1849. 

Sibley's election in October, 1848, was as Delegate 
from Wisconsin Territory. He was admitted to his 
seat and at once introduced a liill for the creation of 
Minnesota Territory, and this bill he successfully 
pressed to passage. With the creation of Minnesota 
Territory the erstwhile Territory of Wisconsin be- 
came extinct and Sibley was legislated out of office. 

Not long after his famous "First of Juno Proclama- 
tion," Gov. Ramsey, after due consideration, called 
an election for Delegate to Congress and for members 
of the Territorial Legislature. The organic act pro- 
vided that the so-called Territorial Assembly should 
be composed of a Council, to serve two years, and a 
House of Representative, to serve one year. ^lembers 
were to be voters and residents of their respective 
districts. July 7. (1849) the Governor made procla- 
mation dividing the Territory into seven Council dis- 
tricts and ordering an election to be held August 1 
following, to choose a Delegate to Congress and nine 
Councilors and 18 Representatives to constitute the 
First Legislative Assembly of Miiuiesota Territory. 



HISTORY OF MINXEAPOrjS AND TIENNEPIN COL'NTY, .MINNESOTA 



87 



Caiiiiidatus wore "brought out" by Ihoir fiiiMuls and 
admiivrs without regard to thi'ir political seutiiueuts 
aud party lines were uot drawn. Sibley was a candi- 
date for Delegate and had no opposition. Out of 
about 700 votes cast in the Territory he received 682, 
and about 20 did not vote at all. Some of the eon- 
tests for menibei-s of the Territorial Legislature (or 
Assembly) were, however, quite spirited. In St. 
Paul's Uavid Lambert, a gifted and eloquent lawyer 
and a most accomplished gentleman was defeated for 
the Council by a vote of 98 to 9L His successful 
competitor was James ilc C. Boal (commonly called 
"McBoal") who came with Leavenworth's first gar- 
rison to Fort Snelling as a musician and was accus- 
tomed to beat a snai-e drum while his bunkmate, 
■lo-seph R. Brown, blew the fife. So elated were his 
partisans over his victory that they hauled him about 
tlie streets in a chariot improvised from an ox-cart 
and cheered loudly and wildly because their candid- 
ate, a house painter, had beaten the great lawyer by 
only seven votes ! 

In St. Anthony there was no contest. The little 
hamlet was \inited wi1h Little Canada, the Fi'euch 
settlement north of St. Paul, in one Council district 
numbfi-ed the Fifth, and both were for some years in 
Ramsey County. The candidates for the Assembly 
agreed upon and elected from this district were John 
Rollins, of St. Anthony, Councilor, and Wni. R. Mar- 
shall, of St. Anthony, and Wm. Dugas, of Little 
Canada, Representatives. The whole number of votes 
cast foi- Delegate to Congress in Ramsey County was 
273; in the territory. 682. At the time of the elec- 
tion -the correct census of the population of the Ter- 
ritory was found to be exactly 5,000, or 3,253 males 
and 1,747 females; and of this population Ramsey 
Coiintv had 976 males and 564 females, a total of 
1 .540. ■ 

John Rollins, of St. Anthony, the Councilor elect, 
was born at New Sharon, ilaine, March 23, 1806, and 
(lied at IMiinieapolis, May 7. 1883. He was located at 
St. Anthony in 1848, built and operated the first 
steamboat that ran above the Falls, and was identified 
with the early lumbci'ing interest of .Minneapolis in 
general. William Dugas was a French Canadian who 
came to St. Paul in 1844. He was a milhvi'ight and in 
1845 erected the first St. Paul saw-mill, which was 
driven by the water of Phalen Creek. In 1847 he re- 
moved to a farm in the Little Canada settlement, 
where he resided until in 185:^, when he went to the 
Crow River \'al]cy. the scene of his death, many years 
lati-i-. Wm. R. .Mai'shall, the other Representative, 
has .-iln'udy been im-ntioned. 

THE C.\NV.VSS .\.NI> KLKCTION OF 1850. 

In 1850 political (larty lines as between Whigs, 
Democi'ats. anil l'''ree Soilers were not very strictly 
di'awn. Tiie issues practicallv were as they had been 
in 1848, between II. M. Rice and II. H. Sibley, the 
-iiief factors of the two rival fur companies of Ewing 
& rV).. and Pieri-e Chouteau, .Tr.. & Co. Rice was 
tiien the wealthiest man in the Territory, a distinction 
that gave him great influence. He was said to be 



worth $50,000, and to be out of debt, but had many 
debtors ! 

.Mr. Rice had political ambitions. Sibley had de- 
feated him for Delegate to Congress in 1848' and now, 
in 1850, Sibley was again a canditlate for the place. 
.Mr. Rice had causeil a Democratic Couventiou to be 
called in St. Paul in October, 1849. This convention 
declared for the organization of the Democratic party 
in the Territory, and that in the future it would 
nominate straight Democrats for otifice. This was a 
move of Mr. Rice's to get control of the nui.prity of 
the Democrats and to injure Delegate Sibley, who was 
certain to be a candidate for re-election. Sibley ex- 
pressly stated that as Delegate he represented no 
political part}- or faction, and the convention was 
held to force him to avow or disavow his allegiance 
to the Democratic party to which he luul always 
claimed to belong. 

Sibley's friends presentetl him to the voters for re- 
election in the canvass of 1850, bringing him out, 
somewhat against his protest, in July. The Rice fac- 
tion of the Democracy had declared for straight-out 
Democratic nominations, but now, in order to defeat 
Sibley, they brought about against him the ('andidacv 
of a Whig, Col. Alex. .M. Mitchell, the Marshal of the 
Territory, a wounded hero of the Mexican War, and 
an accomplished gentleman. In the canvass that re- 
sulted the Rice Democrats and the Rice Whigs sup- 
ported ^Mitchell; also some "old hunker" Whigs voted 
for him. The Sibley Democrats and the Sibley AVhigs 
supported the "tall trader," as the Indians called 
him. Even Gov. Ramsey and other staunch Whigs, 
like Col. John H. Stevens, were for Sibley. Great ef- 
forts to win were made by each party. 

The election came off September 2. For the first 
time officers and soldiers composing the gai'ri.sons 
of Forts Snelling and Ripley voted. The Fort Snell- 
ing soldiers voted in the Mcndota precinct ; those of 
Fort Ripley voted at Sauk Rapids. In both precincts 
they voted almost solidly for iMitchell, the candidate 
of the Rice faction. At Sauk Rapids the vote stood : 
For :\litchell, 60; for Sibley, 3. At Sauk Rapids was 
Mr. Rice's trading post and his employes voti d to 
plca.se him. In the St. Anthony precinct Sil)]ey was 
poi)ular enough and Frank Steele worked hard for 
him; but the Whigs were largely in the majority and 
voted for Col. Mitchell, a staunch Whig. The vote 
resulted: For Sibley, 64; for Mitchell, 110. The re- 
sult in the Territory was, for Sibley, 649 ; for Mitchell, 
559; nuijority for Sibley, 90. Total vote in the Terri- 
tory, 1,208. I'nder all the circumstances, Sibley's 
election was a great personal triumph, although he 
was disappointed that he did not receive a larger 
majority. 

At the same election local candidates were also 
chosen. No |)arty nominations wei-e maile. biri at 
St. Anthony the outspoken Sibley men endorseil iiim. 
nominated Ard Godfrey for County Connuissiouer, 
Caleb D. Dorr for Surveyor of Lumber, and Pierre 
Bottineau for one of the road supervisors. St. An- 
thony and Little Canada were still in the same Legi.s- 
lati\c district. At the election the voting at St. An- 
thonv resulted : 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



For Represeutatives in the Legislature, two to be 
chosen, Edward Patch, 158; Johu W. North, 116; 
Chas. T. Stearns, 55 ; Louis M. Olivier, 9. 

For County Commissioner, Roswell P. Russell, 165 ; 
Ard Godfrey, 130. 

For Assessors, three to be chosen, I. I. Lewis, 154; 
Sam J. Findley, 148; S. H. Sergent, 143; Geo. C. 
Nichols, 135 ; Albert H. Dorr, 135 ; Thos. P. Reeci, 103. 

The vote of Little Canada for Representatives was 
Louis M. Olivier, 42; Ed Patch, 38; John \V. North, 
5. For Delegate Sibley received 44 and Mitcliell 8. 

From Dakota County, which then extended fi-om 
the Mississippi to the Missouri, Alexander P^aribault. 
the mixed-blood trader and founder of the little city 
which yet bears his name, and Ben H. Raadali. then 
clerk in Steele's sutler store at Fort Suelling, w-ere 
elected Representatives in the Legislature. Mr. Ran- 
dall has been called the founder of Hennepin County 
because he more than any one else pressed to ]>assage 
in the Legislature the bill which created the county 
and provided for its organization. He died i-t 
Winona in October, 1913. 

ST. ANTHONY MEN TAKE PROMINENT PARTS. 

The citizens of St. Anthony made active partici- 
pation in the political contest of 1850. Franklin 
Steele, the brother-in-law and friend of Sibley, exerted 
himself to the utmost in behalf of his relative. Sib- 
ley was in Washington and Steele conducted his cam- 
paign. John n. Stevens, then Steele's clerk and 
l)ractically his factotum, was also his political lieu- 
tenant. Stevens was a Whig, but a Sibley Whig. 
Sililey had written that he cared nothing personally 
about being a candidate, but Steele and othens wrote 
him that he must be. July 24 Stevens wrote him : 

■'Much excitement and agitation reign throughout 
Jlinnesota now. but Rice and Mitchell prospects do 
not present so flattering a .show as they did a few 
weeks since. Goodhue will bring you out to-morrow 
in the Pioneer as an independent candidate, and we 
will try to put you through." 

But not until August 8th did the Pioneer "bring 
out" Mr. Sibley "as an independent candidate" with 
an editoi-ial endorsement. Thence forward it sup- 
ported the tall trader by printing proceedings of pub- 
lic meetings strongly endorsing him and which had 
been held at Stillwater. Cottage Grove, St. Paul, 
Wellsville, and elsewhere, and by strong editorials. 
[•! one editorial Mr. Goodhue argued that it was not 
wrong or reprehensible for a man to be engaged in 
the fur trade, and that, "honesty and capacity make 
the man — not the employment of the man. Any at- 
tempt to exclude any man from participation in gov- 
ernment on account of his trade and business is con- 
trary to the genius of true democracy." No doubt 
(lOodhue so wrote to silence the cry made by denni- 
gogues that Sibley ought not to be elected because he 
was the agent of the Chouteau fur company, which it 
was alleged had a "monopoly" of the fur trade in 
Minnesota. "Even at that day," says Gov. Marshall, 
in an address made many years later, "the cry was, 
Anti-^Ionopoly !" 



It was conceded that Frank Steele's exertions ef- 
fected the election of Sibley. Writing to the latter 
in November, and discussing what he called "the 
schemes of the Rice-Mitchell party," Johu H. Ste- 
vens asserted: 

"The fact is that had it not been for Mr. Steele, 
^litchell would have been elected. When we all gave 
up, as you may saj', in despair, Mr. Steele came to the 
rescue and took bets against odds. Together with 
Paul R. George and J. H. McKinney, he di'ove the 
team safe through, giving Mitchell, Rice, and their 
followers their just dues. In taking this course Mr. 
Steele has obtained the most bitterly vindictive ene- 
mies; 3'et we all earnestlj' hope he will ride rougli- 
shod over all of those who attempt to put him down." 

ilr. Stevens himself wanted to be a candidate for 
the Legislature from the Dakota County, or Fort 
Snelling, district, called the Seventh Council Dis- 
trict, and which included, by the terms of Gov. Ram- 
sey's proclamation, the country and settlements west 
of the Mississippi, except the country up about Crow- 
Wing and along the ^lississippi below Little Crow's 
village. The voting place for the electors of ^lendota. 
Fort Snelling, Black Dog's Village, Prairieville (or 
Shaknpee) Oak Grove, Traverse des Sioux, and Little 
Crow's village was "at the lower ware-house in Men- 
dota." The election liooth for the western end of the 
ilistrict or for the voters at Lac qui Parle, Big Stone 
Lake, and the Little Rock was "at the house of Martin 
McLeod. at Lac qui Parle." The residence of Mr. Ste- 
vens was then at Fort Snelling, where he was Frank 
Steele's agent. Alexander Faribault and Ben H. 
Randall had been "brought out" by the Sibley men 
for the Legislature and had Steele's endorsement. 
Stevens tried but without success to indvice one of 
them to withdraw in his favor. He was greatly dis- 
satisfied when both refused. 

Col. Jlitchell and certain other of the Whig Terri- 
torial officers had united with H. M. Rice and his 
Democratic faction in an effort to control political 
interests in Minnesota, and they had succeeded in 
securing the favor of the Taylor administration at 
Washington. Gov. Ramsey had taken the side of the 
Sibley wing of the Democrats and there was utter lack 
of harmony between him and Col. Mitchell. Secretary 
Smith, and the other Whig Territorial officers. It was 
finally determined by the Governor and his friends 
to send John H. Stevens to Washington to induce the 
administration to take a proper and an unprejudiced 
view of the situation in Minnesota. It was believed, 
or at least hoped, that Stevens' representations would 
cause the Administration to adopt the views of Gov, 
Ramsey and his Whigs, and to denounce the course 
of Col. ilitchell and his Whigs as deceptive before the 
country and wrong in fact. 

But Stevens at first refused to go. He got mad 
because he was not elected to the Legislature by the 
Whigs and the Sibley Democrats. In a letter to Sib- 
ley dated at St. Anthony, Jan. 6, 1851, he explained 
and sought to justify his course, saying: 

"I wrote you, some weeks since, that a Whig from 
this Territory would spend the winter in Washington 
endeavoring to counteract the unhallowed purposes of 



HISTORY OF .MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



89 



Col. Mitu-hi'll and his coutVcliTatos. who are doing so 
much to injurr tlie fair prospects of the Territory liy 
working for their own aggraiulizenient. As 1 was tlie 
one selected by (iovernor Ramsey for this purpose, 1 
deem it proper that you should lie made acciuainted 
witii the reason why 1 have not left home, and why 
probably 1 shall not. 

"When the (iovernor first wanted me to, it was with 
tile understaiuiingi that 1 shouhl be elected to the Leg- 
islature and go in the authority of a Whig member, 
as he thought it would give me more power, liut 
Alex. Faribault would not resign, and it would have 
been perfecth' useless to ask Ben Randall to do so. 
* * * He is a new-comer, without the requisites 
necessar\' to make a good member; but he is a Demo- 
crat, which suited Mr. Steele, who has lost a good deal 
of sympathy on that account, and so he was kept and 
elected. So I could not go to Washington in the 
capacity of a member of the Territorial Legislature. 
Then the (iovernor said he would give me an appoint- 
ment, for which I have waited till now — and now it 
is too late to go. 

"Had such a thing been thought of last summer, 
I would have run from here, (St. Anthony) but felt 
satisfied that a trap was set for me which caught poor 
Petti.john, after I declined to run. But by Mr. Steele's 
say-so Randall could have been choked off and thus 
saved all of the present difficulty. But we hope for 
better times."" 

Notwithstanding Mr. Stevens's expressed opinion 
that it was "too late to go" on the 6th, he was induced 
to start on the 22d for Washington to secure certain 
appointments in Jlinnesota desired by the Sibley 
Democrats and the anti-JIitchell AVhigs. He went by 
sleigh on the ^Mississippi ice to Prairie du Chien, from 
thence by stage to Chicago, via Galena ; from Chicago 
to Detroit by the Jliehigan Central Railroad : from 
Detroit, by a long stage ride through Canada, to 
Buffalo and Niagara, and thence by rail to Washing- 
ton, via New York. . This was the route and the mode 
of travel at that period from Minnesota to Washing- 
ton in the winter season. 

Arriving at the National Capital Mr. Stevens and 
Simeon V. Folsom, escorted by Delegate Sibley, 
waited upon Daniel W^ebster. then Secretary of State, 
and Stevens with a batch of strongly written papers 
presented the case of the anti-Mitchell and Rice forces 
in Minnesota. Webster assured the delegation that 
the back of the Administration's hand was against 
the ^litchell men. and that the Sibley and Ramsey 
pai'ty would be recognized in future Territorial 
appointments. Accordingly Joseph W. Furber. of 
Washington County, was promised and received tlie 
Marshal.ship. in place of Col. Jlitchell ; Frank Steele 
was retained in the sutlershii) a'ld as postma.ster at 
Fort Snelling, etc. The anti-Riee faction controlled 
the National patronage, but tiie pro-Rice people liail 
contrived to secure the appointments of the Terri- 
torial IjCgislature, so that the honors were fairly easy. 

MR. STEVENS RETURNS. 

Mr. Stevens returned from his Washington tri]) 
to St. Anthony on the 4th of April. En route at 



Xew York he purchased a supply of goods for Steele 's 
sutler store at Fort Snelling and another stock to be 
opened in a new store owned by him and Steele at 
St. ^\jithony. At Galena he bought for the Whigs 
of Minnesota an entire outfit for a printing-office, 
which was to be shipped to St. Paul by the first steam- 
boat that spring. 

The river was not open at Galena when Mr. Stevens 
was there, and he came home over Hon. Wyram 
Ivnowltou"s new mail route from Prairie du Chien to 
St. Paul, riding in a hack, passing through a great 
hail storm and many other privations. The route ran 
on the Wisconsin side, along the river, terminating 
at Hudson. Waking the next morning after his ar- 
ri\al in St. Paul, he found to his chagrin that a steam- 
boat from Galena had arrived the previous night. 
Had he waited four days at Galena, he could have 
come in comfort on the boat and arrived at St. Paul 
as soon as Judge Knowlton"s two-horse wagon got in. 

ST. ANTHONY NOTES FOR 18-19. 

According to Col. Stevens's list the following men, 
fhe ma.jority of whom had families, became perma- 
nent residents of St. Anthony during the year 1S41) : 

Amos Bean, John Bean, Reuben Bean, L. Bostwick, 
Chas. A. Brown, Ira Burroughs, Narcisse Beauleau, 
P. X. Crapeau, \Vm. P. Day, Albert Dorr, Rufus 
Faruham, Sr., Rufus Fai-uham, Jr., Samuel Feruald, 
A. J. Foster, Moses W. Getchell, Wm. W. (ietehell, 
Isaac Gilpatrick, Francis Huot, John Packins, Dr. 
Ira Kingsley, Charles Kiugsley, Isaac Lane, Silas 
Lane, Isaac Ives Lewis, Eli F. Lewis, Jos. J\I. Marshall, 
Hon. B. B. Meeker, Elijah Moultou, Dr. J. II. Mur- 
phy, James Mc.Mullen, Owen McCarty, J. Z. A. Nick- 
erson, John W. North, L. N. Parker, Stephen Pratt, 
William Richardson, J. G. Spence, Chas. T. Stearns, 
Lewis Stone, Elmer Tyler, Wm. H. W^elch, Wm. 
Worthingham. 

And Col. Stevens says that all these citizens were 
"far above the average in regard to merit and enter- 
prise," and that those who came in 1850 "were men 
of equal merit." 

Prominent among those that came in IS.")!) were : 

Isaac Atwater, Joel B. Bassett, Simon Bean, Wai'- 
ren Bristol, Baldwin Brown, Henry Chaud)ers, Thos. 
Chambers. Geo. W. Chowen, Chas. W. (Jhristmas, 
Stephen Cobb. Joseph Dean, Stephen E. Foster, Wil- 
liam Finch, Reuben B. Gibson, Chas. Gilpatrick. 
Chris. C. Garvey, Ezra Hanseombe, C. P. Harmon. 
Chandler Harmon, E. A. Harmon, W^m. Harmon. 
Allen Harmon. Kben How. John llinkston. Wm. L. 
Larneil, Joseph Le Due, (i. (i. Loomis, John S. Mann. 
Ju.stus H. Moulton, Edward Murphy, A. C. Murphy, 
('has. Mansur. Chas. Jliles, ("apt. B." B. Parker, Peter 
I'oiicin. Rufus S. I'ratt. Col. Wm. Smith. Wm. Smiley, 
Simon Stevens, Wm. Stevens, Daniel Staiiciifield, ( ?) 
Waterman Stinson, G. W. Tew. R. P. Cpton. (ieo. T. 
Vail, W. W. Wales, John Wensinger, Horace Web- 
ster, Thos. Warwick, Jose])h P. Wilson, A. R. Young. 

"All these," says Stevens, "were citizens who 
would do honor to any ]iart of the Union." They 
lived to .justify Stevens's assertions, and with sui'h 



90 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



men as its iouiiders uo wonder St. Anthony became 
a great city. 

THE FIRST SCHOOLS. 

Generally when New Englanders made a settlement 
on the American frontier, the first thing they built 
after they had put up their cabins was a school house, 
and soon a "'school-ma'am," as she was called, was 
installed in it and a school opened. In 1850 two 
school districts were organized in St. Anthony and 
named for the two great capitalists of the region at 
the time, Steele and Rice. Miss Electa Backus was 
the first principal school teacher in St. Anthony, and 
under her superintendeney the schools were very 
successful. She first had a school in the village in the 
summer of 184!) — of course a private school. Some 
Canadian French children were among the brightest 
and best pupils. The St. Paul Pioneer of Oct. 31, 
1850, contained this paragraph, noting two schools 
in St. Anthony : 

"Our neighbors of the lovely village of St. Anthony 
are determined not to be behind the world iu educa- 
tional progress. They are about to have established 
there two schools, to be taught by ladies — the one a 
primary school by iliss Tlioinpson, of whom we hear 
an excellent report, and the other by Jliss il. A. 
Schofield, a lady with whom we are acquainted, one 
of the pioneer teachers of our Territory and a lady 
who well deserves the character she has gained for 
talents and character as a teacher of the advanced 
stiulies." 

Prior to this, however, there had been at least one 
private school. This was established some time in 
1849 by a Prof. Lee, who, according to Goodhue's 
Pioneer of December 12, was "a gentleman of schol- 
astic attainments and long experience." At the time, 
too, his school was called the "St. Anthony Academy," 
and the Pioneer said it was in most successful 
operation. 

It is agreed that Miss Electa Backus taught the 
first private school in St. Anthony in 1849, and was 
also one of the first principals of a public school here. 
Hudson's History (p. 90) says: "Soon after the 
settlement of St. Anthony ]\Iiss Electa Backus taught 
a private school in a frame shanty on Second street, 
and alioul 1850 the first public school of the village 
was built near by and was taught for a time by a 
Mr. Lee." 

But the notice in the Minnesota Pioneer of Decem- 
ber 12, 1849, shows that Prof. Lee's "academy" was 
a lu-ivate school, and no record can be found that he 
"taught for a time" in "the first pulilic school of the 
village." The record is plain that the Rice and Steele 
Schools were the first public schools, that they were 
established simultaneously, late in 1850. and that 
Miss Thompson and ^Miss Schofield were the teachers, 
and ]Mr. Lee had nothing to do with them. 

ST. .\NTHOXY's INDIAN NEKninORS IN 1850. 

In the summer of 1850. and for a year or more 
thereafter. St. Anthony's Indian neighbors were fre- 
(lucnt visitors, but gave no trouble. The Lake Cal- 



lioun bands, as Cloud Plan's and Good Road's bands 
were sometimes called, had removed their villages from 
Lakes Calhoun and Harriet. From time to time, how- 
ever, certain families came back to the old scenes and 
pitched their tepees on the former camping ground. 

In July, 1850, when Editor (ioodhue went up the 
St. Peter's on the Anthony Wayne, he noted that 
Black Dog's village had been moved from the west 
side of the river, near the lake which still bears the 
chieftain's name, to the crest of the bluff on the east 
side. The village was now a line of huts and tepees 
extending along the blutf. which, though running 
parallel with the river, was 200 or 300 yards back 
from the stream. It was about three miles above 
Fort Snelling. Between the tepees and the river 
bank, growing in the wai*m, sandy loam and in well 
kept truck-patches, wei-e thrifty crops of corn and 
beans, which the Indian women were industriously 
hoeing. 

A little above Black Dog's village, and on the same 
side, was Cloud Plan's. It was now very small and 
consisted of only a dozen t^epees and huts. But every 
family had patches of corn and beans, which the 
women had kept well hoed and which promised abun- 
dant yields. 

Nine miles by land from Fort Snelling, also on the 
east side, was the town of old Good Road (or 
Ta-chankoo-wash-tay) and this was a larger and more 
pretentious village then. The appearance of the 
steamboat caused great excitement among the red 
people, many of whom had never before seen a pay- 
tay wahtah or "fire canoe." Here, as at the other 
villages, the population, men and women, boys and 
girls, some blanketed and well clad and others in a 
state of nature, came running to the river bank to 
see the strange but interesting sight of a huge boat, 
radiant and gleaming in its white paint, but puffing 
like a tired gigantic monster. All gazi'<l as if entranced 
till the boat sounded its whistle with a terrifying 
scream, when everybody but the stoutest hearted war- 
riors fied in terror and dismay back to the tepees and 
cabins. 

The next village above was Shakopee's — where the 
town now is — and this was the largest of the four, 
in point of population. Here also was at the time 
Samuel Pond's mission station. 

.STEAMBOATS AT ST. ANTHONY IN 1850. 

In the spring and summer of 1850 the steamboats 
made several excursions to St. Anthony and to points 
very near the Falls. Passengers were carried on each 
occasion and a fair sum realized by the boats. The 
trips were, however, mainly for the purpose of show- 
ing oft" or advertising; but while they advertised the 
boats they at the same time advertised St. Anthony, 
as demonstrating that Ihe place was really the head 
of navigation. 

May 7 the Anthony AVayne ran up from St. Paul 
to very near the cataract — the Pioneer said "almost 
to the' foot of till' Falls:" the Chronicle and Register 
said it came within 3(10 yards of them. The Wayne 
was temi)orarily commanded by a Captain Rogers, in 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



91 



the absence of I'apt. Dan Able. The Sixth I'. S. 
Infantry Baud, from Foi-t Snellinir. was on board and 
there were very nearly 150 excursionists. The lioat 
tied up .iust above Spirit Island, and numbers of 
St. Anthony people weut on board as the guests of the 
l)oat. ('apt. Rowrs was a royal entertainer. At night 
he gave a ball in the lioat's tine and spacious caliin, 
the band's orchestra furnishing the music. There 
was an uproarious but a glorious good time! "It is 
.said that the \Vayne l)roke the temperance pledge," 
said the Minnesota Pioneer, putting it mildly. 

The hospitable captain furnished an abundance of 
refreshments and was so princely courteous.- and so 
overwhelmingly entertaining generally, that his guests 
were enthusiastic in their appreciation and admira- 
tion. It was necessary to hold a formal meeting in 
the cabin to express their gratitude sufficiently. 
Hon. John Rollins was chairnuui and the mellitluent- 
voiced \Vm. R. ilarshall was secretary. The staid 
and impressive John W. North, usually so self-con- 
tained, was chairman of the connnittee that reported 
a series of resolutions exuberantly gi'ateful to Capt. 
Rogers for his "enterprise in demonstrating with his 
boat, the Anthony Wayne, the practicability and ease 
with which steamboat navigation nuiy he continued 
to the Falls." They also deelared that he had with 
his boat "performed the first steamboat trip to this 
place," and by that feat had "earned an immortality 
which is .justly due to those that lead the way in all 
useful achievements." In gratitude for his exploit 
the resolutions went on to say that, "in the future 
advancement of our now infant city his name will be 
ever associated with the greatest of our benefactors." 

Unfortunately John North and his associates — Ellis 
Whitall, Ard Godfrey. Joe Jlarshall, and Ed. Patch 
— were so overcome by the gallant navigator's hos- 
pitality that they forgot to learn his Christian name, 
and it is lost. So then it cannot properly be asso- 
ciated with the greatest benefactors, i)ut must go down 
to history and posterity as simply "Captain" Rogers. 
As a substantial reward for what he had done, how- 
ever, Mr. North, on behalf of the citizens of St. 
Anthony, presented him with a purse of $200, which 
must have helped in defraying the extraordinary 
expenses of the excursion. No matter what hap- 
pened on the boat this trip — it was the first steam- 
boat venture up within the spray of the Falls. 

.STEAMBOATS .\LSO ASCEND THE MINNESOTA. 

The Pioneer of July 4. IS.iO ainiounced that on 
Friday, June 28, "The enterprising steamboat, the 
Anthony AVayne, enrolled her name in the historic 
annals of our Territory," because with a boatload of 
passengers it had ascended the St. Peter's as far as 
the Little Rapids, near Carver. There were on board 
over 101) ladies and gentlemen of St. Paul, Fort Snell- 
ing. and other local points, and 70 ladies and gentle- 
men from St. Louis. "Win. R. Marsiudl was a promi- 
nent representative from St. Anthony. It was 
'claimed that this was the first time a steamboat had 
ascended the Minnesota above Shakopee's village. 
Editor C4oodhiie was one of the passengers and wrote 



a lively description of the trip. One paragraph reads: 

"If We had been supplied with wood, the general 
ilisposition was to run u]) the stream as long as we 
could find water; but as we ran out of wood, li(iuors, 
f I] and provisions, and as the sun was about to dip 
his blazing bulk into the blue Pacific, the Wayne 
reluctantly turned her l)ow down stream, retracing 
the winding channel of the river at a Hying pace, and 
reaching St. Paul at midnight. Dancing was almost 
continuously indulged in to the music of the Sixth 
Regiment Band, from Fort Snelling. " 

On the 18th of July the Anthony Wayne made 
another trip up the St. Peter's, going this time as far 
as the mouth of the Blue Earth, anil bi'ing absent from 
St. Paul three days. The Nominee had previously 
ascended to the Little Rapids. The Yankee and the 
Dr. Franklin No. 2 also made Minnesota River 
ascensions this season. Jul.v 22. the steamer Yankee, 
Capt. i\r. K. Harris, Master, went up the St. Peter's 
to above the mouth of the Cottonwood, the site of 
New Ulm. 

The Anthony Wayne, as has been stated, had. in 
]May, commanded by I'apt. Rogers, obtained the dis- 
tinction of making the first vo.vage directly to St. 
Anthony Falls. The .Minnesota Pioneer, referring to 
the Wayne and its exploit of ^lay 7. said this was 
"the first boat to throw a bow-line ashore under the 
foaming falls of Saint Anthony, amid the very roar 
and spray of the cataract." It repeated the feat June 
27, 18.50, the day previous to its first St. Peter's trip. 
A number of excursionists from St. Paul, with a party 
from St. Louis, were on board. Editor Goodhue was 
on the l)oat. Commenting upon the excursion he 
wrote : 

"The Wayne started about noon from Fort Snelling 
for the Falls. The river is very rapid and far nar- 
rower than below, with nuuiy islands. The scenery is 
quite novel and the river of a character wholly differ- 
ent from what it is at any ])oint below the Fort. The 
current is at least eight miles an hour; and. as the 
powerful engines of the \Yayne can drive the boat 
against an ordinary current but ten miles an hour, 
she could move only at the rate of two miles an hour 
up stream, though making all the steam .she could 
possibly get u]). \Ye are convinced, however, that a 
boiler like that of the Gov. Ramsey (which now runs 
above the Falls) would make steam fast enousrh to 
contend even with this current of the Mississippi, 
which actually runs like a mill-tail from the Falls to 
Fort Snelling. * * * At about the middle of the 
afternoon the Wayne reached the laiuling she made in 
the spring, which is in plain view of the Falls and 
convenient to the village of St. Anthony. A large 
concourse of our truly enterprising neighbors of St. 
Anthony welcomed us on shore. A little after dark 
the Wayne cast off her lines and swift as an arrow 
she dropix'd down the river to the Fort and thence to 
St. Paul by bedtime." 

Capt. Russell Blakeley. the prominent pioneer 
steamboat man of the upper Jlississippi, in his article 
entitled, "Advent of Commerce in Minnesota," says: 
"The Dr. Franklin No. 2, Capt. Smith Harris: the 
Anthony Wayne. Capt. Dan .Vble. and the Lamartine, 



92 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



went up to near the Falls of St. Anthony in the sum- 
mer of 1850. " (See Vol. 8, Minn. Hist. Soey. Coll., P. 

388). 

THE FIRST FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION IN THE TOWN. 

The first celebration of Independence Day in Minne- 
sota was held at St. Paul in 1849 ; the second was 
held at St. Anthony in 1850. The latter was arranged 
at a meeting of the citizens held June 14, when was 
appointed a committee of arrangements which was 
composed of Ard Godfrey, I. Carlton, J. D. Critten- 
den, E. G. Whitall, Edw. Patch, Sumner Farnham, 
R. Cummings, Daniel Stanchtield. and Wm. R. Mar- 
shall. This committee selected Gov. Ramsey for presi- 
dent of the day. Col. Mitchell for chief marshal, W. 
H. Welch for orator of the day, John W. North for 
reader of the Declaration of Independence, and Revs. 
W. C. Brown, of St. Anthony, and E. D. Neill, of St. 
Paul for chaplains. 

At 10 'clock on the ' ' glorious Fourth ' ' the exer- 
cises of the day began by the moving of the procession 
from Anson Nortlirup "s St. Charles House. The Sixth 
Regiment Band from Fort Snelliug headed the 
column : then in order came the president and sundry 
vice-presidents, the orator and the reader, the chap- 
lains and the invited guests. These were followed by 
the benevolent societies and the citizens generally 
Perhaps 75 persons attended from St. Paul and there 
were half a dozen wagon loads from Stillwater and 
intervening localities. 

The march was to the eastern border of town to 
what was called Cheever's Grove, (below where now 
runs University Avenue) and here a speaker's plat- 
form and seats for the crowd had been provided. The 
program was carried out successfully. Judge Welch's 
oration was characterized by Editor Goodhue, who 
was present, as ''replete with original thought and 
powerful illustration." At its conclusion the proces- 
sion inarched back to the St. Charles Hotel and had a 
fine dinner which the committee had provided. After 
dinner many of the company went aboard Capt. John 
Rollins 's steamboat, the Gov. Ramsey, and made an 
excursion a few miles up the river above the Palls. At 
night there was a "grand ball'' at the St. Charles. 
There was a general participation in the exercises and 
it was declared that the occa.sion presented "by far 
the most brilliant assemblage of the kind ever assem- 
bled at St. Anthony." 

HIGH W.\TERS IN 185Q. 

The summer of 1850 was long noted as a season of 
high water in Minnesota. The Mississippi, the St. 
Peter's, and all other streams were at flood tide for 
weeks. This was why steamboat navigation on the St. 
Peter's and to St. Anthony, and even above the Falls, 
was rendered ea.s.y. In the last week of Jul}' the Dr. 
Franklin No. 2 made a trip from St. Paul to St. 
Anthony, taking up scores of tourist pass«nigers from 
down the Mississippi that wished to see the celebrated 
Falls. The "Doctor" had powerful engines and made 
the trip in less than two hours. 



PIONEER ADVERTISING. 

Certain of the pioneer business houses in St. 
Anthony in 1850 believed in advertising. There was 
no newspaper then in their home village, and they 
used the journals nearest thereto. Goodhue's Minne- 
sota Pioneer, at St. Paul, was the favorite medium. 
It had many subscribers at St. Anthony and the 
tributary country. Its issue of May 20 and of subse- 
quent weeks contained the advertisement of the family 
grocer}' house of Slosson & Douglass. The advertise- 
ment was about two inches in length, with a single- 
line heading in small black type and without other 
display, and read : 

"Family Groceries at St. Anthony. — Slosson & 
Dougla.ss have opened a store of family groceries, 
nearlj- opposite the new hotel, at the upper end of the 
village. They will keep a supply of the best family 
groceries that can be found, including all leading 
articles usually kept in the trade. Also, a great vai'iety 
of articles of luxuiy for the table, as pine-apple cheese, 
vermicelli, pickled salmon, oysters in cans, sardines, 
pickles, and dried peaches. Also, the best kinds of 
ale, porter, wines, and spirits at retail. Also various 
kinds of nuts, cigars of all qualities, and spices such 
as cloves, nutmegs, and mace. Also prunes, dates, 
raisins, figs, Zante currants, citrons, and other dried 
fruits, and preserves. Also green apples in proper 
season. Also champagne and champagne cider. Also, 
beans, fish, mackerel, chocolate, lemons, and oranges. 
All for sale cheap for cash at a very small profit.'' 

This firm had another "family grocery" store at 
St. Paul, and another at Stillwater. At that day there 
was no prohibitor.y law and liquors were considered 
"famil.y groceries." and openly kept and sold in such 
stores. It was not deemed disgraceful to either sell 
them or bu.v them, or even drink them in modera- 
tion. It was, however, deemed highly improper, and 
indeed disgraceful, to get drunk and "raise a rookus. " 
It was common to give a "dram" of corn whisky to 
every purchaser of 50 cents worth of groceries, or 
half a pint for every dollar's worth. The price of 
two-year old corn whisk.v then, unadulterated and 
untaxed, was 18 cents a gallon at wholesale and 25 
cents at retail; a pint cost five cents. It is but the 
truth to say that there was very little actual drunken- 
ness in St. Anthony, but St. Paul had a most unhappy 
reputation in this respect. In his previously noted 
letter to Sibley of Januar.y 6, 1851, explaining why 
he had not already gone to Washington, John H. 
Stevens declared : 

"St. Anthony is the saint, the Patron Saint of the 
Territory, and ere five years we will number 10,000 
instead of 1,000 souls, our present population. St. 
Paul, witli its gamblers, drinking shops, and drunk- 
ards, and her anti-industry combined, will sink, not- 
withstanding the fact that her four schools and four 
church steeples lift up their heads towards the sky." 

THE FIR.ST brewery IN MINNESOTA. 

In the Minnesota Democrat (printed at St. Paul) 
of December 17. 1850, appeared an advertisement 

which is herewith copied : 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



93 



"Minnesota Breweky, at St. Anthony Falls — I 
am now ready to supply tlic uitizeiis of this Territory 
with Ale and beer, whit-h will be found equal — yes, 
superior — to what is brought from below. I am now 
deraoustratiug that malt li(iuors of the very best 
quality cau be manufactured in Minnesota. Try my 
Ale and Beer and you w'ill be convinced of the fact. 

"John Orth." 

Taylor's mills. 

The ^Minnesota Pioneer of November 14, 1S50, had 
this reference to the operations of Arnold Taylor, Mr. 
Steele's partner, soon after he had acquired his inter- 
est: 

"That enterprising gentleman, A. W. Taylor, Esq., 
one of the proprietors of St. Anthony, has entered 
into a contract with a ^Ir. Libbey, for the erection of 
seven superl) saw-mills which will be large enough to 
occupy all of his tiumes below the dam, for the total 
sum, including repairs of the dam, of $15,000. The 
frames are to be erected next summer and three of the 
mills put in operation by September next, and the 
seven mills are all to be in complete operation in one 
year from next April." 

OTHER ADVERTISEMENTS IN 1850. 

"Grinding — The undersigned is now in readiness for 
grinding Corn, Rye, Oats, Peas, Buckwheat, and what- 
ever else requires grinding, including Salt, at the grist 
mill on the west side of the Mississippi River at St. 
Anthony, for lawful rates of toll. When desired, 
grists will be received at the subscriber's, on the east 



side of the river, and be returned ground at the same 
place. — Calvin A. Tuttle. (Pioneer, June 13.)" 

Mr. Tuttle was then operating the old (Joverument 
grist mill, which Hon. Robert Smith had leased from 
Fort Snelling authorities. Feb. 27 previously the 
Pioneer said, that the mill was in "a dilapidated con- 
dition, in charge of ]\Ir. Bean, who is living there aa 
a tenant of Hon. Robert Smith." 

"Steamer Governor Ramsey — The Light Draught 
Steamer Governor Ramsey will hereafter ply regu- 
larly between Saint .Anthony and Sauk Rapids, leav- 
ing St. Anthony every ^Monday and Thursday at 10 
o'clock P. M. and Siiuk Rapids every Wednesday and 
Saturday at 8 o'clock A. M. For freight or passage 
apply on board. — John Rollins, Master. (Pioneer, 
June 27)." 

The Ramsey was 108 feet keel, 120 feet deck, 25 feet 
beam, and drew 12 inches light. In its construction 
J. S. Meley, of Waterville, Maine, was the master 
builder. 

"The St. Charles Hotel — At Saint Anthony. 
This large hotel, one of the most spacious in the 
Northwest, is at length completed and furnished and 
is now open for the public. At the bar, in the parlor, 
in sleeping arrangements, at the table, and in every 
department of the establishment the proprietors will 
spare no pains and no expense to suit the wishes and 
convenience of travellers ; and it will not be for want 
of a desire to please if they do not make the house 
agreeable to families and others during their stay with 
them who are visiting the romantic scenery of the 
Falls in pursuit of health or of pleasure. (Pioneer, 
October 17.)" 



CHAPTER XI. 
WHEN THE FOUNDATIONS WERE LAID. 



THE AFFAIRS OP STEELE AND TAYLOR ST. ANTHONY IN 1850 AND 1851 THE VILLAGE AS DESCRIBED BY PIONEER 

WRITERS THE FIRST NEWSPAPER FIRST SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, ADVERTISEMENTS, ETC. PIONEER ENTERTAIN- 

j^ENTS ST. ANTHONY MIGHT HAVE BECOME THE CAPITAL OF MINNESOTA — THE MOMENTOUS INDIAN TREATIES 

OF 1851. 



STEELE AND TAYLOR DISAGREE AND THEN DISSOLVE. 

Very soon after Steele and Taylor entered into 
co-partnership as owners of a great part of St. 
Anthony and the mill-site at the Falls, serious dis- 
agreements ai-ose between them. Each accused the 
other of designing and attempting to secure entire 
control of the property interests jointly owned. Tay- 
lor was in Boston the greater part of the time, but 
he was kept informed of the rapid advance of prop- 
erty in St. Anthony, and wished he had secured more 
of Steele's claim. Steele accused him of plotting to 
obtain (by the advantage of the large sum of money 
he controlled) possession of all the interests of Steele 
& Taylor at the Falls. Taylor retorted that it was 
Steele who was trying to possess these interests. 

Then the two partners could not agree about cer- 
tain details involved in the disposition of their prop- 
erty. Steele wanted to sell lots at reasonable prices 
and on liberal terms, and to donate sites for churches, 
school houses, and other public buildings. Taylor 
wanted to obtain the best price possible for every lot 
sold, and was satisfied with one-fourth down, interest 
on deferred payments to be twelve per cent ! This was 
a common rate at the time for money due on property 
sales; the rates for borrowed money were much 
higher. 

One liistory says that 'Sir. Taylor withdrew from 
the firm of Steele & Taylor "in a little while," or "in 
the spring of 1850." The truth is that the partner- 
ship existed until in January, 1852. In the fall of 
1850 Taylor was endeavoring to sell the water power 
of the Falls on his own account and had the following 
advertisement in the Minnesota Pioneer of Octo- 
ber 17 : 

"Falls of St. Anthony — Unrivaled Water 
Power. — The undersigned will sell or lease upon the 
most liberal terms water-powers for mills, factories, 
or any other purpose at the Falls of St. Anthony. A 
more favorable opportunity for obtaining unequaled 
hydraulic power was never before presented. 

"A. W. T.\YI.OR. 

"St. Anthony, October 17, 1850." 

In February previously the Pioneer had noted that 
Mr. Taylor (giving his initials incorrectly as "D. L. ") 
had recently "made sale of a large portion of his 
interest." Mr. Steele somehow assented to these sales. 



and possibly participated in them. Mr. Taylor con- 
tinued to hold his interests in the partnership, and 
though their relations were intimate the partners 
were not friendly. Steele was in debt, and it is said 
that Taylor sought to press him out of their business 
by buying the claims against him, and demanding 
their payment. Steele was rather heavily indebted 
to Philadelphia jobbers and sent Stevens to them to 
effect settlements. Writing to Sibley from Lovejoy's 
Hotel, New York, in ^larch, 1851, Stevens says: 
"You can little imagine how glad I feel that Steele is 
out of the clutches of his Philadelphia creditors." 

In October, 1851, ilr. Taylor, accompanied by his 
attorney and agent, a ^Ir. Bundy, came to St. xVnthony 
to look after his interests. At once he began the 
erection of the large storj'-and-a-half building (before 
mentioned) intended as a store and office building, 
and which stood on ilain Street. It was on one of the 
Steele & Taylor lots, although it does not seem that 
Steele consented that Taylor should build it as his. 
own individual property. Also a short time after his 
arrival Taylor made preparations to build a mill on 
his own account at the western end of the dam. 

About the 1st of December he brought an action 
against Steele to recover damages from him and at 
the same time he asked for an attachment against the 
latter 's interest in Hennepin and Nicollet islands and 
in other property. The case was heard by Terri- 
torial Chief Justice Jerome Fuller at his chambers in 
St. Paul and decided by him in December. In his 
published opinion, which appeared in the ]\Iinnesotian 
of December 13, Judge Puller related that the action 
was brought to recover damages for a breach of the 
covenants of seisin and warranty contained in a deed 
from Steele to Taylor purporting to convey, along 
with other lands, one undivided half of Hennepin 
Island. The damages asked were alleged to be $10,- 
000, to which sum the costs of suit were to be added. 
The plaintift', Taylor, alleged in his petition that he 
was justly entitled to the sum named from Steele, the 
defendant, "and that lie has reason to fear, and does 
fear, that he shall lose his said debt ; wherefore he 
prays that an attachment may issue," etc. 

Judge Fuller (|uashed the sunnnons and vacated the 
attachment against ^Ir. Steele, because, he said, that 
under all the circumstances Taylor's claim of alleged 
damages was not a "debt" against Steele, but merely 
a claim, which must first be proved valid before a 



94 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, JHNNESOTA 



95 



"debt," was created, and this proof had uot beeu 
iiiadi'. Tlierefore Taylor could uot "fear" that he 
should losi- ills "debt" wheu he had no "debt" to 
lose. John W. North, Lorenzo A. Babcoek, and ilor- 
ton S. Wilkinson were Taylor's attorneys, while K. K. 
Nelson and Wni. llollinshead re})resented ilr. Steele. 

Put on the ITtii of January following (or iu 1852) 
Steele purchased all of Taylor's interests in St. 
Anthony, i)aying him therefor $25,(K)(). and Taylor 
was allowed to keep the proceeds of certain sales that 
he had made, giving a bond to convey other proceeds 
and property to Steele. Somehow there was great 
satisfaction in St. Anthouy that Steele was now the 
chief proprietor of the village, Ard Godfrey still 
retaining iiis modest interest. On the 23d the people 
gave Steele a bancjuet at the St. Charles hotel in con- 
gratulation and celebration of his having accjuired 
Tavlor's interests. Plainly they did not like 'Sir. 
Taylor. 

A 3-ear or two later Steele brought suit against Mr. 
Taylor to compel him to keep his specific performance 
to convey back certain property. Whereupon certain 
other parties that had contracts with Taylor for 
specific conveyances inten-ened and sought judgment 
against him. The issues were somewhat involved and 
the case was long protracted, being tinaliy decided by 
the Supreme Court in January, 1856, (1st. Minn. 
Rep.) Steele obtained judgment, but the interveners 
lost on technical points. 

PREDICTING THE TOWN ON THE WEST SIDE. 

It had long been well understood that when the 
Indian title to the lands on the west side of the Missis- 
sippi should be extinguished by purchase, the.v would 
be speedily occupied by the whites. The site opposite 
the Falls would l)e laid out into a town, mills built 
along the shore, etc. The St. Anthony people had pro- 
posed that when the new town came it should be called 
South St. Anthony. In the winter of 1850 the talk 
was that permission to lay out the town would be 
given soon and that the surveying would be done in 
the spring. The Pioneer of February 27 announced 
that— 

"There is a probability that a town on the west 
shore of the Falls of St. Anthon.v will be laid out and 
vigorously commenced the ensuing season. We pro- 
pose that if be called All-Saints, so as to head off the 
whole calendar of Saints." 

The editor's suggestion was not meant to be ir- 
reverent, but was simply questionable sarcasm and 
humor. There were already in this region a number 
of geograjihical features, such as rivers, lakes, water- 
falls, towns, etc., bearing the names of saints, and the 
waggish editor pretended that he feared some saint 
would not tie remembered in the bestowal of names 
and thus fail to have proper honor done him; so he 
proposed that the new city be named for all the saints 
in the calendar that not one might be slighted. The 
jest was in bad taste in eveiy respect, and actuall.v 
injured Goodhue and his paper. The projectors of 
the new town thought it a slur upon their enterprise 
and resented it. A little later the editor offended St. 
Anthony liy saying in his paper: 



"There was a notable fire in St. Anthony last 
Tuesday. It was indeed an important confiagration. 
The riames swept across vast oi)en spaces whereon it 
is expected that some day mammoth costly structures 
will stand, and if tiiey had only been there the other 
day enormous would have been the loss to the 'metrop- 
olis of the Northwest.' " 

The Legislature of that season chose a public printer 
for the Territory. Stevens wrote Sibley that John 
North and Ed Patch, the Representatives from St. 
Anthony, both voted against Goodhue for the posi- 
tion, "because of his slurs against this town." 
• 

NEWSPAPER NOTES .\XD nniMENTS ON ST. ANTHONY IN 

1849-50. 

^laj. Nathaniel McLean, best known historically as 
the old-time Indian agent at Fort Snelling, but in 
1849 senior editor of the ifinnesota Chronicle & Reg- 
ister, of St. Paul, visited St. Anthony in the fall of 
the year named. In his paper of September 15 he 
said that "the half had not been told" concerning the 
wonderful progress made by the pioneer village at 
the Falls. Of the milling interests of the place the 
Jlajor wrote : 

"There is a grist mill, built of stone, on the west 
side formerly used for grinding corn for the Indians. 
Sir. Steele has a saw-mill now running two saws, and 
preparing to run two more in the same building. A 
number of acres of the mill-jiond are covered with 
pine logs, which have been floated down from above." 
Under the heading, "The Falls of St. Anthony," 
Goodhue's i\Iinnesota Pioneer of January 23, 1850, 
gave a pleasing and spirited desca-iption of the little 
town and its interests at that date. Goodhue him- 
self wrote the article, as is evidenced by its glowing 
and at times extravagant statements. He declared 
that its record of growth had never been equaled ; or, 
as he put it, — 

"This place emi)hatieally stands unprecedented in 
the record of its march of improvement. Less than ten 
months ago. after it was founded, the first house was 
built uj-ion the lot given to the first settler; now there 
are nearly 100 buildings and fiOO inhabitants. The 
saw-mill has four saws, with a dam capable of run- 
ning IS ; also a first-rate lath machine combined with 
a shingle machine. An agricultural society has been 
formed and premiums offered for the best grain prod- 
ucts grown in the country. 

"There are five stores in the place and one grocery-. 
A fine steamboat is now building to take hundreds of 
delighted visitors next summer up the romantic Mis- 
sissippi above the Falls, and will be ready to com- 
mence her trips to the Sank Rapiils in ^lay. 

"A liii'ge and commodious hotel has been erected 
on a i>leasant eminence above the Falls, and will be 
completed soon after the opening of navigation the 
coming spring. It will have two piazzas. 72 feet in 
length, fronting the river, and fi'om the upper one 
visitors can have a magnificent view of the angry 
waters as they hurry over the i)recipice. The hotel 
is not more than ten minutes walk from the steam- 
boat wharf, which is now building. It will be kept by 



96 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



a geutlemau tliat uuderstauds the art of making his 
guests feel perfectly at home. He was one of the first 
settlers of Minnesota and will be the proprietor of 
the first hotel in St. Anthony. 

■ ■ Two schools have been recently opened where all 
branches of education maj- be pursued, including the 
ornamental. The school house which is on the blutf 
of a beautiful prairie overlooking the Falls, is neat 
and spacious. One of these schools is taught by a 
lady [Miss Backus] and the other by a gentleman 
[Prof. Lee]. 

"A charter for a literary association was obtained 
from the last Legislature. A small- but choice selec- 
tion of books has been purchased and preserved iu a 
fine large book-case. Weekly lectures are given before 
this association by gentlemen of the first talents. An 
excellent singing school has just commenced and is 
taught in the latest style and most approved plan. 

"A great variety of newspapers aaid other publica- 
tions are taken, for the people are a reading and 
thinking people. They ai'e also a church-going people 
and every Sabbath the school room is filled with an 
attentive audience, listening to a Baptist or Methodist 
or Presbyterian clergyman." 

Ill its issue of May 4, 1850, the Minnesota Chronicle 
& Register described how busy the St. Anthony mills 
were then, saying: 

■"The mills at St. Anthony run now night and day. 
Four saws are in operation, turning out 30,000 feet of 
lumber every 24 hours. In addition, some 10,000 laths 
and 6,000 shingles are made daily. The larger part of 
the immense stock of logs got out during the winter 
has been driven down and secured and the Mill Com- 
pany are now prepared to fill bills as fast as ordered. 

■"An absurd rumor has been current, to a certain 
extent, that iu the sale of lumber by the Company 
preference is given to the citizens of St. Authonj', and 
that a resident of that place could buy lumber on a 
year's credit, when a citizen of St. Paul could not 
make a purchase for cash. In sheer justice to the Com- 
pany we give this report a fiat contradiction. This 
story refutes itself, and would not receive notice had 
it not been industriously propagated in certain 
quarters. ' ' 

A prominent and quite effective booster for St. 
Anthony in its first years was L. M. Ford. He was 
interested in the place and had some lots for sale, l)ut 
he was largely unselfisli. He wrote many articles for 
the Minnesota newspapers laudatory of St. Anthony 
and the country, and at his own expense sent scores of 
papers containing his articles all over the Eastern 
country. These printed articles, supplemented by 
hundreds of private letters, were responsible for much 
of the immigration which came to the eountry in 
early days. In an article written by Mr. Ford aliout 
St. Anthony, and which appeared in the Minnesota 
Pioneer of February 27, 1851, he said: 

"• • * rphg extent and beauty of the town 
site attract particular attention, and newly-made 
houses are scattered along its river side, above and 
below the Falls. 

"But on the west side there is a much better site 
and more extensive. This land, however, is not yet 



subject to entry, but being such an admirable situa- 
tion hundreds are looking over it with eager eyes, 
ilany ha\e already gone across the i-iver and made 
their "claims'" even at the risk of having their tem- 
porary lodges torn down bj- a company of Uncle 
Sam's boys from Fort Snelling. There will be a 
grand rush for 'the other side' as soon as the land is 
brought into market. Another town will then and 
there spring up, as the result of Yankee enterprise 
and competition. 

"Saint Anthony has been mostly built up during 
the present season. It has received a great immigra- 
tion and especially from Maine; the lower town is 
mostly settled by people from JMaine, but the upper 
towu is composed more of all sorts, like St. Paul. 
There is a marked difference between the two parts 
of St. Anthony. The lower part, or the Maine set- 
tlement, has no drinking establishments, while it has 
the extensive saw-mills which supply St. Paul and 
the surrounding country with lumber; it also has the 
largest stores, besides a noble school house and a 
church nearly complete. The upper town can boast 
of a splendid hotel, one of the best iu Minnesota, and 
several gToceries — but not of the other things found 
in the lower towu ! 

"* * * In respect to churches Saint Anthony 
is about one year behind St. Paul. The Baptist 
denomination has a house nearly ready for meeting 
in. while the various other denominations are pre- 
paring to build. Within a year from this time we 
may expect to see as many meeting houses in this 
place as there are now at St. Paul. It is supposed 
by some that the town now contains 1,000 inhabitants : 
when the national census of 1850 was taken, last sum- 
mer, it had about 700." 

In an editorial article in the St. Anthony Express 
of December 20, 1851. Editor Isaac Atwater said that 
it would not be an exaggeration to state that 75 build- 
ings had been erected in the village during the pre- 
vious year, and that 75 more were either under way 
or in mature contemplation. Arnold W. Taylor's 
building on ]Maiii Street (occupied as a general store 
in Janiuiry following) was characterized as, "a large 
building, an ornament to the village, and an indica- 
tion of the enterprise of the population." It was a 
large building for the time; Atwater solemnly 
declared that it was "one story and a half high." 
J. P. Wilson, of St. Anthony, and I)i-. ilalonc^-, of 
Illinois, Were having a store building erected on the 
corner of Main and Rollins Streets, filling a gap which 
had hitlierto interfered with the regularity of the 
streets at that point. A number of other houses were 
being built in the upper portion of the village. 

Frank Steele iiad a number of workmen engaged 
in preparing the woodwork for a "hotel of the larg- 
est size," which was to be completed in the .spring 
of 1852. John G. Lennon was preparing to build a 
residence which was to be "eifual in proportions to 
any which has heretofore been built in St. Anthouy. " 
These established and contemplated improvements 
and enterprises were as important in the development 
of St. Anthony in 1851, as have been the sky -scraping 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNES(rrA 



97 



office buildings and the vast factories evolved iu 
Minneapolis in later periods. 

At the time of writing the foregoing exultant notes 
of the progress liis village had made and was making, 
Editor Atwater took oeeasion to say that, due to the 
season, when the trees were bare and the skies clear, 
an ample and unobstructed view of the village and 
of the surrounding country were abundantly afforded. 
From the crest of Hose Ilill, two miles east of the 
village, there could be seen, curling in tiie wintry air, 
smoke from the chimneys of St. Paul, ijittle Canada, 
Mendota, Fort Snelling, and the little hamlet then 
called Groveland. 

A more extended prospect was offereil from a big 
lone oak which stood, like a great plume, on tlie 
crest of a high hill in the village cemetery grounds, 
which were then a mile or more east and south of the 
College gi-ounds. From the base of this tree the 
valley of the St. Peter's could be traced from Mendota 
up the river, for 28 miles, to Shakopee's village. And 
the Mississippi was visible from far above the Falls 
to the bend .just below the mouth of what was theu 
called Brown's Creek, or the Little Falls Creek, now 
called i\Iinnehaha. Then the lines of the neat white 
cottages in St. Anthony were plainly visible from the 
same base, the whole making a delightfully impressive 
scene. 

GOODHUE FORECASTS THE FUTURE. 

It can hardly be too often and too emphatically 
asserted that Editor Goodhue, of the Minnesota Pio- 
neer, was a most serviceable friend to St. Anthony. 
It has already been shown how he tried to "boost" 
the town and promote its interests by the frequent 
insertion in the Pioneer of well written articles in 
their favor which were widely read. He was an able 
man and recognized the manifest destiny of a prop- 
erly founded city at the site of the great water-power, 
on a mighty river, and in the midst of a vast, resource- 
ful country. In fact while he claimed that his own 
town was then greater, in all respects but one, than 
St. Anthony, he conceded that St. Anthony might 
one day become the greater. In the Pioneer of 
December 26, 1850, he wrote : 

"We do not say that St. Paul will always be the 
most impoi'taiil town in IMinnesota: and we do not 
say that St. Anthony will not l)e." 

The truth is that Mr. Goodhue was "a fellow of 
infinite .iest." He would stop in the midst of engross- 
ing labor to listen to a funny story, and he would 
imperil not only his private business but his personal 
safety rather than forego the exquisite pleasure of 
writing and printing something in his paper which 
he thought was humorous. 

The people about the Falls protested against Mr. 
(Joodhne's suggestion that the new town should be 
called "All Saints," and then he resented the pro- 
test. He saw that he had been inconsiderate, but he 
pretended that he was deliberale. He said that "All 
Saints" would be a splendid name for a city — there 
was no other in all the world so named. John H. 
Stevens (Minn, and People, p. 128) says: 



"Goodhue had uo patience when any other name 
than 'AH Saints' was talked of. His letters to me 
were always so addressed. In September, 1851, I 
received a letter from him containing the following: 
"I, with my wife and sistei-, three children, and a 
servant girl, propose to dine with you to-morrow, 
Tuesday, at All Saints.' Miss Mary A. Schofield, 
the pioneer teacher, also favored the name. 'All 
Saints, Minnesota Terry.' " 

It was not, however until in 1851, when the new 
town on the west side was talked of, that Goodhue 
proposed the name All Saints. He also contemplated 
that this name should be given to the combined towns; 
for he concluded that they would soon be combined 
as one municipality, the situation and all other condi- 
tions demanding such a combination. As has been 
stated, the shrewd editor foresaw, with reasonable 
clearness, the destiny of the place. In his "New 
Year's Address" published in the Pioneer Jan. 2, 
1850, when the paper was but nine months old, he 
"dipped into the future," and thus prophesied: 

"Propelled by our great river, you shall see 
A thousand factories at St. Anthony." 

FIRST NEWSP.IPER IN ST. ANTHONY. 

Very early in their history the citizens of St. 
Anthony sought to have a village newspaper. Every- 
body wanted one. The politicians wanted it that they 
might if possible control it in their own interests; the 
business men wanted it as an advertising medium; 
the citizens wanted it so that the town could boast of 
such an institution, etc. January 6, 1851, John II. 
Stevens wrote to Sibley, then at Washington as Terri- 
torial Delegate : 

"A press at St. Anthony now would be a money- 
making business. You see Rice bought up the 
Chronicle & Register; he already owned the Demo- 
crat, and both of these are his organs. The two filthy 
sheets are gulling the public with their pretensions 
of independence : but the cloven foot sticks out so 
plain thfft a blind man can see Rice — Rice — Rice — 
sticking out all around, and every column shows it. 

"Goodhue, of the Pioneer, works for money; dol- 
lars are his asylum ; [sic] he dreams of them at night 
and is ready to work by day, provided he can get well 
paid for the work. Had he not gone in for St. Paul 
so much, he would have got the public printing; he 
may get it yet, but it is to be doubted. * » * 
John Kollins and Edward Patch would have gone 
for Goodhue had it not been for his remarks about 
St. Anthony. We must have a paper of our own. 

"* * * Now, if you know of any one or two 
young men who want to embark in a profitable busi- 
ness, and have talent, just send them on to St. 
Anthony with a press. T will have a house ready for 
them to move in. They can make money from the 
start. Good managers cannot help but do well. 
* * * We hope to hear of the reduction of the 
Fort Snelling R(>serve soon : yon little know the 
excitement here about it ; what a help to the srrowth 
of the Territory it would be!" 

If Col. Stevens's free and spirited criticisms of the 



98 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



newspapers of the Territoiy were true, certainly 
another, and of a ditifereut sort, was needed. There 
were two Democratic and one Whig paper at St. Paul, 
and another Whig paper was demanded somewhere 
in the Territorj*. 

Among the first settlers in St. Anthony was Elmer 
Tyler, who came from Chicago in 1850 and opened a 
small tailor shop on J\Iain street, opposite the Falls. 
He bought a number of town lots and other real estate 
near the village, and in disposing of certain of his 
holdings made handsome profits. He was an ardent 
Whig in politics and prone to street and bar-i-oom 
discussions. In some respects he was eccentric, but 
on the whole a man of information and a certain sort 
of talent. He often said that there ought to be a 
Whig paper in St. Anthony, and as he had made 
some money in his real estate speculations, he said he 
was willing to invest in one. He had no experience 
as a publisher and but little ability as a writer, but 
he put these disadvantages aside, in his enthusiasm to 
accomplish his desires. 

In his history Judge Atwater says that Mr. Tyler 
proposed to establish a Whig paper at the Falls, if 
the then young and promising lawyer, Atwater, would 
edit it, and the proposition was accepted. Tyler went 
to Chicago and purchased the necessary outfit, includ- 
ing a hand press, for a seven-column folio paper. 
How this material was transported from Chicago to 
the JMississippi caiuiot now be stated; there was then 
no railroad between the city and the river. 

The first number of the paper was issued May 31, 
1851. It was called the St. Anthony Express. Its 
place of publication was given as "St. Anthony Falls, 
Min." In those days every pretentious paper had its 
motto. That of the Express, was conspicuous under 
the title on the first page and at the head of the 
editorial columns and read, "Principles, Not Men." 
Judge Atwater writes that for the first year the paper 
was published in a log house on Main Street, under 
the bluff, and near First Avenue Southeast ; the cabin 
had been used as a boarding house for the men that 
built the first mill dam, and was called by them the 
"mess house," 

The proprietor of the paper — at least the ostensible 
and declared owner — was the Mr. Elmer Tyler, before 
mentioned, and the first announced publisher was II. 
Woodbury. The latter was a practical printer and 
Mr. Tyler brought him from Chicago to take charge 
of the mechanical work on the new paper. His 
brother, J. P. Woodbury, also a printer, came with 
him, and the two, as it seems, did all the work of 
setting the type and "working off" the paper. The 
Express was well and neatly and tastefully printed, 
and presented an attractive appearance, although the 
type was very plain and the printing was done upon 
a hand-press of the fashion used by Ben. Franklin. 

It is not very likely that Mr. Tyler was the real 
owner of the Exjiress; he was jirobably a stockholder, 
but as tJie proprietor was perhaps only a figurehead. 
He was an ardent WHiig and the Express was a Whig 
paper politically. The real owner or the principal 
backer and promoter was doubtless Franklin Steele, 
who in the interests of his business did not want a 



paper at St. Anthony that would in any way, or at 
any time, oppose them. Though Tyler was so loud- 
mouthed a Whig, he could not really afford to indulge 
in the luxury of newspaper ownership at the then 
little frontier village, with all the risk and vicissi- 
tudes which such ownership implied. Though Steele 
was a staunch Democrat in politics, it would be to 
him money well invested if he should purchase the 
controlling interest in a Whig paper, not to shape its 
political course, but to infiuenee its local comments 
and criticisms. The Democratic papers of the Terri- 
tory were friendly to him, as was the ilinnesotian, 
the Whig paper at St. Paul, and then the only journal 
of that polities in the Territory. If he could control 
the Express, all the papers in the Territory would be 
his friends. 

Judge Atwater, in his history, says that he was the 
editor of the Express from its first number until it 
was discontinued, in 1859, and that ]\Ir. Tyler was the 
editor and publisher until "the end of the year," 
meaning the first year. The early numbers of the 
paper, however, do not thus show. From the first 
issue of the Express, May 31. until August 2 it bore 
the names in bold black type of "E. Tyler, Proprie- 
tor, ' ' and ' ' H. Woodbury, Publisher. ' ' Tjder evi- 
dently did not continue with the paper longer than 
three months — and not until "the end of the year." 
August 2, 1851, the paper came out bearing the names 
of "Woodbury & Hollister, Publishers and Pro- 
prietors. ' ' A gifted young man named Shelton Hol- 
lister, of Pennsylvania, seemed to have succeeded Mr. 
Tyler, whose name, as in any way connected with the 
paper, never appeai'ed in it again. But, two months 
later, or October 1, the paper came out bearing the 
names of "H. & J. P. Woodbury, Editors and Pro- 
prietors," and was so issued until the latter part of 
May, 1852. During its first year the name of Isaac 
Atwater never appeared as editor of the paper, or as 
in any manner connected with it. It is a fact, how- 
ever, that he was its chief editorial writer, but it is 
not probable that he selected and prepared the entire 
"copy." The Woodbury Brothers made great dis- 
play of the fact that they were the "editors." 

The Express was a Whig paper. Judge Atwater 
was a Whig of the conservative type, and the paper's 
editorials showed plainly wliere he stood. During the 
first years of the paper there were in the United 
States but two political parties worth considering, the 
Whig and the Democratic; the Free Soil party did 
not have 160,000 members. The cardinal principles 
of the Whig party were a protective tariff, an 
extended system of internal improvements to be estab- 
lished and conducted liy the General Government, and 
that the Federal and State governments of our coun- 
try "are parts of one system." There were in the 
party States' rights and Federalist members, and 
particularly there were pro-slavery and anti-slavery 
men, the farmer residing largely in the South and 
the latter living almost wholly in the North. The 
party was always conservative, did not believe in 
radicalism, opposed war, or anything likely to cause 
great public excitement or distress, and accepted situ- 
ations very readily Thus it accepted slavery and the 



HISTORY OF •MINNEAl'OI'.IS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



99 



laws protecting it, wluTcat iiiauy of its mfinbi'rs were 
olTiMuifd. and contriliutcii larg.'l.v to tlu- ir)(i.(lll() 
Pivsidi'iitia! voft-s cast in IS")!' for Hale and Jidiaii, 
the candidates of the Free Soilers or, as they ealh'd 
themselves, the "Free Democratic Party," the fore- 
runner of the Republican Party. The truth is that 
GO and 70 yeare ago a large majority of the anti- 
slavery men of the North were Democrats, or aHiliated 
with the Democratic party. When the Reiniblican 
party was organized, in 1804-55. nearly all of the 
Free Soil Democrats .ioincd it. and then, after slavery 
was abolished, some of Ihcni went back to the Demo- 
cratic party. 

"When the Whig pai'ty l)roke up. in 1855, Judge 
Atwater, Judge Meeker, and many other Whigs 
throughout the country went into the Democratic 
party and thereafter acted with it, Atwater was, 
liowever, at all times and under all cii'cumstances a 
patriot and a true American. He was a lover of and 
devoted to his country all the days of his life. In 
1850-51, about the time of the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise, and when the i|uestion of slavery exten- 
sion was to the fore, the Southern "fire-eaters," as 
they were termed, were blustering and blaspheming 
and declaring for secession and a dissolution of the 
Union. In the St. Anthony Express of July 12, 1851, 
Atwater. as its editor, wrote : 

"It does seem to us that all who clamor for dis- 
union, whether they live North or South, and all fire- 
eaters, wherever found, deserve to be sent over the 
Falls here, and the prescription repeated until they 
become cool. But, seriously speaking, is not this 
eternal clamor about the dissolution of the Union 
insufferable? And shall not Minnesota be character- 
ized by her devotion to the Union ? Shall not any 
man who advocates disunion be branded as worse 
than a traitor?" 

The subse(|nent histoiw of the St. Anthoiiy Express 
may be briefly given. ^lay 28. 1852. George D, Bow- 
man an old newspaper man of Schuylkill County, 
Pennsylvania, a.ssumed control of the paper as pro- 
prietor, publisher, and editor. August 5, 1855, Judge 
Atwater took full charge and made it staunchly 
Denmcratic in polities. In March, 1859, D. S. B. 
Johnston, now the well known capitalist and philan- 
fhi-oiiisf of St. Paul. becam(> Atwatei-'s editorial asso- 
ciate. Johnston was at the time principal of a select 
school in St. Anthony. In August, 1857, Chas. II. 
Slocum purchased a one-third interest in the pai>er 
from Judge Atwater and became its publishei' : 
.Vtwater remained as editor although that yeai- he 
was elected one of the Judges of the first State 
Supreme Court. In 1859 Johnston bought a one- 
third interest in the paper and became an equal ]iart- 
ner with Slocum and Atwater. (Statemeiir of 
Slocum to Com])iler. in 1913.1 

Sometime hitei- Mr. Johnston became thi' editoi- 
and Slocum the publisher. In the fall of 1860 Slocum 
retired and in .May. ISfJl. Mi'. Johnston discontinued 
the papei-. The press and other material were sold 
to lion. John L. McDonald, of Shakopee, and used 
to estalilish and print the Shakopee Argus, (See 
Minn. Hist. Coll. Vol. N. part 1. p. 260.) 



PKOHIBITIOX IN 1851. 

.Many of the first settlers at St. Anthony were from 
the State of Maine, where for some time a stringent 
prohibitory li(|uor law — commonly called the "Maine 
law"— had been in effect. A majority of the 
.Alaineites in St. Anthony were prohibitionists and 
brought their peculiar notions with them to the North- 
west. There was a great deal of promiscuous drink- 
ing in the little frontier village, where even the family 
grocery stores sold liquor for five cents a pint, and 
the "tee-totallers, " as they were often termed, were 
duly horrified. They called themselves "temperance 
men" then, for the term prohibitionist was not in 
vogue. A lodge of the Sous of Temperance, called 
Cataract Division No. 2, was organized at St. 
Anthony, in May, 1850; C. C. Jenks was the "W. P." 

September 15, 1851, the first public "temperance" 
meeting in St. Anthony was held. An organization, 
with Washington Getchell as president, was effected 
and a Territorial Convention of the "friends of 
temperance" was advocated. On New Year's Day, 
1852, in the Presbyterian Church building at St. Paul, 
the Territorial Convention was held. Several of the 
most prominent men of the Territory, including 
Joseph R. Brown. E. D. Neill, Joseph A. Wlieelock. 
John W. North, C. G. Ames, and Dr. J. H. Murphy, 
attended and spoke for a "Maine law." In February, 
1852, the Express boasted: "There is not a gambling 
shop, a drinking saloon, a whisky grocery store, or a 
grog shop in this town." 

ST. ANTHONY BECOMES A LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT. 

From the first settlement St. Anthony had been 
united with the hamlet of Little Canada" as a Legis- 
lative district of Ramsey County; but the Territorial 
Legislature of 1851 made the village an independent 
political division, designating it as the Third Council 
District. The district was to be entitled to one mem- 
ber of the Territorial Council and two mendiers of the 
House of Representatives. The district was still in 
Ramsey County. 

THE FIRST BRIDGE. 

In the latter part of July, 1851, the first Missis- 
sippi bridge was completed at St." Anthony under the 
ownership of Frank Steele. It extended only between 
the eastern .shore and Nicollet Island, and not entirely 
acro.ss the river. The gap was filled by a good ferry- 
boat. According to the Exjiress the bridge was a 
very firm and substantial one, constructed of large 
and heavy tiinbei-s and raised to a level with the bank 
on each side. The paper said the bridge was a 
favorite resort for travelers and others, as it afforded 
a fine view of the Island and of the Rapids below. In 
Sei)tembei- Edward Murphy, under W. A. Cheever's 
charter, began opiM-ating the fei-ry below the Falls. 

MARKETS IN 1851. 

In Septcmlier the Express gave the retail prices of 
!?roceries and provisions in St. Anthony. Flour was 
•4!5 and $5.50 per barrel: cranberries. $4. Oats. 25-fi> 



100 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



■40 eeuts per bushel ; corn, 50 cents : cornmeal, 75 
cents; potatoea, 60 cents. Coffee, 14 and 17 cents a 
pound ; teas from 50 cents to $1 ; brown sugar, 9 and 
11 cents; crushed or white sugar, 15 cents; lard, 12 
cents; butter ""from below" 15 cents; fresh churned 
butter, 20 cents; cheese, 10 and 15 cents; hams, 11 
and 15 cents; fresh beef and mutton, 8 and 10 cents; 
pork aud bacon, 10 and 12 cents; venison, 5 and 10 
cents ; fresh fish, 3 and 5 cents. Common New Orleans 
molasses, 50 and 65 cents a gallon; N. 0. golden 
syrup, 85 cents; whisky 25 and 35 cents; Eggs, 20 
cents a dozen and very scarce. Prairie chickens, 50 
cents a pair, or $2.50 a dozen. 

FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

In August, 1851, the first Catholic Church building 
in St. Anthony was completed. It stood in "upper 
town," where now is the corner of Ninth Avenue 
North aud Maine Street, East Division. The Express 
of August fl described it as a "large and capacious 
building," although a few years later it became neces- 
sary to erect the present fine stone structui-e. The 
churcli was called St. Anthony of Padua, in honor of 
Father Hennepin "s patron saint, and this name it still 
bears. The building was a frame and conaucnced in 
1850, or possibly, as Stevens says, (p. 108) in IS^a. 

The builder of the church was the Rev. Father 
Augustin Ravoux, of blessed and revered memory. 
He had come to Minnesota from France in 1841, and 
had served as pastor of St. Peter's Church at Mendota, 
St. Paul's at St. Paul, and as a missionary among the 
Indians. When his superior, Father Galtier, (the 
founder of St. Paul) left the country, in 1844, Father 
Ravoux succeeded him. He secured the site of the 
church in St. Anthony in 1849. Previous to the build- 
ing of their local church the Catholics of St. Anthony 
attended services at St. Paul and Mendota. where the 
priests lived. 

Father Ravoux was an engaging and admirable 
character. He was zealous and unwearied in his 
church work, but he was retiring, over-modest, and 
shrank from notoriety or publicity. At the request of 
friends, and by instructions from his superiors, he 
wrote his reminiscences of his early church work in 
Minnesota and they were published in book form. 
The book was disappointing. It makes very little 
mention of the many good works Father Ravoux 
actually performed. He makes no mention whatever 
of his building St. Anthony of Padua, although it is 
known that he superintended the work of construction 
in person, coming from Jlendota, via the river, to the 
foot of the rapids in a canoe, wliich he usually paddled 
himself. He was engaged for more than a year in the 
work, but, not desiring to parade his deeds, he does 
not refer to it. 

Father Ravoux conducted the first services in St. 
Anthony of Padua church, but in December, 1851, 
Rev. Father Ledon. another French priest, came and 
assumed charge as the first regular pastor. He served 
until in 1855. a<;cording to Atwater's History, when 
he was succeeded tiy his former college mate and 
friend. Rev. Father Fayolle, who had been serving 
at the little hamlet of Little Canada for some time. 



Stevens says (p. 108) that Father Ravoux began 
the erection of the church building in 1849, and that 
Father Ledon came in 1851 and was the first resident 
priest, although previous to his coming Fathers 
Kavoux aud Lucian Galtier ""held services in private 
liouses." This cannot be true as to Father Galtier, 
for he left ^Minnesota for good in ilay, 1844, when 
there was but one house on the site of St. Anthony. 

FIRST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Members of the Episcopal Church were not very 
numerous in St. Anthony in early days, but they 
were faithful and zealous. Frank Steele and R. P. 
Russell gave them a site for a church building on 
what is now Second Street, between First and Sec- 
ond Avenues North. Here the corner stone of a 
church building was laid October 30, 1850, by Rev. 
Timothy Wilcoxson, assisted by Rev. Ezekiel G. Gear, 
the latter then, and for many years prior thereto, the 
post chaplain at Fort Snelling. At the time there 
were not more than half a dozen Episcopalians in 
Minneapolis, but it is said that '"many others were 
interested" in the building of the church. The build- 
ing was not completed until in the spring of 1852, and 
the first soi-mon therein was tlelivered by Father Gear 
April 15. The church organization and the building 
were each called Holy Trinity Church. 

Rev. Dr. James L. Breck, who was present at its 
dedication and had assisted in its constraction, says 
the Holy Trinity Church was the "first house of wor- 
ship erected in this growing town" — St Anthonj-. 
(See "Early Episc. Churches," etc. Part 1, Vol. 10, 
i\Iinn. Hist. Kocy, Col., p. 222.) But the best evi- 
dence is that Holy Trinity was not completed so as 
to be ready for service until in the spring of 1852, 
while St. Antliony of Padua, the Catholic church, was 
completed in August, 1851, and the first services in 
it were held the following December. 

METHODISTS HAD THE FIRST ORGANIZATION. 

The first religious organization formed in St. 
Anthony, however, and wliich held services peculiar 
to it was a "class" of the Methodists, (meaning mem- 
bers of the M. E. Church) whicli was organized by 
Rev. JIatthew Sorin, an itinerant missionary, in July, 
1849, at the house of Calvin A. Tuttle. There were 
about a dozen members and John Draper was the 
"leader." They met regularly every Sunday at the 
members' houses or in the little school house. At 
first they had no pastor, and so there was no sermon. 
The exercises consisted of singing, of prayers, and 
the "giving of testimony." But late in 1849 Rev. 
Enos Stevens was appointed by the Wisconsin Con- 
ference as a Missionary to St. Anthony Falls, and 
then monthly preaching was had in the school house. 
The preacher did well to speak once a month, at St. 
Anthony, for he had to minister to small but zealous 
Hocks of his church at Fort Snelling, Red Rock, Cot- 
tage Grove. Point Douglas, and liissf^ll 's Mound. 

The successors of Rev. Stevens were in order Revs. 
C. A. Neweomb, E. W. Merrill, (who became a Con- 
gregationalist) and Eli C. Jones. The last named 



HISTORY OF iMINNEAPOLlS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



cauie in lt^52, and it was during his pastorate, (accord- 
ing to Atwatcr's History) when the tirst church, a 
frame, was erected at a cost of $1,000. 

THE PIONEER CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 

According to At water's History, which seems to 
coutaiu iuformatiou furnished by the records, the 
First Congregational Church of St. Anthony was 
organized November Ui, 1851, by Revs. Charles Sec- 
combe and Richard Hall, with 12 members. It was 
called the First Congregational Church of St. 
Anthony, and the name is still retained. The History 
further says that Rev. Seeeombe had commenced his 
services in St. Anthony "a j'ear earlier," as a home 
missionary, and that he was in ministerial service here 
for lifteen years. 

Stevens says, however, (p. 108) that in July, 1850, 
Rev. Wm. T. Wheeler, "formerly a Congregational 
missionary in Africa, commenced preaching," and 
was succeeded in 1851 by Rev. Charles Seeeombe "as 
pastor. ' ' 

Services were lield for some time in the building 
used as a preparatory school foi' the Hniversity. The 
first church building was commenced in 1853, at 
Ceutral Avenue and Fourth Street Northeast, and 
services were held in the basement that year. It was 
completed and dedicated February 15, 185-1. 

ST. .•VNTHONY TRIES FOR THE COUNTY SEAT. 

Up to the creation of Hennepin County, in March, 
1852, the village of St. Anthony was in Ramsey 
County, and of this county St. Paul w-as the county 
seat. There was, as has been stated, a rivalry between 
the two villages which extended nearly to a form of 
hostilit.v. The idea of two villages named for the 
lilcssed SI. Paul and St. Anthony being engaged in 
liostilit.v against each other! 

Ill the Territorial Legislature of 1851 a desperate 
attempt was made to remove the county seat from St. 
Paul to St. .\ntliony. If this could be done, tlie pros- 
perity and even the supremacy of the latter village 
might be assured. With its many admitted natural 
advantages the little town might go from county seat 
to capital citv and from capital city to greatness and 
grandeur. 

The movement originated in the House of Repre- 
sentatives. An amendment. No. 15, to Council File 
No. 1, consolidating the statutes, provided for the 
removal of the county seat. This amendment was 
adopted in committee of the whole by a vote of 7 to 
(i : but wlien it came up for final action on its ineoi'- 
poration into the general ])ill, the vote of the House 
was !) to 7 against such incorporation. The St. 
Paulites had rallied all their forces into action and 
won by 2 votes. The amendment was expected to 
pass the Council by 5 to 4, and if it had passed the 
TTousc, would doubtless have become a law. 

Those voting for the amendment were David Gil- 
man of Sauk Kapids, North and Patch of St. 
Anthony, Olmstead of Watab, Tra.sk and Ames of 
Stillwater, and Warren of Gull Lake. Those voting 



101 

against were Brunsou, Ramsey, (the Governor's 
brother' Rice, and Tilden of St". Paul; Randall and 
Faribault of Meudota, Sloau of Little Rock, and Tay- 
lor of Washington County. The result was regarded 
as a i)ractical defeat for Henry .M. IJice's friends, 
although his brother, Edmund, voted against the 
amendment. The seven that voted for it were Rice's 
henchmen. 

WHY AND HOW THE PROPOSITION FAILED. 

Now, Ben. H. Randall (died at Winona, Oct. 1, 
1913,) and Alexander Faribault, of Meudota, were 
elected to represent Dakotah County. They were 
strong friends of Sibley and not very favorable to 
Rice. There were objections made by the Rice ele- 
ment to their being given seats in the Legislature, 
ostensibly because it was claimed that their election 
was not in due and legal form. A committee re- 
ported that the two members elect were entitled to 
their seats, and on the vote to adopt this report both 
North and Patch, of St. Anthony, as well as three 
others — Ed. Rice. Sloan, and Warren — voted no, or to 
keep out Randall and Faribault. 

And so, wOieu the vote came to remove the county 
seat from St. Paul to the town where both John W. 
North and Ed. Patch lived and had their interests, 
both Randall and Faribault voted "no," and defeated 
the measure! Had they voted for it, St. Anthony 
would liave became the county seat, in all prol)al)ility, 
the vote standing 9 to 7 in its favor. And had North, 
Patch, and the others voted to keep the two Dakotah 
county members in their seats, they probably would 
have voted in the interest of St. Anthony. 

It really seemed that St. Anthony suffered for the 
devotion of some of its principal citizens to the inter- 
ests of Henry M. Rice. AVriting in the St. Anthony 
Express of SeiJtember 27. following. Editor At water 
said : 

" * * * The interests of the west side of the 
river are identified with our own. and the votes of 
that side would have been with us in the last Legisla- 
ture had not a most unprovoked Rice onslaught been 
made on the Representatives from that side Our 
Rice Representatives (North and Patch) were made 
the tools and the active instruments of this attack. 
Consequently we lost the vote of the west side for 
the capital, the penitentiary, and the count.v seat. 
Had our Representatives not taken this suicidal 
course, the county seat would this dav be located in 
St. Anthony." 

DIVERSIONS AND ENTERTAINMENTS. 

The winter of 1840-50 was a long and lonely one 
for the settlers at St. Anthony. Not much work could 
be performed, mails wen* uncertain and infre(pient, 
for Frink & Walker's stage line, or sliMiib line, was 
hard to keep open and clear of snowdrifts all the way 
from Galena to St. Paul. There were no libraries or 
places of amusement, and even church services were 
rare. Rut where there are 200 or 300 .Americans 
in one settlement they will not suffer much fr.om 
loneliness. 



102 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



The New Englanders and otlier x^^merieaiis arranged 
for a series of lectures to be given during the winter, 
at least one a month. The lecture force was com- 
posed of local talent. Lieut. Richard "\V. Johnson, 
afterward a ilistinguished major general of the l^nion 
army, but then not long from West Point and an 
officer of the gari-ison at Foi't Snelling: Rev. E. G. 
Gear, chaplain of Fort Snelling: Wm. R. Marshall, 
who had laid out the town; Prof. Lee, of the "acad- 
emy;" Rev. C. G. Ames, and others were the lecturers, 
and their efforts gave general satisfaction. Marshall's 
lecture was first. December 15; subject. "Our Terri- 
tory;" Lieut. Johnson lectured in January on "Edu- 
cation. ' ' 

The French-Canadians and other fun-loving citi- 
zens, in and about the village, especially the young 
people, had a good time from first to last. They 
had skating parties, sleighing parties, fishing excur- 
sions to the near-by lakes, where they took the fish 
through holes in the ice; the young men made many 
hunting trips, and nearly every incident or event of 
the kind was concluded with a dance. Two or three 
of these dancing parties were often held in a week. 
Commonly these were private affairs, held in dwell- 
ings, where there was room for but one cotillion "set" 
of eight persons at a time. Violins supplied the 
music and the fiddlers were compensated by collec- 
tions taken up during the evening. Occasionally 
there was "a ball" to which tickets were sold for 
sometimes as much as $2 apiece, although commonly 
a dollar was the price. This included supper and 
a great good time. 

At the ordinary dances or cotillion parties, the fid- 
dlers were local talent, too, either from the village or 
from the Frenchmen at Little Canada. But on the 
occasion of a "ball" the orchestra was often imported. 
Then would come Bill Taylor, a negro barber of St. 
Paul, a noted player of dance music, and Lem Fow- 
ler, with his "French horn," also from St. Paul; 
and sometimes there would be somebody from the 
Fort Snelling Military, and then three fiddles and a 
"French horn" would be going and rare was the 
enjoyment and glorious the fun. Modern balls fur- 
nish nothing approximating the real enjoyment and 
delight of the old pioneer dancing parties. No won- 
der that the young men were determined, as the.y 
sang, that tliey would, to — 

"Dance all night till hvo-.ul daylight. 
And go home with the gals in the morning." 

A large proportion of the participants in these 
innocent and exhilarating pastimes were French- 
Canadians; but the Americans fairly rivaled them 
in ininibers and interest, Stevens says that none 
joined in these dances with more zest than the mixed- 
bloods of the time. Th(> social etiuality of those in 
whose veins the Indian and the Caucasian blood were 
blended was generally recognized. For they were 
the offspring of white men and Indian women, who 
had been joined in Christian marriage, and were 
for the most part professed Christians themselves and 
lived reputably before the world. Stevens says that 
many mixed-blood girls were graceful and beautiful 



dancers, as they were graceful and beautiful in other 
ways, and they were much sought as partners by 
the young men. 

THE SIOUX TREATIES OP 1851. 

No other events or incidents have been of more 
importance in their infiuence upon the character 
and destiny of ilinnesota than the negotiations with 
the Sioux Indians of that Ten-itory in the summer 
of 1851. These events are commonly known as the 
Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota. The 
latter marked the beginning of a great and important 
epoch in the career of Minneapolis. For as a result 
of the Treaty of ilendota a vast region of country, 
large enough and naturally rich enough for a king- 
dom, was released from the rule of barbarism and 
opened to settlement and civilization; and a leading 
feature of this result was the acquisition of territory 
whereon in time the main portion of the city of Min- 
neapolis was built, and whereon it now stands. 

Prior to these treaties onl.y land in ^Minnesota 
east of the Mississippi was open to white settlement 
and occupation ; the vast fertile expanse we.st of the 
river was Sioux Indian land and forbidden ground 
to the whites, and the greater part of the northern 
portion of the State belonged to the Chippewas. The 
boundary lines between the lands ceded to the whites 
and those retained by the Indians constituted im- 
passable barriers against which the eager waves of 
immigration were beating in vain. In 1851 the 
greatest and most formidable of these walls was 
removed. 

In June, 1849, Territorial Governor Ramsey and 
John Chambers, a former Governor of Iowa, were 
authorized as commissioners to make a treaty with 
the Sioux for the land west of the ^Mississippi. The 
Commissioners met at Foil Snelling in the fall ; but 
the Sioux were absent from their villages gathering 
wild rice and hunting for their winter supply of 
meat, and sent word that they were too busy to 
make a treatj'. The truth is that the.y were not 
ready to dispose of their lands at that time. They 
heard the great clamor among the whites that their 
lands should be acquired and they believed that 
if they postponed the sale they would get better 
terms. So at this time they remained in their homes 
and the Commissioners returned to theirs. The 
clamor to have the land opened to white settlement 
was renewed with increased volume and force. The 
year 1850 came and passed without a treaty and a 
mighty demand came from Minnesota and the North- 
west that negotiations for the lands be opened at 
once. 

The need of some action became imperative. It 
required vigilant effort on the part of the military 
and the Indian agents to prevent liold and enter- 
prising home-seekers from crossing the river and 
claiming and settling upon sites surpassingly beauti- 
ful and inviting, thus trespassing and encroaching 
upon Indian rights. Think of white men standing at 
bay for years upon the east bank of the river at St. 
Anthony Falls and gazing upon the country to the 
westward, so fair to view and so full of possibilities. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



103 



with only a few paddle strokes between theiu and its 
glories I 

At last, ill the spring of 1851, President Fillmore 
directed that the treaty with the Sioux be made. He 
appointed as Commissioners Gov. Ramsey, who was 
ex-olitie-io Indian Commissioner for Jlinnesota, and 
Luke Lea, the National Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs. Particular instructions were given them, so 
that they were entitled to no esjiecial credit for the 
terms and conditions they made, since their duties 
were almost purely ministerial. 

The Commissioners decided to make two treaties; 
that witii the two upjicr Sioux bands, the Sissetons 
and Wahpctoiis, was to be made at Traverse des 
Sioux, and that with the two lower bauds, the ileda- 
wakantons and Wahpakootas, would be at Mendota. 
There was much interest manifested, and many 
prominent men of the Territory attended. Mr. Good- 
hue, of the Pioneer, reported the proceedings of the 
Traverse des Sioux treaty and printed them in his 
paper. 

The Traverse des Sioux treaty was held under a 
brush arbor constructed especially for the purpose by 
Alexis Bailly, a Jlendota .justice of the peace and at 
one time a prominent trader. The treaty document 
was not tinally signed until July 23. On the part 
of the Indians it was signed liy numerous "head 
men,"' and by Chiefs Running Walker, the Orphan, 
Limping Devil, Sleepy Eye, Lengthens His Head- 
Dress, Walking Spirit, Red Iron, and Rattling 
Moccasin. 

Six days after the signing of the Traverse des Sioux 
treaty, or July 29, 1S51, the treaty of Mendota was 
begun. It was held also under a brush arbor erected 
by Alexis liailly on the elevated plain on the north 
side of Pilot Knob. On the oth of August it was 
finally signed by the V. S. Commissioners, Lea and 
Ramsey, and by the following chiefs: Wabasha, head 
chief of the ilcdawakantons, and Sub-Chiefs Little 
Crow, Wacouta, (the shooter) Cloud Man, Gray Iron, 
Shakopee, (or Six) and Good Road. There was only 
one band of Wahpakootas and Chief Red Legs signed 
for it. 

The territory ceded by the Indians comin-ised about 
23,750,000 acres, of which more than 19,000,000 acres 
were in ^Minnesota, nearly 3,000,000 acres in Iowa, 
and more than 1,750,000 acres in what is now South 
Dakota. To quote the treaty, the Indians sold — 

"All their lands in the State of Iowa, and also all 
their lauds in the Territory of Minnesota cast of a 
line beginning at the continence of the Buffalo River 
with the Red River of tiie .Xorth, [12 miles north of 
Moorhead] thence south, along the Red River, to the 
Sioux Wood River; thence along that river to Lake 
Traverse; thence south along the western shore of 
Lake Traverse to its southern extremity; thence in a 
direct line to the juncture of Lake Kampeska with 
the Sioux River | Chan-kah-snah-dahta Watpa, or 
Splintery Wood River] ; thence along the western 
bank of said [Splintery Wood, or] Sioux River to the 
boundary line of Iowa." 

The price which it was agreed should be paid to 



the Indians for their lands was 12V:; cents an acre. 
The two upper bands were to receive $1,665,000 in 
cash and suitplics and be allowed a reservation twenty 
miles wide — ten miles on either side of the ^linuesota 
— from the western boundary down to the mouth of 
the Yellow .Medicine and Hawk Creek. Of this sum 
$305,000 was to be expended for their benefit the first 
year, and five per cent interest on the balance of 
$1,360,000. or $()8,000, was to be paid in cash and 
supplies annually for fifty years, commencing July 
1, 1852. Of each annuity $-40,000 was to be in cash, 
$12,000 for "civilization,"" $10,000 for goods and pro- 
visions, and $6,000 for education. 

The two lower bands were to receive $1,410,000, of 
which sum $30,000 was to be paid as soon as the U. S. 
Senate ratified the treaty, $25,000 was to be paid for 
them in .settling their debts with the traders, remov- 
ing them to their new reservation on the upper Jlin- 
nesota, and for schools, mills, opening farms, etc., 
and five per cent of $1,160,000. a trust fund reserved 
bj^ the Government, which interest amounted to 
$58,000, was to be paid annually for 50 years after 
July 1, 1852. The sum of $28,000 was to be expeniled 
for them annually for "civilization," education, 
goods, etc. The lower bands were also allowed a 
resei-vation, ten miles wide on either side of the Min- 
nesota and extending down that river from the month 
of the Yellow ^Medicine to Little Rock Creek, four 
miles east of Fort Ridgely and 1-1 miles west of New 
Ulm. The back annuities due under the treaty of 
1837 were to be paid in annual installments and 
$150,000 in cash was to be divided among the mixed 
bloods of the two bands in lieu of the lands they had 
failed to claim under thi' Prairie lUi Cbien treatv of 
1830. Of the cash paid the sum of $100,000 was to be 
deducted and paid to certain traders for ".just debts" 
due them from the Indians for goods and supplies 
had and delivered in former years. 

The U. S. Senate amended the treaties by striking 
out the jn'ovisions for reservations, foi- whicii ten 
cents an acre was to be paid, and other reservations 
in what is now the Dakotas were to be selected and 
the Indians removed thereto; also the item of $150,000 
in ciish for the half breeds was stricken out. The 
amended ti'eaty came back to ^Minnesota and in Sep- 
tember, 1852. was signed by .some of the chiefs and 
head men of the Indians. President Fillmore pro- 
claimed it. and it went into full legal effect, Februao' 
24. 1853; it had been in practical effect, so far as 
white settlers weii' interested, for many months 
l)efore ! 

After paying $18,000 to the Indians, as a part of 
the purchase price of their reservations, at ten cents 
an acre, the Government, by President Pierce and an 
appropriation bill, refused to select new reservations 
for the Indians and allowed them to keep those given 
them by the treaties of 1S51. They W(>re tinally con- 
firmed in these reservations in July, 1854. 

Tb(> point most prominent in connection with the 
matters under consideration, is that by the Treaty of 
Mendota, in 1851, the site of Minneapolis was pur- 
chased from the Indians for 12yo cents an acre. 



104 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



A NEW ERA OF PROSPEKITV OPENS FOR MINNESOTA. 

Great was the general rejoicing throughout Min- 
nesota over the fact that by the Indian treaties the 
country west of the Mississippi had been opened to 
white settlement. Even in St. Anthony the property 
owners were glad, although it was fairly certain that 
a competitive town would soon arise just across the 
river from them. The main reason was that all of 
them had a "claim" of some sort already selected 



in the new land of promise ! The fact that the treaties 
had been made was the consummation of desires, 
hopes, and expectations which had long been devoutly 
held by everybody. In May, 1850, John H. Stevens 
had written to Sibley: 

"Immigration pours in, but we fear with little 
money. We want a treaty with the Indians for their 
lands west of the Mississippi. Our Territory wiU 
have bad repute unless we open the west side of the 
river." 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE CITY AND COUNTY ARE ESTABLISHED. 



EFFECT OP THE INDIAN TREATIES OP 1851 THE WEST SIDE OF THE RIVEK OPENED TO WHITE SETTLEMENT SETTLERS 

FLOCK TO THE NEW HOME SITES THE FIRST PERMANENT OCCUPANTS OF THE CITY 's WESTERN DH'ISION A 

NEW CITY IS POUNDED AND A NEW COUNTY CREATED. 



THE EPOCH OF MOST IMPORTANCE. 

The incidents connected with the Indian treaties of 
1851 coii.stituted the most important epoch in the his- 
tory of Minneapolis. For following hard upon the 
treaties a town was laid out on the west hank of the 
river, and this town was named ^Minneapolis. At first 
it was a rival of St. Anthony, the town on the east 
bank, hut eventually it absorbed and benevolently as- 
similated its rival antl extended its corporate limits 
far to the north and west of the original boundaries 
of St. Anthony. 

It would seem that St. Anthony might have pre- 
vented the laying out of the new town with the new 
name. It was then a bright and promising village. 
In two years the rude log cabins of the first settlers 
had been replaced by commodious frame buildings, 
white painted and attractive. There were good .saw- 
mills, a very excellent hotel, a fairly good corn-grind- 
ing mill, two schools, chun-h organizations, and a 
strong array of stores and shops. John G. Lennon's 
big general store was ([uite a creditable institution and 
carried the largest advertisement in the St. Anthony 
Express, a whole column in length. 

The little town had doctoi's, lawyers, scholars, and 
politicians, and brainy men of all avocations, and 
Franklin Steele was largely interested in the place. 
Had the people seen fit they could have had the Legis- 
lature (which met a few months after the treaty was 
signed at Mendota) create a new county embracing 
the territoi-y on both sides of the river at the Falls 
and designating St. Anthony as the county seat. Then 
the cor|)orate lines could have been extended and the 
town on the west side of the river might have been 
"West St. Anthony," for all time! 

"SOONERS" INVADE THE WEST SIDE. 

It must be borne in mind that while the west side 
was properly considered Indian country, it was liter- 
ally a part of the Fort Snelling military reserve, which 
had been jiurchased from tiie Indians by Lieutenant 
Pike when he visited the country, in 1805-06. Set- 
tlers were not allowed to go njion it except by special 
permits from the military authorities ; but, under all 
the circiniistanccs. and when the manifest destiny of 
the greater part of the reservation was realized, these 
permits or licenses were not hard to obtain. The idea 
was to obtain, preliminary to permanent occupation. 



good claims on the new site, and even the army officers 
and soldiers were disposed to secure this sort of 
holdings. 

Hardly was the ink of the signatures to the treaty 
of iMendota dry on the paper when certain bold, ad- 
venturous spirits, indifferent to legal restrictions, were 
upon the west side of the river selecting, staking out, 
and even building upon their claims. Opposite St. 
Anthony, between the Falls and Fort Snelling, on the 
military reservation were a score ,of these "sooners." 
They expected that Congress would soon reduce the 
limits of the reservation, that their claims would he 
outside of the new limits, and that the ratification of 
the treaties would give them titles secure against all 
assaults. 

Between the Falls and Fort Snelling several cbuMis 
were made and houses, or rather shanties, built on 
them. The "sooners" in these cases made claim to 
large blocks of the land for possible advantage when 
the new town should be laid out. A majority of them 
were St. Anthony men anyhow, and had these claims 
as anchors to windward in case adverse gales of for- 
tune should blow violently upon their little home 
village. 

By the 1st of January, 1852. quite a number of 
claims had been made on the Fort Snelling reserve, 
long before the Senate had ratified the Indian treaties 
or the reserve itself had been reduced so as to allow of 
such settlements. Lieut. Col. Francis Lee. of the fith 
V. S. Infantry, connnanding at Fort Snelling, wrote 
to Washington foi' instructions. He was directed to 
at once evict and expel the intruders, destroy their 
habitations and improvements, and sternly forbid a 
repetition of the trespass, under a threat of condign 
and severe punishment. The St. Anthony Express of 
Februai-y 21, 1852. gave the si^quel: 

"The cabins erected on the Reserve, we notice, have 
all been razed to the ground, except those whose own- 
ers had obtained permits. Had not meetings been 
called and so nun-h opposition manifested on the part 
of a few to pei-mits from ofificers. we think that nobody 
would have been disturbed, even those without jier- 
mits. We have some dogs in the manger which, not 
being able to en.ioy themselves, are determined that 
no one else shall. Congress will probably act on the 
matter soon and stop all contention." 

Some of the lumber and timbers of the buildings 
destroyed by the soldiers under the orders of Col. 
Lee were thrown into the Mississippi. The mat^-rial 



105 



106 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



of the claim house of Daniel Stanchfield was thus dis- 
posed of. The soldiers did all the work of ejection 
and dismantling. Init were not willing instruments of 
the law in this case. 

Also in Februai-y, about the time the claim houses 
were being destroyed, Philander Prescott, agent of 
the Indian Department at Fort Snelling. was sent 
out through the country west of the Falls to warn off 
certain parties that were cutting timber on the for- 
bidden lands and hauling it to the mills. They were 
ordered to desist their operations at once, and not to 
renew them, or even to visit the lands on the west side, 
without special permission. 

THE FIRST SETTLER ON THE MINNEAPOLIS SIDE. 

.Ml'. Bean and the other millers in charge of the 
old Government Jlill on the west side of the river can- 
not jiroperly be considered the first permanent set- 
tlers of ]Minneapolis proper. They were not "set- 
tlers" at all in the true meaning of the term; they 
were merely denizens or tenants at will — that is, at 
the will of the landlord, who then was Uncle Sam ; he 
could remove them whenever he wanted to, or they 
could remove themselves at their own pleasure. 

By and by the Mill came to have a renter and suii- 
tenants. A dozen or more years previously Secretary 
of War Poinsett had decided that the Mill was Govern- 
ment property, but located on Indian laud, and only 
to be used in aid of the military, and hence was not 
subject to purchase, to occupation, or to control by 
citizens. In ilay, 1849, Hon. Robert Smith, a member 
of Congress from the Alton, Illinois, district, obtained 
Governmental lease and license to occupy the old Mill 
by himself or by his tenant. The Sibley papers show 
that Henry M. Rice was an unrecorded partner of 
Smith's in this lease, and that at Rice's instance a 
strong but ineffectual effort was made to get Sibley 
to become a third partner. The present writer cannot 
state with certainty who all of Smith and Rice's ten- 
ants were, if they exceeded three, namely, Bean, Dyer, 
and Tuttle, but only one of them (Tuttle) was prop- 
erly speaking a settler or citizen of iliinieapolis. 

But there was one settler on the original site of Min- 
neapolis who came before the Indian title was extin 
guish(>d, and who came to stay, and stayed. This was 
John Harrington Stevens, born in Canada, of Ameri- 
can pai'cntage, in 1820, who had served as captain and 
(|uartermaster in the ^Mexican War, who came to ^lin- 
ncsota early in 1849, and whose name has become a 
household word in Minneapolis. In May, 1849, Mr. 
Stevens entered the employ of Franklin Steele, as a 
clerk; but in a short time he became Steele's bu.siness 
agent, his factotum, his major domo, his confidante, 
and altogether his close intimate. 

STE\'ENS .\CTS FOB HIMSELF .\ND FOR FRANK STEELE. 

Now, when Rice and Smith had secured a lease of 
the Government ^fill. 'Mr. Steele thought their claim 
a menace to his mill interests. Of course he intended 
from the first to secure land on the irrst bank con- 
fronting the Falls, as he had secured a good broad 



foothold on the cast bank. He detennined to head off 
any further approach of Rice and Smith toward the 
west end of the Falls, planning to secure that site 
for himself. The land was not then subject to entry, 
but in time it would be. It was, however, subject to 
occupation, as Rice and Smith had demonstrated in 
leasing the old ^Mill. 

"Who does by another does by himself," is an old 
maxim of law and equity. If Steele could put his 
confidential agent, Stevens, on a tract of land immedi- 
ately above the old Mill, the occupation would raise 
a barrier to an approach toward the land directly 
at the Falls which Rice and Smith could not cross. 
In a little time Stevens was properly placed, and in 
his book he tells us how : 

"June 10, 1849, Mr. Steele asked me to accompany 
him on a little trip from Fort Snelling to St. Anthony 
Falls. I was then his chief book-keei)er in his count- 
ing room at the Fort. On our way up Mr. Steele 
said that in a year or two the Fort Snelling reserva- 
tion would be reduced in size ; that many valuable 
claims could be secured on the lands which would be 
left out by the reduction by securing permission from 
the Secretary of War to immediately go upon them ; 
that he wanted me to at once secure the claim immedi- 
ately above the Government Mill, then controlled by 
Hon. Robert Smith, and he thought there would not 
be much diiificulty in securing the desired permission 
from the Secretaiy of War, then Hon. Wm. L. ]\Iarcy. " 

The Secretary had been very determined that there 
should be no occupation of the reserve by would-be 
settlers, but a way was found to whip him around the 
stump. Steele found it. The Secretary accorded the 
permission, upon the request of Steele, Sibley, and 
Lieut.-Col. Gustavus Loomis, the old Puritan com- 
mander of Fort Snelling and superintendent of the 
reserve. To justify the license a laudable subterfuge 
was resorted to. Stevens was to be allowed to live 
on the west bank of the river on condition that he 
construct and maintain a feriy across the river from 
his habitation to St. Anthony; and he was to trans- 
port on his ferry, free of all charge whatsoever, all 
officers and soldiers of the army and all othei- agents 
of the Government, including teamsters with their 
teams, wagons, and their loads, etc. At that date the 
road from Fort Snelling to Fort Gaines (Fort Ripley) 
was that from St. Paul to the upper fort, which ran 
on the east side of the river, via St. Anthony, etc. ■ 

It was really a convenience to the authorities and 
garrisons of the two posts to hav(> a ferry at St. 
Anthony, in order to facilitate communication between 
them. Stevens had to give a bond of $500, secured 
by Steele, that he would faithfully comply with the 
conditions of his license. There was but little work for 
him to do to pay for his privilege at first, for the mili- 
tary representatives seldom wished to cross, but when 
passage was wanted it was "wanted bad." 

The a.ssertion that Stevens desired the claim in 
order to operate a ferry was an innocent fiction, 
designed to chase Secretary Marcy's order from its 
firm position in front of the stump to a place behind 
it. At first Stevens virtually held thi- claim in trust 
for Frank Steele, so that Rice and Smith and anybody 



HISTORY OF .MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



107 



t'l.si- hut Steele mifiht not .seeiire tlir mill-sites at the 
West eud of the Falls. It was known that in a few 
years the west side would be open to settlement and 
that Stevens eould then perfect the title in fee, when 
the mill-sites would be under the control of the Steele 
interests. 

Stevens had been only a month in the Territory 
when he received permission to settle on the west 
bank of the river and construct a home thei'e. He was 
a clerk for Steele at Fort Snelling at the time, and 
was unmarried ; but. acting for his emplo.ver, for 
whom he had conceived a great liking, he readily con- 
sented to have his home, and claim it as such, in a 
not very inviting sitnation. He at once began opera- 
tions on his claim, although he was rather busy with 
his duties as clerk for Steele at Fort Snelling and about 
other business for him at St. Anthony. He tells us 
that, "on the bank of the river, .just above the rapids, 
I commenced building my humble house, to which 
when tini.shed. I brought my wife, as a bride, and in 
it my first children were born, the eldest being Iho 
lirst-born white child in iliuneapolis proper. "" 

STEVENS AND HIS YOUNG WIFE COMPLETE AND OCCLIPV 
THEIR HOME. 

Stevens did not complete his house for more than 
a year; it was finished and first occupied August 6. 
1850. It was a frame building, of hunber sawed by 
Steele's mill, and probably furnished by him. was a 
story and a half in height, with a wing of one story. 
The striieture stood on the west bank, quite near the 
water and only twenty feet above it, on a l>eneh or 
terrace of land which was several feet below the gen- 
eral level of the land farther back from the river : 
from 200 yards to the rear of the house only its roof 
and attic could be seen. 

At Roi-kford, Illinois. :\[ay 10. 1850. Stevens had 
married ^liss Frances IT. Jliller. Immediately after 
Hie wedding the couple started for St. Anthony Falls, 
and ;\lay 16 arrived at St. Paul and Fort Snelling. 
Tlicy intended residing temporai'il.v in the Fort, where 
Mr. Stevens's work was, but a few daxs after his 
i-i'lurn he was sent to Iowa to assist the soldiers in 
removing the Sac and Fox Indians from their former 
lands in that State, and during his absence ilrs. Ste- 
vens was the guest of Mrs. Jaeol) W. Bass, the land- 
lady of the little log hotel at St. Paul. As her 
husband was returning, Jlrs. Stevens met him at Mus- 
c;itinc. Iowa, and from thence they returned by steam- 
lioat to Minnesota, and. as has been stated, moved into 
their new house at the Falls on tiie 6th of August. 
The Stevens family was the second white household 
til reside at the west end of the Falls: Mr. Bean's, 
tliat occupied the old Government Mill buildings, was 
the first. 

THE FIRST DAIRY HERD \T MINNEAPOLIS. 

At Muscatine Mr. Stevens bought a small herd of 
five milch cows at ^7 per head : and they were good 
cows at that. He brought them to Foi-t Snelling for 
$4 apiece, and thus they cost him $11 each "laid 



down"' at the Falls. This was the lirst dairy herd lo 
graze on what afterward became the site of ilinncap- 
olis proper. Previously, however, several families in 
St. Anthony each had a cow, and there was plenty of 
live stock, including good grade bulls, down St. Paul 
way. Stevens claims: "Tiiis was uudoubt*'dly the 
first herd of eows ever introduced on the west bank of 
the Falls, aside from those used by the ti'oops at Fort 
Snelling.'' 

Stevens had ildei'mined to operate a small farm on 
his claim. His situation was not altogether what he 
desired, but he nuule the lust of it. • The only means 
of communication with St. Anthony was in a small 
skitf propelled by two pairs of oars, and the water 
route was above the Falls, and above Nicollet Island. 
where the current was so sli-ong that it was fortunate 
when a landing was made at any considerable distance 
above the terrible rapids. ( 'aptain John Tapper was 
the feiTyman and chief oarsman, but his strong arms 
had to be re-enforced by those of another brawn.v 
boatman in order to carry the laden boat safely 
athwart the strong current. The Captain made his 
home a great part of the time at the Stevens house. 
In the warm seasons the mosquitoes came in great 
ravenous clouds and made life it burden for the house- 
hold; bars and screens afforded but little protection 
against them. Lucliily, owing to the pure and 
salubrious climate, there was no poison in their stings, 
no malarial germs or typhus bacilli which they could 
transfer to the human system. 

FIRST STEPS TOWARD CULTIVATING THE SOIL. 

Immediately ujion occupying his new house Jlr. 
Stevens set about preparing the ad.ioining land on the 
flat near him for cultivation. It was covered largely 
with jungles of black .jack-oak trees and saplings, 
thickly stuck with scraggy and bristling limbs and 
branches, and John Tai)per was given charge of the 
work of clearing these impediments off the land and 
getting it ready for the plow. The land bordered on 
the river, running back 80 rods from the bank, "and 
extending about half way uji to l'>assett's Creek." 

Tapper hired a bunch of expert axmen and they 
soon cleared the land. The trees were cut down, the 
brush piled, the stumps and main roots grubbed up, 
and after saving a lot of firewood and fence-poles, the 
tree-trunks, brush, and grubs were piled together and 
burned. Next siiring. when plowing began, the plow 
moved easily through the rich, mellow soil, as easily 
penetrated as an ash-heap. The work of clearing the 
land and preparing it for the plow had been trouble- 
some and expensive : but it had to be done. Stevens 
had plenty of pi-airie land which had no timbei' upon 
it and required no clearing. But it had something 
more formidable to the plow and the plowman. It 
had a tough, thick sod which could not be cut and 
broken and turned undei- by any plow then in vogue. 
At that date the plows conunonly in use had wooden 
frames and cast-iron points and mold-boards. The 
iron was usually inferior, brittle, and easily snapped 
and shattered by a strong root or stubborn piece of 
sod. 



108 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



This was one reason why the prairie lands were not 
first cultivated instead of the timber lands. The sod 
was from four to six inches thick and composed of 
roots and fibers cemented with well packed earth. 
The ordinary plows would not turn it or even cut it. 
The Indian women had to cut it with hoes, and even 
axes, before they could plant their gardens and corn- 
fields. When the timber tracts were cleared and 
grubbed of their stumps and roots, the loose, loamy 
soil was half plowed: it was easy to finish the re- 
mainder with any sort of a plow. 

In time. wrought-iro}i and steel-pointed plow-points 
supei-seded the cast iron ; and then, when the prairie 
lands had been pastured and big weeds kept down for 
a few years, the roots in the sod rotted and the soil 
was easily broken. Occasionally in the early settle- 
ment of the country the local blacksmiths hammered 
out wrought-iron, " steel-pointed plow-shares which 
were fastened to large strong frames, forming a huge 
machine which, when drawn by two or three yoke of 
oxen, would cut and turn prairie sod quite readily, 
making great wide furrows, and laying and folding 
back the sod very regularly. The up-turned sod had 
to lie under the sun and rains for a year or more 
before its roots rotted so that it could be easily pul- 
verized by cross-plowing and rendered into seed-beds 
Colonel Stevens tells us that the crops produced on 
his land were very heavy and excellent in every way. 
They were a great advertisement for ^linnesota and 
its soil. There were hosts of visitors from other 
States to Fort Snelling and the much noted St. An- 
thonv Falls, and every visitor saw Stevens's fine corn- 
fields, his fruitful gardens, and his fat cattle, and 
went back home telling every one he saw that ilinne- 
sota was well adapted to white occupation and des- 
tined to become a magnificent commonwealth. 
Stevens says: "The yields that were produced on 
this land in after years were so heavy that it en- 
couraged immigi-ants who saw the fields to settle in 
the Territory." 

CHARLES MOUSSEAU PRECEDES STEVENS. 

But while Colonel Stevens was fairly the first per- 
manent white settler on the original site of Minne- 
apolis west of the river, he was not the first on the 
present site. Some three years before his settlement, 
Charles Mousseau came to the site of the old mission 
of the Pond brothers, on the southeast shore of Lake 
Calhoun, and took up his residence as a permanent 
inhabitant. Tie also laid claim to 160 acres of the 
land on which his liouse stood, saying that he would 
perfect title to it as soon as the Indian claiin was ex- 
tinguished and the Snelling reserve oi)ened to white 
settlement, and meanwhile all designing persons were 
requested to notice that he had claims which must be 
respected ! It is believed that at first Mousseau lived 
in the old Pond mission house, and a portion of his 
claim is now included in Lakeview Cemetery. Near 
his house at one time wa.s the cabin of old Chief Cloud 
Man (Makh-pe-ah We-chash-tay), the good old chief 
of the Lake Calhoun band of Sioux. 

Charles Mousseau was born in Canada, in 1807. 



His ancestry, of course, was French. In 1827 he came 
to ^Mendota and entered the employ of the Fur Com- 
pany as a voyageur. In February, 1836, he married 
at Fort Snelling, Fanny Perry, the daughter of 
Abram Perry (or Perret), the old French-Swiss 
watchmaker. The marriage ceremony was performed 
by Indian Agent Taliaferro, and in 1839 confirmed by 
Bishop Loras. of Dubuque, while on his first visit to 
Miiniesota. In the latter year ilousseau became the 
first white settler on the crest of what is now Dayton's 
Bluff, in St. Paul. In 1848 he sold his St. Paul" claim 
to Eben "Weld and having obtained permission of the 
military authorities, removed to the claim at Lake 
Calhoun. He lived in Minneapolis the rest of his 
life, and out of twelve children born to him he raised 
nine to maturity : some of his descendants are yet in 
Minneapolis. In February, 18:52, he gained some 
local notoriety by killing a 700-pound black bear after 
a bloody and exciting fight with the monster near the 
shore of Lake Calhoun. His little daughter, Sophia, 
whose death was chronicled by the St. Anthony Ex- 
press in July, 1850, was probably the first white per- 
son to die within the present limits of ^linneapolis 
west of the river. 

OTHER PIONEER RESIDENTS ON THE W:esT SIDE. 

"When Stevens moved into his new house at the 
Falls he was alone in his glory, as the only white set- 
tler on what became the original site of the city. This 
was in August, 1850. A year previously, when Rob- 
ert Smith and Henry M. Rice leased the old Govern- 
ment ilill, they placed a bachelor named Ambrose 
Dyer, of Oneida County, New York, in charge of the 
building, and he occupied it for some months as a 
bachelor's hall, and then, disappointed and dissatis- 
fied, he went elsewhere. The Stevens household and 
home were practically without near neighbors until 
April 25, 1851, when Calvin A. Tuttle crossed his 
family over from St. Anthony and occupied the Jlill 
buildings. Thus the number of families in Minne- 
apolis proper had increa.sed 100 per cent in less than 
a year — from one to two ! 

According to Hudson's History, John P. Miller, in 
August, 1851, secured the second claim at the Falls, 
also under a permit from the Secretary of "War. On 
this claim, which was 160 acres in extent. Miller built 
a good house and made other permanent improve- 
ments. Not long after Stevsns made his claim Rev. 
Ezekiel G. Gear, the po.st chaplain at Fort Snelling, 
laid claim to a tract of land on the eastern shore of 
Lake Calhoun, near Mousseau 's. Permission to file 
this claim was given by the militaiw, but it does not 
appear that any improvements were made upon it 
for some time. As to other pioneer claims, Hudson 
(p. 34) says: 

"Dr. Ilezekiah Fletcher, John Jackins, Isaac 
Blown, "Warren Bristol, Allen Harmon and Dr. Al- 
freil E. Ames made claims during 1851. and were soon 
followed by Edward ]\Iui-phy, Anson Northruj). 
Charles Iloag, Martin Layman. John G. Lennon. 
Ben.j. B. Parker, Sweet \V. Case, Hdgar Folsom. Hiram 
Van Nest, Robert Blaisdell, and otliei's, all of wiioni 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND IIENXEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



109 



secured permits from the military authorities. Prom- 
inent elaim-liolders just outside the military reserva- 
tion were Joel B. Bassett, \Vm. Byrnes. Chas. W. 
Christmas. Waterman Stinson. Stephen Pratt, anti 
Rufus Pratt, all of whom took up and in what is now 
North iliiineapolis. " 

Nearly all of these were citizens of St. Anthony. 
They crossed the river and made claims on the west 
side, as anchors to vrindward. Everybody was sayins,' 
tliat there would soon be a town on the west side, and 
if tiiis should be at tlu' expense of St. Anthony it was 
well to have a means of covering and balancing ;niy 
loss that might thereby be sustained. It was well 
enough to own property in both towns. 

Dr. Fletcher's claim was considered "far back in 
the country." He built a small house on a site now 
on Portland Avenue, between Fourteenth and Fif- 
teenth Streets. In two years he sold to -John T^. Tenny. 
who, in 1854. sold to Daniel Elliott; subse(|uently the 
tract became J. S. and Wyman Elliott's Addition. 
The Doctor sold his claim for $1,200, which was con- 
sidered a good price. He resided in Minneapolis for 
some yeai-s, was elected to the Legislature of 1854, 
and appointed R+'gistcr of the U. S. Land Office in 
1863. He died in California several years ago, .still 
owning iMinneapolis realty. 

After Dr. Fletcher the next claimant was John 
Jenkins, a Maineite, who had, before coming to St. 
.\nthony, been a lumberman over on the St. Croix. 
His claim was innnediately in the rear of Stevens's, 
and his house stood where afterwards the Syndicate 
Block was built : he did not finally pre-empt his laud 
until 1855, but in the meanwhile nobody attempted 
to "jump" his claim. 

Isaac Brown, another ]\Iaineite, bought a part of 
Jackins's claim and built a big house on the site of 
Sixth Street and Third Avenue South. In October, 
1852. he w'as elected the first sheriff of Hennepin 
County. He and Jackins sui'veyed their land into 
blocks and lots in 1855. Jackins became a IMinne- 
apolis merchant, but finally removed to California. 

Wan-en Bristol came over late in 1S51, took a claim 
of IfiO acres adjoining Dr. Fletcher's claim on the 
west, built a house on it the following winter, and 
b(>came the first lawyer on the west side. The site of 
his house was subsequently that of the high school, on 
Fourth Avenue South, between Grant and Eleventh 
Streets. But the tirst lawyer did not remain long in 
primitive Minneapolis, tiiough he was the first district 
attorney for Hennepin County. Official honors had 
no special charms for him. and before his land came 
fairly into market he had the imperfect judirment 
and incorrect taste to exchange it for St. Paul realty. 
Subsequently lie settled at Red Wing and was Repre- 
sentative and Senator from Goodhue County. Presi- 
dent Grant commissioned him a Judge of the New 
Mexico Territorial Supreme Court and he held the 
jiosition for several years. So much for the first 
lawyer to reside in ^linneapolis. 

Late in the fall of 1851 Allen Harmon came over 
from St. Anthony. Stevens considered him "a man 
of great worth" and says, "we were pleased to have 
him for a neighbor." His claim was some distance 



l)ack from the river and he resided upon it until his 
death, in about 1884, The First Baptist Church 
building, the Atheneum Library, and other promi- 
nent buildings were subsequently erected on the old 
Ilai'mon claim. 

Dr. Alfred E. Ames, from Roscoe, Illinois, made 
claim to the land on which were afterwards built the 
courthouse and jail. The claim was made by permis- 
sion of Capt. A. D. Nelson, then in connnand at Fort 
Snelling, in October, 1851, but the doctor was then in 
practice with Dr. Murphy at St. Anthony and did 
not occupy it until in the spring of 1852. The Har- 
mon and Ames claims were the last made in 1851. 

FIRST ORC.ANIZ.VTKIN OK IIENXEI'IN' COrXTY. 

In the latter part of 1851 tin- project of organizing 
a new county on the west side of the I'iver. to include 
flic western shore at the Falls, w<us agitated by the 
settlers of the region. The leaders of the movement 
were mainly interested in having the county seat of 
the new county at the new settlement springing up 
at the Falls. Since 1849 the district across the river 
from St. Anthony was a part of Dahkotiih County, 
with the county seat at Mendota. The destiny of the 
coiuifry was fast being accomplished and a great 
change in the political organization was necessary. 

Nobody was opposed to the change and there was 
practically nothing in the way. The Indian treaties 
bad been made and were awaiting confirmation, which 
was certain to come. Immigration was pouring in 
and claims were being rapidly made in advance of 
the Government's surveys of the lantl and the opening 
of land offices. The west side needed a county govern- 
ment of its own, and the need would be rapidly in- 
tensified. A tentative effort was made in the Legis- 
lature of 1851 to create the new political division, but 
it was found to be pi-emature. Conditions were, how- 
ever, befitting in the winter of 1852. 

As has been stated, the members of the Legislature 
from the district (Dahkotah County) embracing Men- 
dota. Fort Snelling, and the west side of the Falls — 
and which extended westward to the Missouri River 
— were ilartin McLeod, of Lac ([ui Parle, in the Coun- 
cil and Alexander Faribault, of Mendota, and Benj. 
H. Randall, of Fort Snelling, in the House of Repi-e- 
sentatives. Faribault lived then at Mendota and Wiis 
oi)posed to the new county ; but Randall, of Fort Snell- 
ing, favored if. If was believed that Farilmult's 
op[)osifion would prevent favorable action in 1851, 
and so the matter was postjioned to the rjcgisiature of 
1852, of which if was thought best that he should not 
be a member. 

According to Stevens and other authorities, as the 
election for membei-s of the Legislatui-e of 1852 land 
other officers) approached, if was determined by those 
interested in the new county that no candidates 
but those favoring if should be i>re.sented. Martin 
^IcLeod was selected without opposition to succeed 
himself in the Council. B. II. Randall and James 
JlcCIelland l^oal (commonly called McBoaD were 
Selected as candidates to be voted foi- as member^ of 
the House; both then lived at Fort Snelling. 



110 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



Stevens and others tried hard to have Eli Petti.johu 
selected as a candidate for representative in place 
of Boal. But Boal had a host of friends at Snelling 
and Meudota and they outnumbered those of Petti- 
john, up at the Falls, and so the Fort Snelling man 
was made the candidate. As already stated, Boal came 
to Minnesota in 1819 with the first detachment of 
Leavenworth's command that built Port Snelling. 
Wlien his time expired he remained in the country. 
He was by occupation a ho\ise and sign painter, and 
a very good one. Governor Ramsey appointed him 
ad.iutant general of the territory, a position then 
without duties or salary. Later he settled in St. Paul, 
and had a street named for him, though it is called 
"McBoal." 

As the time for the convening of the Legislature 
approached it was apparent that a ma.jority of the set- 
tlers in the eastern part of Dahkotah County were 
opposed to the boundaries proposed for the new 
county. Tlie proposed limits comprised the country 
north" of the St. Peter's, or Minnesota, and extending 
from the Mississippi westward to the Little Rapids, 
now Carver. The western boundary line was to run 
from the Minnesota at Little Rapids north by west to 
the forks of Crow River, where what is now the 
northwestern corner of Hennepin, and then the line 
was to run down the Crow to the Mississippi, and 
thence down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Mm- 
nesota a.s at present. 

The opponents of these boundaries wanted them to 
commence at a point on the Mississippi at Oliver's 
Grove (now Hastings) and follow up the main chan- 
nel of the river to the mouth of Coon Creek, ten miles 
northwest of St. Anthony Palls; thence west to a 
point due north of Oak Grove ; thence south, crossing 
the Minnesota at that Grove, and continuing south to 
the parallel running east and west through Oliver's 
Grove, and tlience east to the Grove and the begin- 
ning. These boundaries would almost necessarily 
leave the county seat at Mendota. which would please 
Alexander Fanbault, but would not satisfy Steele, 
Stevens, Randall, and the other pro.iectors of the new 
county, who wanted its capital at the Falls. Their 
county, while not as large a.s the one proposed by the 
ob.iectors, was perhaps better, containing an immense 
water power, ample prairies, woodlands, oak openings, 
aud broad meadow lands, besides as fine lakes as could 
be found anywhere. 

The opposition to the new county continued to grow 
as the time for the convening of the Legislature drew 
near. The new county, with the proposed boundaries 
of the Fort Snelling faction, must be created soon or 
it would never be. The Legislature began business 
actively January 14 (1852), but it was not until Feb- 
ruary 27 when Martin ]McLeod introduced the lull in 
the Territorial Council, "to establish the County of 
Hennepin." The bill had been originally drawn by 
John H. Stevens and others and provided that the new 
county should be called "Snelling," for the well 
known fort and for Col. Josiah Snelling, the man that 
built it. But before its introduction the name was 
very properly and wisely changed to honor the pio- 
neer priest. Rev. Father Louis Hennepin, the first 



white man that saw any jiart of its soil and named its 
chief natural feature. The bill was known in the 
Legislature as "Council File No. 17." 

There was some opposition to the new county in the 
Council and strenuous objection was offered in the 
House of Representatives. The bill pa.ssed the Coun- 
cil, however, on the 4th of March, and was hurried 
over to the House. Hon. Benj. H. Randall was given 
charge of it in that body, and had to work for it. 
That night he secured a majorit>' of the House mem- 
bers that agreed to vote for its passage the following 
day, which was the last working day of the session. 
The St. Paul delegation and some other members 
were opposed to it, but made no V(>ry hard fight. A 
rather strong lobby in its favor did good work. 

On the morning of March 5. th(> bill was presented 
to the House and had its first reading. Then, on 
Mr. Randall's motion, the rule was suspended and 
the bill was read the second time. The bill was in- 
tended to provide that the first county ol'ticers .should 
enter upon their duties within "ten days" after their 
election, but by an ovei-sight the word "days" had 
been left out. Randall moved that this word should 
be inserted in the pi'oper place. AVni. P. [Murray, a 
St. Paul member", moved to insert "years." instead 
of "days," so that the new officers might not take 
their positions until ten years after their election! 
ilurray's motion may have been facetiou.s — it was 
certainly ridiculous — but it had to be voted upon, 
and was overwhelmingly defeated. Randall then 
moved that the rule be suspended and the bill given 
its third reading and put upon its final passage forth- 
with. This was ordered, but only by a ma.jority of 
two. On the final vote the bill passed but by a very 
slender ma.jority (three) — not as deep as a well or as 
wide as a barn door, but it sufficed. Governor Ram- 
sey signed it the following day. 

The organization act was not a veiy finished and 
complete statute, but it stood. Almost at the outset it 
provided that the county should remain "unorgan- 
ized" until the TJ. S. Senate should ratify the Indian 
Treaty of Mendota, which had been made the pre- 
vious year, but whose ratification was still hanging 
fire in Congress. The new county was to be attached 
to Ramsey County for .iudicial purposes, "until fur- 
ther provided for," and to remain "in conjunction 
with Hahkotah County," so far as related to the 
election of members of the Territorial Legislature, 
until the next re-apportionment. 

Not until after the Treaty of Meudota was ratified 
were the people of the new county to elect their 
count>' officers; the returns of the election at which 
they were chosen were to be made to the register of 
deeds of Ramsey County, who was to issue certificates 
of election, etc. A great deal depended upon the 
treaty ratification. Other statutes ha.scd upon anti- 
cipation have been declared void. 

A very important provision of tlic act was that the 
first Board of County Commissioners should have 
authority to establish the county seal of the new 
county, but said establishment was to be temporary, 
or "until the same is permanently established by tlie 



IILSTOHV OK .MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



111 



Legislature or hy the authorized votes of the qualified 
voters of said eouuty." 

As has heeii stated, the Seuate ratitieil the ileudota 
treaty June 2'3, 1852, three months after the eounty 
organization act, but niadr sueh important amend- 
ments, whieii the Indians had to agree to, that the 
treaty was not finally proclaimed and made of effect 
until February 4, 1853. lUit the Hennepin County 
organization did not await tlie latter ratification. 



ORG.VXIZ.VTION .\NI) FIK.'^T ELECTION. 

Information tliat the Senate iiad ratified the Men- 
dota treaty, after a<lding amendments, reached Kort 
Snelling about July 1. After consultation it was de- 
terminetl to proceed with the organization of the new 
county without waiting for the final ratification of 
the amendments by the Indians. The regular Terri- 
torial election to choose members of the Legislatiire 
was to be held October 12. On the previous Saturday 
the settlers of the new county met at Fort Snelling 
and nominated a full ticket for i-ouiity officers as 
follows : 

For representatives, Henj. II. Randall, of Fort 
Snelling, and Dr. Alfred E. Ames, of "All Siiints, " 
as the settlement on the west side was then often 
called ; county commissioners, John Jackins and Alex. 
;\Ioore, of ''All Saints," and Joseph Dean, of Oak 
( irove ; sheriff,' Isaac Brown : judge of probate. Joel B, 
Bassett : register of deeds and clerk of county com- 
missioners, Jobn H. Stevens: coroner. David Gorham; 
surveyor, Chas. W. Christmas: assessors, Edwin Hed- 
derly, AVm. Chandlers, and Eli Petti.jolin: treasure!', 
John T. .Mann ; justices. Eli Pettijohn and Edwin Hed- 
derly. All the candidates were of "All Saints," ex- 
cept Eli Pettijohn, who was then of Fort Snelling. 

At the election each of the above named candidates 
received seventy-one votes and not a vote was cast 
against any of them : Stevens Siiys this was the only 
election ever held in Hennepin County where the can- 
didates were unanimously elected. Oidy 71 voters 
in the entire county, and even then it was claimed 
that there was a full turn-out and that some votes 
Were cast that were of very doubtful legality! The 
Hamsey Coiinty Commissioners, under whose author- 
ity tile election was held, prescribed but one voting 
place, which was at the house of John H. Stevens. 
At that time there was nothing hut a mis.sion station 
at Oak Grove, and the Stevens house, at the Falls, 
wa.s the nucleus of the densest settlement. 

When the'election returns were made to the Ramsey 
County Commissioners, tliat body directed Jlorton S. 
Wilkinson, who was then their clerk, (afterwards U. 
S. Senator) to issue the proper certificates and direct 
the newly-elected commissioners to meet on the '21st 
and complete the organization of Hennepin County, 
by approving the official bonds of the officers, etc., and 
especially by selecting the county seat. The meeting 
was duly held at the Stevens house and all of the 
officers were soon fitted out and e(|uipped for their 
duties. 



LOCATING -AND NAMING THE COUNTY SEAT. 

Almost the first business of the county board was 
the selection of a county seat for the new county. It 
was a foregone conclusion where it .should be. Com- 
nnssioner Jackins moved that its site should be "on 
the west side of the Falls of St. Anthony." and all 
three of the conuuissioners so voted, as was expected. 

Then the question of the name of the new county's 
capital was considered. "All Saints" was at once 
discarded: so wa.s "Hennepin City." which Atwater 
and the St. Anthony ilxpress had argued for. Chair- 
man Alexander ]\loore suggested Albion, an ancient 
name of England. Commissioner Dean said the place 
was destined to be a great manufacturing site sind 
he pi-oposed Lowell, for the city of factories in Massa- 
chusetts. P^inally the name of Albion was agreed 
upon, and the clerk was instructed to use upon all 
official letters the name Albion as the county seat of 
Hennepin County. 

But after the commissioners had adjourned and 
announced the name, the people clamored that they 
did not like it. They had not liked the name All 
Saints, which had attached to their settlement, but 
they preferred it to Albion. The latter was without 
significance and meaningless and had no sort of rele- 
vancj- to the situation. Surprised and striving to 
please their constituents, the comnus,sioners tenta- 
tively suggested "Winona," a perfect Sioux name 
and the one given by eveiy family of that nation to 
its first born child, if a girl. (If a boy, the name 
would be Chas-kay.) Yet the name Winona was not 
received with enthusiasm. 

ileanwhile tlie county's stationery, letter-heads, 
blanks, etc., had been received with "Albion" printed 
thereon as the eounty seat. Certain parties wanted 
the name to be Brooklyn, and half a dozen or more 
friends and admirers of a certain lad\' of the place 
urged that it be called " Addiesville. " A few still 
favored All Saints. At last Chai'K'S Iloag thought 
out the solution of the problem, after he had retired 
to bed and when deep sleep had fallen upon most of 
his neighbors. 

On the morning of November 5. ^Ir. Iloag. then of 
the new town, but formerly living in St. Anthony, 
went into the office of the St. Anthony Ex]>ress and 
tendered the editor, then Geo. D. Bowman, a short 
comnninication having for its subject a suitable name 
for the new Hennepin county seat. It was publica- 
tion day and the forms were about closed. But Editor 
Bowman, hastily reading the manscript, exclaimed: 
"That's good, Charlie: that's the best name yet; 
we'll print it, even if we leave out something else." 
And this was done; the communication was hastily 
put in type and placed in the room of another article, 
without proof-reading, so that two or three t.vpo- 
graphical errors appeared when it was printed. It 
was not signed by Tloag's real name but by ''Minne- 
hapolis," his nom de plume, which he had assumed 
for the occa.sion. Alluding to his proposition particu- 
larly, he explained in this paragraph: 

"The name I propose. Minnehapolis, is derived 



112 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



from Minnehaha, falling water, with the Greek affix, 
polls, a city — thus meaning 'Falling Water City' or 
'City of the Falls.' You perceive I spell it with an 
h which is to be sUeut in the pronunciation. This 
name has been very favorably received by many of 
the inhabitants to whom it has been proposed. * * * 
Until some other name is decided upon, we intend to 
call ourselves. Minnehapolis.'' 

There was not time to comment upon Hoag's selec- 
tion but in the next issue of the Express, which was 
November 12, Mr. Bowman said editorially : 

"* * * The name is an excellent one and de- 
sei'ves much favor by our citizens. The h being silent. 
as our correspondent recommends, and as custom 
would soon make it. makes it practical and eupho- 
nious. The nice ad.iustment of the Indian 'minne' with 
the Greek 'polls" becomes a beautiful compound, and 
finally it is, as all names should be when it is possible, 
admirably descriptive of the locality. By all means, 
we would say, adopt this beautiful and exceedingly 



appropriate title, and do not longer suffer abroad 
from connections with the meaningless and outlandish 
name of 'All Saints.' " 

Stevens tells us that Hoag's proposed name for the 
new town met with great favor at home and abroad. 
An impromptu meeting of citizens at his house the 
tirst week in December declared for it, and in a few 
days, at their regular monthly session, the county 
commissioners substituted the name Minneapolis for 
Albion. As the h in the original name proposed was 
to be silent, the commissioners concluded that it 
might as well be absent, and so they sensibly struck 
it out, leaving the Indian part of the name Minneah, 
as the Sioux would pronounce it. The full name 
should be pronounced Minneah-polis, and not I\Iinne- 
apolis, as is common, because "ah" is a contraction 
of "hkah. " meaning a waterfall. 

As has been said in discussing the meaning of the 
word Minnehaha, the name ^Minneapolis literally 
means, the Waterfall City — "minne 'a," the Sioux 
for waterfall, and "polls," Greek for city. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
LAYING THE CITY'S FOUNDATIONS. 

REDUCING THE FORT SXELLING RESERVE — CHANGING THE NAME OF THE ST. PETER 's TO MINNESOT.V — SETTLERS ON 

THE TOWN SITE IN 1851 AND 1852 — FIRST CLAIMS ON THE INDIAN LANDS MISCELLANEOUS CLAIMS AND 

CLAIMANTS FIRST FAMILIES NEAR LAKES HARRIET AND CALHOUN — FIRST CLAIMS IN NORTH MINNE.VFOLIS — 

E^RLY SETTLERS IN SOUTH TOWN ADDITIONAL PIONEERS OP 1851 AND 1852 FINAL RECORDS OP SOME FIRST 

CITIZENS — BEGINNINGS OF THE UNIVERSITY. 



REDUCING THE FORT SNELLING RESERVATION. 

An important incident in the earl_y history of Min- 
neapolis was the large reduction of the Fort Snelling 
Military Reservation, comprising a great part of it.s 
northern portion and extending from Brown's Creek 
(Jlinnehaha) northward to the Falls and the Missis- 
sippi. The ea.st line was the Mississippi and the west 
a line ninning due south from the Mississippi, near 
the Falls, via the eastern end of Mother Lake, to the 
St. Peter's. 

Of course the reduction made a vast extent of most 
desirable eountrv open to white settlement, without 
any special permits or subterfuges. A man could 
make his claim near the old (iovernment Mill, or any- 
where else on the new land, without fear of arrest, 
eviction, or trouble of any sort — provided, that he 
did not infringe or trespass upon another man's 
claim ; if he did such an un.just thing, the Claim 
Association would at once be violently upon him and 
great would be his regret, as is explained on a sub- 
sequent page. 

Bv an act of Congress approved August 26, 1852, 
(See U. S. Stats, at Lge., 1851-55, Laws of 1852, Chap. 
Q5,) the reserve was contracted so as to have the fol- 
lowing general boundary' line : 

Extending from the middle of the Mississippi below 
Pike's Island up to Brown's Creek [Minnehaha] in- 
cluding all islands in the Mississippi ; then up 
Brown's Creek to Rice I^ake ; then through the middle 
of Rice Lake to the outlet of Lake Amelia; thence 
through the middle of Lake Amelia to the outlet of 
.Mother Lake; thence to the outlet of Duck Lake and 
the southern extremity of tlint lake; thence due south 
to the St. Peter's River, and tlieiice down that river 
to the beginning. A quarter section at each end of 
the ferry at the mouth of the St. Peter's was also 
reserved, and 320 acres whereon Mendota stands was 
reserved from sale for one year, with the ])rovision 
that the land might be entered as a town site. 

Let it he emphasized that the tract opened to white 
settlement and occupation included all the country 
within these boundaries: On the east and north, the 
.Mi.ssi.ssippi; on the west, a line running due south 
from the Mississippi, via the eastern end of Jlother 
Lake and the outlet of Duck Lake— the latter hang- 
ing southward, like a jjcndant, to Jlother Ivake— and 



thence, from the southern end of the pendant, due 
south to the Minnesota. Plenty of land for the site 
of a great city — but hardly too much for the one that 
was built upon it! 

Congress was induced to cut down the unnecessa- 
rily large Reserve almost altogether by the efforts of 
Sibley, the then Territorial Delegate. He prepared 
and introduced the bill and his efforts caused it to 
pass. Of course Franklin Steele and Henry M. Rice 
helped, but Sibley was in a position to do far more 
effective work and he did it. Many members of Con- 
gress protested that the.v believed the reduction was 
wanted in the interest of speculators ; but when as- 
sured that the only speculators would be actual .set- 
tlers, who sought homes in or near the site of a future 
great city, which they desired to help build, this ob- 
jection was removed. Press and people accorded the 
credit to Sibley for opening so much of the Reserve, 
which the.v had worked for so long and so hard. 

THE ST. PETER 'S BECOMES THE MINNESOTA RIVER. 

For some time a dislike for the name of the St. 
Peter's River was manifested by many people. The 
chief objection was that the name had no proper sig- 
niticance. True, by this time a great many persons 
living elsewhere knew Minnesota as "the St. Peter's 
country," and indeed the entire region surrounding 
Fort Snelling was often called sim|)ly ''St. Petei''s." 
The new.spapers down the river were accustomed 
to say : ' ' Everything is quiet up at St. Peters from 
last accounts." Ivetters were carried in the mails 
addressed to "St. Peters, Iowa Territory," and this 
was the name of the first po.stoffice at Snelling. The 
name bad a most distinguished derivation, since it 
was meant to honor the blessed St. Peter, the great 
Apostolic prince and leader: but it was believed that 
the river should have a more befitting, even if a less 
sacred, appellation. 

The Territorial Legislature of 1>!:')2 took action for 
the change. It is impossibl(> to tell now who led the 
movement for it, but on the 6th of March the Gover- 
nor approved a memorial which was addressed to 
President Filltnore and which read: 

"The numbers of the Lrgutlatirc Assembly of the 
Tcrrilory of Mitnirsota lirspi ctfidhj Represent: — 

"That the river from which our Territory derives 



113 



114 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. :\nNNESOTA 



its name was, by the early French voyageurs, called 
St. Peters, in honor of a Mons. St. Pierre, an officer 
in the service of the French Government during the 
seventeenth centniy ; that there is no possil)ility that 
the said St. Pierre was ever connected with the first 
discoveries made in this region of country, or that 
he was ever even on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, 
and was therefore in no wise entitled to the honor of 
perpetuating his name by fastening it upon one of 
the pri)u-ipal tributaries of the gi-eat national high- 
way of the West. 

"* * * That 'Minnesota' is the true name of 
this stream, as given to it. in ages pa.st, by the strong 
and powerful irihe of aborigines, the Dakotas. who 
dwelt upon its baaks; and that, not only to assimilate 
the name of the river with that of the Territoiy and 
future State of ilinnosota, but to follow the dictates 
of what we conceive to be a correct taste, and to show 
a proper regard for the memory of the great nation 
whose homes and country our people are now destined 
soon to possess, — for these reasons we desire that the 
river shall be so designated. 

"Therefore the constituency we represent wish that 
the name of St. Peters be entirely dispensed with, and 
that of 'Minnesota' universally substituted. This 
change has been adopted in all the acts and proceed- 
ings of the several Legislative Assemblies of this Ter- 
ritory where it has been neces.sary to alhule to the 
name : and if a like course were followed by the 
officers of the National Government in all their re- 
ports, correspondence, and official intercourse, geog- 
raphers would immediately adopt it, the people at 
large throughout the covuitrA' would soon become 
familiar with the change, and the inappropriate title 
of St. Peter's would be forgotten. 

"We therefore most respectfully request that you 
will be pleased to give directions to the officers of 
the different departments of the Government, civil 
and military, to carri- out the change herein alluded 
to. All of which is respectfully submitted." 

The memorialists did not seem to be aware that 
geographical names are not changed by the directions 
of the President to the different departments and sub- 
ordinates of the Government. Congi-essional legis- 
lation is necessary for the purpose. Delegate Sibley 
took up the matter in Congress and on the 19th of 
June. President Fillmore approved a .joint resolution 
of Congress reading: 

"That from and after the passage of this act the 
river in the Territorj' of ^linnesota heretofore known 
as the Saint Peter's shall be known and designated 
on the public records as the IMinnesota River. ' ' 

The author of the memorial was mistaken in his 
historical references. There was no "Mons. St. 
Pierre" suited to his description that early records, 
histories, and cyclopedias think worthy of mention. 
Those few Frenchmen of the name worthy of having 
rivers named for them lived too long before or too 
long after 1689, when Nicholas Perrot mentioned the 
River St. Peter in his proclamation taking pos.sessioii 
of the country for his sovereign, the King of France. 
It seems as certain as anything not positively suscep- 



tible of proof can be. that the river was named for 
the Great Apostle. 

The Sioux name of the river is Watpa (river) 
IMinne (water) sota, (doubtful) meaning the river 
of some kind of impure or imperfect water. The 
word sota is of uncertain meaning. It is not shown 
as an independent woi-d in the present Sioux vocabu- 
lary. It is probably a corruption of "Sho-shay" or 
muddy, though it may be from "sho-shay" and "hko- 
ta" combined, the latter meaning gray: and so sota 
may mean muddy water of a grayish color. Various 
English definitions of "sota" have been printed as 
"bleary," and "cloudy" and "sky-tinted," and 
"whitish"; but "sota" means neither of these words; 
the Indian words for the English ad.iectives named 
are entirely dissimilar to "sota.'' 

MINNEAPOLIS IN 1852. 

Notwithstanding the fact that not until in 1854 
was ilinneapolis regularly laid out into blocks and 
lots, with streets and alleys, yet the new town was 
settled upon very rapidly almost immediately after 
the making of the Indian treaties and long before 
their ratification. 

Edward I\Iurphy moved upon his claim (which he 
had taken in 1850), down the river from John P. 
^liller and Stevens, in May, 1852. This was an im- 
portant Settlement. He improved a great i)art of his 
land, and an especial feature of this improvement 
was the preparation of a field designed for a nur- 
sery and fruit farm. In due time the field was so 
established and trees set out and seeds planted. 
Thereby Mr. ilurphy became the pioneer nurseryman 
of Minnesota: otliers had set out apple trees before 
him, but he planted the first nursery stock. He did 
not plan wisely. His stock was not acclimated ; it had 
been obtained in the lower and warmer latitude of 
Southern Illinois and could not stand Minnesota 
winter conditions. In a few years the enterprising 
pioneer abandoned his attempts at apple raising and 
to operate a nursery. Nearly all of his trees had 
perished and he lost all the cash he had invested. 
His experience was that of many another pioneer 
would-be fruit grower of ^Minnesota. 

Anson Northrup lived on his little claim, up the 
river, above the Old ^lill claim, from June. 1852, 
continuously until he pre-empted it, in 1853. The 
claim was only a few acres in extent ; subsequently 
it was the site of the depot and yards of the "Mil- 
waukee" Railroad: or Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul. 
Northrup biiilt on his claim a large house in which 
the first sessions of the V. S. Courts and of Hennepin 
Lodge of Free ^lasons were held. lie also put up a 
smaller building, in which was held the first public 
school in original Minneapolis (!Miss ]Mary E. ^Tiller, 
teacher), commencing December. 1852. and where 
also, in June. 1853. Rev. J. C. Whitney was installed 
as pastor of the First Pn-sbyterian Church organi- 
zation. 

In IMay. 18.52. Pliilip Bassett. a brother of Joel B. 
Bassett. claimed wliat became the part of the city 
knowni as Hoag's Addition to Minneapolis. A few 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENXRPIN COUNTY, .MINNESOTA 



115 



wi'oks later, liowi'Ver, In- sold liis i-laiiii to his olil 
New Ilainpsliiro school-fi-llow, Cliark's Iloag, the man 
that jravc .Minneapolis its naiiu-. Previouslj' Joel B. 
Bassett hail taken up a quarter seetion above the 
creek that still hears his name and innnediately upon 
the west hank of the rivei'. He settled upon this tract 
in May, IH'yI. and conducted it as a farm for several 
years, when it became city property. 

As to Phil Hassett's claim which became Iloag's 
Addition, it may Ix' said that it was KiO acres in 
extent. Heally it may be called Iloag "s claim, for 
Pliil Bassett had it only about tiiree weeks when he 
conveyed it to Charley Iloag and went to California. 
Floag had been a school teacher in Pennsylvania, Inil 
in youth he had ])een a farmer's boy. T'pon the laud 
acipiired from Ba.ssett he opened a farm which in- 
cluded the site of tiie West Hotel and what is now 
termed the heart of the business center of the city. 

FIR.'iT CI..\IMS ON THE INDIAN L.VNDS. 

Col. Emanuel Case had come from ;\Iichigan and 
opened a store in St. Anthony in the spring of liSal, 
with his son. Sweet W. Case, as a partner. Not long 
afterward he came to the west side of the river and 
surveyed and filed on a claim of 160 acres immedi- 
ately north of Bassett's. Peter Ponein, an Indian 
trader, had previously built a small trading house on 
the same claim and sold goods to the Lake Calhoun 
Indians until they removed. He and Colonel Case 
had a controversy over the ownership of the land 
which the Government authorities decided belonged 
to Colonel Case. Ponein was an early merchant but 
had a bad personal reputation. In IMareh. 18.52. 
Colonel Ca.se 's son, James Gale Case, aged 20, slipped 
through a watering hole near the west bank of tlie 
river and was drowned. In his '■]\Iinnesota and Its 
People" (p. 140) Colonel Stevens says this was the 
second death in ^liinieapolis, but in his Lyc(>um ad- 
dress pul)lished in the North westera Democrat of 
January 27, 1855, he says the second death was the 
wife of Colonel Case, in 1852. Alexander ^loore, 
another Michigander, was interested with Colonel 
Ca.se in the ownership of the land, much of which 
was in cultivation up to 1855, when it was laid out 
into lots and blocks and platted as a part of Bas- 
sett, Case & Jloore's Addition to the Village of INIin- 
neapolis. Both Case and Moore became merchants in 
Minneapolis, and both aided in the upbuilding of 
the town in early days. Moore finally removed to 
Sauk Center, but Colonel Case lived in ^Minneapolis 
until his regretted death, in the summer of 1871, 
Colonel Case's original farm became Lawrence & 
Reeve's Addition. 

Joseph Menard came in 1851 and by permission 
of Indian Agent Lea occupied land near the Case an<i 
^loore claim. After the Treaty of ]\Icndota he ac- 
quired full title to the tract which eventually became 
"I\Icr.ard's Addition to ^linncapolis." 'Sir. ^lenard 
died some years since. 

Charles \V. Christnias. an Ohio man, came over 
to MinneajHilis in the fall of 1851 and took a claim 
near Menard which he improved in 1852. This claim 



subse(|Uently was surveyed off and platted as " Christ- 
mas "s Addition to Minneapolis." Mr. Christma.s* 
was a surveyor and laid out the original town of 
.Minneapolis in 185-1. He was a prominent early citi- 
zen, the tii'st county surveyor of Ih'iinepin County, 
luul ('hristmas Island, in Lake Minnetonka, named 
for him, etc. His son-in-law, Isaac I. Lewis, and his 
nephew, Capt. J. C. Reno, the steamboat man, became 
interested with him in the .\ddition. 

The three claim.s of Colonel Case, Joseph ilenard, 
and ('has. W. Christmas were the first made on the 
Indian landji in ilinneapolis or in the vicinity; pre- 
vious entries had been made on the Fort Snelling 
Reservation. 

]MISCELL.\NEOUS CL.VI.M A.NT.< AND TIIKIK CLAl.M;^. 

"Waterman Stinson (original family name Stephen- 
son) came from Maine in .1852 with his big family 
of boys and girls, and his aged parents and by per- 
mission of Col. Fi-ancis Lee, commandant at Fort 
Snelling, located on Bassett's Creek and oi^ened a 
fine farm. He raised a big field of wheat and oats and 
his hay meadows were large and very productive. 
His neighbors bought every peck of grain and cv.^ry 
pound of hay he would sell. In time liis farm became 
'' Stinson 's .\dditiou to Minneapolis." His son-in- 
law, a IMr. Brennan, made a claim near him Init sold 
it to Franklin Steele. 

In June, 1851, Isaac Atwater took a claim on the 
old Reserve of 160 acres. The next day he sold it for 
.$10, arnd congratulated himself as a get-rich-(iuick 
fellow that by sheer shrewdness had made $10 in a 
day! Had he but retained ten acres of his 160, he 
would have become a multi-millionaire. 

In 1852 John (ieorge Lennon. the great St. An- 
thony merchant, who had an entire column advertise- 
ment in the Express, came over and by Colonel Lee's 
permission settled on a tract of the Reserve which is 
now inchuled in "J. G. Lennon 's Out-Lots Addition." 

Near the Lennon claim Capt. Benj. B. Parker se- 
cured a quarter section which became a part of his 
son's Addition. Colonel Case and Chandler Ilutchins 
each secured a quarter section l)ack of Lennon 's. and 
in a year or so Colonel Case bought the Ilutchins 
claim, which is now in Chicago, Lake Park and other 
.Additions. Edgar Folsom, the old-time ferryman, ob- 
tained a quarter section in Parker's neighborhood and 
the claim is now a part of Newell, Carr & Baldwin's 
Addition. For some time Mrs. Judith Ann Sayer, a 
New York widow, "held down" a claim near Colonel 
Case's, (now Eustis's .Vddition) but finally sold it 
and married TVm. Dickie, who had a claim near Lake 
Harriet. 

FIRST CLAIMANTS NEAK LAKES HARRIET AND CALHOiN. 

Other settlers on the shores of or near Lakes Har- 
riet and Calhoun were John S. ^Mann, Eli Petti.iohn, 
L. N. Parker. Henry .\ngcll, and Henry Heap, with 
James A. Lennon and Deacon Oliver nearby. Oliver's 



* The f.iniily name «as originally Wynaeht, the Gcrtiian 
for riiristmas. 



116 



HISTORY OF :\IINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



claim is now Oliver's Addition, and Jim Leunon's 
is in Remington's; Charles ^lousseau's claim, which 
included the old Pond Mission and the log cabin of 
Chief Cloud ^lan, is now Lakewood Cemetery. 

Rol)ert Blaisdell and his three sons — Robert, Jr., 
John T., and William — had claims in 1852 which are 
now respectively in the Flour City, John T. Blais- 
dell's, Bloomington, and Lindsey & Lingenfelter's 
Additions. 

Rev. Dr. E. G. Gear, chaplain at Fort Sneliing, 
made a claim in 1849 on the east shore of Lake Cal- 
houn. There was a technical error in the proceedings 
and the claim was forfeited. Edmund Bresette then 
"jumped" it. Dr. Gear had the matter taken into 
Congress by Delegate Sibley and a special act was 
passed allowing the chaplain to repossess the land, 
and giving him a perfect title, upon the payment of 
$1.25 per acre. A part of the claim is now in Cal- 
houn Park. Geo. E. Huy had the claim east of Rev. 
Gear 's. David Gorham had the claim north of Gear "s, 
bordering on Lake of the Isles, but sold it to R. P. 
Russell, who made of it several Additions to the city. 
George Park had his claim in the now Lake of the 
Isles Addition, aiid N. E. Stoddard was his neighbor. 
A part of John Green's claim is in Lakeview Addi- 
tion. Z. M. Brown and Hill claimed the pres- 
ent Groveland Addition, and Dennis Peter's farm is 
now Sunnyside Addition. 

Win. Worthingham's claim was bought by John C. 
Oswald and is now called Bryn Mawr Addition. ( Bryn 
Mawr is Welch for l)ig hill ; bryn means hill and 
mawr means gi-eat or big.) A little farther o'ut Wm. 
Byrnes made a beautiful home, and after his return 
from good service in the Civil War was elected sher- 
iff of Hennepin County, hut died in office. His old 
homestead is now Maben, White & Le Bron's Addi- 
tion. See biographical sketch of Wm. Byrnes, else- 
where. 

FIRST CLAIMS IN NORTH MINNEAPOLIS. 

In North Minneapolis the claims of Charles Far- 
rington and Elijah Austin were in Sherburne & 
Beebe's Addition; F. X. Crepeau's, in Crepeau's 
Addition; Stephen and Rufus Pratt's in the Addi- 
tions bearing their respective names. Nearly all of 
Oak Lake Addition is on Thomas Stinson's old claim, 
made in 1852. Central Park is on the original claim 
of Joseph S. Johnson. Asa and Timothy Fletcher, 
brothers, located on Merriam & Lowry's Addition 
and Wm. Goodwin pre-empted what is now Ever- 
green Addition. Warren Bristol's old claiin became 
Jackson's, Daniels's and Whitney's, and Snyder & 
Company's Additions. H. H. Shepley's claim was 
partly in Viola Addition. 

EARLY CLAIMS IN SOUTH TOWN. 

In the more southern fiart of the city Andrew J. 
P^oster and ("has. Gili>atrick's farms are Additions 
with the names of the original owners. "Deacon" 
vSully's okl claim is now ])latt('d as Sully & JIurphy's 
Addition. Henry Keith's old Falls City farm, named 



for the steamboat and claimed in 1852, was afterward 
owned by Judges Atwater and Flandrau, of the State 
Supreme Court and became a part of the Falls City 
and the Riverside Short-Line Additions. Mr. G. Mur- 
phy 's claim is in Cook's Riverside and Alfred ]\Iur- 
phy's in the Fair Ground Addition. 

MORE MISCELLANEOUS CLAIMS. 

Other claims made in 1852-5.3, with the Additions 
to ^Minneapolis in which the lands subsequently lay 
were Hiram Burlingham's, in ^Morrison & Lovejoy's 
Addition; Simon Odell's, in Palmer's: E. A. Hod- 
son's in the Southside ; Captain Arthur II. Mills's 
and J. Draper's in Galpin's and adjoining Additions; 
Charles Brown's and Frank Rollins 's. in Rollins 's 
Second: John Wass's in Wass's; Amasa Craft's, in 
;\Ionroe Bros. ' ; Hiram Van Nest 's in Van Nest 's ; 
Philander Prescott's in Annie E. Steele's Out-Lots. 
Simon Bean's claim is ]\Iinnehaha Driving Park. 
Ard Godfrey's old claim and home is now the site of 
the Soldiers' Home, and W. G. Moffett's is Minne- 
haha Park. 

STILL OTHER PIONEERS OF 1851-52. 

Additional settlers in ^Minneapolis in 1851-52, as 
given by Colonel Stevens, were Capt. Sam Woods, a 
former commandant of Fort Sneliing, and Wm. 
Finch, Samuel Stough, S. S. Crowell, ^Mark Baldwin, 
Wm. Hanson, J. J. Dinsmore, Willis G. Moffett, 
Christopher C. Garvey, H. S. Atwood, Thomas Pierce, 
and Titus Pettijohn. The original towm plat bears 
A. K. Hartwell's and Calvin Church's entries, but it 
is not known just when they were made. Among 
those who were residents, but not claim-holders, on 
the west side in 1850 were Simon Stevens, Thomas 
Chambers, Henry Chambers, and Horace Webster ; 
they made claims elsewhere. Wm. Goodnow, the car- 
penter that built Anson Northrup's house, was an- 
other resident but not a claim-holder. His was the 
tii-st case of suicide in Jlinneapolis. He was a drunk- 
ard, and in the early winter of 1852, while demented 
from delirium tremens, he jumped into the river just 
above the Falls, was swept over them, and of course 
lost ; fortunately he had no family. 

Other adult men, unmarried, and who were resi- 
dents but not landholders on the west side in 1852-3, 
were Maj. Geo. A. Camp, a nephew of Anson Northrup 
and who was a member of his uncle's household. 
Gordon Jackins and William Jackins lived with their 
brother John, the merchant ; they were unmai-ried 
but became interested in a forty-acre tract adjoining 
Mrs. Sayer's claim, and William died while living on 
it. William H. Hubbard, a Tennessee lawj'er, held a 
claim on the town site for a year or two but sold 
it before it came fairly into market and left Minne- 
sota. He came first to St. Anthony in 1850, the year 
in which Atwater came. .John Berry pre-empted a 
farm near the Lake of Isles. 

LAST RECORDS OF SOME FIRST SETTLERS. 

Of some of the earliest settlers of St. Anthony and 
Minneapolis, it may be said that Eli Pettijohn and 



HISTORY OP JIINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



117 



Caleb D. Dorr, each aged more than uinety years, 
are yet living. Anson Northrup died in St. Paul, 
March 27, 18fl4. Allen Harmon died in 1883. Ed- 
ward Murphy died in Jlinneapolis, January IS, 1877. 
Peter Ponein went to the Pacific Coast and died there 
between 1S80 and 1890. Martin Layman, on whose 
farm the fii"st cemetery was platted, died in Minne- 
apolis, July 2.5. 1886. Judge Isaac At water died in 
^linncapolis. December 22, 1906. John George Len- 
nou, whose general store in St. Anthony was in 1850 
Ihe largest mercantile establishment in ]\Iinnesota, 
died in iIiunea])olis, Octoljer 13, 1886, aged seventy- 
one ; he was an Englishman and first came to Minne- 
sota in 1843 and to St. Anthony in 1849; in 1851 
he married Mary B. McLean, a daughter of Ma.j. 
Nathaniel McLean, the old-time Indian agent at Fort 
Snelling. Capt. John Christmas Reno, the old ^lin- 
neapolis steamboat man, died April 13, 1902. N. E. 
Stoddard, the scientific agriculturist that did so much 
to improve Dent com, died on his farm manj' years ago. 
Ard Godfrey died in Minneapolis, October 15, 1894. 
Edwin Hedderly died in the city, in June, 1880. 
Hon. D. Jl. Hanson, a noted Democratic politician 
and in his time regarded as the ablest lawyer in 
ilinneapolis, died while a member of the Territorial 
Council, ilarch 28, 1856; his father, Wm. Hanson, 
died at the age of 82. Chas. W. Christmas, the sur- 
veyor, died June 17, 1884. 

The foregoing list of first settlers in Minneapolis 
has been compiled from the best authorities, notably 
from Colonel Stevens' valuable volume "Recollections 
of ilinnesota and Its People." The list is not com- 
plete, for as to other names and the circumstances 
connected with their settlements the authorities do 
not agree. In the list here presented, where tliere 
have been discrepancies in the authorities the state- 
ments of Colonel Stevens have invariably been de- 
ferred to ; and the same has been done in the ca.se of 
many an historical item. 

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE UNIVERSITY. 

It is perhaps true, as has been often alleged, that 
the State Universit.v was located at St. Anthony pur- 
suant to a "gentlemen's agreement" among the St. 
Paul, the Stillwater, and the St. Anthony members 
of the Territorial Legislature of 1851. To that Legis- 
lature was given authority to locate the principal 
Territorial institutions. St. Paul was the temporary 
capital, but there was no other public institution. 
There was no penitentiary ; Territorial prisoners were 
confined in the guardhouse at Foi't Snelling. Only 
the three little towns named were to be considered, 
for they were tiie only communities worth consider- 
ing. There was then no J\Iinneapolis or Duluth or 
Winona or Mankato or Fergiis Falls or any other 
village or town in Minnesota, aside from St. Paul, 
St. Anthony, and Stillwater. 

Pursuant to the "gentlemen's agreement" St. Paul 
was given the capital, St. Anthony the University, 
and Stillwater the ix-iiitcntiary. \\u\. R. Marshall 
fouf^lit hai'd to have the capital located at St. An- 
thony, and the St. Paul and certain other members 



were only too glad to give him the University to si- 
lence him. 

The bill creating the University was drawn bj' John 
W. North, assisted by General Marshall, Judge 
Meeker, and Isaac Atwater. The members of the fii-st 
Board of Regents were Franklin Steele, Isaac At- 
water, Wm. R. Marshall, Bradley B. Meeker, Joseph 
W. Furber, Socrates Nelson, Henrv il. Rice, Alex- 
ander Ramsey, II. H. Sibley, Chas. K. Smith, N. C. D. 
Ta.vlor, and Abram Van Vorhees. The first four were 
strong St. Anthony partisans. Steele was made presi- 
dent, Atwater was secretary, and John W. North, 
treasurer. The first meeting was held May 31, 1851. 

Steele donated about four acres for the site of a 
"preparatorv school," and this site was to be between 
what is now Central Avenue and First Avenue South- 
east and also between Second Street and I'niversity 
Avenue. The title to this site was never made over 
to the Board. In lieu ilr. Steele offered, in January, 
1854, to give the l^niversity five acres in Tuttle's 
Grove. Meanwhile a "preparatory school" building 
(costing over $2,500. of which sum Steele had given 
$500) had been erected on the original site, and 
Steele offered to build another, costing as much, on 
the proposed new site. The next year Steele offered 
to pay to the Board the sum of $2,500, instead of 
erecting the building, and the offer was accepted. 
Finally, in 1862, Steele's obligation, which was held 
as an asset, was turned over to the St. Anthony 
Water Power Company in payment of debts owed 
by the University to the Company, and in November, 
1862, the Regents quit-claimed the site of the "pre- 
paratory school" to the same Company in discharge 
of other ITniversity debts. 

It was at the second meeting of the Board, which 
was held in the St. Charles Hotel, June 14, 1851, 
when it was decided to build the "preparatory 
school" building at a maximum cost of $2,500. At 
the first meeting it was decided to erect the building 
but its cost was not limited. The money was raised 
by subscription among the people, and Johnson's His- 
tory says that before the building was completed "a 
second subscription was necessary." When finished 
the building, a frame structure, was two stories high 
with a ground area of thirty by fifty feet. The walls 
of the basement were twelve feet in height, of which 
six feet was above the ground. The floor was reached 
by descending stone steps. For years this building, 
which would now be inadequate for housing the 
smallest ward school, was the seat of the prepara- 
tory department of the University of ^linnesota, and 
of the LTniversity as a whole. 

The building was completed about Novemlier 15, 
1851, and the first school was opened on the 26th. 
when only two rooms were ready. The school was 
practically of the character of a country district 
school. About twenty scholars were enrolled the first 
week, but before the year was out there were per- 
haps double the number. The principal branches 
taught were spelling, reading, grammar, descriptive 
geography, and arithmetic: the charge for instruction 
in these studies were $4 for a "quarter" of eleven 
weeks. The Board, however, advertised to teach 



]18 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



everything up to Latin, Greek, the higher mathe- 
matics, and astronomy, or as Goodhue expressed it 
in his Pioneer, "everything from a-h abs to algebra." 

At first there was but one teacher. Rev. E. W. Mer- 
rill, who, of course, was called "Prof." Merrill. 
Before the year expired, however, he had an assist- 
ant, and in the second year, when there were eighty- 
five pupils, and elementary spelling as well as conic 
sections was being taught, he had three assistants. 
Unfortunately the names of these assistants have not 
been ascertained for use in this volume. 

Rev. ^lerrill came to take charge of the school be- 
lieving that he would be paid a good salary out of 
the Territorial treasury: but when he came tlie Hoard 
told him plainly that his compensation would be the 
receipts for tuition, minus the expense of running the 
school ! For the first eleven weeks, therefore, he re- 
ceived probably $300, and when he had paid tlie fuel 
bills for those cold winter weeks, his assistant 's salary, 
laid the other expenses, he did not have a very large 
sum left. In the spring of 1855 lie concluded that 



his four years of experience as the virtual head of a 
university was all he wanted, and he closed the school, 
although during the last year he had on his rolls the 
names of 150 students. At the close of 1913 there 
were. 3.932. 

In ilay, 1856, the school house pa.ssed from the 
control of the Board of Regents, as has been stated. 
Thereafter, until it was burned, in November. 1864, 
private schools under the name of "high schools," 
and even "academies," were taught in it from time 
to time. It is, perhaps, well to note that not a dollar 
was ever paid out of the Temtorial treasury toward 
the establishment and maintenance of this preparatory 
school. All the money spent on it was contributed by 
the pioneers. They built the school house and Mr. 
ilerrill defrayed the nanning expenses of the school 
out of the tuition fees received for teaching their 
cliildren. 

Whoever would learn the full history of this great 
institution must consult Bird Johnson's "Forty 
Years of the University." 



CHAPTER XIV. 
LEADING EVENTS OP THE EARLY HISTORY 



MISCELL.VNEOUS NOTES AND COMMENTS — ORGANIZATION OP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN THE NATION AND STATE — 
POLITICS IN 1855 AND THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION AT MINNEAPOLIS — THE HENNEPIN COUNTY AGRICULTURAL 
SOCIETY HOLDS THE FIRST AGRICULTURAL FAIR IN THE STATE — THE GOVERNOR PREVENTS THE ORGANIZATION OF 

ST. ANTHONY' COUNTY AND Is SEVERELY DENOUNCED ST. ANTHONY INCORPORATED AS A CITY — HENNEPIN 

COUNTY ABSORBS ST. ANTHONY — THE SENSATIONAL ELECTION FOR DELEGATES TO FORM THE FIRST STATE CON- 
STITUTION — THE FIRST GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION, IN 1857 — THE FINANCIAL PANICS OF 1857 AND 1859. 



HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS. 

It was in 1854 when Charles W. Christinas platted 
the claims of John H. Stevens and Frank Steele, 
ileanwhile, the Stevens house had been the scene of 
most of the notable public meetings and transactions 
of the city builders. There they had met and organ- 
ized Hennepin County in 1851, after it had been set 
off from Dakota County. There they had held their 
claim holders" meetings, and there they had organ- 
ized an agricultural society. That they organized to 
further the cause of agriculture is an indication of 
the kind of men they were, for they had already set 
out to prove the soil's fruitfulness and the climate's 
fitness to rival that of older fields of agriculture. 

They organized for this purpose and that ; they en- 
joyi^d such forms of entertainment as a vigorous, cul- 
tured group of people might well be expected to en- 
joy, in the time, and with the best that each could 
contribute from his own talents alone. They went 
on laying the foundations for a city by the splendid 
water power: and all this time, in a county without a 
designated place for its seat of government. This com- 
munity was unnamed, save for the various names 
given it by this or that settler. 

It was not until in 1854 that ^Minneapolis gained 
a place on the postal map of the United States, when 
a postoffice was established, with Dr. Hezekiah 
Fletcher as postmaster. Up to that time mail for 
^linneapolis was delivered at St. Anthony. The two 
connnunities were linked by common citizenship, in 
that there were common interests on both sides of the 
rivei-. Between them plied Ca]>tain Tapper's ferry, 
taking toll from all except troops of the Federal Gov- 
ernment, according to the original license granted to 
Colonel Stevens. The ferrying was a difficult pas- 
sage at first, as Colonel Stevens's reminiscence and 
tliose of other pioneers indicate, in tales of upsets in 
the swift waters above the falls. Colonel Stevens's 
house continued to be the social center of the west 
siders and to mark the line of communication between 
the two settlements. 

In 1854, so rapidly had the settlement of the 
plateau and of the older village progressed, men on 
both sides of the river banded together to secure the 
construction of a suspension bridge over the river. 



The bridge was opened in 1855. It stood where the 
Steel Arch bridge now links the east and west sides,' 
and it gave into a gateway then, just as the present 
bridge does now. In those days they spoke of Bridge 
Street ; later of Bridge Square, when the twin ar- 
teries, Hennepin and Nicollet Avenues, began to take 
definite direction ■. and now it has become Gateway 
Park. 

Forward-looking men were at work developing the 
nucleus of a city on the west side : and men of no 
lesser culture and forward-looking qualities were 
likewise at work in the older village of St. Anthony. 
In 1851 they had established what they called a pi'e- 
paratory department for the University of Minnesota. 
Indeed, in this latter establishment may be seen the 
true pioneering spirit, for they built this humble pre- 
paratory department apparently in the assurance that 
by the time students were prepared for entrance, the 
University proper would be there for them to enter. 

In the formative conditions of those first years on 
both sides of the river it was natural that there should 
be rivalries between the settlements, and even compe- 
tition for supremacy even within each of the two divi- 
sions. Thus in old St. Anthony there were, at one 
time, three centers which strove for commercial leader- 
ship : "Cheevertown, " where the campus of the Uni- 
versity of Minnesota now lies; the village of St. An- 
thony, centering in the present Central Avenue from 
the river up the hill; and the town of St. Anthony, 
up river in the neighborhood that is now Tliird to 
Fifth Avenue Northeast, and opposite the mouth of 
Bassett's Creek. At the last named site the steamboat 
landing for the traffic above the Falls was established, 
and for a time that was the east side center of busi- 
ness. 

BECOMES A SUMMER RESORT. 

As the village on the west side of tlie river 
grew, there sprang up that portion of the vil- 
lage which centered on Bridge Street, and an- 
other as far down river as the present Sixth 
to Eighth Avenues South, along Washington 
Avenue. On the east side, the rival communities had 
their hotels, the St. Charles and the Winslow; and on 
the west side there were the Cataract and the NieoUet. 



119 



120 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



To all these came, iu the years before the Civil War, 
the flower of Southern society from as far dowu the 
river as New Orleans, making a summering place of 
the beautiful locality about the Falls and the lakes 
near the growing villages. This was a natural out- 
growth of the steamboat traffic on the great river — - 
and in that traffic itself there arose another element 
of rivalry which unified all the competitive elements 
of the twin villages at the Falls of St. Anthony. 

RIVALRY BEGETS A FEUD. 

This iinion was the first manifestation of a bitter 
rivalry which dwarfed all the petty differences of the 
several commercial communities at the falls. It was 
the feud between the pioneer cities of Minnesota — 
_ St. Paul and Minneapolis : a vindictive fire which has 
now smoldered, now broken out afresh, tliroughout 
the nearly three-quarters of a century whicli has 
passed since the founding of the towns. It was even 
declared that the long delay in the opening of the 
Military Reservation on the west side of the Falls 
was caused by the machinations of men at Fort Snell- 
ing and in the settlement of St. Paul. The early evi- 
dences of competition for settlers and commerce in- 
cluded scheming by St. Paul to prevent the river 
boats from passing further up-stream to the landing 
below St. Anthony Falls. 

LOC.VL STEAMBO.\TING ESTABLISHED. 

It was this influence which led to the acquirement 
of a steamtioat by residents of St. Anthony, and the 
organization of a river traffic company to maintain 
a line of steamers, of which the Falls City was to be 
the first, which were to ply between St. Anthony and 
the ^lississippi below. That was in 1854, when the 
tii'st mercliant flour mill had been erected on the East 
Side, and when the need of transportation facilities, 
not merely for flour but for wheat, became evident. 
That was an important year in the history of the two 
villages; it saw the first bank established in St. An- 
thony; the first survey on the west side: the first lot 
given away by Colonel Stevens: the establishment of 
the ^linneapolis postoffice : the first retail lumber 
yard; and the operation of the old Goverinnent flour 
mill commercially. 

And while the river traffic lielow the falls was be- 
coming an important element in the future of the 
two settlements, the possibilities of traffic above the 
falls were not neglected. The steamlioat Oovernor 
Ramsey, as has been said, had been put in service as 
early as 1851, plying between St. Anthony and Sauk 
Rapids, and later other steamboats were put on: a 
circumstance in transportation history which shows 
what elements contributed to the development of 
.Minnesota Territory in the years before railroads 
were built and the country opened up by settlement. 
The boats that carried freight and passengers uji- 
river above the falls continued in active service most 
of the years until the Federal Government, in the 
midst of the Civil War. took tiiem around the Falls 
and used tliem in tlic i-iver navy that figured in the 



military operations iu the West. And one of them — 
the first one, the Governor Ramsey — reappeared on 
Lake Minnetonka and did good service there about 
the time the first railroad was laid to the north shore 
of that lake. 

It was not until well into the second decade of St. 
Anthony's history that the railroad figured at all in 
the transportation problems of the city. "Transpor- 
tation" in those first ten or twelve years of the city's 
life meant .steamboat traffic in summer, or stage and 
wagon freighting. The historic Red River carts, 
relics of the first transportation efl'orts in the North- 
west, continued to be features of the time. And 
through the "Big Woods'" to the southwest and west 
there were mail routes, mostly traversed by mounted 
horsemen, to the frontier settlements. Ox teams were 
as common as horses in the farming districts, and all 
communication was as primitive as in any new 
country. 

THE LYCEUM AND THE LIBRARY. 

The Lyceum was an institution of the time; debat- 
ing clubs included men. not mere youths, in their 
membership ; intimate acquaintance with literature 
was perhaps a commoner attribute then than it is to- 
day; singing schools were among the forms of enter- 
tainment; and in its earliest years St. Anthony pos- 
sessed a public library co-operative in form. Ten 
years later — in 1859 — the foundation for the ^linne- 
apolis Public Li})rary was laid, in the formation of 
the Atheneum, a private library' association which 
was to all intents and purposes public. It was to this 
semi-public institution that, after another ten years, 
an endowment was to come through Dr. Kirby Spen- 
cer's bequest, which was to yield rich aid to the li- 
brary of the Twentieth Century. 

THE PIONEER NEWSPAPERS. 

The significant fact which stands out before all else 
in the history of the communities is that the people, 
were of a high cultural average. Their daily tasks 
were performed amid conditions often full of hard- 
ship, always iu surroundings wholly lacking in ex- 
terior refinement. But all held true to the traditions 
of their forefathers. One may .see proof of cultural 
qualities in the circumstances surrounding the found- 
ing of the first newspaper, the St. .\nthony Express, 
promoted by Tyler, the tailor, and established in 1S.")1. 
The Express had been Whig in politics at the begin- 
ning, and Democratic later, but its brand of Democ- 
racy did not suit those who opposed the old "Silver 
Grays," and in 1853 the Xorth western Democrat ap- 
peared, first under Prescott & Jones and later, after 
it had been moved to the west side, under W. A. 
ITotcbkiss. This second paper succumbed, too. The 
St. Anthony Republican was another weekly paper, 
published by the Rev, C. G. .Ames, who was an out- 
spoken abolitionist and a vigorous figure of the time. 
It was merged, in 1858. with the State News, edited 
by W. A. Croffutt, who in yeai-s to come gained fame 
c<|ual to that of Rev. Mr. Ames in a national way, as 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



121 



a thinker and writer. It was Croflfutt who, with his 
partner! ventured the first daily newspaper at the 
Falls — the Daily Falls Evening News. But this was 
short-lived. Indeed, most newspaper enterprises of 
the first deeade failed to sueeeed eonmiercially. It 
was not until 1859 that a newspaper ajjpeared whieh 
was destined to endure the financial storms of the 
times. And its iiublication served to introduce to 
the Northwest a man who became a great, notable 
figure in its history. It was in this year, during the 
stress of hard times following the panic of 1857, that 
Colonel "William S. King founded the State Atlas, and 
the paper at once became a strenuous factor in the 
upbuilding of the community. It held its own for ten 
years, and then was merged into the Tribune, which 
still endures. 



THE EARLY SCHOOLS. 

The newspaper history of the young community, its 
achievement in establishing a library, the cultural 
tendencies of its citizens, were part and parcel of the 
same spirit whieh earlier had founded a school sys- 
tem, fii'st on the East, later on the West, Side. In old 
St. Anthony the first institution to have community 
support was a private school, established in 1849 and 
with Miss Electa* Backus as the teacher. That was 
in June of 1849, and the need for better accommoda- 
tions was responded to in the fall, when a .school 
building was erected and the first jniblic school estab- 
lished. 

The pioneers who east their lot with the settlement 
of squatters and early claimants on the west side of 
the river set about establishing their own schools as 
soon as the settlers became sufficiently numerous to 
warrant. It was in 1852 that Anson Northrup's 
house, close to the present site of the new Minneapolis 
postoffice building, became a school house for a time. 
;\riss ;\laiw Miller was the teacher of the twenty-odd 
pupils in this, the first organized district school west 
of the Mississippi river in the Northwest. It is an 
index to the character of the people, this establishing 
of a school district before they had even gained title 
to or right to settle on the lands about the western 
end of the Falls of St. Anthony. As usual. Col. 
Stevens's house had been the scene of the organization 
meeting, and the first school board was composed of 
Col. Stevens. Dr. A. E. Ames, and Edward Murphy. 

Three years later, in 1855, the questions of title 
and government having been cleared up in a way, the 
people of Minneapolis met in town meeting and deter- 
mined to organize a graded school and erect a school 
building. The result was the erection of tlie I'liion 
School, on the site of the present courthouse and city 
hall. The building was opened and schools estab- 
lished in 1858, with a princijjal and foui' teacluTs. 
It was the real nucleus for the Minneapolis imblii- 
school system. To its traditions and those of the 
Washington School, which succeeded it. scores of .Miii- 



■" Atwater 's History gives her Christian name as Elizabeth; 
but Warner & Foote 's and Hudson 's give it as Electa, which 
is forreet. 



neapolis men and women remain loyal, and people all 
over the West count as their best school days the time 
spent under roof of the Union or the Washington 
School. 

THE FIRST MINNEAPOLIS CHURCHES. 

As establishment of schools was early one of the 
efforts of the villagers of St. Anthony and of Minne- 
apolis, so were the natural assemblages of the adher- 
ents of one or another religious creed notable circum- 
stances of the time. The first churches in St. Anthony 
have been noticed. On the West Side, the mission 
hou.se of the Pond Brothers, on Lake Calhoun, was 
the first building which by liberal license may be con- 
sidered a church. It was used only to proclaim the 
Gospel to the Indians, and cannot be considered as in 
any sense the foundation of Christian church organi- 
zation in ^Minneapolis. The services first held in tlie 
John H. Stevens house by Presbyterians gave that 
denomination definite part in the church history of 
the West Side, culminating in organization in 185:5. 
The ^lethodists had organized on the East Side in 
1849 ; the Coiigregatioiialists formed a churcii tlierc in 
1851 ; the Episcopalians formed Holy Trinity Parish 
in 1852, and four years later became organized factors 
in religious work on the West Side. The Baptists, 
first established on the East Side in 1850, got together 
on the West Side in 1853. Other Protestant denomi- 
nations came later. As for the Catholic church, the 
parish of St. Anthony of Padua continued for many 
years to embrace all of the members by the Falls. 

Other schools, churches, and libraries sprang up 
spontaneously with the first settlement of either vil- 
lage ; they existed in the will of every one of those 
first settlers in the decade and a half preceding the 
Civil War, and though they may not have had visible 
form and dimension, yet they were truly elements in 
the life of the villages from their very beginning. 
Hardship and privation, financial setback and panic, 
rivalry with St. Paul, intensive struggle for existence 
could not check their growth. Even in the bitter days 
of the panic of 1857 there was no cessation from pro- 
moting the institutions of the mind and of the soul 
as necessary elements in the life of the two young 
cities. The earnestness and the vigor and the cul- 
tural instinct of Eastern fathers and motliei's kept 
their fires alight, and held the people true to tlir 
best that was in their heredity. 

OUOANIZATION OF THE REPrBLICAN PARTV. 

The first preliminary and authoritative ad ion taken 
to organize the Re])ublican party was by a coiivcn- 
fion of Michigan anti-slavery Democrats, eallinu' 
Ihemsclves "■fhe Free Democracy of Michigan," which 
meeting wa.s held at Kalamazoo, Feliruary 22. 1854. 
the anniversary of Washington's birthday. This con- 
vention nominated a State ticket, adopted a strong 
anti-slavery i)latform. and called itself a "convention 
of Free Democrats and Jetfersonian Republicans." 
Aliout a week later, or F(>l)ruai-y 28, a meeting held 
at Ripon, Wisconsin, resolved to hold another meeting 



121 



HISTORY OF .MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



and I'onu a new party if the Kausas-Nehraska bill, 
then before Congi-ess, was passed. The bill was 
passed, and ]\Iaroh 20 the contemplated meeting was 
held and an organization, called by A. E. Bovay the 
Republican party, was formed; this organization did 
not pretend to l)e State-wide in character. 

June 21, 1854, the "Independent Democrats" of 
iliehigan, in convention at Kalamazoo, endorsed the 
State ticket nominated February 22 previously. July 
6 a grand mass convention, composed of all elements 
of tlie anti-slavery sentiment in Michigan, met in a 
large, shady grove at Jackson, and among other things 
resolved, "that, in defense of Freedom, we will 
co-operate and be known as Republicans." The anti- 
slavery elements of other States followed suit : of 
Wisconsin at IMadison, and of Vermont at Burlington, 
July 13 : of Massachusetts at "Worcester July 20. etc. 
Each of these oi'ganized a State party called Repub- 
lican. There was no national organization until in 
18.i(;. In 18.54 the new party elected a majority of 
the members of the lower House of Congress that 
chose N. P. Banks, of iMassachusetts, Speaker. Feli- 
i-uary 22, 1856, a so-called "People's T'onvention"' — 
all of whose members were Republican.s — met at 
Pittsburg and prepared the way for the holding of 
the first national Republican nominating convention, 
which met at Philadelphia June 17 following and 
nominated John C. Fremont and "Wm L. Davton for 
President and Vice President. (See E. V. Smalley's 
and also S. M. Allen's Histories of the Republican 
Party. Stanwood's History of Presidential Elections; 
Thomason's Political Hist. Wis., etc.) 

THE REPt'BLICAX TARTY IN IIIN'XE^OTA. 

Prior to 1855 all political canvasses in Minnesota 
Territory had been non-partisan. Democrats. Whigs, 
pro-slavery, and anti-slavery men, prohibitionists, and 
personal liberty men, were all to be found on the 
same ticket. Simple influences controlled ; a neigh- 
bor was voted for in preference to a man living at 
some distance. The only factions were those of the 
rival fur companies headed by Rice and Sibley. Per- 
sonal fitness for the place largely controlled the voter 
in his selection of a candidate. There wer.e very few 
real pro-slavery men in the Territory, but they and 
the out-and-out abolitionists were about ef|ual in 
mniibers — and in the public esteem. 

An overwlielming nia.iority of the people were op- 
posed 1o the further extension of slavery, did not 
wani any more slave States; but at the same time 
thi'.x did not desire the abolition by Congress of 
sla\i TN- in States where it already existed. The for- 
mer Democrats, still holding to their old States' 
rights beliefs, declared that each State should settle 
the i|uestion foi- itself. If any slaveholding State 
wanted to abolish the "peculiar institution." let it 
do so, in heaven 's name, and God speed it ! Con- 
gress had not the power over the sub.iect. If Con- 
gress could abolish slavery in any State, it could 
establish it in another — and the latter idea was not 
to be entertained for a moment ! 



THE ABOLITION MEETING OP 1854. 

On the 4th of July, 1854, the little flock of aboli- 
tionists in and about St. Anthony held what they 
called a "mass meeting" in the school house. The 
attendance was small, for an Independence Day cele- 
bration was being held, and the proceedings were so 
unimportant that not one newspaper in the Territory 
mentioned them. Rev. Chas. G. Ames, the Unitarian 
elergj-man, Minnesota's Theodore Parker, was the 
leading spirit of the meeting. He had been a Free 
Will Baptist ; he was now heterodox. He had been 
a conservative Whig; he was now an ultra abolition- 
ist. He made a passionate and even violent speech 
against slavery and those that had any sort of sym- 
pathy with it. He claimed that the U. S. Constitu- 
tion recognized slavery, and for that reason the great 
American charter "ought to be buried so deep that 
it can never be resurrected." He believed with Gar- 
rison that the Constitution is "a covenant with death 
and a league agi'eement with hell." John W. North 
and other members of the meeting made inflanmiatory 
and incendiary speeches, and no doubt tlicv felt much 
better after their fires went out. In the following 
October a new paper called the jMinnesota Republican 
was established at St. Anthony, with Rev. Ames as 
its editor. In his salutatory he announced that he was 
an uncomprising abolitionist, and wanted slavery 
abolished at once wherever it existed. 

THE REPUBLICAN ORGANIZING CON\ EXTION. 

Pursuant to much previous advertising, the first 
Republican Tei'ritorial Convention in ^Minnesota was 
held in St. Anthony, Thvirsday and Friday, ilarch 
29 and 30, 1855, more than a year after the first Mich- 
igan convention. Wm. R. Marshall presided and 
James F. Bradley was secretary. It was a mass meet- 
ing, but only abaut fifty men attended, (Editor Emer- 
son, of the St. Paul Daily Democrat, says he counted 
fifty-two, but Smalley says they numbered 200), and 
not a half dozen of these lived outside of Hennepin 
and Ramsey Counties. 

The meeting was divided into radiral and eon.serva- 
tive anti-slavery men. The leailing radieals were the 
fierv preacher. Rev. C. G. Ames, and John W. North, 
W."D. Babbitt. J. F. Bradley. Geo. E. H. Day— one 
preacher, two lawyers, and two business men. The 
influential conservatives were Chairman Mai-shall, 
Geo. A. Nourse, Warren Bristol. Dr. Hezekiah 
Fletcher, and Rev. S. T. Creighton. 

A committee consisting of North. Nourse, Babbitt. 
Rev. B. F. Iloyt, II. P. Pratt. Eli Petti.iohn, and a 
Mr. Bigelow, reported resolutions denouncing slavery 
and the fugitive slave law. but not declaring in favor 
of the abolition of either. Thereupon there was a lot 
of si)ecch-making and heated debates. A resolution 
declariusi- the fugitive slave law wholly unconstitu- 
tional was defeated, and one pronouncing it "uncon 
stitutional in spirit and character, oppressive, unjust, 
and (lang(>rous to domestic tranquility and deserving 
i-epeal," was passed, but by a vote of twenty-five to 
twenty-two. This was a compromise resolution be- 



HISTORY OF illNNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



123 



tween the t\V'0 factions. So spirited had been the 
debates and so intense the feeling that there was dan- 
ger that the convention would "break up in a row,"' 
withoiit crystallizing the sentiment and uniting the 
forces for freedom. The zealot. Rev. Ames, saw this 
danger, and to avoid it he accepted the resolution and 
championed it. He failed, however, to induce very 
many of the impracticable and unrea.soning element 
to follow. 

The .stormy convention held until midnight, and 
then adjourned until the next day when the final ses- 
sion of three hours was held. The last resolution con- 
cluded : "Appealing to heaven for the rectitude of 
our intentions, we this df^.v organize the Republican 
Party of ^linnesota." 

THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION OF APRIL 3. 

April 3, four days after the Republican Conven- 
tion, the Democrats — or " ' Democratic Republicans, 
as they styled themselves — held a mass meeting at 
Chambers & Hedderly's hall, ^Minneapolis. There 
were 125 members, who were chietiy from iliune- 
apolis and St. Anthony. Dr. A. E. Ames presided 
and Charles Hoag was secretaiy. W. A. Hotchkiss, 
Sweet W. Case, and F, R. E. Cornell, composing the 
committee on resolutions, reported on the slavery 
question: "That while we deprecate slaveiy agita- 
tion, either North or South, we do not, in any manner, 
sympathize with the in.stitution, believing it to be a 
great moral and public evil; and that we will use all 
lawful means to confine it within its present limits." 
The resolutions, including the one quoted, were passed 
without dissent. D. "SI. Hanson and F. R. E. Cornell, 
two able lawyers, spoke eloquently in their favor. 

The resolution on the slavery question adopted by 
this Democratic meeting became practically the car- 
dinal principle of the Republican party and the chief 
feature of its platforms. This was why so many old 
Free Soil Democrats became Republicans. The fol- 
lowing year Editor Hotchkiss and his Northwestern 
Democrat supported Fremont and Dayton and the 
Republican ticket generally, though Hotchkiss 
claimed that he was still a Democrat, In his editorial 
announcing that he would support Fremont he said: 

"We are a Democrat in eveiy sense of the word. 
The Republican platform is the old Democratic policy 
ii extenso. "We are a Democrat — 'dyed in the wool,' 
as the saying is; a States' Rights Democrat are we, 
and not a fillibuster or ruffian. Until the Demo- 
cratic ship gets back to its proper waters and original 
]nii'ity, we shall say hard things of it." 

Tile first year of their political organization the Re- 
publicans would have elected their candidate, Win. 
R. Marshall, as Delegate to Congress over Henry ^I. 
Rice, Democrat, had they not put a strong prohibition 
plank in their platform. The author of this plank 
and of its incorporation in the platform was Rev. 
Chas. G. Ames, before mentioned, and who was as 
zealous a prohibitionist as he was an abolitionist. 
The vote cast at the election, October 6, was: For 
Rice, 3,215; for Marshall, 2,434; for David Olmsted, 
independent Democrat, 1,785. 



THE HENNEPIN COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

In March, 1853, the Territorial Legislature incor- 
porated the Hennepin County Agricultural Society. 
The prime mover and leading spirit in almost every 
public enterprise at that day. Col. Stevens, was the 
prime mover and leading spirit in the organization of 
this society. He believed it would be a great and val- 
uable advertisement, not only for the town of Minne- 
apolis and Hennepin County, but for the Tei-ritory 
and the pioneer farmers, and he infused his ideas into 
the minds of certain of his prominent fellow-citizens. 
The charter members of the Hennepin Society were 
John H. Stevens, Emanuel Case, Joel B. Bassett, 
Alexander iloore, Warren Bristol, Dr. Hezekiah 
Fletcher, Dr. A. E. Ames, Philander Prescott, Joseph 
Dean, and John S. Mann. 

The first meeting of the Society was held in what 
was sometimes termed the courthouse, at St. Anthony, 
Sept. 7, 1853. There was a large attendance for the 
time. Dr. Ames presided. Addresses were delivered 
by John W. North, Isaac Atwater, A. G. Chatfield, 
Captain Dodge, and others. A committee, consisting 
of John H. Stevens. Isaac Atwater, J. N. Barber and 
R. B. Gibson, drew up and presented the constitution 
and by-laws, which were adopted. The officers elected 
for the first year were : President, Rev. J. W. Dorr ; 
ti'easurer. Emanuel Case; secretary, J. H. Canney ; 
executive committee. John H. Stevens. N. E. Stod- 
dard. Wm. Chambers, Stephen Hall, and W. W. 
Getehell. 

The Society decided to hold an agricultural fair at 
Minneapolis, October 18. Farmers were cordially in- 
vited to exhibit selections from their fields and from 
their flocks and herds, and the ladies were particu- 
larly requested to send Specimens of their industrial 
work. The people of the Territory generally were 
invited to attend. 

Stevens, Dr. Ames, and Charles Hoag were ap- 
pointed to make a careful analysis of the soil of 
Hennepin County, and to make "a full and candid 
report" as to its adaptability for general agricul- 
tural purposes. Dr. Hezekiah Fletcher, R. W. Gib- 
sou, and David Bickford were appointed another 
committee, "to consider and report upon the best 
means of destroying all birds and animals that infest 
and destroj^ the agricultural productions of this 
county." (See St. Anthony Express, Sept. 17, 1853.) 

At this meeting, pui-suaut to a resolution offered 
by N. E. Stoddard, steps were taken to fonu a Terri- 
torial agricultural society; and the "ilinnesota Agri- 
cultural Society" was organized at St. Paul in Jan- 
uary following, with Governor Gorman as president. 
Although both the Hennepin and the Jlinnesota Soci- 
eties declared for holding fairs in the fall of 1853, 
none were held. But after careful consideration the 
circumstances seemed forbidding, and the exhibitions 
were postponed until the following vear. (Stevens, 
p. 213.) 

THE FIRST AGRICULTURAL FAIR IN MINNESOTA. 

The second annual meeting of the Hennepin County 
Agricultural Society was held October 6. 1854. John 



124 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



H. Stevens was elected president, Emanuel Case treas- 
urer, and Joseph H. Canney secretary. After dis- 
cussion the Society determined to hold a fair at ^liu- 
neapolis two weeks later, or October 20. The time 
was short for advertising and securing exhibits and 
for making preparations but some of this work had 
already been done. 

The fair was held at the time appointed. It was a 
complete success, with the additional distinction that 
it was the first agricultural and horticultural fair 
held in Minnesota. The site was on the Minneapolis 
side of the river, on what was subsequently known as 
Bridge Square. It was opened with somewhat im- 
posing exercises. Fervent, high-sounding, and fairlj' 
eloquent addresses were delivered by Governor Gor- 
man, Ex-Governor Ramsey, and Ex-Justice Bradley 
B. Meeker. 

In his "Minnesota and Its People" (p. 242), Colo- 
nel Stevens says that the first fair "was a success in 
every department." The grain, roots, vegetables, live 
stock, poultry, daii-y exhibits, the mechanical and in- 
dustrial departments, fine arts, ladies' department, 
and the miscellaneous articles exhibited were all of 
such excellence that, the St. Anthony Express de- 
clared, "they would have done credit to one of the 
oldest and richest agricultural counties in New York 
The number of exhibitors exceeded fifty, and the cash 
premiums, all of which were paid, amounted in the 
aggi-egate to several hundred dollars. 

The exhibition was a valuable advertisement for 
Minnesota and especially for iliuneapolis and Henne- 
pin County. According to all reports, many stran- 
gers from the Eastern, Middle, and other States at- 
tended. They chanced to be here, "looking at the 
country," and the extraordinarily high character of 
the grain, vegetables, and stock shown at the fair im- 
pressed them so favorably with the agricultural value 
of the region that many of them actually became per- 
manent residents of Minnesota and advertising agents 
for the country. It is well settled that one of the 
elements of greatest value in connection with every 
fair. Territorial. State, or County, ever held in Min- 
nesota, has been connected with the publicity made in 
the exhibition of the products of the people. 

THE GOVEENOR PREVENTS THE CREATION OF 
"ST. ANTHONY COUNTY." 

It is not generally known, and no previous history 
states the fact, that the Legislature of 185.') jiassed an 
act creating the "County of St. Anthony" out of the 
western part of Ramsey County and locating the 
county seat at the town of St. Anthony. The hill 
passed both houses, but in the closing days of the 
session. It was not introduced as an independent bill. 
but as a supplement to an act amending the incor- 
poration of the State Historical Society. The sup- 
plemental bill defined the county's boundaries, which 
^ere very ample, the northern line being far to the 
northward. As stated, the bill passed in the closing 
(lays of the session, the last days of February, 1S5.5, 
and went over to Territorial Governor Willis A. Gor- 
man for his approval. The Governor had become well 



identified with St. Paul and opposed the dismember- 
ing of Ramsey County. He "pocketed" the bill and 
allowed the Legislature to adjourn (March 3) with- 
out signing it, and so it failed to become a law. 

There was intense feeling at St. Anthony over 
Governor Gorman's action. A few days after the 
Legislature ad,iourned, or on ^larch 6, an indignation 
meeting of more than 200 citizens was held in Cen- 
tral Hall, St. Anthony, to denounce this action. Geo. 
F. Brott presided and the Democratic Territorial 
Secretary, Charles L. Chase, was secretary. For his 
action in pocketing the bill the Governor was scored 
in the harshest terms and in violent language by speak- 
ers familiar with those terms and accomplished in the 
use of that form of language. Among these speakers 
were Hon. D. 'SI. Hanson. Hon. Chas. Stearns, E. 
L. Hall. Moses W. Getchell. and President Brott. A 
large proportion of those participating were Demo- 
crats, but they did not spare the Democratic Governor 
in their speeches. 

A committee, consisting of 'SI. W. Get«hell, II. T. 
Welles, Richard Chute, E. Dixon, Silas Ricker, Rich- 
ard Fewer, and R. W. Cummiugs, reported a series 
of resolutions, the iirst of which and the preamble 
read: 

"Whereas, At the last session of the Legislature of 
this Territory an act was passed providing for the 
organization of St. Anthony County, and also an act 
pro^Tding for the improvement of the Jlississippi 
River from the mouth of the Minnesota to the Falls 
of Pokegama ; and whereas Governor Gorman has 
pocketed said bills, thereby defeating the same, with- 
out daring to assume the responsibility of vetoing 
them ; and whereas the Governor has signed other 
bills involving the same principles and providing for 
carrying out similar measures in other localities in 
which he, the said Governor, is believed to be person- 
ally interested ; therefore, 

"Resolved, That we regard the action of Governor 
Gorman in defeating .said bills as a blow aimed in a 
cowardly manner at the prosperity and progress of 
St. Anthony and the northern part of Ramsey County, 
as well as the counties lying between the Mississippi 
and the Minnesota Rivers. 

"Resolved. Tliat the action of Governor Gorman in 
defeating the said bills, passed by both branches of the 
Legislatiu'c. has been of a most tyrannical, selfisli. and 
revengeful nature, showing a total disregard of tlie 
wishes of the people, etc." 

Another i-esolution demanded that the President 
remove Governor Gorman, and still another said of 
him : 

"That his action as above stated, in connection with 
his previous course as Governor of the Territory, dur- 
ing which course he has been engaged in numerous 
street brawls, personal encounters, and other dis- 
reputable acts, for which he has been presented by a 
grand .iury and has been at other times brought to 
answer at the bar of courts of .iustice. have demon- 
strated that he is totally unfit for the responsible 
station which he holds as Governor of the Territory 
of ]\Iinnesota." 

Tlie resolutions were applauded and unanimously 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



125 



adopted, after being discussed to see if they could 
not be made stronger. 

The journals of the House and Senate for the ses- 
sion of 1855 give scarcely any information regarding 
this bill ; but see the Xorth-Westera Democrat for 
March 10, 1855, in an editorial under the heading. 
"St» Anthony County Not a County;" also the same 
paper dated March 17. containing a report of the 
meeting at Central Hall, j\Iarch 6 ; also the Pioneer 
and Democrat of ^lareh 5, referring to the Legisla- 
tive proceedings of March 3. 

ST. ANTHONY INCORPORATED AS A CITY. 

By an act of the Legislature approved by the Gov- 
ernor March 3, 1855, the village of St. Anthony was 
incorporated as a "city," although it had an esti- 
mated population at the time of about 2,000. The act, 
virtuall.y the city's charter, was very length}', consist- 
ing of nine chapters. By its provisions the city was 
divided into three wards, with two aldermen from 
each ward, and the six aldermen, the mayor, and a 
justice of the peace were to be elected on the first 
Monday in April following. The mayor and three of 
the first aldermen chosen were to serve but one year ; 
thereafter the terra of an alderman was to be two 
j'ears. The other city officials were to be chosen by 
the Council. Notwithstanding that the town was 
strongly Republican or al:iolition, negroes were not 
allowed to vote at municipal elections. 

At the first election H. T. Welles was elected 
maj'or; and the Aldermen (composing the City Coun- 
cil) were Benj. N. Spencer, John Orth, Daniel Stanch- 
field, Edwin Lippincott, Caleb D. Dorr, and Rol)t. 
W. Cummings. April 14 the Council elected Ira 
Kingsley, treasurer, no salary ; W. F. Brawley, clerk, 
annual salary, $325 ; S. W. Farnham, assessor, salary 
not fixed; Benj. Brown, marshal, salary, $300; attor- 
ney, E. L. Hall, salary. $250; collector. E. B. Na.sh, 
salary, three per cent of collections. The ma.yor was 
to receive $200 and the aldermen $100 each. Lard- 
ner Bostwick was elected justice of the peace. 

The election had been of a non-partisan character, 
and the officers were of various political persuasions. 
Mayor Welles was a Democrat. There was a general 
acceptance of the officials as to their qualifications 
except in the case of Marshal Brown ;'he was a saloon 
keeper, and the radical temperance people were 
roused to great indignation over his appointment. 
They held a meeting April 10 and denounced every- 
body responsible for it. and urged that he be re- 
moved. Geo. A. Nourse, John W. North, and Rev. 
Creighton made fiery speeches, and the meeting de- 
manded that the saloons be abolished, or at least that 
no liquor should be sold on Sunday. The resolutions 
adopted were hot-tempered and denunciatory of 
liquor and tlie liquor interests. The Council finally 
enacted that no saloons should be open on Sundays 
or after 10 P. M. on week days, and that they pay 
licenses of the heavy sum of fifty dollars a year; 
drunkenness, fighting, and gambling were prohibited, 
and the moral condition of the city renovated and 
reformed so far as a city ordinance could be made 



eft'ective. In October, Ben Brown resigned as marshal 
and Seth Turner was appointed in his stead. 

HENNEPIN COUNTY TAKES IN ST. ANTHONY. 

The creation of St. Anthony County, with the town 
of St. Anthony as the county seat, having been pre- 
vented by Governor Gorman, in IMarch, 1855, the citi- 
zens of the town and those who sympathized with 
them determined to have satisfaction and redress 
from the Governor and from St. Paul. The members 
of the Legislature from that town opposed the new 
county, because it would take away St. Anthony and 
much other good territory from Ramsey County and 
thereby injure their city. Mr. Isaac Van Etten, of 
St. Paul, had led the fight against the proposed new 
county, and while he had been unsuccessful in the 
Legislature (of which he was a member) he and his 
associates had better success with the Governor, who 
by this time had valuable interests in the Capital 
City. 

The St. Anthony partisans were incensed at St. Paul 
and determined that if they could not have a sep- 
arate county of their own they would detach their 
territory from Ramsey County and attach it to Hen- 
nepin. This would deal a blow at the progress of St. 
Paul and increase the good prospects of the twin 
towns at the Falls, St. Anthony and Minneapolis. At 
the very next Legislatiu-e. that of 1856, they intro- 
duced a bill into, and succeeded in having it passed 
by the Legislature carrying out their purpose. 

The bill was adroitly drawn. It was entitled. 'A 
bill to designate the site whereon to erect the count.y 
buildings of Hennepin County and authorizing the 
Commissioners to procure a title thereto, and extend- 
ing the boundaries of the County." Governor Gor- 
man could not well veto a bill allowing sites to be 
acquired for the much needed county buildings of 
the new county : and he had no pleasant memories of 
how the people had expressed themselves about him 
when, the year before, he had pocketed the bill allow- 
ing St. Anthony to separate from Ramsey County. 

The first three sections of the bill related to the 
acquirement of county building sites in Minneapolis. 
The 4th section reads : 

"The boundaries of Heiuiepin County is [sic] 
hereby extended north across the ^lississippi River, 
commencing on the north line of township 29. in 
range 24. on the Mississippi River, and running due 
east to a point between sections 4 and 5, in town- 
ship 30. in range 23 ; thence due south to the town 
line between townships 28 and 29 ; thence due west 
to the Mississippi River." 

The two other sections provide that the Hennepin 
register of deeds should transcribe all the records of 
Ramsey County relating to the newly attached terri- 
tory, and that the delinquent taxes of the new terri- 
tory should be paid to Ramsey County. The act was 
approved by the Governor February 25. 

The original boundaries were not satisfactory, and 
five years later the Legislature of 1861 established 
them as follows: 

"Commencing on the north line of township 29, 



126 



HISTORY OF .AIINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



range 24, ou the Mississippi River, thence due east to 
a point between seetioas 5 and 6. township 20, range 
23 ; tlience due south, on the section line, to the ^lis- 
sissippi River : thence up said river to the place of 
beginning. ' ' 

After the act of 1856 St. Anthony entered its 
fourth county. It has been in Crawford and St. 
Croix Counties, "Wisconsin, and Ramsey and Hennepin 
in ilinnesota. The newly attached territoi-j' was or- 
ganized into a civil township May 11, 1858, and the 
first officers were : Supervisors, J. B. Gilbert, J. C. 
Tufts, Richard Fewer: clerk, D. M. Demmon; asses- 
sor, J. A. Lennon; .justices of the peace, Solon Arm- 
strong and Anthony Grethen. The town, however, 
continued its separate corporate existence until in 
1872, when it was united with Minneapolis. 

THE DISPUTED ELECTION OF DELEGATES TO THE 
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 

Perhaps the most intei'esting and influential politi- 
cal events in Minnesota between 1850 and 1860 were 
the formation of the Republican party in 1855, the 
election of Delegates to the Constitutional Conven- 
tion, and the session of that Convention, the latter 
two events occurring in the summer of 1857, and the 
first election for State officers. There was a most 
spirited contest over the election of Delegates to the 
Convention which was to make the organic law of 
the State, soon to be admitted into the Union. 

That Convention would form the first Legislative 
and Congressional districts and make them Demo- 
cratic or Republican, according to the politics of a 
ma.iority of the members. The Legislature would 
elect two United States Senators and the political con- 
trol of Congress might depend upon the new State of 
Minnesota. 

The Republicans made strenuous efforts to elect a 
ma.iority of the Delegates. They appealed to their 
National Connnittee and their brethren in the East 
for help and some money and some of the best speak- 
ers were sent them to aid in the canvass. Among 
those from other States who came and stumped the 
Territory for the Free Soil ticket were John P. Hale, 
of New Hampshire ; Lyman Trumbull and Owen 
Love.ioy. of Illinois: (ialusha A. Grow, of Pennsyl- 
vania : Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana : Hanseomb, of 
Boston : Moran, of Philadelphia, and James H. 
Baker, of Ohio, — the last named afterward promi- 
nent and distinguished in ^linnesota. Judge Trum- 
bull remained in the Territory after the election as 
chief counsel for the Repviblicans. The Democrats 
employed ordy their local talent : such of them as 
received compensation were paid out of a fund raised 
by Territorial office-holders, all of whom were Demo- 
crats. 

The election for Delegates came off June 1. The re- 
turns came in slowly and at first it was conceded 
that a ma.iority of Democrats had been chosen, espe- 
cially when it appeared on the face of the returns 
that four of them had been elected in St. Anthony 
precinct, of Hennepin County, by an average ma- 
jority of 13. Rut Senator Trundnill now came for- 



ward with a plan to wrest victory from defeat. The 
authorities had decided that two Delegates were to 
be chosen for each Representative and Councilor in 
the Territorial Legislature, and this construction 
made a Convention of 108 members. 

But June 16, when the board of canvassei-s for Hen- 
nepin County, all of them Republicans, canvassed the 
vote of St. Anthony, they decided that not four Dem- 
ocrats but four Republicans had been chosen from 
that Legislative district and certificates were issued 
accordingly. Lj-man Trumbull had counseled the 
action and furnished the arguments for it. 

The decision was based upon the difference in form 
of the tickets of the two parties. The Republican 
ticket was divided into two parts. The general head- 
ing of the ticket was in black capitals, "Rejiublican 
Ticket." Then came a sub-heading in black lower 
case or italic letters reading, "For Delegates to Con- 
stitutional Convention fz"om Council District," and 
below this heading were the names of the candidates. 
Dr. J. H. Murphy and S. W. Putnam. " Then followed 
another heading in black lower case reading, '"For 
Delegates from the Representative District," and 
underneath were the names of D. A. Secombe, D. M. 
Hall, L. C. Walker, and P. Winell. Now, many of the 
Democratic tickets had but a single heading. "For 
Delegates to the Constitutional Convention," and 
underneath were the names of all six of the candi- 
dates. Judge B, B. Meeker, R. Fewer, Calvin A. 
Tuttle, Samuel Stanchfield, W. :M. Lashelle, and the 
Secretary of the Teri'itory. Chas. L. Chase. 

The Democrats claimed that, as the boundaries 
of the Representative and Council districts were the 
same and identical with the entire precinct, the group- 
ing and division of the names on the ticket were un- 
necessary, but the Republicans denied this contention 
and claimed that the omission to group the candi- 
dates on the tickets and place sub-headings over them 
was fatal to their legality. The returning board 
found enough of such tickets to warrant them, accord- 
ing to their belief, in refusing certificates to any Dem- 
ocrat, although the ballots cast by unchallenged voters 
showed this result : 

For the Republican Candidates, Council District — 
John H. Murphy. 496; S. W. Putnam. 491. Repre- 
sentative District, Philip Wiiiell, 512: L. C. Walker. 
503 : D. :\r. Hall. 485 : D. A. Secombe. 472. 

For the Democratic Candidates, without Distinction 
of Districts: B. B. Meeker. 524: Chas. L. Chase. 521 : 
Calvin A. Tuttle. :509 : Wm. ISl. Lashelle. 497: Sainl. 
Stanchfield, 495: R. Fewer, 496. The Democrats 
claimed that Winell and Walker were the only Re- 
publicans that had been fairly elected and they de- 
manded certificates for Meeker, Chase, Tuttle. and 
Lashelle, but the County Clerk, Rev. C. (i. .\mes. the 
zealous prohibitionist and ardent abolitionist, refused 
emphatically to give them. He was County Register 
of Deeds and ex-officio clerk of the County Commis- 
sioners, who constituted the returning board. 

On the Minneapolis side of Hennepin County, one 
Democrat, Roswell P. Russell, was given a certificate 
by the returning board, which declared that he liad 
received 18 more votes than his Republican com- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



127 



petitor. R^v. Chas. B. Sheldon. It appeared that 
some good Republican friends of 'Sir. Russell had 
erased Rev. Sheldon's name on the Republican tickets 
and substituted the old pioneer's. Then some of Shel- 
don's friends at the precincts of .Maple Grove, Island 
City, and Edeu Prairie had voted Republican tickets 
which were pi-inted like the Democratic, and, to be 
consistent with the action taken in the St. Anthony 
ease, these imitative tickets were thrown out, and this 
gave Russell his ma.iority. ]\Ir. Russell, however, 
stood by his party's contention, declared he was not 
fairly elected, and refused the election eertifieate. 
There may have been another reason for his refusal. 
At the time, he was receiver of the Land Office at 
Minneapolis, and it was doubted that he could serve 
as a Delegate and at the same time hold a Federal 
office. Sir. Sheldon was finally admitted to the Re- 
publican wing of the Convention without any certifi- 
cate at all ! 

For his "official misconduct," as the Democrats 
termed it. in issuing certificates of election to the four 
Republicans of the St. Anthony precinct, who had 
received fewer votes than their Democratic opponents. 
Clerk Ames was cited to St. Paul by Gov. Samuel 
Medary and, after a hearing, the Governor removed 
him from office. The Hennepin County Commis- 
sioners re-elected him within an hour after his return 
from St. Paul to St. Anthony, and announced that 
they would continue to re-elect him as often as the 
Governor removed him. 

In Houston County 0. W. Streeter, Democrat, had 
received 378 votes on a general ticket 'to 329 votes 
for C. A. Coe. The Republican Clerk of the Commis- 
s'ioners, by their direction gave the certificate to Jlr. 
Coe. In Winona and two or three other counties 
there was a singular condition in the Republican tick- 
ets. They were all general, no district divisions, but 
in arrangement were exactly like the Democratic tick- 
ets at St. Anthony. The Republican candidates re- 
ceived a ma.iority of the votes in these southern 
counties and were given certificates by the respective 
i-eturning boards. Asked why the course taken in 
Hennepin with this sort of tickets was not followed 
in Winona County, Thomas AVilson* a delegate, said: 
"Every tub stands on its own bottom, and every 
county controls its affairs in its own way." 

In the nth district, comprising Hennepin, Carver 
and Davis Counties (the latter named for Jefferson 
Davis), the Republican candidates were elected by 
large ma.iorities, except in the case of Dr. Alfred E. 
Ames, the staimch Democratic pioneer of Minne- 
npolis, who received a most flattering vote, and R. 
I'. Russell, whose case has been described. He refused 
the election eertifieate and Rev. Sheldon, of Excel- 
sior, obtained the place by the recognition of the Re- 
publican wing. The Democratic wing had no delegate 
from the 11th District except Dr. Ames. The district 
had twelve Delegates and the eleven Republicans, 
who acted with the Republican branch of the Coii- 



• Mr. Wilson was subsequently a Justiee of the Supreme 
foui't. became a prominent Democrat, was elected to Congress 
a.s such, and was a Democratic candidate for Governor. 



vention, were Cyrus Aldrich. Wentworth Hayden, R. 
L. Bartholomew, W. F. Russell, Henry Eschle, Chas. 
B. Sheldon, David Morgan. E. N. Bates, xilbert W. 
Combs, T. D. Smith, B. E. :Messer. 

Nineteen years after Lyman Trumbull had planned 
to secure the control of the ilinuesota Constitutional 
Convention by the Republicans he was down in 
Louisiana endeavoring to have the electoral vote of 
that State cast for Tilden and Hendricks, the Demo- 
cratic candidates for President and Vice President. 
He was originally a Free Soil Democrat, became a 
Republican on the slavery question, was U. S. Sen- 
ator, etc. After the Civil Wai- when slavery was 
abolished, he went back to his old party and remained 
with it the remainder of his life. He was chief coun- 
sel for the Democrats before the Louisiana returning 
board in 1876. 

When the Convention assembled, July 13, (1857), 
the two parties were present with all their forces, • 
regular and iiTegular. There were the two delega- 
tions from St. Anthony, each claiming legality and 
legitimacy. Each party claimed 69 members and con- 
ceded the other but 53. There was a scramble for 
tiie possession of the Representatives' hall in the Ter- 
ritorial Capitol building, and the Republicans suc- 
ceeded in capturing it. Thereupon the Democrats re- 
paired to the Council Chamber and occupied it. Both 
parties then met regularly in their respective rooms, 
each denouncing the other as a fraudulent as.sem- 
blage, a rump parliament, and claiming to be the only 
legal body. The president of the Republican wing 
was St. A. D. Balcombe, and of the Democratic IT. H. 
Sibley. 

Governor iledary and Secretary Chase recognized 
the Democratic delegates and they were paid regu- 
larly out of the public treasury : the Republicans re- 
ceived nothing in the way of pay and had to board 
themselves. At last, on the 29th of August, pursuant 
to a previous agreement, both bodies agreed on the 
same Constitution, each signing a verbatim copy of 
the compromise draft, and both Conventions then ad- 
journed. Three Democrats refused to sign it. be- 
cause, as they said, the "illegitimate Republican"' con- 
vention had been given a part in its making, although 
many Republicans called it "a pureh- Democratic 
instrument. ' ' 

THE FIRST GrBEBNATOR!.\L ELECTION, IN 1857. 

The election for the first State officials of Minnesota 
was held October 13. 1857. Congress had not then 
formally admitted l\Iinnesota into the Union, as a 
State, and these officials were .not to assume their 
duties until after such admission. The candidates 
were H. H. Sibley, Democrat, and Alexander Ramsey. 
Republican. Following close after the election of 
Delegates to the Constitutional Convention and the 
subsequent session of that convention, the canvass 
prior to the election was spirited and warm, and be- 
came unduly strenuous. Each part.v accused the 
other of designing to capture the election by frauds, 
and after the election charges were made that the 
frauds had been perpetrated. Besides the Governor 



128 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



and other State officers, three Congressinon were to be 
voted for (but only two were admitted to seats) and 
a Legislature (which should choose two United 
States Senators) was to be elected. Therefore the 
interest in the election became most intense and each 
side was determined to win. The result was that the 
tactics of the contest were not commendable. 

The State was but partially settled, there were no 
railroads or telegraphs, and the returns were not all 
in until several days after election. Then many of 
them were found to be various varieties of irregular 
form. Some were composed of the returns from each 
precinct in the county, without a condensed and duly 
certified abstract, and in many instances these pre- 
cinct returns were signed by only one .iudge or one 
clerk of election, while in some cases they were not 
signed at all. In two instances the returns were not 
certified by the register of deeds, who was ex-officio, 
the county clerk. They came in all sorts of ways. 
The Pembina and other returns were brought by spe- 
cial messengers. Many were sent by mail to the Sec- 
retary of the Territory, others were sent to Governor 
Medary, and in two instances messengers had to be 
sent for them. In Todd County the messenger from a 
large precinct carried the returns to the house of the 
register of deeds, who was absent at the time. The 
precinct messenger slipped the retiirn, a mere folded 
and unsealed paper, under the official's door and 
went away. The clerk did not return for four days. 
Charges of fraud, intimidation, and illegalities of all 
sorts, were made by each party before all the ballots 
were counted, and were reiterated again and again. 

Tliere really were but few instances of intimidation, 
but there were such. It is painful to have to record 
the fact that St. Anthony furnished one of these. 
The upper precinct of the town was largely Repub- 
lican, and many of the voters were stalwart fighting 
lumbermen. There had been much talk about condi- 
tions in Kansas, where the pro-slavei-y men. or "bor- 
der ruffians," who were mostly Democrats, had intim- 
idated many Republicans from voting and mistreated 
them outrageously. The St. Anthony Republicans 
gathered about the place of election, talked violently 
about the Kansas persecutions, and denounced the 
Democrats — or "slaveocrats," as they termed them 
— and finally resorted to actual violence in preventing 
them from voting. 

The voting place was elevated and reached by 
steps. About 2 o'clock a number of Republicans, 
some of them armed with clubs, pulled away these 
steps and warned the "slaveocrats," that no more 
of them would be allowed to vote. When a Repub- 
lican approached the voting place he was lifted up 
to the window and handed in his ticket. The Demo- 
crats were chased summarily away. Of course there 
were many fisticuffs and other personal encounters, 
the Democrats uniformly getting the worst of it, and 
some of them were beaten and bruised with clubs. 
The election returns of St. Anthony showed a major- 
ity for Ramsey of 122. The Republicans also elected 
the entire Legislative ticket from the St. Anthony 
district (then the 23d) the delegation consisting of 



Jonathan Chase, Senator, and Win. H. Townsend and 
L. C. Walker, Representatives. 

Discussing the disgi-aceful affair at the St. Anthony 
polling place the Pioneer and Democrat of October 31, 
following the election, commented : 

"*. * * In St. Anthony, it is notorious that a 
gang of armed bullies in the pay of Republican lead- 
ers took possession of the polls in the Upper Precinct 
and prevented Democrats from voting. Not less than 
150 [?] Democrats were disfranchised by the sup- 
pression of this armed mob. In the afternoon the 
steps leading up to the voting room were torn down. 
Republicans coming to vote were lifted up to the 
window by their associates and voted, but Democrats 
were driven away. This villainy was perpetrated 
directly under the eyes of Priest Ames, Nourse, and 
Secomb, and of course they think there is no evil 
in it. It benefited Republicanism and that removed 
the sin and washed away the criine, as Parson Ames 
argued when he cheated and lied the Democratic 
Delegates to the Constitutional Conventioji out of 
their certificates of election. 

"So rascally was the conduct of the Republican 
leaders in St. Anthony that some of their prominent 
partisans, disgusted by the mob-like conduct, have 
dissolved their connection with the black party. We 
have the names of some who declare that they will 
never hereafter vote with their former party asso- 
ciates. ' ' 

Referring again to what is called "the Republican 
election frauds." the Pioneer and Democrat of No- 
vember 18, in reviewing a series of them, said : 

"* * * At the election in the upper precinct of 
St. Anthony a gang of 50 men — urged on, we are told, 
by Geo. A. Nourse, Republican candidate for .\ttov- 
ney General. — took possession of the polls and pre- 
vented a single Democrat from voting after 2 o'clock 
in the afternoon. No one was allowed to approach 
the window where the judges of election received 
votes unless he exhibited a green or a blue ticket, the 
color selected by the Black Republican candidates. 
At the least calculation 150 Democrats were disfran- 
chised by the action of this mob. Many were knocked 
down and beaten with clubs for attimijiting to vote, 
and others were driven away." 

The Democrats also charged that the Republicans 
had committed gross frauds in Washington. Chisago, 
Goodhue, Steele, and other counties. They said that 
hundreds of imnaturalized Scandinavians had been 
permitted to vote the Republican ticket, etc. On the 
other hand the Republicans charged that the Demo- 
crats had committed frauds in Pembina, at St. Paul, 
in Cass County, and at Cedar Lake, McLeod County. 

There were no charges of fraud by either party 
against the vote of Hennepin, save that some Demo- 
crats claimed that a number of Republicans voted in 
Minneapolis and then crossed over to St. Anthony 
and voted again. The county went Republican by 
over 400 majority, electing the full ticket including 
the Legislative delegation which was composed of 
Erastus N. Bates and Delano T. Smith. S(>nators. and 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



129 



Reuben B. Gibson, Geo. H. Keith, and Wni. S. 
Chowen, Representatives. 

Not until December 10, did the Territorial Return- 
ing Board designated by the Con.stitution complete 
the canvass of votes. The Board was composed of 
Gov. Sanil. ]\Iedary and Joseph R. Brown, Democrats, 
and Thos. J. Galbraith, Republican. In the begin- 
ning of the canvass Galbraith offered a resolution : 
"That the duly canvassed returns from the several 
counties be adopted as the basis of calculation by this 
Board of Canvassers." Galbraith and Medary voted 
for this resolution and it was adopted. Brown had 
offered a resolution to canvass by precincts : but Med- 
ary said that it would "take six months to do that." 
Some persons have claimed that Brown's plan would 
have elected Ramsey. 

The adoption of the resolution offered by Mr. Gal- 
braith, staunch Republican though he was, defeated 
Ramsey and elected Sibley by a majority of 240, 
the vote standing, Sibley.' 17,790; Ramsey, 17,5.50. 
The rest of the Democratic candidates were elected by 
majorities averaging nearly 1.500. The H. M. Rice 
influence was still against Sibley and he ran far 
behind the rest of his ticket. Under the Galbraith 
resolution the Board threw out 2,128 votes which had 
been apparently cast for Ramsey and 1,930 intended 
to be counted for Sibley. 

Some curious things were discovered in the can- 
vass. Pembina County was finally counted, 31 fi for 
Sibley and none for Ramsey, but 62 votes for Sibley 
and 16 for Ramsey from that county were thrown out. 
The vote of the First Ward of St. Paul, giving Sib- 
ley 150 majority, was thrown out. In Goodhue 
County a census taken after the election showed that 
there were but 1,652 voters in the coiinty, yet at the 
election it cast 1,928 votes and gave Ramsey 522 ma- 
jority. Red Wing, with but 518 voters, polled 679 
votes : Kenyon, with 33 voters, cast 74 votes ; Zum- 
brota. with 37 voters, gave 91 votes at the election. 
Yet the entire vote returned from Goodhue was 
counted as returned. 

Galbraith, a radical Republican though he was, 
voted with his Democratic colleagues in every in- 
stance where returns were rejected. His Republican 
advisers had assured him that his resolution, if 
adopted, would elect Ramsey, but it did not. 

THE PANIC OF 1857. 

August 24, 1857, the suspension of the Ohio Life 
and Trust ("ompany, of Cincinnati, precipitated a 
general and most disastrous financial panic through- 
out the country. The New York City banks sus- 
pended specie payments October 14, and did not re- 
sume until December 11. The Illinois Central, the 
^lichigan Central, the Erie, and other railroads made 
assignments. There were great losses and general 
distress for a long period. 

The effects of the panic did not reach Minnesota 
until in October. St. Paul was then the money cen- 
ter of the country, and October 20, its leading bank- 
ing house, that of Borup & Oakes, made an assignment. 
Soon other banks and manv mercantile firms made 



assignments or suspended, until there were but two 
solvent banking institutions in the town, those of 
Willius Brothers and Mackubin & Edgerton. The 
entire Territory suffered from a lack of real monej-; 
the currency commonly in circulation consisted of the 
notes of worthless or practically insolvent banks, for 
those were days of the old free banking system, when 
every bank issued its own engraved bills and foisted 
them upon the people. 

In Minneapolis there was a great fall in the price 
of real estate. Stevens says (p. 301) that lots which 
would bring $3,000 in ^linneapolis in May could not 
be sold for $300, standard money, in October. In- 
terest on specie or paper currency at par rose to five 
per cent a month; and even money borrowed at that 
rate failed in many instances to save property which 
had been purchased partially on credit. The two 
towns at the Falls were on the frontier, and great loads 
of the worthless bills of other States found lodgmtmt 
here, to the great injury of the people. The Chicago 
Tribune of December 16, 1857, said : 

"St. Anthony and Minneapolis appear to be the 
headquarters of the uncurrent money in Minnesota. 
Large quantities of the broken Farmers' Bank of 
North Carolina, quoted in Chicago at 75 per cent 
discount, circulate at par up there! Bills of the Citi- 
zens' Bank of North Carolina, which is busted; of 
Tekama, Nebraska, which is a swindle, and of Flor- 
ence, Nebraska, together with the Fontenelle. which 
are only a little better, constitute about all the cur- 
rency in circulation north of St. Paul. The same vil- 
lainous trash has spread over many of the Western 
counties and driven out everv dollar of current 



The financial distress continued over 1858. In that 
year Minnesota set up its State Government, and as 
soon as might be the Legislature tried to help out by 
the enactment of a banking law, but this law afforded 
only temporary relief. During the winter of 1857- 
58 the stringency continued to injure Minneapolis. 
State orders were worth but twenty cents on the dol- 
lar in gold, but town orders were worth from 30 to 
35 cents. The newspapers were filled with notices of 
foreclosures of mortgages and executions. The City 
Board and the Hennepin County Board were advised 
to issue "denominational scrip" to be used as cur- 
rency. This scheme was put into opei'ation in several 
counties and the scrip circulated until after the Civil 
War was in progress. 

In the spring of 1859, when the country was finan- 
cially prostrated, another panic came and did more 
injuiy to Minneapolis. Several banks in ^Tinnesota 
closed and their circulation was redeemed by the State 
Auditor at from 14 to 40 cents on the dollar. The 
depreciated bills of other States still flooded the coun- 
try. This currency had three designations in the 
form of epithets. "Wild Cat" bills were those of 
banks located in wildernesses where wild cats 
abounded and which had insufficient capital: "stump 
tail" money was so-called because a great deal of its 
original par value had dropped off, resembling the 
tail of an animal from which a gi'eat part has l>een 



130 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. IMINNESOTA 



removed; "shinplasters" were bills of broken or 
fraudulent banks, of no value whatever except per- 
haps to wrap about bniised and abraded shin liones. 

The panics of 1857 and 1859 were greater set-backs 
to the progress and prosperity of ^linneapolis than 
were the four years of the Civil AYar. liut for these 
adverse influences the town jiiight have had 10.000 
population in 1860, and the value of its property 
would have been several millions. Trade was de- 
pressed, biisiness paralyzed, real estate became of 
little value and much of it could not be sold at any 
price, and immigration ceased. 

Many merchants issued currency of their own. con- 
sisting of small cards with printed promises to pay 
various sums of from five cents to a dollar. These 
checks, as the^' were called were denounced by the 
Rei)ub]ican and the News and defended by their 
authors. C. H. Pettit. 0. M. Laraway. Alex. Moore, A. 
Clarke, Jackins & Wright, Beebe & ]\Iendenhall, Sny- 
der, ^McFarlane & Cook, and other business men. The 
local checks seemed more popular tlian the bills of 
the Nebraska banks of Gosport, Tekama, and Browns- 
ville, which fairly clogged the financial circulation 
of the town. Not until the good crop years of 1859 
and 1860, when wheat brought 50 cents a bushel in 
gold, and was first expoT'ted, did the clouds of finan- 
cial distress lift and the sun of prosperity shine out 
on ^Minneapolis. 

•'the case of eliz.v win.ston, a slave." * 

In August, 1860, in the full tide of the Presidential 
campaign of that year, and when the Winslow House. 
Minneapolis, was well filled with guests — many of 
them from the South, accompanied by their black 
bond-servants — certain of the radical anti-slavery 
men of the town determined to make "a demonstra- 
tion in aid of the cause of freedom" and inform the 
slaves of their rights in ;\Iinnesota. The plan was 
originated by W. D. Babbitt. Wm. S. King, and F. R. 
E. Cornell. iMr. Babbitt was a pioneer citizen and an 
old-time abolitionist. King was the editor of the Min- 
nesota Atlas, a radical Republican ^Minneapolis paper, 
and Coi-nell, a lawyer, was a former prominent Dem- 
ocrat and a recent convert to Republicanism. All 
were noted, and noisy, anti-slavery men. 

A slave woman, about 30 years of age, named Eliza 
AVinston, wa.s to be the subject of the "demon>stra- 
tion." She was the widow of a free negi'o who had 
gone on a mission to Liberia and died there. He had 
owned a house and lot in ^Memphis. Tennessee, as was 
permitted to a free negi-o, and if his wife had been 
free at his death this property would have descended 
to her. But under the laws of Tennessee a slave could 
not own pi'operty in fee simple: his belongings were 
the ])ropei'1y of his master. 

Eliza had passed from her original owner, one Mc- 
Leniore, to a IMr. Gholson, of Memphis, who had 
mortgaged her to secure a loan from Col. R. Christ- 
mas, a wealthy planter and large slave owner of Issa- 



* This is tht> title of the case on the Minneapolis Court 
Records 



queiia County. Miss. Gliolson defaulted in payment 
and his slave woman became the property of Col. 
Christmas under a foreclo.sure of the mortgage. She 
was made exclusively a house servant, a maid for her 
mistress and a nurse for a child, and physically her 
lot was not a liard one. She wa.s mucli attached to 
her mistress, her master's wife, who was an invalid 
and had been brou'jht to the cooling lakes and salu- 
brious air of Minneapolis to escape the malaria of a 
hot summer in the South. Her only expressed dis- 
content was that she could not collect and appro- 
priate the rent from her former husband's property 
in Memphis, although she admitted that if she received 
it slie might "spend it foolishly." 

When in August. 1860. the Christmas family, with 
Eliza, had been sojourning in their summer cottage 
at Lake Harriet for some weeks, the bondwoman 
made complaint. She asked a negro barber's wife 
if there were not white men in ^Minneapolis that would 
assist in securing her freedom. The barber's wife 
consulted a white woman, and very soon Babbitt, 
King, and their a.ssociates were up in arms to "de- 
liver their fellow-creature from bondage." as King 
expressed it. A writ of habeas corpus was sworn out 
August 18, by ilr. Babbitt, and issued by Judge 
Vanderburgh, of the District Court, and given to one 
of Sheriff Richard Strout's deputies to serve at the 
Christmas summer home at Lake Harriet. 

About 20 men made an ostentatious and ridiculous 
display of their zeal in "the cause of freedom" by 
arming themselves with shotguns and revolvers and 
riding with the deputy sheriff, as a self-appointed 
posse, when he went out to Lake Harriet to serve tlie 
warrant. At the time Col. Christmas was in ^linne- 
apolis and the garrison of his cottage was composed 
of the invalid Mrs. Christmas, her little child, and 
her maid Eliza. Against this array the stout-hearted 
posse was not dismayed, but boldly went forward. 

Col. Christmas had been warned that a movement 
was afoot to take his slave woman from him : but the 
only efforts he made to thwart the movement was to 
tell Eliza that the "abolitionists" were after her, and 
that when she saw suspicious characters coming toward 
the cottage, and desired to escape them, she must run 
to a patch of brush back of the house and secrete 
herself until they went away. Two or three times she 
liad done this and she was running towards the 
thicket on this occasion when the deputy and his for- 
midable posse pursued, overtook, and apprehended 
her. 

The rescued woman was taken to town and into 
Judge Vanderburgh's court in great triumph piid 
amid cheers and shoutings. Mr. Cornell appeared for 
the petitioners for the writ and the slave-woman, and 
a lawyer named Freeman, from Mississippi, repri>- 
sented Colonel Christmas. There was a large and 
excited crowd in the court room -. it was said that the 
calmest man in it was Colonel Christmas himself. In- 
deed Editor King said of him. in the Atlas, that lie 
"liehaved like a iierfi'ct geiitlcnian all througli the 
proceedings." 

Mr. Cornell, a very able and eloquent lawyer, was 
expected to make an effort of his life in behalf of the 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. .AIIXNESOTA 



181 



slave woman and her release : but he eouteuted himself 
with reading the law forbidding slavery in iMinnesota 
and then sat down. ]\Ir. Freeman, the attorney for 
Col. Christmas, argued that under the Dred Scott de- 
cision Eliza should be restored to her master, as she 
was but temporarily in free territory and therefore 
not entitled to her absolute freedom. Judge Vander- 
burgh decided the ease very promptly. In a few 
sentences he told Eliza that under ilinnesota law she 
was not a slave, but was free to go where and with 
whom she pleased. 

There was nuich excitement among the bystanders 
when the decision was rendered. Col. Christmas 
spoke kindly to Eliza and asked her if she would not 
like to go back to the home at Lake Harriet and take 
care of her mistress until the latter got well, "and 
then you may go if you want to," said the Colonel. 
"You don't need to go if you don't want to," called 
out one of her rescuers. Then Eliza answered: "Yes. 
I'll go back, but not today; I'll come out tomorrow." 
The Colonel re.ioined : "All right: come when you 
please, or don't come at all if you don't want to." 
He then handed her ten dollars and said that if she 
wanted more money she knew where she could get it. 
He then bade her good-bye and walked nonchalantly 
away. A Southern friend called out: "Well. Colonel, 
you have lost your nigger," and the philosophic 
Colonel replied: "Yes, I reckon so: but I have plenty 
more of them and it's all right." (St. Anthonv E.x- 
press. Aug. 20. 1860). 

The rescuers and their friends gathered about the 
embarrassed fflid flustrated Eliza and escorted her to 
a carriage in which she was driven to ^Ir. Babbitt's 
residence, as a temporary home, ileanwliile Bill 
King, the soi disanf and bombastic apostle militant 
of freedom, and withal the editor of the Atlas, was 
pacing the courtroom, his florid face fairly aflame, 
denouncing in violent terms all who would aid or 
abet slaveholding in ^Minnesota, and brandishing a 
heavy cane as if he would like to knock out their brains 
with'it. (Atwater's Hist., Vol. 1. p. 100.) 

A number of citizens, many Republicans among 
them, opposed Mr. King and his comrades and depre- 
cated the entire proceedings. They argued that the 
woman Eliza was in comfort and well treated : that the 
officious intermeddling of her would-be rescuers 
would engender bad feeling and drive away from and 
keep out of Minneapolis a large number of wealthy 
Southern tourists that spent a great deal of money 
in the place, and good gold money at that. The hotel- 
keepers made a specialty of Southern visitors, and to 
the abolitionists they could say of hotel-keeping as 
Demetrius, representing the Ephesian silveremiths. 
said of their calling to Paul and Silas: "Sirs, by this 
craft we have our wealth." They were especially in- 
dignant. Southern people would not come to Minne- 
apolis unless they could bring their slaves with them 
and take them away again without their being both- 
I'l'ed with abolitionists bent on coaxing them to ru'i 



away. Other tradesmen in tiie town who made gain 
from these Southern guests .joined with the hotel- 
keepers in reprobating the proceedings of the ran- 
tankerous abolitionists. 

The thing took a disgraceful turn. After night 
some ,voung men and boys, a dozen or so, went to Mr. 
Babbitt's house and called out: "Nigger lovers! Nig- 
ger lovers! Let that nigger alone — she wants to go 
home," etc. The demonstration was confined to bad 
words, but ilr. Babbitt and those that were helping 
to "guard" Eliza were greatly alarmed. Fearing 
that "the mob," as they styled the young scapegi'aees, 
would forcibly take Eliza away from Babbitt's, the 
rescuers removed her late at night to another refuge. 
The poor African was beside herself with alarm, dis- 
tress, and confusion. She begged her "protectors" 
to "tu'n me loose," that she might go back to her 
mistress; but she was assured that she would be mur- 
dered on the way by pro-slavery men. 

The petitioners and their friends were overly- 
alarmed and preposterously excited. The anti-slavery 
men of the town outnumbered the pro-slavery five to 
one, and King and his associates were in no danger of 
any sort. Yet tlie.y declared and pretended to believe 
that the Atlas office was to be destroyed that night by 
a large and desperate mob (always a "mob") of pro- 
slaveryites! King and a formidable number of his 
friends, armed with shotguns and revolvers and what 
not, stood guard about the printing office all night, 
swearing to shed the last drop of blood in its defense. 
]\Iean while the "enemy," the incendiary "cohorts of 
slavery," were sleeping soundly in their beds — not 
one of them had contemplated arson or rapine of any 
sort. 

In a few days Eliza was sent to Canada liy way of 
La Crosse, Chicago, and Detroit. She remained at 
Windsor, Ontario, for about two months, when she 
returned to Detroit. Why all this fleeing to Canada 
and over the country when Judge Vanderburgh had 
set her free, cannot here be explained. From Detroit 
she sent a letter to Mr. Babbitt and other white friends 
in ^linneapolis, saying she wanted her free papers 
sent her, together with money enough to take her 
back to ^lemphis, where, she said, she could get posses- 
sion of the house and lot left by her husband, and 
could also get a situation with white folks at $!'> a 
month, or else go back to her old mistress and the 
Christmas family ! Her Blinneapolis friends were dis- 
gusted at this letter, refused to send her money, and 
gave her up for lost ! It was afterwards reported th.at 
.just before the Civil War broke out she voluntarily 
returned to Mrs. Christmas' and presumably to 
slavery. 

There were quite a nund)er of other slaves at .Min- 
neapolis at the time of Eliza Winston's deliverance, 
but they loyally remained with their masters, and the 
abolitionists had no heart to try to effect their free- 
dom. Eliza Winston sufficed them. (See Bench and 
Bar of Minn., Vol. 1. p. 32 et seq.) 



CHAPTER XV. 
MISCELLANEOUS HISTORICAL INCIDENTS FROM 1861 TO THE CONSOLIDATION, IN 1872. 



DURING THE W\B FOR THE UNION MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. ANTHONY DID THEIR FULL PART FROM FIRST TO LAST — 

THE VICTORIES OF THE TIME OF PEACE — THE FIRST RAILROADS ARE SECURED THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IS 

SECURELY FOUNDED A MODEL PRIVATE SCHOOL. THE BLAKE — THE RE.\L ESTABLISHING OF THE UNIVERSITY — 

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDED — CREATION OF THE PARK SYSTEM. 



THE TWO CITIES IN THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 

As the two communities at the Palls passed through 
the year 1860 and entered upon 1861, every line of 
endeavor, everv element in the life of the people con- 
verged inevitably upon the one great overshadowing 
fact — the menace to the Union by the threatened 
secession of certain Southern States. It was a mo- 
mentous period for the young cities. They were just 
ciiici-ging from the disastrous times of the late years 
of tlie decade of 1850, with every energy bent upon 
development, yet every mind distracted by the moral 
and political condition of the nation. And when the 
tlame of civil war blazed up, nowhere were patriotic 
fires brighter than in the communities by the Falls. 
They were communities of 3'oung and earnest men, 
for they were pioneers, and as such included a larger 
proportion of single men than did the older popula- 
tions of Eastern States. They were men brave in 
their patriotism as in their pioneering, and it is 
doubtful if, all conditions considered, there existed 
anywhere in the North a community which gave so 
many of its youth to swell the armies of the Union. 

First and last, in the dozen regiments which Min- 
nesota gave to the nation, more than two thousand 
went from St. Anthony, Minneapolis, and Hennepin 
County. Whole companies there were, enlisted at the 
Falls and assigned to this regiment or that; and in 
every other military organization from Minnesota, 
there were young men from the two communities. As 
every regiment included them, so on nearly every 
prominent battlefield of the great war there fell men 
from ]\Iiiineapo]is, and so in the most valorous of the 
charges there were men whose desperate braveiy was 
the city's pride. 

As the two communities answered the war call of 
the nation, so .iust as courageously did they respond 
to the necessity for protecting and preserving the 
frontier settlements, and the State itself. When the 
Sioux laid waste the prairies and sought to wipe out 
a great portion of the white settlement, to the de- 
fens*' of the settlers sprang not only those young 
soldiei-s already enlisted for the war in the South, but 
others. And the roster of Miiniesota soldiery holds 
many a name of a Hennepin County man whose wliole 
military service was sriven in defense against the In- 

132 



dians and in making certain the safety of the settle- 
ments against recurrence of the massacre. 

HAD TWO COMPANIES IN THE FIRST MINNESOTA. 

There is no more famous regiment in all the his- 
tory of the Civil War than the old First Minnesota. 
And it was the first in all the North to be offered in 
response to President Lincoln's first call for volun- 
teers. To this regiment each community at the Falls 
gave a full company ; and in other companies of the 
regiment there were men from Hennepin. It is well 
known of record how the regiment was raised ; how 
Governor Ramsey, happening to be in Washington 
when Fort Sumter was fired upon, promptly offered 
a regiment to the President ; and how, on the firet re- 
ceipt of the news to this effect from Washington, 
Ignatius Donnellv, Lieutenant Governer, issued the 
call. 

All the vigor and patriotism of the pioneers gave 
immediate response to the call. In St. Anthony, in 
^Minneapolis, as in all the towns, public meetings were 
held, partici])ated in by men of all political beliefs, 
all warm with the fervor of patriotism. St. Anthon;^ 
gave a company, later designated as Company D, and 
headed by Captain Henry R. Putnam; Minneapolis 
raised Company E. commandrd by Captain George N. 
I\Iorgan. For a week they drilled, and on April 29 
they marched to Fort Snelling. there to complete that 
day the nuistering of the regiment. 

It was a regiment far from military in a technical 
sense; there was no uniformity of arms or even simi- 
larity of clothing, except that the State supplied 
black slouch hats and black trousers and red flannel 
shirts. Within sixty days the regiment, drilled by its 
colonel, former Governor Willis A. Gorman, a Mexi- 
can war veteran, was ready for orders to the front; 
indeed, it had been ready in spirit for a long time be- 
fore orders came. So eager were the men for service 
that when the two Minneapolis and St. Anthony com- 
panies were assigned to duty on the northern border 
to relieve regular army troops ordered southward, 
they were bitterly disappointed, and setting out for 
their northern posts, they responded to orders counter- 
manding the assiginnent by marching all day and 
all night, lest they be late and be left behind when 
the First Jlinnesota set out for Washington. 

The regiment arrived at the National Capital June 




\ I h:\\ III- III i; MILLING DISTRICT ON Tin: WKST SIDi; (IF TH1-: FALLS T.\Ki:\ FKll.M TIIF WINSlJiW IKlUSI-; IX ls;u 




LnoKJXC FAST ON II F.NX i:i'l X FHO.M WASIILXOTOX A\'F. IX 1 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



133 



26, IStil. Thereafter its liistory merges with that 
of the l^nion Army, standing forth freqiiently when 
is recounted some deed of valor, and rising to the top- 
most pinnacle of martial glory in its immortal charge 
at Gettysburg, termed by historians unsurpassed in 
records of desperate daring. In this charge of 262 
men. Companies D and E, the companies from the 
Falls, wei"e participants, and gave, as did the others, 
to the awfnl toll of death. They were ^Minneapolis 
men, O'Brien and Irvine, who liore the regimental 
colors in the charge. To the end of the war men of 
the old First served in the armies in the East, and 
fought their way with the best of the soldiery that 
won the way to Appomatto.x. 

But though the First Minnesota won the greatest 
measure of fame in the war, it had no monopoly 
on brave deeds in battle. In the achievements of the 
armies in the West and in the Atlanta Campaign, 
as well as in the armies of the East, Minnesota and 
jMinneapolis soldiers were in the fore front of battle. 
Besides men in other regiments, there were entire 
companies or parts of companies, from Hennepin 
County as follows: Third regiment. Companies A 
and I : Sixth, B and D ; Ninth, Companies A and B : 
Tenth, Company K; and there were portions of com- 
panies in several of the semi-independent organiza- 
tions, such as Hatch's Battalion. The flower of the 
Union army was made up of such men as ^linneapolis 
and St. Anthony sent to the front. 

DURING THE SIOUX OUTBRE.AK OP 1862. 

The Civil War had been waged for a year, and the 
State liad organized the Second, Third, Fourth, and 
Fifth Regiments of volunteers. It had begun to steel 
itself to the 'horrors of war news and the waiting in 
anxiety and in sorrow, when new horror appeared at 
home. The Sioux Indians rose in August, 1862, and 
within a few da.vs ]\Iinneapolis was receiving into its 
homes and giving shelter to scores and hundreds of 
fugitive settlers, whose alarm at the red menace was 
little greater than was that of some of the citizens 
of the two cities by the Falls. It was on August 17 
when the first outrage was committed by the Sioux, 
in the murders at Acton, Meeker County, and two 
days later news of the uprising reached jMinneapolis. 
Simultaneously, in the valley of the ^Minnesota, the 
Indians assailed the whites from Big Stone Lake to 
New Ulm. Ere the massacre ended, they had swept 
from Acton. 6.5 miles west of ^linneapolis, southward 
to the Iowa line : and laid hundreds of homes waste, 
and murdered hundreds of settlei-s.* 

The Sixth, Seventh. Eighth, and Ninth Regiments 
were just then organizing for service in the South : 
and several companies of the Fifth Regiment were on 
duty at frontier posts. So when word reached IMinne- 
apolis and St. Paul of the massacres, every available 
man of these regiments was recalled from fui-lough 
preceding final muster, and every man already at the 
rendezvous was ordered out to the defense of the 



* The whole number of whites killed in the outbreak of 
1862, was 737. See Heard's History of the Sioux War, p. 243; 
in 186.'!, about 2.'5 more were killed". R. I. H. 



countryside. To the southwest at once marched men 
under Flandrau. Buell. and others, to the relief of 
New Ulm : to the westward went the men from Hen- 
nepin County, one expedition to help relieve Fort 
Ridgely, another to the defense of the people of 
Hutchinson and Glencoe, not far from the scene of the 
Acton massacre. And it was on State initiative, 
coupled with the volunteer aid of citizens not yet en- 
listed, that the forces of soldiery and home guards 
set forth. ^Minneapolis and St. Anthony were aquiver 
with alarm ovei- the rumored approach of the In- 
dians, foi- the logic of the situation as developed by 
the whites coincided with that of the red men. They 
seemed determined to sweep the settlers from the 
State, beginning at the westward and carrying their 
red wave of murder from the frontier forts, like Fort 
Ridgely. through the settlements to and past the cities 
by and below the Falls. 

It was a warfare beyond the capabilities of the 
Sioux — yet it was conceived with all the warlike strat- 
egy- of the Indian. Even within Hennepin County the 
alann gripped the settlers. Excelsior, on Lake Minne- 
tonka. was almost depopulated one night, the inhab- 
itants of the countrvside joining them either in flight 
to ilinneapolis or by boat to Big Island, in the lake. 

MINNE.\POLIS TAKES .\CTIVE P.AKTS. 

The story of the quelling of the uprising is in part 
the story of JMinneapolis at the period, for it was 
Hennepin County men who did much to put down 
the Sioux. Public meetings in the cities by the Falls 
developed plans of offense and defense; and muster 
of available enlisted men was followed by volunteer- 
ing of men not yet 'in the Union service. 

The Acton murders, as stated, occurred on Sunday, 
August 17: by the following Saturday armed forces 
under Captain Anson Northrup were on the way 
toward Fort Ridgely. by way of Shakopee and St. 
Peter. By the next Tuesday. August 26, more soldiers 
and home guards, under command of Captain Rich- 
ard Strout. of Jliinieapolis, and including half the 
men of his Company B of the Ninth Minnesota, were 
on their way toward Hutchinson and Acton. By 
Wednesday, August 27, the Northrup forces had 
reached the fort : fortunately without conflict with the 
Indians. Within another w-eek the Strout expedition 
was engaged with the Indians, who attacked them at 
Kelly's Bluff, near the Acton woods. From the Bluff 
to Hutchinson the.v fought a running fight, losing 
three men killed and having 18 wounded. Next day 
the men joined in defense of Hutchinson, and beat oft' 
an Indian attack lasting two days. 

MINNE.\POLIS MEN SERVED UNTIL THE END. 

Gathering under the leadership of General H. H. 
Sibley, the men of Minnesota, campaigning over a 
great expanse of territory, from the ^Minnesota Valley 
to the Canadian border and the ]\Iissouri River, pa.ssed 
the next year in putting down the Sioux. ^lost of the 
members of Minneapolis companies, as did those of 
other companies, of the Fifth and later regiments up 



134 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



to and including the Tenth, did garrison and outpost 
duty on the Indian frontier during the winter of 
1862-3, and some of them continued such service until 
fall. After that, there were military organizations 
of volunteers from Hennepin and nearby counties, 
such as the ]\Iounted Rangers and the men of Ilatcli "s 
Cavalry Battalion, who saw service as late as 1865 
r.gainst the Indians, and indeed spent all their terms 
of enlistment in such campaigning, never going South 
to join the Union armies against the Confederates. 

The history of Indian fighting is a record which 
bears the names of many a Minneapolis family later 
prominent in eonuuercial and civic life. Such men 
were Anson Northrup, S. P. Snyder, J. W. Hale, 
James ilarshall, 0. C. Merriman, George A. Camp, 
and others. That the massacre was no more terrible, 
no more far-reaching in its effects, was due to the 
fact that such men as these and their fellow citizens 
rose promptly and bravely to the occasion, and placed 
their lives in jeopardy to defend the settlers. In that 
their deeds were built upon their characters, the 
achievements of Minneapolis and St. Anthony men in 
the Indian campaigns wei'c elements in the strengthen- 
ing of the communities ; however at the time the mas- 
sacre was a setback to progress in Minnesota and in 
its principal towns. 

THE FIRST RAlLRd.VD.'^ ARE SECURED. 

The outbreak of the Civil ^Var had come just at a 
crucial time for the cities hy the Falls. The far- 
reaching fiasco of railroad building in 1859 had left 
the people of ^Minnesota without anything tangible 
in return for their efforts toward railroad construc- 
tion. That which had seemed for the moment the 
brightest possible pi'ospect of commercial growth 
through railway connection with the outside markets 
the year "round, instead of only through the river 
season, had been wiped away with the disaster 
to credit which marked the panic of 1857. And 
now War, it seemed, could but delay expansion 
indefinitely. 

In 1861 there was not a foot of railroad in ilinne- 
sola, though there were a good many miles of rail- 
road gi-ade. thrown up when the liond scheme was at 
its height. From St. Paul to Clear Lake, 62 miles, 
for instance, there was a grade all but ready for ties 
and rails. But there was no money to build, or would 
liave been none had it not been for the energy of a 
few men "with the seeing eye." 

They persevered, and in June. 1862, when the war 
had been in progress more than a year, they laid 
rails into St. Anthony and ran a train of the St. Paul 
& Pacific in from St. Paul. The terminus in the 
latter city was at the levee ; the terminu.s in St. 
Anthony was east of the campus of the State Univer- 
sity. And that tci miles of railroad was the leader 
not only of ^linneapolis's largest single aid in a trans- 
portation way for some years, but was tlu' beginning 
of the great system since expandeil liy -lames J. Hill 
into the Great Northern Railway. 

There is no doubt that credit for the first railroad 
connection of Minr.eapolis — or the communities by 



the Falls — is due to the late Edmund Rice, of St. 
Paul. He carried the enterprise to the point of th& 
bond forfeiture, and then had to relinciuish control. 
Followed then the contractors, and then the Liteh- 
lields of New York. But the main point is the fact 
Uiat the road was built, connecting St. Anthony and 
St. Paul. This accomplished, another railroad crisis 
arose, affecting the jMinneapolis of that time to no 
small degi-ee. A project was formed to abandon all 
the several lines of railroad planned under the land 
grant and bond scheme, and to validate State bonds 
and apply them to a trunk line of railroad to con- 
nect Sauk Rapids and LaCrosse, by way of St. 
Anthony and St. Paul. The project was taken into 
the Legislature of 1862, and only strenuous efforts 
on the part of adherents of old Jlinneapolis saved 
the day and pi'evented the shifting of tlu^ bonds and 
grants. 

Instead, then, of transferring to a new railroad 
system and abandoning the old plans, the Legislature 
set about establishing a trust of citizens who would 
carry out. or have carried out, Ihe construction of 
the roads as originally planned. It was in this con- 
nection that the first railroad building was done by 
Minneapolis men. The ^Minneapolis & Cedar Valley 
Railroad — laid out to connect the Falls cities with 
Iowa and thus with the wheat fields and the lumlier 
consumers to the southward — was chartered, under 
the Legislature's trust plan, to citizens along the line, 
principal among whom were Franklin Steele, E, B. 
Ames. T. A. Harrison, and R. J. Baldwin, of Minne- 
apolis. They interested Alexander I\Iitchell, of 
^lilwaukee, and Russell Sage, of New York, already 
heavily represented in the present Chicago. ]\Iilvvau- 
kee & St. Paul Railway. They found a better wav 
of crossing the Minnesota River than htid been laid 
out. by building under the bluff at Fort Snelling and 
crassing the river on a low-level bridge instead of 
from the top of the bliiff west of the fort. They 
exacted a bond from the Eastern men, and they 
secured the construction of the line to Faribault by 
1865. The line was later extended into Iowa and 
became ]\Iinneapolis's first rail connection with the 
East. 

Here, then, was Minneapolis, with a railroad to the 
southward ; and here was St. Anthony, with a road 
to St. Paul and up-river toward St. Cloud. And 
here was the war. just ended by Lee's surrender at 
Appomattox. It is a picture before the mind's eye 
full of fancies! Here was a pioneer community, torn 
for four years, like all other comnumities of North 
and South, by the heart-rendings, the disasters, the 
defeats, and the victories of war. Not a circle of 
friends, however small, but had suffered its losses 
of vigorous, valorous young city-builders, whose sei-v- 
ices, could they have lived, could hardly be over- 
estimated. But they were gone; their families, their 
friends nnist carry the burdens they might have 
borne ; and the problems of living w'ere complicated 
as in almost no other period in that century. 

With these conditions existing, the story of the 
ten or fifteen years after the Civil War is perhaps the 
most astounding the world has r-vcr written. .\nd it 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



135 



is to the exaltation, the re-action from four years of 
stress, that Minneapolis and ilinnesota owe their 
marvelous progress in the sueeeediug years. 

The railroad history (as well as the history of 
settlement) of Minnesota is inseparably the history 
of Minneapolis and St. Anthony as well. For the 
metrojwlis of the State could not have developed had 
not the State gained producers and attracted workers 
wliose labor brought the wheat and the logs to the 
mills by the mighty waterpower of the Falls. To the 
new State came thousands of young men, soldiers 
only the day before, but homesteaders and workers 
now. their patriotic fervor turned into the channels of 
national development. With the leaders who had 
alread.v come they clasped hands, and took up their 
work. 

It was not until 1868 that the line of the St. Paul 
& Pacific was extended north of Central Avenue, in 
St. Anthony, and across the Mississippi River to 
Minneapolis. In these years also the road was con- 
structed past Lake ]\[inuetonka and northwest to 
Breckinridge, and it was in the same years that the 
line to Sauk Rapids was puslied on into the Red 
River Valley. These years likewise saw the construc- 
tion of the Chicago. Milwaukee & St. Paul's connec- 
tion of St. Paul an.d La Crosse, and its extension to 
Minneapolis by way of the Fort Snelling line to Iowa. 
In these two companies' operations in the cities by 
the Falls began their enormous acquisition of ter- 
minal properties, the Milwaukee road near the west 
bank of the river, in the heart of the city, and the 
other .system nearer the river on the west side, and 
farther north, eventually pressing westward. The 
same years witnessed the building of a railroad con- 
necting St. Paul and Duluth. but ignoring ilinne- 
apolis and its efforts to have the line built to St. 
Anthony, .so as to give the city direct communication 
with the Great Lakes. Construction of portions of 
the "Omaha" railroad was also under way, though 
not yet entering Minneapolis. So the year 1870 
opened with two railroads serving the two communities 
by the Falls — one known to-day as the Great North- 
ern, the other known now as the Milwaukee, and both 
mighty transcontinental systems. But whatever 
their greatness to-day, neither is relatively so impor- 
tant to any city on their lines as they were in those 
years when Minneapolis and St. Anthony, on the 
verge of union, were beginning their marvelous 
development and finding through the first railroads 
the beginnings of their markets for flour and lumber. 

FOT'NDING THE PTTBLTC SCHOOT. .SYSTEM. 

While tlie citizens were putting forth their best 
efforts to Iniild up a city, .iust as elsewhere over the 
nation, the process of rehabilitation was character- 
izing the endeavor of the people in the years imme- 
diately after the close of the Civil War. the men and 
women of Minneapolis and St. Anthonv had by no 
means lost sight of the finer things of life which had 
engaged their attention in earlier years. The com- 
munity was still a new one. despite its nearlv two 
decades nf history, counting from the founding of 



St. Anthony. But its counnunity spirit had estab- 
lished public schools at an early date, and thovigh the 
war had been a damper on most manifestations of 
public spirit, its ending signalized an awakening that 
showed itself in movements on the East side of the 
river toward acquiring sites and building public 
schools. On the West side (the first, or Union, build- 
ing having burned in 1864, and buildings having 
been leased to serve the purpose of schoolhouses) 
the foundation of the new Union School was laid in 
1865. 

By 1867 the Wesst side boasted two .schoolhouses, 
and by 1868 the school system on the West side 
required the services of twenty-seven teachers, where 
in 1865 there had been but fifteen. In 1869 the num- 
ber was thirty-five, and in 1870 it was forty-five. The 
leading citizens of each community were in charge of 
the schools: on the East side, history, lists as school 
tru-stees such men as the Chutes. Gilfillan. Wales, 
Merriman. A^an Cleve, Young, Annstrong, and 
McNair ; on the West side, Stevens, Cornell. Harrison, 
Barber, Washburn, Wolverton, Atwater, Grimshaw. 
]Mendenhall, Morrison, Sidle, and Gale. As for the 
active or executive heads of the two systems, there 
wei'e many changes in the years that led up to the 
union of the two cities in 1872. The first strong 
hand at the helm was that of 0. ~V. Tousley, who took 
charge in the year of the union of the cities. But the 
will for a good system of education had been hack 
of the schools from the first, and early made Minne- 
apolis foremost in a State famous for its schools. 

THE BI.AKE SCHOOL. 

Among the private schools of the city is one of a 
somewhat uniqi;e character. This is the Blake 
School, which is here briefly sketched. 

In 1907 ilr. William McK. Blake, a graduate of 
De Pauw ITniversity, and a teacher of long experi- 
ence in the public schools of Indiana, opened a small 
boys' school in ]Minneapolis with about a dozen pupils. 
]\Ir. Blake's admirable personality and the need of 
.such a school caused it to grow steadily until it 
reached, in the fall of 1910, an average attendance 
of about 65 boys. Its quarters at 200 Ridgewood 
Avenue were, by this time, badly overcrowded, and 
the School was transferred, January. 1911, to a large 
brick mansion at 1803 Hennepin Avenue. 

The growth of the School proved a heavy tax on 
Mr. Blake, who was advanced in years, and whose 
teaching force was hardly adequate to the numbers 
and various ages of hoys enrolled. Several parents 
of the pupils became deeply interested in the evident 
possibility of a well equipped, well manned school in 
Minneapolis, which might help relieve the congestion 
of the public schools, and which might, by setting up 
scholastic standards equal to those of similar East(M-n 
institutions, make it possible to projiare boys for 
Eastern universities without a long period of board- 
ing-school life. Such a home institution, they f(>lt. 
would be a benefit not only to their own sons, but to 
the sons of many oth(>r Minneai)olis families. 

Accordingly, in the winter of 191 L steps were 



136 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



taken, under the leadership of Mr. Charles C. Bovey, 
to bring together a group of public-spirited men, and 
after careful consideration it was decided to incorpo- 
rate the Blake School under a board of fifteen 
trustees. 

The new corporation was legally created, under the 
laws of Minneisota. May 5, 1911. It was clearly stated 
in the articles of incorporation that there should be 
no capital stock in the corporation — the new Blake 
School was to be in the truest .sense a public service 
institution, self-supporting (its founders hoped, in 
due time.) but never an organization for personal 
profit. The original trustees named in the articles 
of incorporation were Charles C. Bovey. president ; 
Edward C. Gale, vice president; Olive T. Jaffray, 
treasurer: James F. Bell, Elbert L. Carpenter, 
Charles M. Case, Frederick W. Clifford, George B. 
Clifford, Franklin M. Crosby, John Crosby, William 
H. Dunwoody, Charles S. Pillsbury. David D. Ten- 
ney, Charles D. Velie, and Frederick B. "Wells. This 
body is self-perpetuating, electing three members 
each year as the time of office of three other members 
expires. 

The newly-formed corporation at once took steps 
characteristic of the energy and forethought which 
have ever since characterized it. Arrangements were 
made to take over the school from Mr. Blake, and to 
give him a position of dignity in the new Blake 
School. A guaranty fund was raised, looking towanl 
a future building; and a new principal, Jlr. C. Ber- 
tram Newton, was chosen. Mr. Newton was of the 
Lawreneeville School, a man just reaching hi.s prime, 
and so eonjbining experience with energ;s' unabated 
by time. He was instructed to spare no effort in 
securing men of ability as teachers, the trustees guar- 
anteeing the current expenses of tlie Scliool for the 
first five years, so as to insure efficient instruction. 

The incorporated Blake School opened September 
21, 1911, at 1803 Hennepin Avenue, with a total 
enrollment of 85 pupils, 30 in the Junior Depart- 
ment, including the first four grades — the boys rang- 
ing in age from six to ten years — and 5.5 in the Senior 
Department, which included boys from ten to nin('- 
teen, and covered the upper grammar grades and the 
high school classes, although following a somewhat 
new method of classification. 

Interest and faith in the Scliool grew, and the 
trustees determined to delay no further in taking 
steps toward securing a suitable site and building. 
After careful consideration, it was decided to adopt 
the "country day-school" idea, the success of which 
in several cities had been observed by Mr. Newton. 
This idea simply means the locating of the school in 
the outskirts of the citv. and providing for the work 
iind play of the pupils from morning till evening 
(about 8:30 A. M. to 6 P. M.). returning them to 
their homes for their evenings, Saturdays and Sun- 
days. 

With the "country day-school" idea in mind, a 
careful canvass of possible locations near the city was 
made, convenient transportation and healthful sur- 
roundings being of course prime requisites. A puit- 
able site between the Interlaehen Club and Hopkins, 



on the Minnetonka trolley line, was secured, and 
early in the spring of 1912 work was commenced on 
the first .section of a beautiful and well arranged 
building designed by Edwin H. Hewitt, of Hewitt & 
Brown, Minneapolis. The second year of the Blake 
School began September 25, 1912. in its beautiful new 
home. Through the untiring efforts of Mr. Charles 
C. Bovey, seconded by Mr. F. M. Crosby and the 
rest of the board of trustees, the School was now in 
a commodious, fire-proof building of its own, on a 
charming section of land forty acres in extent. The 
building, equipment, and grounds represented an out- 
lay of about $90,000, all given outright by the trus- 
tees and by a number of patrons and friends of the 
School. 

Xor was the "human equipment" of the school 
neglected in this material expansion of its possibili- 
ties. Its force of teachers was enlarged to a staff 
of ten men of ability and experience, and provisions 
were made for supervising and directing the boys' 
play and exercise. 

The community responded cordially to this munifi- 
cent provision for its boys. The Senior Department 
in the new country day-school doubled its members, 
far surpassing the head master's estimates. It had 
an enrollment of 112, and the capacity of the build- 
ing was taxed from the day of opening. The Junior 
Department was continued at 1803 Hennepin Ave- 
nue, as it was felt that very small boys from six to 
nine should not spend the day away from home. 
This department had two excellent women teachers 
and 25 pupils. 

Gratified by this practical expression of the city's 
appreciation of the new School, the tru.stees decided 
to add another section of the building as planned, 
during the summer of 1913. Accordingly the central 
portion was constructed, and an extensive additional 
playing field, together with tennis courts, was graded. 
Five acres were added, as a protection, on the west. 
This involved a further expense, which brings the 
present outlay (Januarv, 1914) to a grand total of 
between $130,000 and ' $140,000, nearly the entire 
sum being subscribed or pledged. 

This addition to the Blake building provides a gym- 
nasium, which will become the school chapel when tlie 
entire building is completed: a large "fun-room" 
in the basement, locker and shower rooms, and a 
lara'e readine: room. 

The school opened in the fall of 1913 with 130 
l>npils and 16 applicants were obliged to wait or to 
be turned away. Tlie teaching staff has grown to 
twelve men, including a physical director. 

The Blake School, as has been already indicated, 
makes no profit. Its tuition of $250 a year and its 
luncheon cliarge of 35 cents a meal enabled it to 
cover expenses in its second year, and no more. Every 
parent who has a boy in the school gets not only his 
money's worth, but the value of the grounds, building 
and equipoKMit, which form a splendid donation to 
the assets of Minneapolis. 

Of the eighteen schools of this type now in exist- 
ence in the TTuited States, only one surpasses Blake 
in extent of grounds, and this school is fifteen years 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



137 



old. The Blake Sehool is, already, in its third year, 
third in size and in value of grounds and buildings, 
and first in the number and generosity of its gifts, 
among all similar schools in the country, — surely a 
record Minneapolis may be proud of! 

The School is democratic. Its boys are not allowed 
to go to school in automobiles. Teachers and boys 
take the trolley cars together. Every boy stands, 
with the teachers and with his fellows, on his own 
merits. The School teaches by precept and example 
that wealth meajis responsibility rather than privi- 
lege. In its course of stiuly Blake School aims at 
simplicity and thoroughness. Only the tested essen- 
tials and fundamentals are taught. It prepares a 
boy for any TTniversity. It is unique in beginning 
its courses in Latin. French, and German early so 
as to gain a start in these subjects at the period from 
ten to thirteen, when a boy memorizes easily, and to 
prevent overcrowding and consequent "smattering" 
work. Above all, through and in its work and play, 
it aims for a high standard of thoroughiWss, honesty, 
loyalty, and fair play. It tries to furnish discipline 
tempered with wholesome fun, hard work buttressed 
by healthy recreation, justice administered with con- 
sideration and sympathy. 

THE REAL ESTABLISHMENT OP THE UNIVERSITY. 

The same years which saw the real beginnings of 
the public school system of the twin communities like- 
wise witnes.sed the real founding of the University 
of Minnesota on the older portion of the present 
campus. Financial panic and war's distractions had 
held back or rendered abortive all efforts wliich had 
early been directed toward establishing such an insti- 
tution, so that about all that existed toward a univer- 
sity was an extensive land grant. At last, in 1867. 
a special commission, consisting of John S. Pills- 
bury. O. C. Merriman, and John Nicols. brought 
things to the point of finding assets on which to make 
a beginning of what is now a great seat of education. 
Rev. W. W. Washburn was made principal, and the 
preparatory' department was opened in the old build- 
ing where years before a similar effort had been 
made, only to fail. And by 1869 the Board of 
Regents had made such progress that it felt war- 
ranted in establishing a college course. William W. 
Folwell was elected President and was inaugurated 
December 22. 1869. It was not until that time — so 
many had been the demands upon the creative facul- 
ties of the citizens of Minneapolis and Minnesota — 
that the University of Minnesota as it exists today 
may be said to have become a real entity in the educa- 
tional .system of the city and State. 

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY POUNDED. 

Some of the same men and women who had now 
found it possible to busy them-selves in creating and 



building up the public and governmental institutions 
of the communities, — the institutions first represented 
by public schools,- — had by the close of the war 
brought the Atheneum, the city's nearest approach to 
a public library, up to the point of the erection of a 
liuilding to house its books and readers. The library 
of the Atheneum. founded in 1859, vdth a total of 
sixty-eight volumes, had increased to 1,300 volumes 
in 1865. Its affairs were in the hands of S. C. Gale as 
president and Thomas Hale Williams as librarian. 
By 1870 the number of volumes was 2,300, and Dr. 
Kirby Spencer's will had enriched the library society 
by his bequest of property that has since come to be 
worth $1,000,000. And by 1872, the year of the con- 
solidation of Minneapolis and St. Anthony, Atheneum 
property was valued at .$40,000. 

BEGINNING OP THE PARK SYSTEM. 

The history of Minneapolis schools and that of its 
Public Library may be taken as the largest indication 
of the city's cultural sensibilities. But the history 
of the park system, though it may be traced back 
almost as far, fails to reveal general appreciation of 
the needs of a nninicipality in this particular. To be 
sure, as early as 1858, at a lianquet in the new Nicol- 
let House, the subject of a park was brought up and 
the banqueters inspired to talk loudly of taking up a 
subscription and buying, for $500, a considerable 
tract between Washington Avenue and the river, in- 
eluding all of what is now known as Gateway Park. 
But the zeal of the citizens cooled next day, and there 
is no early-day narrative which includes further men- 
tion of parks until 1865, when there was a movement 
on the part of some of the residents of the West .side 
to acquire Nicollet Island for park purposes. The 
next year saw the proposition — to buy the entire isl- 
and for $28,000 — votecl upon by the people of Minne- 
apolis — voted upon, and voted down. In 1868 George 
A. Brackett bought forty acres of land, which in- 
cluded the site of Fair Oaks and the Morrison man- 
sions of a later day — the site of the Art Museum 
liegun in 1912 — and vainly for several years tried to 
induce the city to take the land over for a public park 
at a cost of $16,000. licss than half a century later 
Jlr. Brackett saw the purchase of Gateway Park for 
$635,000, and the purchase of Fair Oaks for $275.- 
000, to add to the park site of the Art IMuseum, 
valued at $200,000 by its donor, Clinton Morrison. 
Both tracts, that at the Gat(>way and the other at the 
Art JIuseum, the city had rejected, only to pay many 
times their first price, in later years. 

Thus the consolidated cities of Minneapolis and St. 
Anthony in 1872 possessed no park system. It had 
the nucleus of one in Murphy Square, set aside as a 
public park by Edward JIui'phy. when he platted his 
Addition to the towm of ^linneapolis, in 1b(> early 
sixties. But it was too young to have a park spirit. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
•FROM THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE CITIES AT THE FALLS TO THE PRESENT. 

MINNEAPOLIS AS A MUNICIPALITY — FIRST CITT GOVERNMENT — EXPANSION OF THE CITY AND ITS TRIBUTARY COUN- 
TRY — THE CITY' GROWS CONSTANTLY' STRONGER ENCOUNTERS AND PASSES PANICS AND OTHER OBSTACLES TO 

PROSPERITY — A STREET RAILWAY IS BUILT — OTHER FEATURES OF STRENGTH ARE SECURED THE YEAR 1880 

OPENS THE DOORS TO A GREAT BUSINESS BOOM LASTING SIX YEARS A PARK SYSTEM INAUGURATED — PROGRESS 

ALONG ALL LINES A GAIN IN POPULATION OF 118,000 PROM 1880 TO 1890 — MORE RAILROAD BUJLDING THE 

EXPOSITION IS CREATED — THE OLD "MOTOR LINE" — THE STREET RAILWAY ADOPTS ELECTRICITY AS A MOTIVE 

POWER — BIG PUBLIC BUILDINGS ARE ERECTED THE CENSUS WAR WITH ST. PAUL IN 1890 THE GREAT BOOM 

BURSTS, BUT THE SHOCK IS SURVIVED — NEW INDUSTRIES FOUNDED AND OLD ONES STRENGTHENED — TRADE CON- 
DITIONS BECOME WORTHY OF PRIDE AND BOASTING DURING THE? WAR WITH SPAIN— EFFORTS AT CHARTER 

CHANGING SOME CENSUS FIGURES OP 1900 — PROGRESS IN CULTURE AND REFINEMENT — THE NEWSPAPERS 

CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS RECENT IMPORTANT HISTORICINCIDENTS. ETC. 



MINNEAPOLIS AS A MUNICIPALITY. 

It is a remarkable fact- that the liistory of ^iliniie- 
apolis a.s a single muiiicipality, inclusive of the old 
City of St. Anthony and the original ^linneapolis of 
the west side of the river, did not have its beginni'ig 
until 1872, twenty-four years after the older cf its 
two component parts had been platted, and seventeen 
years after St. Anthony had been incorporated as a 
city. St. Anthony, undisturbed by problems of title. 
had passed normally from village government to city 
incorporation in 185.5 and was definitely divided into 
wards, with a city council and a mayor. But ]\Iinne- 
apolis, on the west side, was too busy, too often in the 
dark as to title to its lots, or too seriously disturbed 
by financial panic or by war's stress, to pay much 
atte-tion to its form of government. 

And so, chiefly because their first years on the 
lands west of the Falls were somewhat different years 
from the first years of the older settlement, the people 
of the West side were content with a town form of 
government for a considerable number of years. 
Tlicy had their county government : for as early as 
^>^rtf) the courthouse of Hennepin County was estab- 
lished at what is now Fourth Street and Eighth 
Avenue South : and for fifteen years from the nam- 
ing of the settlement its people went forward, con- 
scious of no hampering factor in their remaining 
under a town government. 

On the east side of the river was council govern- 
ment, with aldermen and a mayor, and on the west 
side, town govei'nment at first, with a board of 
trustees headed by a president whose powers were 
about like those of the mayor's on the east side. 
The city on the east side, as stated, formed its govern- 
ment in 185,5. with Henry T. "Welles as Mayor-, and 
three years later, when the town of ^Minneapolis or- 
ganized its first government. Henry T. 'Welles had 
moved across the river and he was elected head of 
the board of trustees. Isaac I. Lewis. Chailes Hoag, 



namer of the city, William Garland, and Edward 
Hedderly were the first trustees, 

FIRST CITY GOVERNMENT. 

For four years ^Minneapolis held to town govern- 
ment ; then joined with the township government as 
by merger, and continued in this loose governmental 
organization until 1867. Then, the Legislature hav- 
ing granted a charter, for the first time the people 
came to the dignity of city government. Dorilus 
ilorrison was the first Mayor and F. R. E. Cornell 
was President of the Council. Across the river, 0. 
C. Merriman was ^layor, and a comnuinity a.s like 
to that on the west side as it is possible to be was 
carrying on a government of the same kind. Sep- 
arate fire departments, separate police departments 
were necessary ; they were separate conununities as 
truly as if they had been miles apart instead of on 
opposite banks of the river. And by the latter part 
of the decade of 1860 both communities were seeing 
the need of sy.stems of watenvorks and fire protec- 
tion, as well as other conveniences of a city having 
each a population of several thousands, rapidly in- 
creasing in numbers. Need of sewage systems was 
also apparent. 

MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. ANTHONY CONSOLIDATED. 

Conunon needs and common interests were discuss*^! 
0" both sides of the river. But it was not until 
1872 that the rival communities, each with its city 
government, could arrive at a common state of mind, 
agreeing on compromises and concessions, and vote 
to consolidate their governments as the city of ]\[inne- 
apolis. Not the least of the compromises was.^the 
elimination of the name of the older community of 
St. Anthony. 

The consolidated city was divided ;it first into ten 
wards. Twentv-sixtli .\venue North was the north- 



138 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



139 



ern boundary, and Franklin Avenue approximately 
tlie southern. April 9, 1872, was the date of organi- 
zation of the new City Council and of the municipal 
government of the greater city. The first ilayor was 
Eugene M. Wilson ; the first President of the Coun- 
cil was A. M. Reid, and the other Aldermen were 
Richard Fewer, M. W. Glenn, G. T. Townsend, Bald- 
win Brown, Captain John Vander Horck, T. J. Tut- 
tle. W. P. Ankeny, Peter Rouen. C. :M. Hardenburgh, 
Samuel C. Gale. O. A. Pray, Leonard Day, Edward 
:\Iurphy. N. B. Hill, Isaac Atwater, John" Orth, and 
Joel B. Bassett. Thomas Hale Williams was the first 
clerk. Thus it ma.v be seen that the greater city had 
auspicious beginnings, for its officials were for the 
most part men who were leaders in all the commer- 
cial, social, and other affairs of the city. Not more 
than two of the men named survived at the time this 
history of their first Council was written. 

THE CITY AND TRIBUTARY COUNTRY EXPAND ALIKE. 

The year 1872, marked by the municipal union of 
Jlinneapolis and St. Anthony, was about the mid- 
dle year in a period of astonishing State develop- 
ment : but, though the population of ilinneapolis. 
which was about 22,000 in the year of con- 
solidation, more than doubled in a decade, the 
population of the agricultural districts of the 
Northwest also increased rapidl.y and in proportion. 
It was a time of great migration and settlement, and 
the forward strides of ilinnesota in this period wen^ 
but those which believers in the workings of Provi- 
dence a.ssociate with the purposes expressed in the 
upbuilding of the flour and lumber industries at the 
Falls of St. Anthony. Here was a great manufactur- 
ing opportunity with its water power ; here was a 
State rich in soil and fitting in climate to the needs 
of the agriculturist ; and here was the influx of great 
migration in the years following the Civil War, in- 
terrupted at times and nevertheless enhanced by 
financial panic which itself drove other thou.sands to 
the soil. It was natural that the farm development 
far outstripped the city's growth; and it was natural, 
too, that the forward-looking men of the cit.v, their 
interests united at last, went out into the Northwest 
to help in its development. 

By 1872 Minnesota had come to have railroad mile- 
age of nearly 2,000 miles, much of which linked the 
wheat producer with the milling facilities and the 
wheat market of Minneapolis. The wheat production 
of the State was nearly twenty million bushels — the 
product of the greatest wheat State in the Union. 
]\Iinneapolis men, led by H. T. Welles, W. D. Wa.sh- 
burn. J. S. Pillsbuiy, and others of that group of men 
foremost in most big affaire in this cit.v at that time, 
had begun the enterprise which construct(>d direct 
rail connection with Lake Superior and later laid the 
rails of the IMinneapolis & St. Louis Railway south- 
ward and westward without a land grant. The Pa- 
cific roads had reached the Red River Valley and the 
Northern border. The lines of advancement were far 
fiunir. and ]Minneai)olis was the gateway to a great 
and growing empire. 



THE CITY GROWS STRONGER AND STRONGER. 

Within its borders, its own institutions were going 
ahead evenly and surely. Since 1867 the city had 
read the daily newspaper, the Tribune, built on 
a consolidation of "Bill" King's State Atlas and 
Col. Stevens's Chronicle. Since 1867 the city had 
possessed a full-fledged theater, the Peliee Opera 
House, destined for many years to be a factor in 
the amusements of the people. In 1871 the Academy 
of Music was built and took place higher than the 
Pence. Since 1870 the people who could afford to 
pay for it had the convenience of illuminating gas, 
furnished by a company promoted by men still active 
in the same business. For seven years the city had 
been in tclegi-aphic connection with the outside world, 
though for a long time a single telegraph wire had 
sufficed to carry the business. The city's schools were 
growing in educational leadership, the city's other 
elements of culture were gaining vigor. And in the 
important item of commercial union the foundation 
had been laid for organized, concerted effort which 
still endures (though under another name), with the 
same purposes as that Board ofTrade which was in- 
corporated in 1867 when it was twelve years old. and 
which for a quarter of a century more promoted the 
interests of the community and of the State, and then 
gave way only to a re-organization and strengthen- 
ing of the same component parts. This old Board of 
Trade had as its leaders such men as Dorilus Mor- 
rison, W. D. Washburn, S. C. Gale, C. M. Loring, J. S. 
Pillsbury. E. J. Phelps, J. T. Wyman, and B. F. Nel- 
son, and its entei-prises were so well carried forward 
as to make the organization a model for business 
interests of other cities. 

ENCOUNTERS AND PASSES PANICS. 

In the history of Minneapolis may be found a series 
of remarkably interesting coincidences of success and 
disaster, of the survival of coinmimity spirit above 
appalling discouragement. This was the case in 18-35 
to I860, when the appreciation of great opportunity 
preceded by onlj- a year or two the financial panic 
of 1857. It came again in the first half of the '(iOs, 
when recovery from panic times met with the terrible 
effect of war upon the progress of the nation. And — 
when the municipalities had been knit into one and 
the whole prospect was bright with promise, there fell 
upon the nation another financial disaster, tiie panic 
of 1873 — the strong men and women of Miinieajiolis 
were obliged to prove again the stuff' of which their 
city was made. It is a singular circumstance that 
the men who pulled the city thronsi'h the other diffi- 
culties were among the leaders in this other sui-vival. 
Xew blood had been added since the war, but the cap- 
tains of the earlier time were still the custodians of 
the city's fate, and all throngh the story of the first 
fift.v years these names recur again and again. They 
•were the men who built the mills, who laid the rail- 
roads, who founded the commercial, civic, and cul- 
tural institutions of ]\Iinneapolis. Willi rare excep- 
tions they were builders of permanence; hardly "a 



HO 



HISTOKY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



name among the leaders of the first quarter centun' 
of the community by the Falls is linked with flotation 
that was impermanent, or cloudy, or disgi-aceful. The 
men who laid the foundations of Mmueapolis, as the 
Twentieth Century knows it, were doers, were build- 
ers, were partners of Opportimity in its best sense. 

Coincidence followed coincidence in the period be- 
tween 1870 and 1880. As the panic of 1857 had its 
reaction of confidence and its succeeding disaster of 
war, so the panic of 1873 had its later period of re- 
covery which was shattered in a way by disaster. For 
in 1875 there came upon the State the grasshopper 
plague, which smote with poverty great areas of wheat- 
producing farms and for three years clogged the 
advancement of Minnesota and the growth and pros- 
perity of Minneapolis. 

Yet through all these years the people went for- 
ward, alarmed at times but never surrendering in 
their purpose to raise up a city by the Falls. It was 
"never say die" with the builders. Proof of this 
may be found in the history of the beginnings of a 
street railway system in ^Minneapolis. And that his- 
tory begins in one of the darkest times known to the 
city. 

BUILDS A STREET RAILWAY. 

Prior to 1870 an effort had been made by Dorilus 
]\[orrison. W. S. King, and others to construct a street 
railway line. They had gone so far as to lay rails 
down Second Street South from Nicollet to Cedar 
Avenue, and to buy a steam locomotive. But that is 
as far as the enterprise got ; no car was ever run, and 
all except Morrison and Colonel King dropped the 
idea for a time. But in 1873 the splendid optimism, 
which was undaunted bv panic in finance, revived the 
traction idea, and a company was incoi'porated by 
Messrs. ilorrison. King. W. D. "Washburn, R. J. ]\len- 
denhall, W. P. Westfall. J. C. Oswald. Paris Gibsion. 
W. W. Eastman, W. W. McNair, and R. B. Langdon 
— the same group of men who may be found in other 
transportation enterprises of the time. Philo Osgood, 
an Eastern capitalist, was interested, and became 
principal stockholder, and the financing went for- 
ward. Mr. Osgood was the first president, with 
Mr. King as seeretar.y. 

By 1875 the promotion had gone ahead to such a 
point that tlie fir.st construction was begun, and early 
in the fall a horse-car line was put in operation. This 
first car line started at the old station of the St. Paul 
& Pacific Railway, near Washington and Fourth 
Avenues North, and extended down Washington to 
Hennepin, down Hennepin and across the suspension 
bridge, up Central Avenue to Foiirth Street, and down 
Fonrtli Street Southeast to Fourteenth Avenue, It 
linked the principal railway terminal with the State 
TTniversity district and pa.ssed through the heart of 
the city. Its rails were of strap-iron laid on wooden 
stringers, its motive power mostlv mule, its cars di 
miinitive, its facilities meagre. But it was a street' 
ririhraji. 

Into its directorate and list of officers had come a 
man who was to play a leading part in the develop- 



ment of a great city. For Thomas Lowry, seeing 
the opportunities of citj' expansion bj' means of ex- 
tending its traction facilities, had become interested 
in the street railway company, and had been elected 
its vice president. It was an event of great moment 
to the city, although the circumstance went hardly 
noticed at the time. But there entered the man who was 
to put his whole energj' into creating a street railway 
sj-stem, and who was to become perhaps the best loved 
man among all the builders of the city. That first 
year of the horse cai-s, on the first single line, dailj'- 
receipts averaged about $40. Service began at 5 a. m. 
and ended at 11 p. m. The fare was 5 cents. 

Within a year after the first line had been opened, 
another had been constructed, down Washington from 
Plymouth Avenue to Twelfth Avenue South. And 
every year thereafter saw extension of the system. 
And every extension and improvement absorbed divi- 
dends. By 1878 ]\Ir. Lowry had become president 
of the company, and the policy of expansion had been 
definitely adopted, to the end 'that, according to offi- 
cials of the present eompan.y, not a single dividend 
was declared from 1875 until 1899, every cent of 
profit, when there was any, going into ])etterments. 

With the construction of a street railway system, 
Minneapolis began to dream dreams. Betterment of 
transportation facilities gave reason for a larger sense 
of metropolitan importance. 

OTHER FEATURES OF STRENGTH AND PROSPERITY. 

In 1874 a city hall had been erected on Bridge 
Square, and the following year a new suspension 
bridge had replaced that which had been constructed 
twenty years previously, linking the East and West 
Divisions, as the two portions of the city were called. 
Shortly afterwards other bridges, one at Plymouth 
Avenue on the north and one at Tenth Avenue on 
the south, had been built across the river. By 1878 
the Federal Government completed its work of mak- 
ing permanent the apron and retaining wall of St. 
Anthony Falls, saved from destruction ten years be- 
fore only by streniious effort of the citizens when the 
limestone ledge had been undermined by the water, 
because of ill-advised tunneling operations. By 1879 
the city reached the dignity of having a paid fire 
department to succeed the volunteer organization 
which had endeavored since 1867 to safeguard against 
fire. And there was a good beginning toward a 
waterworks system, though most of the mains were 
crude wooden pipes until shortly before 1880. 

THE YEAR 1880 OPENS ALL THE DOORS TO GROWTH AND 
PROSPERITY. 

Thus, when ^Minneapolis entered the decade begin- 
ning with the year 1880, recovered from the financial 
setbacks of panic and grasshopper times and began 
takinar on metropolitan wavs. it followed ^tbat busi- 
ness expansion must go side by side witli the asrri- 
culturnl advancement which had at last beLiin. The 
population of the citv in 1870 had been 18.000; now 
it had reached 46,887, Manufactures had begun to 



HISTORY OF MINxNEAPOLlS AND HENNEPIX COUNTY, 31INNES0TA 



141 



include other iudustries than Hour and sawmills. The 
city was the gateway to a great and prosperous farm- 
ing territory, which was being brought iiij closer 
touch by means of railroad extension. 

And so Minneapolis and its people began to dream 
dreams which they mistook for visions of immediate 
and enormous growth. And out of tiiose dreams came 
the boom times which made and unmade thousands. By 
1885 real estate activity became seemingly the chief 
factor of daily life; valuations were inflated astound- 
ingly when viewed in a calmer age. Additions wei-e 
platted far out from the city's center, and the prices of 
lots leaped to tignres which even the growth of a quar- 
ter of a century since would not justify at the present 
time. The period of real estate inflation is almost 
coincident with the limits of the decade, from 1880 
to 1890. It ended in disaster for many individuals, 
in depression for the entire city for a time. But in 
some ways it was worth all it cost, in that it led to 
an era of sanity made more wholesome by the lessons 
taught. And while it was a boom time, it was like- 
wise a time of manufacturing development on whicli 
was laid the foundation for much of the present in- 
dustrial leadership. And as the people dreamed large 
dreams, they absorbed larger tendencies, conducing 
to the improvement of the city as a whole. 

CRE.VTION OF THE PARK SYSTEM. 

Thus it was of the expansion of Minneapolis that 
the park systeni was born. There had been efforts 
toward a "city beautiful" in the earlier attempt to 
ac(iuii'e Nicollet Island for a jiark, and in other pro- 
motion of the park idea which had only resulted in 
failure. But now the city regarded itself in a more 
exalted, if a more grandiose, light, and some expres- 
sion of a desire for municipal beautification was in- 
evitable. True, there had been healthy agitation 
toward the creation of a park system, in the proceed- 
ings of the Board of Trade. And the enabling act of 
the Legislature, which authorized the creation of a 
park commission, was passed in 1883. before the boom 
had gone far along. But it was on the boom that the 
park idea sailed to realization, and so ilinncapolis 
may thank the boom for her parks, almost as much 
as she may express appreciation of C. M. Loring's 
efforts by christening him "Father of the Park Sys- 
tem." ilr. Loring was the first president of the park 
commission, A. A. Ames was vice president, and R. J. 
Baldwin was secretary. Among other commissioners 
were E. M. Wilson. J. S. Pillsbury, Dorilus Morrison. 
S. II. Chute. George Brackett, W. W. Eastman, and 
Judson N. Cross. The commission engaged* Professor 
H. W. S. Cleveland, a landscape architect of long 
experience, and he laid out the park svstem which was 
the nucleus of the present parks and boulevards. 

It was the fostering of the park sentiment wliicli 
made possible the inclusion of Minnehaha Falls, of 
the Missis-sippi River banks, and the lakes within the 
eit.v limits as factors in the park system. Tliroe 
squares, gifts to the city, formed the beginnings of 
the system, and shortly after power of condemnation 
of land had been conferred, Loring Park was 



acquired. Upon these as a foundation has been built 
a series of parks and parkways totaling nearly 4,000 
acres iu area. 

THE PUBLIC LIBR.\EY IS PERFECTED. 

By 1885, also, the city began to aspire to something 
more than a semi-privately o^\^led library. The 
Atheneum was serving most purposes, but it was 
deemed wise to create a Library Board, representative 
of the people, and to establish a library that would 
be absolutely free to all. The Atheneum directors 
joined in this nuniicipal enterprise, and the private 
and pulilic libraries were consolidated, iu effect; the 
Atheneum, however, maintained its identity while 
still a component part of the Public Library. Erec- 
tion of a library building was at once decided upon, 
and the Libi-ary Board, under the Presidency of T. B. 
Walker, began the woi-k. The Library Building, at 
Tenth Street and Hennepin Avenue, was completed 
and occupied in 1889, with Herbert Putnam as 
Liljrarian. 



MAKES PROGRESS MENTAI.LY, 
PHYSICALLY. 



MORALLY, AND 



There are many residents of Minneapolis who refe^ 
almost apologetically to the boom period of the city's 
history, but it was in that period, nevertheless, that 
some of the finest advances in culture, refinement, and 
educational progress were made. It was in 1884 that 
Dr. Cyrus Northrop, coming from Yale to become 
President of the University of Minnesota, to succeed 
Dr. Folwell when that builder chose to step down to 
less responsible duties in the institution, gave 
markedly increased impetus to the growth and 
strength of the University and of the entire educa- 
tional .system of Minnesota. Dr. Folwell had founded 
the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts and had been 
interested in the advancement of the Public Library ; 
Dr. Northrop early became identified with the same 
institutions and with kindred elements in the city's 
growth in culture. So he continued until succeeded 
as president of the University by Dr. George E. Vin- 
cent, in 1911. 

In 1890 the Philharmonics, who later became the 
Philharmonic Club, was organized and at once be- 
came the principal single musical organization in 
Minnesota ; out of this union of musical leaders was 
to come later the Symphony Orchestra of Minneapolis. 

In 1891 Dr. Charles ]\I. Jordan became Superin- 
tendent of the Public Schools, a post which he was 
to hold for twenty-three years, in which time he was 
to be no inconsiderable factor in shaping the cul- 
tural progress of the people of the city. When he 
became superintendent the school enrollment of the 
citv was aliout 21.000, the teaching force numbered 
525, and the city schools were housed in forty-seven 
buildings. 

Cultural growth was paralleled by Jiotable church 
expansion, or by ready meeting of demands upon 
church people for facilities for relisfious teaching and 
services. The principal denominations represented 



142 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, :\IINNESOTA 



in iMiimeapolis by church organizatious became active 
in erecting large, handsome houses of worship. 
Among the editices constructed and occupied in tlie 
period between 1880 and 1893 were those of the 
Westminster Presbyterian, the Gethsemane Episcopal, 
the Central Baptist, the Immanuel Baptist, the Swed- 
ish ]\Iission tabernacle, the First Baptist, the First 
Unitarian, the First Congregational, the Holy Rosary 
Catholic, the First Presbyterian, the Park Avenue 
Congregational, the Oliver Presbyterian, the Church 
of the Redeemer, Universalist, the Andrew Presby- 
terian, the ^Vesley Methodist, St. Stephen's Catholic, 
and the Portland Avenue Church of Christ. The 
Scandinavian people, also, were especially active iu 
church construction at this time. Early in the '80s 
the Presbyterian General Assembly was held in Min- 
neapolis; and in 1891 the national convention of the 
Young People's Societies of Christian Endeavor was 
held here. It was in this year that the Young "Wom- 
en's Christian Association was formed. In the next 
year, 1892, the national council of the Congregational 
Churches met here; in 1895 the general convention 
of the Episcopal Church. 

Progi'ess in every line went to make the town a 
city. Hustle locked arms with refinement, even, and 
invention joined with art to make life more truly 
worth living, however it became more complex. Cities 
everywhere began to enjoy more conveniences. The 
year 1883 gave to Miimeapolis the electric light. The 
"telephone came into more general business use, al- 
though it was not until nearly or after 1890 that it 
became a household appurtenance. As early as 1878 
the Northwestern Telephone Company was in the 
field, and for twenty years it had that field to itself; 
then the Tri-State Company, at fii-st known as the 
Mississippi Valley, became a competitor. Gas as a 
distributed commodity for light and cooking was 
available before electricity came, but its use was not 
general until after 1890. 

G.WNS 118,000 IN POPULATION FROM 1880 TO 1890. 

If it were not for the fact that the decade from 
1880 to 1890 was a period of astounding achievement, 
the manners and customs of the people would be re- 
garded with mixed emotions. Grandiloquence marked 
the common speech of the time ; when Minneapolis and 
its prospects were the themes, grandiloquence was 
the keynote of endeavor. But out of the exaltation 
of the time grew the city that had been an overgrown 
village ; out of the mushroom-like creation of boom- 
times at least one incontrovertible fact stood forth. 
The pop\ilation of the city had mounted from 47.000 
to 165,000 in ten years. Whatever may have been 
the transitory character of man-made institutions and 
boom-made land valuations, the people were here. 
With every reason in the scheme of things justifying 
a great city at this maiuifacturing gateway to the 
Northwestern empire, the greater portioij of these 
people nnist inevitably unite for carrying forward 
the institutions and the indu.stries. Men talked large. 
l>ut they likewise did largely. New needs aro.se. and 
new solutions were promptly found to meet the prob- 



lems. Speculation ran riot, but out of the fantasy 
was born the Minneapolis spirit, and that spirit 
breathed life into enterjjri.ses which in any other 
time would have theiiiselves seemed fantasies. 



R.VILROAD BI'ILDIXi; GOES ON. 

It was in 1883 when the Northern Pacific Railway 
was completed to the Pacific Coast, and the golden 
spike driven to celebrate the opening of a vast terri- 
tory to which Minneapolis was the gateway. It was 
about the same time when Minneapolis business men 
— some of the same who had figured in many another 
similar operation for the upbuilding of the city — 
recognized the fact that Minneapolis needed an out- 
let l)y rail to the East, independent of Chicago. Of 
this recognition came the Soo Line, the railroad which 
connected Minneapolis with the Atlantic seaboard by 
way of Sault Ste. jMarie, and with the Canadian 
Northwest by way of the Canadian Pacific alliance. 
Late in the decade of 1880 this new system had been 
completed. 

James J. Hill's dream of conquest of other por- 
tions of the Northwest was taking material .shape in 
his Great Northern Railway, as yet. however, knowni 
as the St. Paul, ilinneapolis & ilanitoba Railway. 
Passenger and freight terminals adequate to the time 
were being constructed, giving the city a union pas- 
senger station which was to serve — or finally fail to 
serve — for twenty-five years. Manufacturing enter- 
prises outside of and beyond the flour and lumber 
industries began to engage the attention of the city- 
builders. Retail merchants liegan to realize the op- 
portunities afforded by the phenomenally rapid 
increase in population, not only within but without 
and around the city's borders. And wholesale trade 
began to attract the attention of a few men of fore- 
sight, although this braiich of merchandising was 
slower tlian all others in taking root in Minneapolis; 
her rival. St. Paul, maintained for some years the 
leadership as a jobbing center. 

THE EXPOSITION IS BUILT. 

One of the characteristic manifestations of the ]\Iin- 
neapolis spirit is found in the ^Minneapolis Exposi- 
tion, an institution which grew out of rivalry with 
St. Paul and its acquirement of the State Fair in 
1885. and the Midway District annexation, as well as 
out of a desire to emulate the example of older cities 
in the East, where expositions had become a fairly 
common demonstration of city advertising. 

In 1885^tradition says in Regan's restaurant, a 
democratic eating house which flourished then — a few 
men who were most active among the energetic cit- 
izens broached the idea, and the project culminated 
in n public mass meeting at which the first few thou- 
sands of a big public subscription were otTcred. A 
building costing !|!325,000 was the most kingible re- 
sult, and in this annually for six years a big display 
of the products of industry, art and enterprise at- 
tracted thousands. The Exposition was a product of 
the period : it has since had no counterpart, nor has 




RETURN OF NORTHERN I'ACIIH SI in l;^ I \( I PAIITY TAKICX (IN W ASIllN(rr( iN A\'K. AT 1ST AVE. SOUTH IN ISd. 




WASniNllTdN A\T-:. L(IOKIN(i SOUTH Fl!(lM SECOND AVE. SOUTH IN 1857 



WTLLIAM KAINEV MARSHAl.l. 

First surveyor of tlii' town site of St. 
Anthony; General in the Civil War; 
Governor of Jlinnesota, etc. (From 

paintini; in 1875.) 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



143 



there been similar demaml for exprcssiou of the city "s 
spii'it. But ill its day it served as the stimulus for 
much of the achievement and effort which finally gave 
permanence and prominence to the city. Whatever 
remains of such a need is expressed amply in the State 
Fair which now has the united support of ^linueapolis 
as well as St. Paul. 

ADDITIONS TO .\REA L.\ID OUT AND STRUCTURAL WORK 
PROGRESSES. 

Dreams that were mistaken for visions lured city- 
builders out into the country al)out the young city. 
Additions were platted, sidewalk laid, water-mains 
extended, ambitious structures planned, and prom- 
ises made which (though many were broken when 
the boom collapsed), found realization in more in- 
stances than the cautious might have admitted pos- 
sible. And through all the inflation of local values, 
trade grew, manufactured output increased. By 
188.5-86 the population was about 75,000, the annual 
manufactured output valued at more than $60,000,000, 
and the assessed valuation was appraised at $115,- 
000.000. And amid the fantasies of the real estate 
boomers, real institutions and industries were rising. 
A big steel plant was estalilished ; a huge office struc- 
ture, the Guaranty Loan Building, was planned and 
construction begun before the decade closed. A Fed- 
eral Court and postoffice building, the finest then in 
the Northwest, was erected and occupied. And finally, 
keeping pace with the expansion of the city, the 
traction lines were extended and improved, the end 
of the decade being marked by a remarkable achieve- 
ment in street railway construction. 



of promoters, made a definite proposal to experiment 
with, and if successful utilize, electricity as motive 
power for its lines. The Fourth Avenue South line 
was electrified, and the experiment was successful. 
And thereupon, the Street Railway Company set out 
to electrify its entire system — to tlisearil the horse 
ears and -to substitute, on entirely rebuilt trackage, 
electric cars. It is one of the notable facts in the won- 
derful history of IMinneapolis that this was accom- 
plished in three years, and carried on by the same men 
whose foresight had given a traction system to the city 
in times that were marked in history by enormous risk. 
By 1892 the entire Street Railway System was elec- 
trified, and in the same period Jlinneapolis and St. 
Paul were connected by trolley line. It was a time 
of remarkable achievement; and its annals bear the 
names of Colonel William McCrory, builder of the 
Motor line : Anderson & Douglas, Thomas Lowry, 
C. Gr. Cxoodrich, and many another exponent of the 
jMinneapolis spirit, but none so eternally written as 
is the name of "Tom" Lowry. 

Here, then, was the repetition of history come into 
its own as usual. Here was closing a period of boom, 
of inflation, and yet of successful enterprise. Min- 
neapolis and St. Anthony had seen such a time, in 
lesser degree, in their early years; had seen such a 
time twenty years later, and now history was to re- 
peat itself. For the period of riding on the high 
wave was to be succeeded by descent into the trough 
of a sea of depression. The financial disasters of 
1893, into which the whole country ])lunged. were 
at hand. 

BIG PUBLIC BUILDINGS SPRING UP. 



THE OLD MOTOR LINE. 

The first half of the ten years after 1880 had seen 
the construction of a steam traction line into the 
suburbs and to the watering places of what are I'ow 
park lakes, as well as to Lake ^linnetonka. The rival 
— in a sense — of the old horse-car lines was known as 
the "i\Iotor" line, its cars being hauled by an enclosed 
steam engine. Trains were operated, with vai'ving 
degrees of efficiency, out First Avenue South and 
Nicollet Avenue to the neighborhood of Lake Street 
and thence westward to Lake Calhoun and to Lake 
Minnetonka, as well as eastward to Minnehaha Falls. 
By 1886 changes in ownersliin of this line led to its 
absorption by the Street Railway Company and its 
abandonment as a suburban line to ^linnetonka. 

Meanwhile other traction enterprises were pro- 
.iected, culminating in bitter rivalrv over franchise 
rights within the city. Out of this contest of en- 
trenched and assaulting promoters came the harness- 
in£r. locally, of a traction force then new to the world 
— electricitv. The late years of the 1880 decade saw 
experimenting with cable lines, and expenditure of 
a srreat deal of money in trying to improve the means 
of transportation by improving the motive power. 

THE STREET RAILWAY ELECTRIFIES ITS LINES. 

Finally the Street Railway Comnany. combating 
the propositions of the Anderson & Douglas company 



It is possible that the unparalleled advancement 
made by Minneapolis between 1880 and 1890 may be 
traced to the fact that the nation was having its long- 
est period of prosperity unmarked by financial panic 
or disaster. It was a time of commercial conscious- 
ness, whether it be termed a time of civic awakening 
or not. All through the years of astounding growth 
records of community action may be found. One of 
the flashes of this community spirit was the Villard 
celebration in 1883, in token of the completion of the 
Northern Pacific Railway. Another was the Minne- 
apolis Exposition of 1886 to 1891. Still another was 
the Hai'\'est Festival of 1891, when the city celebrated 
the garnering of a mighty crop, the day being sig- 
nalized by an elaborate parade and by exercises in 
which that monarch of optimism. Col. "Bill" King, 
was the conductor. 

These, however, were transitory tokens of commu- 
nity effort. IMore tangible evidences of Minneapolis 
enterprise were the public undertakings which 
brought forth the $3,000,000 Court House ami City 
Hall, commenced in 1889 and occupied after 1890; the 
first postoffice and Federal building, constructed be- 
tween 1882 and 1889; the Public Library Building, 
occupied in 1889; the Central High School at Fourth 
Avenue South and Grant Street, built not long after 
1880; the Masonic Temple, erected in 1885-6; the 
Young Men's Christian Association Building, com- 
menced in 1889; the Northwestern Hospital, buHt in 



144 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COTTNTY, MINNESOTA 



1887 ; the Stevens Avenue Home for Children and 
Aged Women, built in 1886 ; the Washburn Memorial 
Home for Orphans, opened in 1886; St. Mary's Hos- 
pital, opened in 1886 ; Maternity Hospital, opened in 
the same year; and the City Hospital, established in 
1888. 

In addition to these public ana semi-public enter- 
prises the period was marked by the erection of such 
structures as the Guaranty Loan Building, completed 
in 1890; the New York Life Insurance Company's 
building, completed the same year; the Lumber Ex- 
change Building, which ante-dated the tirst two 
named by a year or two : and the earlier structures 
of the Chamber of Commerce, erected in 1883 ; the 
Syndicate Block and Grand Opera House, erected in 
1883 ; Temple Court, 18SG ; the West Hotel, in its .lay 
the pride of the city and of the West, erected in 
1884; the Hennepin Avenue Theater, afterwards 
known successively as the Harris, the Lyceum, and 
finally the Lyric, erected in 1887, and opened by 
Booth and Barrett: the Bijou Opera House, com- 
pleted in 1887 ; the Boston Block, the Bank of Com- 
merce Building, the ^Minnesota Loan and Trust Com- 
pany Building, the Kasota Block, and others since 
become lesser structures by comparison liut which 
were important units in the expansion of Minneapolis 
in its days of greatest growth. 

THE BOOMERS WERE BUILDERS. 

Thus it may be seen that the boomers were likewise 
the builders; that while the city was forging ahead 
with a population increase of 2.51 percent in the ten 
years between 1880 and 1890. and while the most 
varying elements were represented in tlie life of the 
times, nevertheless the sum total of it all was the per- 
manent advancement of Minneapolis. Here were 
a people who could be seen founding the Minneapolis 
Society of Fine Arts in 1883 — the same people, if we 
consider them as a whole, who within a few years 
were to plat additions and sell lots far out from any 
thing like a real city. Here were the shoestringers and 
the Imrrowers from the future, destined for collapse 
when the boom burst soon after 1890, figuring solidly 
in constructive work, turning from real estate boom- 
ing to city advertisement in such community enter- 
prise as that which brought, in 18^4, the national en- 
campment of the Grand Army of the Republic, chiefly 
for the advertising it might give. Here were men 
j-uthlessly, or far-sightedly, building a city, engaged 
in laying mile after mile of sewers, curli-and-guttcr. 
watermains, and looking to the paving of the business 
centers. Here were men so earnest in their belief 
in future, so strong in their sensitiveness to civi" 
duty, that they had by 1887 increased the total park 
area to 120 acres, with a score of miles of parkways 
— and this in a city whose park commission was not 
created until 1883. These were days of visions, of 
dreams that were made to come true. 

THE CENSUS WAR WITH ST. P.UI,. 

Illustrative of the varying elements in city build- 
ing was the census war of 1890 between Minneapolis 



and St. Paul. Some of the solidest citizens of Minne- 
apolis were involved in that conflict ; some of the re- 
sults of their enterprise included invasion and coun- 
ter-invasion : and linked with forcible seizure of cen- 
sus schedules by St. Paul was the expedition of ]\lin- 
neapolis men wliicli culmiiuited in recovery of the 
kidnaped enumerators and stolen schedules after one 
of their niimber, he asserted, had been "kicked six- 
teen feet." It was inevitable that a recount by the 
Government followed, and the conclusion which the 
inspector of the census drew was that Minneapolis 
and St. Paul had each been the scene of a conspiracy 
of over-zealous citizens to "pad" the returns. Jlin- 
neapolis, it was asserted, had listed 20,000 too many 
inhabitants, and St. Paul had shown enterprise in 
proportion to its relative population total. Out of 
the warfare sprang uj) intensify of feeling which en- 
dured for numy years; which for a decade made united 
action by the two cities impossible, and which still 
flares up occasionally, Init quite too frequeutly, in 
inter-eity contention. 

THE GREAT BOOM BURSTS. 

The early '90s saw ^linneapolis beginning to 
see there must be reaction from the real estate value 
inflation — that there must come a time of reckoning. 
Some of the largest achievements of the time were 
those of these yeai-s, and some of the finest examples 
of the community spirit were manifested, as for in- 
stance the bringing of the Republican national con- 
vention to meet in Minneapolis in 1892 — the first 
departure from long established precedent which 
called such conventions hitherto only to the largest 
cities. But now the approach of business depression 
which was to settle over the whole country was show- 
ing in the slowing up of investment and the stopping 
of speculation. And in 1893 the speculative bubble 
burst — but Minneapolis nobly withstood the explo- 
sion and the shock. 

ENTERPRISE AND ELECTRICITY REPAIRED THE DAMAGES. 

One of the noteworthy facts in the history of ^lin- 
neapolis is its survival of the business depression of 
the m'iddle '90s after a ]ieriod of inflation. There 
is no greater proof of the soliditv and stability of its 
foundations, than max be found in consideration of 
some of the lai-gest industries. Contributing to this 
fact was the coincidence of changing conditions which 
marked the later years of the boom development. 
Electricity was one of these factors : for it was be- 
tween 1885 and 189.5 when factories began to har- 
ness electricity, and it was during the same years 
that the developnuMit of the telephone and electric 
light opened new avenues to manufacturei"s. A pe- 
riod of increased capitalization, a tim.e of manufac- 
turing adventure was beginning, and those influences 
which impelled men to make larger hazards of for- 
tune moved ^Minneapolis ahead in the list of cities 
that were becoming centers of wholesaling and manu- 
facturing. Of course the impetus was felt in flour 
milling and in lumliering, but more than ever before 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, JIINNESOTA 



145 



it liegan to sliow in other productive industries, some 
related and others unrelated to what were then the 
two chief manufacturing institutions. 

NEW INDUSTRIES ARE FOUNDED, OLD ONES 
STRENGTHENED. 

And SO it came about that some of the largest man 
ufaeturers of to-day laid their foundations then. Ex- 
amples may be found in the Minneapolis Steel Ma- 
chinery Company, the Northwestern Knitting Com- 
pany, the Minneapolis Threshing ^Machine Company, 
the Minneapolis Furniture Company, the ^linneapolis 
Bedding Company, the Andrews Heating Company, 
the linseed oil works, in which a score of companies 
are engaged, and various other lines of manufacture. 
Some of these lines had been represented for many 
3'ears, but it was during the period mentioned when 
the.y began to expand, and it was then, also, that their 
title to enduring place was tested by the storms of 
business depression. The same measure may be ap- 
plied to or found in other lines of business — the retail 
trade, for example. And in this connection it is in- 
teresting to enumerate some of the old retail firms 
which still endure, even though the name of the con- 
cern may have been changed. 

SOME LONG-LIVED AND TRIAL-TESTED BUSINESS FIRMS. 

Most of the large retail stores of today had their 
origin after 1880. One, however, that of John AV. 
Thomas & Company, traces back to 1867, when G. AV. 
Hale & Company established a store on Washington 
Avenue South : G. W. and J. M. Hale later were 
associated, and eventually the firm became Hale, 
Thomas & Company, then J. AV. Thomas & Company. 
Its history is likewise the history of the progress of 
retail trade from AA'ashington Avenue to and up 
Nicollet Avenue. Other big retail firms of the decade 
of 1880 were Goodfellow & Eastman, now become the 
Da^'ton Company ; AVilliam Donaldson, founder of 
the present huge department store enterprise ; In- 
gram, Oleson & Compan.v, predecessors of the present 
Powers Department Store Company ; Dale, Barnes, 
Morse & Company, later Dale, Barnes, Hengerer & 
Company, predecessors (with AA^aketield & Plant and 
Folds & Griffith), of the present Jlinneapolis Dry 
Goods' Company ; and the New England Furniture 
& Carpet Company, established in 188.5 by the pres- 
ent head of the company, AV. L. Harris. 

WHOLESALE TRADE IS OF RECENT DEVELOPMENT. 

For the most part, the wholesale trade has devel- 
oped since the later years of the nineteenth century, 
for the .iobbing houses which were prominent in Alin- 
neapolis prior to 1890 were engaged in handling 
groceries, drugs, dry goods, and farm implements, 
^linneapolis in those days .stood second to St. Paul as 
the .jobbing headquarters of the Northwest. In 1880 
]\Iinneapolis's wholesale trade amounted to about $24,- 
000,000. Its growth was steady in the next ten years, 
the decade of boom development, and by 1800 it had 



reached an annual volume of $135,000,000. Its chief 
factors were the .jobbing houses which are today the 
leaders in the city's jobbing trade — which is reiter- 
ated proof of the city's fine weathering of the busi- 
ness depression of 18!)3 and the five years thereafter. 

BANKING CONDITIONS. 

Perhaps the best single index to the business con- 
ditions of the decade from 1880 to 1890, and of the 
years just before and during the business depression, 
is to be found in the banking business. During the 
ten years mentioned, men were just as enthusiastic 
about founding new banks as they were al)out launch- 
ing other concerns. But that dcHation followed infla- 
tion is shown by this notable fact: Of all the banks 
established in that decade, only one remains, retain- 
ing its identity, the German American bank. To be 
sure, all the principal banks in Minneapolis were in 
existence then, but they had been established prior 
to that time, and some of tliem represent, through ab- 
sorption, several other banks which then existed or 
were founded during that period. 

Another index is to be found in the bank clearings. 
In 1881 the total bank clearings of Alinneapolis were 
$19,487.6r)0. By 1890 they had mounted to .$303,913,- 
022, and in 1892 they were $438,053,526. Then came 
the business slump, and nothing is more significant of 
this fact than the bank clearings for the year 1893 — 
they totaled $332,243,860. And it was not until 
1898 when the bank clearings passed those for 1892, 
and indicated, by their total of $460,222,572, that 
business had recovered. 

DURING THE WAR WITH SPAIN. 

It is no reproach to Alinneapolis to declare that the 
years that followed the first break in business ad- 
vancement were singularly barren years, as regards 
large events. Business was fighting merely to hold 
its "own from 1893 to 1898, and it was not to ])e ex- 
pected that any achievement that went beyond the 
normal for the times would be recorded. It was 
perhaps fortunate that the middle of this period of 
depres.sion was enlivened by the jiolitical upheavals 
of the national campaign of 1896. when the two great 
parties made a political issue of the proper road to 
be taken to get back to prosperity. All IMinneapolis. 
like most cities, became a great forum of political 
discu.ssion, and the outcome of the campaign and elec- 
tion, carrying reassurance of the business world as 
its psychological effect, helped to put Alinneapolis 
back on its feet. 

Thus the year of the war with Spain saw IMinne- 
apolis rejuvenated — sobered, perhaps, by the adversi- 
ties of fiepression yeai-s, but better grounded than 
ever before in city building. It was from Alinneapolis^ 
largely, that theThirtenth Regiment went, which, of 
all four Minnesota regiments of infantry that the 
State sent, saw most service in the war ; and not only 
to the Thirteenth, but to the Twelfth, the Fourteenth, 
and the Fifteenth Regiments the city gave numbers 
of its best young men. To the Thirteenth Regiment, 



1-16 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



ou its returu from the Philippines jn 1899, Minne- 
apolis gave glorious welcome with a great parade, — 
perhaps the most stirring in the eit.y's history, — 
which was reviewed hy President McKinley. 

EFFORTS AT CHARTER CHANGING. 

The sobering years of the middle '9()s led up 
to another phase of development. They prompted 
the first recognition of civic duty as it l)ore upon 
municipal government — that is, the first in a decade 
whicli perforce had been given over to booming. And 
in 181)8 came the first effort toward change in tlie 
charter since its adoption in the early "80s. 
There had been amendments galore— but no attempt 
at complete change to the extent of adopting a "home- 
rule" charter. The attempt failed — and it is per- 
haps legitimate to insert at this point in a chronology 
recognition of the fact tliat similar attempts made in 
19(HI, 1904, 1906. and 1913 were likewise failures, the 
charter remaining in 1914 amended, if at all, by an 
act of the State Legislature. 

Efforts in 1898 toward charter changes by vote of 
the whole people did not necessarily indicate tliat 
civic consciousness and civic conscience were synony- 
mous terms. For shortly after the city entered upon 
the Twentieth Century, it passed through the experi- 
ence of a municipal scandal, involving its government 
in disgrace. It was a scandal preceded by two or 
three lesser ones a few years previously, involving 
officials lower in the governmental scale than those 
caught in the meshes of the larger scandal. There is 
no little measure of satisfaction to ^linneapolis peo- 
ple to know that this was not the only city disturbed 
and disgraced for the moment in such a manner, and 
to feel that the years since have for the most part, 
softened consideration of the man in whose adminis- 
tration, during 1900 ancf 1901, the municipal shame 
centered. 

It is a notable fact that for the most part the nnini- 
cipal government has run along with little change 
all tlirough the first years of the present century. 
The mayors in the six two-year terms beginning in 
1900 have been, in the order named. Dr. A. A. Ames. 
James C. Haynes, David P. Jones, then James C. 
Haynes for three tenns ending in 1911. and then "Wal- 
lace G. Nye. Generally speaking, improvement that 
was continuous and successive and began to char- 
acterize the government, in executive offices and in 
the council itself, dates from the last few j'ears of 
the Nineteenth Century. 

CONFIDENCE AND DETERMINATION CAME IN 1898. 

It was the year 1898 that really signalized return 
of confidence in the future, on the part of all the peo- 
ple. The faithful city builders who had pass?d 
through similar periods of depression before — some 
of them as eai'ly as 1857 — were for the most part 
still foremost in public affairs, and they had been 
hanging on through thick and thin. The rest of the 
people became iiisjiircd by their exfimple. Everyone 
by the time the War with Spain closed had his shoul- 



der to the wheel again. Building activity revived, 
and the spread of the population began to justify 
imi^rovement of the traction system. 

THE STREET RAILWAY BUILDS NEW LINES. 

In 1898 the Street Railway Company constructed 
a second Interurban Line, the Como-Harriet, between 
the two cities. By 1900 the company had twice im- 
proved its power sources. And by 190.5 it had re- 
sumed extension of its lines in several important par- 
ticulars. It built its Lake Street Cross-Town Line 
and connected it with a St. Paul line for a third In- 
terurban Line. It built its line to Fort Snelling, 
extending it from ]\linnehaha Falls. And it built its 
double-track line to Lake ]Minnetonka, whei-e it took 
over at the same time, or soon afterwards, most of the 
water transportation system. 

SOME CENSUS FIGURES OP 1900. 

^liiuieapolis swung into the Twentieth Century 
with a population, according to the Federal census 
of 1900. of 202.718, an increase of nearly 40.000 in 
ten years. Its business stability was re-established ; 
its bank clearings had mounted to $580,000,000, and 
its flour production passed 15,000,000 barrels. Its 
lumber cut had begun to fall off; the turning point 
in output of the sawmills of the city in 1901 reached 
559.000.000 feet, but the big lumbermen were already 
moving westward with their nulls, and r^Iinneapoiis 
was becoming headquarters for the financial end of 
the business, instead of the manufacturing end. 

According to United States census figures. Minne- 
apolis in 1899 had 789 industrial establishments, 
whose total output was valued at .^95.000.000 and 
whose employes numbered 20,000. The next manufac- 
turing census, taken five years later, showed 21,000 em- 
ployes, and an output of more than $121,000,000. 

PROGRESS IN CULTURE AND REFINEMENT. 

The several periods of commercial progress in ;\Iiti- 
neapolis have had their simultaneous periods of 
growth of the city's soul, of its civic consciousness, 
of its culture and refinement. There are more and 
more tokens of this city sense, in consideration of in- 
stitutions that have come into being. And 'one of 
these is the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, 
founded in 1903 as an outgrowth of efforts by the 
Philharmonics and their supporters. It was in 1901 
that Emil J. Oberhoffer became leader of that organ- 
ization, and musical development in two years led 
to the establishing of the Orchestra, and to its incor- 
poration as an enterpri.se underwritten by some of 
the public-spirited men and women. In a few years 
it ventured forth 1o other cities, gradually making 
the name of Jlinneapolis known for culture and art, 
as well as for flour and lumber and hustle. And by 
1914 it had earned a place among the first three such 
organizations in America, and had appeared before 
large audiences in the largest cities of the country. 
It has become the largest single factor in the musical 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



147 



education of the public and has attracted to its con- 
certs weekly during the season great numbers of dis- 
criminating people whose musical taste has con- 
stantly grown and as constantly demanded and ap- 
preciated better nuisic. 

Simultaneous with the establishment of the orches- 
tra in 1901 was the creation of a nuiniciiial art com- 
mission, in response to a recognition of the need for 
competent direction as it came to be possible to acquire 
works of art and to build for artistic excellence. 

"Within a few years, also, far-seeing business men 
established a civic commission, which sought by ar- 
tistic planning to lay out the streets and avenui-s and 
to .select sites so as to ])uild intelligently, after the 
manner of the nation's capital, under the guiding 
hand of a competent architect for the whole city, in- 
stead of under the hit-or-miss direction of a multi- 
tude of builders without a city sense. 

It was natural then that the people's ambitions 
would turn toward an art museum. Fostered by the 
spirit that had established the Society of Fine Arts, 
and building around that body, the nucleus of an art 
institute became a tangible reality through the gener- 
osity of a few wealthy men. The ^Morrison residence 
property — oddly enough part of a tract of land which 
more than a quarter of a century before had vainly 
been offered as a park — was presented to the city as 
a site for a museum, and big men, who either knew 
the art impulse or appreciated its worth, set about 
raising an endowment to support a great museum. 
To this the city added more land by aequisitiou of 
Fair Oaks, the residence property of W. D. Wash- 
burn, and in 1911 the corner stone of the museum 
was laid with appropriate ceremony. Here was the 
creation of an institution figured in dollars at half a 
million, and even before its completion it was to 
have a bequest of twice that value from one of the 
men who had been chief among its original pro- 
moters. 

Linked with such activities as the establishing of 
the Orchestra and promoting the cause of art came 
the building of the Auditorium, a structure which 
could house the Orchestra and serve, until something 
better could be erected, as the meeting place for large 
gatherings and for conventions. The city had taken 
on ways increasingly metropolitan as one after an- 
other the theater facilities had lieen increased, first 
with the building of the ]\Ietropolitan Opera House 
— at first known as the People's — in 1894, Ten years 
later the Auditorium was opened, and in the same 
year vaudeville came to town, to have its first lodg- 
ment in the Orpheum Theater. Within five years 
four other vaudeville houses were added. 

THE NEWSPAPERS OP THE TWENTIETH CENTFKY. 

When Minneapolis entered the Twentieth Century, 
its chief exponents in the way of publicity consisted 
of four daily newspapers: The Tribune, established 
in 1867; the Journal, founded in 1878: the Times, 
founded in 1889 ; and the Tidende, a Scandinavian 
newspaper. The city had seen many a newspaper 
enterprise flourish, then languish. It had passed 



through a bitter combat with St. Paul, in which pos- 
session of a daily newspaper figured lai'gely. and in 
which an attempt to carry on a newspaper as a Twin 
City enterprise had failed. By 1903 another daily 
paper, the New's, was founded ; and by another year 
the Times, a morning paper, had gone out of exist- 
ence. The Tribune, with which had been connected 
such men as "Bill" and "Tom"' King, Gen. A. B. 
Nettleton, Albert Shaw, Alden J. Bletheu, had been 
acquired by W. J. Murphy. The Times had been the 
means by which W. E. Haskell had identified himself 
with Minneapolis. The Journal had been published 
for more than twenty j'ears by Lucian Swift, J. S. 
ilcLain, and their associates when it came, in 1908, 
under the control of H. V. Jones, a. former reporter 
on the same paper. The News had introduced a new 
form of newspaper, as well' as the chain system of 
newspaper ownership. 

In class or trade .journalism Minneapolis was by 
this time the home of the principal flour-milling ]>ub- 
lication in America, the Northwestern Miller, and 
of an aspiring literary publication, the Bellman. It 
had seen other weekly and monthly i)ublications, but 
most of them had passed on. 

These newspapers had played thi'ir part all through 
the advancement of the city. They had fought its 
battles, had chronicled its achievements and its scan- 
dals. And in most of the events — brought about 
through the eiforts of the leaders in politics, industry 
and the finer things of life — the daily newspapers had 
figured as important factors. They themselves had 
been subject to many changes, both as regards their 
own existence and as hinged upon their relation to 
the public. As institutions they endured side by side 
with the variously named but alwa.ys principal com- 
mercial organization, which had its beginning in 
1855 under the name of the Union Board of Trade, 
and was succeeded from time to time by this or that 
other similar association with the same object in view, 
and now represented by the Minneapolis Civic and 
Commerce Association. 

COMMERCI.\L AND OTHER CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS. 

The story of organized effort in behalf of the whole 
cit.v is interesting, especiall.v as it is a chronicle of 
changes, of fluctuations in the civic and commercial 
spirit as a unit. Thus the business men's organiza- 
tion in the late 'f)0s was the Union Board of Trade, 
just then incorporated. By 1881 the Chamber of 
Connnerce had been established and represented for 
the time the leading commercial liod.v, although it 
was primarily and essentially a grain and Hour ex- 
change. In 1884 the Jobbers' Association took its 
place, though its interests were centered in the whole- 
sale trade. Six years later the Business Union took 
up the burden of promoting the city's inlercsts as a 
whole. And in 1892 the Conunercial Club was 
formed, uniting most of the other business elements. 
For nearly twenty years the Commercial Club was 
behind nearly every big movement, although at times 
a specialized organization, like the Jobbers' and 
Jlanufacturers' Association, went about things pecu- 



148 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



liar to its membership. In 1901 the Club oeeupied 
fine elub-rooms in the Andriis Building, then new ; 
by 1!)09 it had outgrown these quarters and had, in 
promoting the building of a fine big hotel, arranged 
for quarters for itself in the Hotel Radisson. Two 
yeai's later the Club's commercial and civic interests 
were tal^en over bj- a new organization, formed on 
broader lines to meet the needs of the time, known 
as the Civic and Commerce Association. Two years 
more, and the Minneapolis Athletic Club, with a new 
building under way, merged with the Commercial 
Club, the older name being dropped. 

Other chibs had meanwhile been organized, to repre- 
sent various interests in the city's life. The chief 
social body, the ilinneapolis Club, was established 
in 1886, occupying at first a rented house at Sixth 
Street and First Avenue North. Later it built its 
own home two blocks down Sixth Street, and in 1908 
moved again to a handsome club-house at Eighth 
Street and Second Avenue South. Other social clubs. 
formed later, include the ilinikahda Club, in 1898; 
the Odin Clixb, in 1899 ; and the University Club in 
1909. About this time district commercial clubs lie- 
gan to be organized. 

In the early years of the Twentieth Century, also, 
came organized efforts at city betterment in another 
form — the establishment of settlement houses. These. 
by 1910, came to number several which have become 
important factors, among them being Wells ilemo- 
rial and Pillsbury Settlement Houses. Unity House, 
and, though dift'erent in form and not at all a settle- 
ment liouse in its plan of operation, the Citizens' 
Club, on Riverside Avenue, a work made possible 
among the people of the club by the generosity of 
George 11. Christian, builder of the club-house. 

IMPORTANT INCIDENTS IN THE CITY 's RECENT HISTORY. 

Achievements in the public's behalf took on other 
forms in tlie first years of the century. In 1911. for 
instance, a celebration of the city's growth in beauty 
covered an entire week and included pageantry and 
parades as well as a ceremony of linking Lake Cal- 
houn and Lake of the Isles 1)y canal. In 1913 the 
construction of a high dam in the ^Mississippi River 
near the Soldiers' Home was begun, by the Federal 
Government, to make Minneapolis the head of navi- 
gation and at the same time to provide power for 
use by the municipality and the State University. 
The same year marked the completion of the filtra- 
tion plant and the pumping of pure wafer into the 
homes. Civil service regulations were introduced into 
the city offices tlie same year. In 1913, also, citizens 
w^ho appreciated "Tom" Lowry's deeds for the puli- 
lic goocl united in erecting a memorial statue to him 
at the junction of Lyndale and Hennepin Avenues, 
near his late home. 

Simultaneously the city was becoming more beau- 
tiful, l)y the efforts of the Park Poard. The parkway 
system was being worked out. to girdle ]\Iinneapolis. 
The ])ublic school facilities were being increased, a 
notalile addition being the new Central High School, 
at Thirly-fourfh Street and Fourth .\venue South. 



Similarly the same year saw the establishment of the 
lilake School for Boys, a private educational institu- 
tion, newly located now on ample grounds west of 
Lake Harriet, near the Lake Minnetonka car line. 

It was about 1905 that another pha.se in develop- 
ment opened, in the construction of the Dan Patch 
Electric Railway southward from ^linneapolis, tap- 
ping a rich country theretofore tributary largely to 
St. Paul because of railroad operation and influence. 
And by 1911 construction of another similar line, the 
Luce Line westward to Lake Minnetonka and beyond, 
gave the city another suburban line such as had for 
some years figured largely in railway development in 
Ohio. Indiana, and Illinois. Such a railway was also 
built to Anoka, on the east side of the river. 

The city continued to grow. Larger and more mod- 
ern bu.siness stiiietures were ei"ected, among them the 
Plymouth Building, in its first year the largest re-en- 
forced concrete building in America ; the ilcKnight, 
the Security Bank Building, tiie Donaldson office 
building, the huge structures in the district given 
over chiefly to wholesale trade, the Dyckman Hotel, 
the handsome retail structures on Upper Nicollet. 
Beautiful houses of wor.ship, like Plymouth Congre- 
gational Church, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, and 
the Catholic Pro-Cafhedi-al were built. The business 
men in the Commercial Club — which became the Civic 
and Commerce Association — had exerted strenuous 
efforts toward obtaining a Union Passenger Station, 
had failed, and while seeking authorization for con- 
struction of a municipal terminal had seen James J. 
Hill construct a hanclsome station to serve the same 
roads formerly running into the old Union Station. 
Business interests, working through the Civic and 
Commerce Association, had attracted new industries. 
Interest in better living conditions led to the making 
of a health survey. Recognition of recreational needs 
led to the creation of extensive public baths at Lake 
Calhoun, as well as lesser such facilities in a munici- 
pal bath house on Rivei'side Avenue, and public 
baths at Camden and on Hall's Lsland, and in the 
Mississippi in North ^Minneapolis. Playground facili- 
ties likewise were largelv augmented in the five 
years after 1909. 

Commercially the city forged steadily forward. 
There was an interval of depression in 1907, reflected 
from the East, but the city soon got back on its feet 
again. Municipal government controversies arose 
occasionally in these early Twentiefh Century years, 
to give zest to everyday life. Bitter rivalry over the 
.selection of a site for a new postoffice building that 
was to be inadequate to its purpose even before it was 
completed, brought out heated advocacy of a building 
place on Bridge Square or on Third Avenue South 
facing the ililwaukee Railway Station, the latter win- 
ning out. Similarly hot discussion preceded the de- 
cision of the Council to erect a new bridge across the 
river at Third Avenue South, as well as Nineteenth 
Avenue South. 

In consideration of governmental aft'aii's connected 
with regulation and control of public utilities, issues 
aro.se between the public and the Gas. the Electric, 
and the Street Railway Companies, involving tjie 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



149 



right to regulate rates or to fix the price of trans- 
portation. Each controversy led into court review 
of the situation, and even as late as 1914 no settle- 
ment has been reached in some of the suits. Fran- 
chise duration and terms were also in controversy. 
Tht> Street Railway Company's dispute was over the 
ris'ht of the City Council to require it to sell six 
rides for 25 cents, and the courts decided in favor 
of the Company. The Electric Company and the city 
fell out over rates, and their dispute has not come to 
any definite decision, although rates have since been 
reduced by the Company to points below the schedule 
fixed by the City Council. The Gas Company's first 
difference with the municipality had to clo with the 
terms of a renewal of its franchise, and five years 
later, with the effort of the City Council to reduce 
the price of gas — an effort which opened a long road 
of litigation hinging largely upon the proper valua- 
tion of the company property as a basis for fixing 
rates so as to give the company just returns on its 
investments. 

It was in the first decade of the new century, also, 
that the city took in hand the problem of grade cross- 
ings on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway 's 
tracks. Twenty years or more before, tliere had been 
a separation of grades on the Great Northern and the 
I\Iinneapolis & St. Louis Railway's tracks westward 
from the river on Fourth Avenue North, and a drag 
on the development of the North Side had been re- 
moved. Council action, tested in the courts, led in 
1911 to the commencement of track depression on the 
Hastings & Dakota tracks of the Milwaukee road, 
across the city from Cedar Avenue. And in 1013 
efforts toward lowering or elevating the main line 
tracks of the same company began. Late in the same 
year residents of the East Side began similar efforts 
for a separation of grades on railroads, particularly 
those in Southeast Minneapolis and through the Uni- 
versity campus. 



THE CONDITIONS OP TO-DAY. 

The sixty-seventh year of ^Minneapolis — counting 
time from the first permanent settlement of St. An- 
thony — saw a city with a population of at least 325,- 
000; with its flour mills, the milling capital of the 
world : with its Art IMuseum, the art center of the 
nation west of Chicago: with its parks and boule- 
vards, file beauty center of Western muni(dpalities : 
with its new Government high dam almost completed, 
the potential head of navigation of the Mississippi 
River; with its wholesale houses and manufactories,- 
tlie supj)ly base for the great empire of the North- 



west ; witli its steam and electric railways, the trans- 
portation center of that same empire of wlieat and 
corn and the products of diversified farming; with 
its linseed plants, the chief center of industries which 
are linked with that form of enterprise ; with its huge 
volume of trade peculiar to tlie products of the soil 
of the Northwest, the banking capital of this ti'ade 
empire. Jlore than most other American cities M'm- 
neapolis has grown in culture at a rate at least equal 
to the rapidity of its commercial progi-ess. 

So it is possible to point to commercial progress as 
an index to growth in the finer tilings of the brain 
and the spirit and tlie temperament. It is a measure 
of advancement to show that in this cit.y of more than 
325,000, the bank deposits at the " end of 1913 
amounted to more than $101,000,000; that in that 
year the flour production of ]\linneapolis mills was 
more than 19,000,000 barrels, the greatest in the his- 
tory of the milling industry ; that the bank clearings 
were $1,312,000,000; that ':\Iinneapolis daily loaded 
and shipped 1,001 cars of freight, and received 1,159 
cars; that nearly $13,000,000 worth of buildings were 
erected; that the corporate property of the city of 
Minneapolis was valued at $48,000,000, against less 
than $23,000,000 in 1900; that these items of coi-po- 
rafe property included 185 miles of paved streets. 325 
miles of sewers, nearly $15,000,000 invested in schools, 
parks, and parkways; that the public school popula- 
tion was 48,000 pupils ; and that the conveniences and 
privileges of urban life through avaliability of edu- 
cational, recreational, transportation, and other ad- 
vantages were unsurpassed by those of any other city 
in America. 

Just at the beginning of the year 1914 an index to 
the state of progress of IMinneapolis as a whole was 
supplied in the form of remarkable munificence at the 
hands of a man who, dying, left mostly to the people 
the millions he had made chiefly in the industry 
around which the city has been built up. Thus it is 
pos.sible to indicate the city's acquired power to ap- 
preciate, by chronicling the gifts by "William H. Dun- 
woody, miller, of $1,000,000 to the stocking of the art 
museum; of $1,000,000 to $3,000,000 to establish an 
industrial school or institute for the youth ; and of 
smaller sums to educational and cultural institutions. 
These gifts were provided ])y Mr. Dnnwoody, in his 
will, for the peo|)le of a city which sprang in 1847, 
and the years following, from a wilderness ; but which 
liecause it was peopled in the beginning by men and 
women of culture, of refinement, of moral strength, 
and of high ideals, became a municipality with a city 
sense, a community with a common purpose, a unit of 
society with appreciation of its duty toward the com- 
mon good. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
PERSONAL AND HISTORICAL REMINISCENCES BY PROMINENT CITIZENS. 



p. rPTOX's NOTES ON EARLY DAYS IN ST. ANTHONY — CHAS. M. LORING 's " VISTA OP FIFTY YEARS " THOS. B. 

walker's reminiscences, HISTORICAL SKETCHES, AND NOTES ON LUMBER MANUFACTURING AT ST. AN- 
THONY'S FALLS — GEO. H. CHRISTIAN'S NOTES ON EARLY ROLLER MILLING IN MINNEAPOLIS AND HOW CERTAIN 

R.ULROADS OPPRESSED THE MILLERS GEORGE H. WARREN 'S NOTES AN EXCERPT FROM "tHE PIONEER WOODSMAN 

AS HE IS RELATED TO LUMBERING IN THE NORTHWEST. " 



The articles on Minneapolis history here given are 
both interesting and valuable. They have been pre- 
pared by citizens who had the opportunity to make 
much of the city's eai'l.v and important history and 
were gifted with the abilit.y and capacity to write 
about it. "What the.v have said, therefore, may be re- 
garded as fairly authoritative. Of the history they 
have set down it may be said that all of it they saw 
and a great part of it they were. 

There may be a few errors of statement but they 
cannot be many or serious. The writers have told 
their stories well and generations for many years to 
come will profit by and en.ioy reading them. They 
were written with the idea that other articles might 
be prepared and derived from them, but, with only 
one exception, it was considered best to present them 
in their original form. Upon the whole it was be- 
lieved to be unnecessary, if not impossible, to try to 
better them. 

R. P. UPTON "S NOTES OF EARLY ST. ANTHONY. 

Rufus P. Upton, who was among the earliest pio- 
neers of St. Anthony, wrote, some years ago, a few 
notes of certain incidents connected with the early 
history of St. Anthony and Minneapolis. These notes 
have been kindly furnished for use in this history by 
Mr. E. K. Upton, a son of the pioneer, and the suc- 
ceeding paragraphs have been derived from them. 

"I arrived in St. Anthony in the month of June, 
A, D. 18.50," writes Mr. Upton, "from the good old 
State of Elaine. I spent the first summer and fall in 
tcacliing school in the little old school house but re- 
cently seen on University Avenue," Of his succeed- 
ing experiences the old pioneer writes: 

"The following spring found me on the first steam- 
boat on my way to Davenport, Iowa, where I made an 
arrangement with a nurseryman for a quantity of 
fruit and ornamental trees, shrubbery, and flowers, 
and also purchased a variety of poultry. The nur- 
sery was planted and the poultry yard located on the 
lower part of Nicollet Island, where is now the long 
stone building of the Island Power Company. They 
were hauled to tlie Island from the east side, fording 
the river. Ttiis was the first nursery in the State, 
The most of the fruit trees died and the remainder, 



after a few years, was removed and was the beginning 
of Ford's Nurserj', half waj'^ between this city and St. 
Paul. 

"The same year — in June, I think — I succeeded J. 
]M. and Wm. R. Mai'shall in the grocery business, 
which was carried on in a little store near Captain 
Joliii Rollins 's old house, on Main Street, E, I),: I 
lived in the rear end of the building, I renuiined in 
this building lietween one and two years, when I re- 
moved to King's Iniilding, near the site of the Pills- 
bury 'A' Mill, and branched out into a general store 
of dry goods, clothing, boots and shoes, iron, steel, 
nails, glass, and blacksmitli's tools. 

"In the fall of 1853 I leased from Col. J. H. 
Stevens a store located near where the Pauly House 
now stands, and stocked it with goods. Thomas 
Chambers had been clerking for me for some time 
and I gave him an interest in and full charge of this 
store, thus constituting the firm of I'pton & Chambers. 
This was: ihc first store in Minneapolis, on the ircst 
side. The next spring (1854) the store building 
Inirned, and I sold the stock of goods remaining after 
the fire to Mr. Chambers 'on time.' Soon after he 
formed a partnership with Edwin Iledderly and the 
business became a success. Isaac I. Lewis had the 
second for third) store on the west side, near the site 
of Harlow Cale's City Market; I sold him his stock 
of goods amounting to .'|;2,000. 

"In the spring of 1854 Capt. John Rollins, Judge 
Isaac Atwater, Franklin Steele, and I went to Dr. 
Kingsle.v's liouse, on Hennepin Island, The doctor 
I'lainied the entii-i' Island liecau.se he had .iumped ilr. 
Steele's claim to it, and there was a controversy be- 
tween them over the property which we went to settle. 
•We succeeded in effecting a compromise between the 
parties. Dr. Kingsley took the southwest part of the 
Island, commencing neai- the Falls, where is now the 
East Side City Wati'r Works, and Mr. Steele took the 
remainder of the Island. At the same time Capt. 
Rollins. John W. Eastman, M. P, Upton, and myself 
obtained from i\Ir. Steele a lease for a flouring mill site 
and water to run a mill on the east side of the I.sland, 
The rate of rent agreed upon for the first twenty 
years (T think) was $200 per year, 

"The lessees at once proceeded to build a flouring 
mill. W. W. Eastman came soon after, took half of 



150 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



151 



his l)rother's interest, aud acted as agent at a salary 
of $800 a year; M. P. Upton and I acted as treasurers 
without salary. The establishment was called the 
Minnesota ilills. It was -40 by 50 feet in size, and was 
of wood on a stone foundation. The millstones were 
three French buhrs, four and one-half feet in diam- 
eter, and two of them were for grinding wheat and 
the other for corn and feed. This was the first incr- 
clmni mill in the State. At first all the wheat ground 
in it was brought up the river from Illinois. Iowa, and 
Wisconsin. At that date it was not thought practi- 
cable to raise wheat with complete success in Minne- 
sota ; attempts at Fort Snelling and elsewhere had 
been largely total failures. The largest stock we ever 
liad on hand for a winter's run was 20,000 bushels. 
The market for all our prodiicts was readily found 
at home. Our wheat and our goods all had to be 
hauled from St. Paul by teams, at an expense of from 
$2 to $3 a ton, and besides the warehouse charges in 
St. Paul were not small items. These and other con- 
siderations had often set the business men of the 
young city to discussing the practicability of navigat- 
ing the Mississippi to the Falls by steamboats during 
the periods of very high water. 

■'In July, 1850, the steamer Dr. Franklin No. 2, 
Capt. D. S. Harris, came up to where the Tenth 
Avenue Iron Bridge now is, and turned in the swift 
current and went back to St. Paul. But the boat 
was handicapped; the captain was said to be 'pretty 
full,' the boat carried a head of steam of 120 pounds, 
aiid the river was the highest I ever saw it. The 
Anthony Wayne. Capt. Dan Able, had preceded the 
Franklin to near the Falls, and the Lamartine fol- 
lowed the Franklin in a few days. After 1850 a long 
time elapsed before we saw another steamboat at 
Minneapolis. 

"In the spring of 1855 I purchased in Pittsburg 
100 tons of iron, steel, nails, etc., and ordered the stock 
shipped to JMinneapolis. The bill of lading was to 
'St. Paul or St. Anthony' and the rate of freight 90 
cents to St. Paul and $1 to St. Anthony. Knowing 
that without help the goods would not get above St. 
Paul, I drove down there to meet them. Before leav- 
ing home I met Judge ileeker, who knew my business, 
and he handed me a $100 check to hand to the pilot 
of the steamboat as a 'persuader' — to induce him to 
agree to steer his boat up the dangerous channel to 
Minneapolis. The steamer did not arrive until the 
evening of my second trip to St. Paul. 

"I innnediately went on board and was followed 
by numerous citizens of St. Paul, who knew my Inisi- 
ness, and they put more obstructions and dangers in 
the river than belonged there. They told the captain 
that he would surely lose his boat if he attempted to 
mak(> the trip. (They wanted the ,iob of hauling the 
goods with teams.) Finall.v the captain put the re- 
sponsibility upon the pilot and left it to him to de- 
cide whether the boat should go or not. I then 
showed the pilot the $100 'persuader,' and he decided 
to make the trip ! But the captain said it was late, 
and that he would not be ready to start until morn- 
ing: so I returned home and the next morning hur- 
ried back to St. Paul. When I arrived I found that 



some of our friends at 'the head of na\igation' had 
got the pilot senselessly drunk and laid him away ! 
Then I negotiated with the second pilot, gave him the 
check, went into the pilot house with him, and he 
took the wheel, and we came up to St. Anthony with- 
out difficult.v. Before noon we landed on the tlat just 
below the University, the place being known as 
Cheever's Landing. 

"This incident incited other boats to follow and 
helloed to awaken an interest in the subject of steam- 
boat navigation. Drawing up a paper, I proceeded 
to get subscriptions to a fund to bring about in some 
way the running of boats to the Falls. By heading it 
with a libei'al sum myself, I succeeded in getting a 
subscription of $5,000, about half of which was paid 
up. With this subscription paper I went down to 
Dubuque, where a line of boats running to St. Paul 
was owned. I went to J. P. Farley, who was then 
extensively engaged in trade, had stock in the steam- 
boat company, and controlled the steamer Lamartine. 
He took kindly to the proposition I made him, talked 
with his associates, and called a meeting of prominent 
business men to whom I made a proposition to form a 
transportation company which should be mutually 
beneficial. They fell in with the proposition, and we 
formed a new company with which the ^linneapolis 
interest was merged. The Dubuque parties had two- 
thirds of the stock and the ^Minneapolis men had one- 
third. 

"Mr. Farley and I then went to St. Louis and 
bought the steamer Hindoo, which I partly loaded 
with goods for St. Anthony. We both came up on 
her, but by this time the summer was well advanced 
and the river was very low. On the rocks and rapids 
below Cheever's Landing the boat stuck; she was a 
heavy side-wheeler and drew too much water for our 
trade. After several ineffectual attempts to reach 
Cheever's, the Hindoo was compelled to drop back and 
finally landed uiy goods at what came to be called 
Meeker's Landing, just above the eastern end of the 
Short Line Bridge. The citizens turned out aud 
graded a road up the bank, which subsequently was 
quite useful. After this, during the proper season, 
the Lamartine and the Hindoo ran on the river below. 
R. W. Cummings was chief clerk of the Hindoo and 
represented our interests in both boats. The follow- 
ing winter (1S55-5G) they were sold; the river proved 
to be not suited to the navigation conditions whicli 
we needed. The company then dissolved with a small 
profit to its credit. 

"In the fall of 1850 the Minneapolis Board of 
Trade took hold of the matter of improving the river. 
About $5,000 was raised and a committee appointed 
to carry out the improvement. Edward ]\Iuri)hy aud 
I were members of this committee; I do not remem- 
ber who the other members were. By the following 
spring (1857) we had removed all interfering rocks 
and buoyed out a channel 70 feet wide. Pureuant to 
an arrangement a line of boats ran that season from 
Fulton City, 111., to Cheever's Landing, bringing up 
all our freight and many passengers. We also put a 
cai)stan on the lower end of the levee, and with a three- . 
inch cable, more llian half a mile long, helped the 



152 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



weak boats over the rapids with a span of horses. At 
Cheever's Landing were erected several houses, one 
of which was quite large and roomy. Not a vestige of 
any of them now remains. 

"Then came the destructive financial distresses of 
1857-58, which 'knocked on the head' so many West- 
ern interests. We had scarcely recovered from this 
period of hard times when the War of the Rebellion 
came and for some time interfered with all our enter- 
prises. Not long after its close the railroads came 
and well nigh pTit the steamboats out of business." 

Although Mr. Upton must be regarded as among 
the very highest authorities on Minneapolis history, 
other ai;thorities differ from him. As to early steam- 
boat histoiy, Hudson (p. 463) says: 

"At last, in 1854, the citizens of Minneapolis and 
St. Anthony organized a stock company, with .'};30,0()U 
capital, and suljseqnently put a boat called the Falls 
City regularly in tlie Minneapolis and lower river 
trade. Capt. J. C. Reno, an Ohio River steamboat- 
man, came to IMinneapolis in 1856, and in 1857 be- 
came interested in the development of river traffic 
here, and through his exertions four boats were put 
regulai'ly in the trade. During 1857 there were 52 
arrivals of steamboats at Minneapolis and 10,000 tons 
of freight were discharged on the landings below the 
present Wa.shington Avenue Bridge." 

Jlr. Upton says the firet local steamboat company 
was not organized until in 1855 and then with a cap- 
ital of but $5,000, instead of $30,000, and that the 
boat put in was the Hindoo. He does not mention the 
Falls City or Capt. R«no. There are other disagree- 
ments between the authorities. 

REMINISCENCES, HISTOEICAL SKETCHES, AND GENEE.U, 

REVIEW OF LUMBER MANUFACTURING IN 

MINNEAPOLIS BY T. B. WALKER. 

It was an unfortunate experience that when the 
settlement of Minneapolis began, the present site of 
the city on the west side of the river was a Govern- 
ment military reservation held for no particular pur- 
pose whatever, but preventing the settlement and 
building of what would probably have been the first 
settlement and first city and the most important on 
the Mississippi River above St. Louis. 

The settlement in St. Paul began in 1838. Jack- 
son's store and trading house was established in what 
is now St. Paul in 1841. In 1842 and 1843 a number 
of other settlers came, and in 1844 Louis Robert estab- 
lished a store in St. Paul and trading posts among 
the Indians and continued trading with them for 
many years. The first deed recorded in St. Pavil was 
a quitclaim made April 23, 1844. 

In 1838, Franklin Steele made the first land claim 
by permit of the Government. He built a claim 
shanty and hired a Frenchman to occupy it. Steele 
secured the claim interests of certain officers at Fort 
Stielling, and in 1848 secured a title from the United 
States. His claims covered the whole east side water 
power from above Nicollet Island to a point below 
the Falls. Soon after, there was undertaken the con- 
struction of a sawmill on the east side water power. 



Ard Godfrey was sent for from Maine to construct 
the mill, which was built and ready for operation in 

1849. This was the beginning of the lumber business 
in Minneapolis. In connection with the building of 
the mill projected by Frank Steele, Caleb Dorr 
and Ard Godfrey, a millwright, both from ]\Iaine, 
were engaged to build the log dam across the east 
channel of the river at the head of Hennepin Island. 
This work was partially finished in 1848 and some 
sawing was done in the mill. This original mill had 
one old-fashioned sash saw that was run by water 
power of only ten or fifteen feet head. Calvin Tuttle 
was associated with Ard Godfrey in the building of 
the mill and R. P. Russell backed up the enterprise 
by furnishing supplies in the way of groceries, pro- 
visions, etc. 

Caleb Dorr brought from ilaine in 1850 a shingle 
mill which he intended to install on the Falls, but for 
some reason sold it to the Government and it was 
taken up to Fort Ripley aad operated by mule power 
for making shingles to cover the roofs of the Fort 
buildings. The output of Mr. Steele's mill in 1849 
was something less than three-quarters of a million 
feet of lumber of rather inferior grade and rather 
poorly sawed, being cut by an upright muley saw 
that ran about as fast as one could climb up and 
down stairs. In 1849 two additional mills were built 
next to Jlr. Steele's mill, making three in all. In 

1850, Sumner W. Farnum leased the power com- 
pany's three mills and operated them for about two 
years. In 1853 Henry T. Welles invested a consider- 
able sum of money in increasing the mills until the 
aggregate was eight, which he controlled for a couple 
of years and then, in 1857, sold them to Dorilus 
^Morrison, who for that year operated all of the eight 
mills, each having one saw. 

The Territorial Government was organized in 1849 
and Judge Meeker held the first court in the old Gov- 
ernment ]\Iill on the west side. Franklin Steele being 
foreman of the Grand Jury. During this year school 
was opened in a log cabin which later in the year was 
replaced by a frame schoolhouse, in which Rev. E. D. 
Neill, a Presbyterian minister of St. Paul, preached 
every alternate Sunday afternoon. The townsite of 
Minneapolis was laid out to the extent of one hun- 
dred acres, including what is now Bridge Square, by 
Col. John H. Stevens. He gave away many quarter- 
acre lots to people who would build homes and soon 
a little village was started. In 1858 the town was 
organized. 

•In the latter part of 1856, the ^linneapolis ^lill 
Company was organized and bought the claims of 
Edwin Iledderly and Anson Northrup and began the 
construction of a dam for utilizing the water jjower 
on the west side. In 1857 W. D. Washburn, then a 
young man of 26, came from the old home of the nu- 
merous family of distinguished brothers in ]\Iaine, and 
arrived in Minneapolis on the fii-st of May, and 
opened a law office. Soon after, ilr. Wa.shburn was 
appointed secretary and agent of the mill company, 
and began the construction of the dam from the cen- 
ter of the river to the west bank; the work was car- 
ried on during the panicky days of 1857. The Com- 



HISTORY OF xMINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, IkHNNESOTA 



153 



pany completed the dam and was ready for leasing 
sites and power during 1857, although burdened with 
debts and obligations which the panic made it im- 
practicable to pay. 

The mills built on the west side of the river were 
leased to Eastman, Bovey & Co. ; Leonard, Day & 
Sons; Ankeny, Robinson & Pettit, and Cole & Ilaui- 
mond. Mr. Eastman retired from the firm of East- 
man, Bovey & Co., and H. D. Eastman and H. JI. 
DeLaittre became- members of the firm. Later this 
firm purchased one of the mill-sites on the east side 
dam and built a mill and operated it until in 1887, 
when the east side mills burned and the Bovey- 
DeLaittre Lumber Company, with John DeLaittre, 
president, II. JI. DeLaittre. vice president, and C. A. 
Bovey, seci'etary and treasurer, purchased a site near 
the mouth of Shingle Creek and bought the Camp & 
Walker sawmill, which was located on the river bank 
at the foot of First Avenue North, and moved it to 
the new site, and remodeled and enlarged it. 

The first mills on the west side marketed their lum- 
ber by rafting below the Falls, over which the lumber 
was carried in sluiceways down to the quiet waters, 
where the lumber was put in rafts containing one 
million or two million feet. The rafts were taken 
down the river sometimes by steam tugs and some- 
times being floated with the current and steered with 
very large rear oars that kept them in tlie channel. 
This piloting required very careful work and experi- 
enced men to avoid breaking the rafts on the curved 
banks of the river and on the bars and shallows. 

This rafting was the only way of getting to market 
the surplus lumber aside from that required to sup- 
ply the demand in St. Anthony and later in ]\Iinne- 
apolis and in St. Paul, although at rather an 
early date Prince's mill was built on the flats 
at St. Paul, just east of where the Union 
Depot now stands, which supplied the local mar- 
ket in large part. This method of handling the 
lumber was to ]iut it into rafts of from three-quarters 
to one million feet in a raft. On the top of this was 
sometimes quite large quantities of shingles, and often 
Major Bassett, who had a tub and pail factory at 
the West Side Falls, put large numbers of his tubs 
and pails on the top of the rafts from his lumber 
mill connected with the factory, and in that way 
marketed a considerable part of his stock. 

This method continued for several years, when tlie 
construction of railroads and the settlement of the 
nearby tributary lands made more of a home market. 
This market was opened in 1874 bv the extension oi 
the St. Paul & Pacific road from' St. Paul through 
Minjieapolis and out as far as Willmar. Tlie St. 
Paul & Sioux City road was built from St. Paul 
through Sioux City and dOwn to Omaha in the dec- 
ade of 1870. The i\lilwaukee road, which had been 
in operation for a number of yeai-s from ^Milwaukee 
to La Crosse, was extended through to St. Paul and 
Minneapolis in the '7fls. The St. Cloud branch of 
the St. Paul & Pacific was built up to Elk River, and 
extended on through to St. Cloud and on out to Crook- 
ston in the '80s, and the Willmar main line was car- 
ried on through to Moorhead in the same decade. 



The Chicago & Milwaukee, from ^Minneapolis through 
Northfield and on through Iowa, connecting with Chi- 
cago, and the Minneapolis & St. Louis, from ^Minne- 
apolis to Albert Lea, were also built in the '80s ; the 
]\I. & St. L. was constnieted by [Minneapolis men. 
These, with their extensions and some other roads (in- 
cluding the St. Paul & Duluth, the Northwestern 
through Wisconsin to St. Paul and Minneapolis, and 
the Northern Pacific through Minnesota and on to the 
Pacific Coast, with its branch a little later from Min- 
neapolis and St. Paul, and the Sault Ste. ilarie 
road), with their developments, furnished abundant 
outlet for all the lumber manufactured in Minne- 
apolis after their construction. 

In these days of rafting, in 1862, the writer of tliis 
article was a traveling salesman. The time was dur- 
ing the discouraging years of the Civil War, when 
trade was stagnant and it was expected that the bot- 
tom would fall out of everything. I extended my 
travels out to McGregor, Iowa, on the west side of 
the Mississippi, opposite Prairie du Chien. After 
canvassing that very thrifty town, into which the 
farmers were coming from 75 to 100 miles distant to 
market their grain and purchase supplies, and while 
I was sitting in front of the little frame hotel, a ilin- 
neapolis lumberman, Mr. J. M. Robinson, joined me. 
He was then a salesman member of the firm of An- 
keny, Robinson & Pettit, and volunteered an account 
of his occupation as salesman for lumber in rafts, 
which were coming down the river. He was waiting 
for the first raft to come in in order to market and 
deliver the lumber, of which certain portions were 
to be purchased by the people of McGregor. Being 
very friendly, as well as a loyal citizen of the little 
town of Minneapolis, he gave me quite a glowing ac- 
count of the prospects of the great city to be built 
by the great water power of St. Anthony Falls, to 
which was tributary a vast empire of the richest 
agricultural land, great forests of splendid white pine 
timber that would be brought to Minneapolis and 
manufactured and thence distriliuted over Illinois, 
Iowa, southern Minnesota. Kansas, and Nebraska. 
The Dakotas, to the west of us, were then regarded as 
arid regions unfit for cultivation or settlpinent, prac- 
tically valueless, though comprising millions of acres, 
or thousands of square miles of territory. 

General W. B. Hazen, of the T'. S. army, located at 
Fort Bnford, N. D., reported officially to the govern- 
ment, that the territory west of the valley of the Ked 
River of the North was an arid alkali country, with- 
out rain or means of irrigation, and without drink- 
ing water, as the underground supply was alkali 
and unfit for use for either stock or people. In view 
of this report, Mr. George B. Wright, a prominent 
government surveyor, in talking with me about the 
country between the Red River of the North and the 
Missouri, said that he w-ould not survey this country 
if the whole tract were given to him for his work, 
which would amount to about two cents an acre. 
This sentiment prevailed to large extent until the 
time when James J. Hill undertook the extensions of 
the old St. Paul & Pacific road through as far weijt 
as settlements were extended, but presumably not far- 



154 



HISTOKY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, IMINNESOTA 



ther than to the western side of the Red River VaUey, 
or ten or twenty miles west of that river. As late as 
1880 or 1885, I was offered a tract of land in the val- 
ley, containing about 40,000 acres, for forty cents 
per acre, title complete. 

While I was finding out from Mr. Robinson these 
wonderful facts concerning this part of the Northwest, 
T learned of a government surveying party going on 
the frontier, within two or three mouths, to survey 
a large area of the public lands. Having also learned 
that there was a tine line of boats running pa.st 
ilcGregor to St. Paul, within two hours of the time 
that I began to talk with Mr. Robinson I was very 
comfortably located on the largest of the Diamond 
Joe line of steamers, bound for St. Paul. I arrived 
in St. Paul and remained there one day, and then 
came on the only piece of railroad line existing in 
Minnesota, running ten miles up to, but not through, 
St. Anthony, now East ^Minneapolis. I landed at the 
depot on the east side and whereas I could walk across 
the suspension bridge for five cents and it would cost 
twenty-five to ride in the omnibus I preferred to 
exercise myself a little and walk and save the twenty 
cents, although the distance was aliout a mile. After 
arranging to go on the government surveys with the 
chief surveyor, Geo. B. Wright, liefore mentioned, in 
about two months (it was then June), I returned to 
Michigan and completed the sale of some grind-stones 
and then came Ijack, landing in Minneapolis again 
about the 16th of August. 

On the 20th of August I started with the surveying 
party of sixteen men for the northern part of the 
State, or the pine regions above Crow Wing, which 
was then the last town on the Mississippi above 
Minneapolis. We did not reach our destination on 
account of the outbreak of the Sioux Indians, which 
took place while we were traveling from St. Cloud to 
Ft. Rijiley. The savage massacres of inhabitants by 
the Sioux, and the apprehension that the Sioux were 
moving up to get the Chippewas to join them, delayed 
our trip to Ft. Ripley, where we remained for several 
weeks and then found much danger to be apprehended 
in an effort to get into the Chippewa country. 

The trip was abandoned and we returned to Min- 
neapolis. I reniained there until winter and then, 
upon my solicitation. Mr. Geo. B. AVright, the gov- 
ernment surveyor, took a small party of us to survey 
some of the townshijis. As all the work was located 
in the timlier, the corners were to be established by 
means of bearing trees, -and the work could be done 
satisfactorily in winter: whereas, on the prairies, 
where mounds were to be built for corners, it was 
utterly impracticable to do the work. In getting 
Mr. Wright to sro into the woods. I had arranged 
with ]\Ir. W. S. Chapnuui to secure Indian land scrip 
with which to locate pine timber which T would hunt 
up in the surveying of the government land. This 
Sioux scrip was locatable on unsurveyed or surveyed 
lands Ijcfore they wei-e offered for general entry, and 
had be(>n issued to the Sioux half-breeds, pursuant to 
the treaties of 1851. 

We started the 12th of December with ox teams, 
which was the usual means of transportation on these 



surveying trips, and landed at Crow Wing about the 
20th, when the thermometer was 24 degi-ees below 
zero. We surveyed about two months and then the 
ugly attittide of the Chippewa Indians made it seem 
prudent for us to leave and we came out, having com- 
pleted the surveys of two townships and some work 
in another. 

While I was in the woods, Mr. W. S. Chapman, 
who was to join me in starting a timber deal, was 
induced to go to California, where the timber lands — 
he had heard — were much more valualile than in 
ilinnesota ; so he went there, having iir.st urged me 
by several letters to go with him and carry out the 
project there that we had talked of here. I did not 
accept the offer and he went to California and 
remained there quite a number of years and became 
very wealthy, and then througli speculations with 
Friedlander, in the grain business, lost $3,500,000, to 
raise which he had to •sacrifice practically all of his 
property to cover the debt.> 

Joel Bassett, who afterwards came to be "ilajor" 
Bassett, through his position as Indian agent, came 
to Minneapolis in 1850. In 1851 he started a lumber 
yard in St. Paul. He obtained his lumber from the 
St. Anthony mills and hauled it to St. Paul, there 
being no mills on the west side prior to 1856, except- 
ing the Government Jlill tliat did not furnish lumber 
for the market. In 1856 Major Bassett built a steam 
saw mill on the west side of the Falls, at the mouth 
of the creek that was afterward named Bassett Creek, 
and that comes into the river through North Minne- 
apolis. He ran this mill during 1856 and 1857. He 
lived on the river bank just above the mill, at the 
foot of Eighth Avenue. This mill contained a circu- 
lar and a muley or sa.sh saw, and was the first circular 
mill in operation in Minneapolis. It burned down 
in 1858, and in 1850, in connection with Isaac (411- 
patrick, he built the Pioneer Mill, the first of the 
block of West-Side platform water-power mills. It 
was under construction when Bassett bought it and 
he put in the first gang mill built at the Falls before 
mentioned. In 1850, as previously stated, S. W. Far- 
num leased the water power company's three east 
side mills and operated them until his mill at the 
foot of Hennepin Island was completed. This mill 
was afterwards enlarged and became one of the most 
prominent mills on the Falls by having a gang and 
circular mill added, and which was operated for 
many years by Faruiim & Love joy. This firm became 
one of the most prominent, next to Dorilus ]\Iorrison, 
as operators in Minneapolis, although they were not 
finally a success in handling the lumber business and 
trade, and met with final disappointment. 

In 1850 John W. Day, known as "Wes, " or Wesley 
Day, came to ]\Iinneapolis.' In 1851 his father, Leon- 
ard Day, came and two years later two of his broth- 
ers came, one of them well-known as "Ilass" Day and 
the other as "Lou" Day. For a few years Leonai'd 
Day operated the old Government saw mill on the 
Falls West Side, which he i-ebuilt and put in some 
new machinery. He took logs from the river at the 
mouth of Ba.ssett's Creek and hauled Ihem to this old 
mill. In 1854 L. D. and J. W. Day began lumbering 



HISTORY OF JIINxNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



155 



on Rum River. In 1856 the firm of Leonard Day & 
Sons was formed. In 1859 they built a mill adjoining 
the old Pioneer ilill on the platform. The firm con- 
tinued as Leonard Day & Sons until in 1885, when 
the name was changed to J. W. Day & Co. In 1859 
or 1860 Jonathan Chase, in company with Ed Jones, 
operated one of the East Side mills, hut .iust before 
the war. Chase sold out to Jones and went into the 
army. It was in 1861 w^hen Ed. Jones built a mill 
on the w-est side platform ad.ioining the Day Slill. 
In 1862 Jones built what was then a very fine large 
residence on Tenth Street, ^liinieapolis. West Side. 
in which the Keelev Institute is now located. He died 
in 180:!. In 1862 W. P. Ankeny, J. B. Roliinson. and 
C. H. Pettit built another mill adjoining this mill of 
Jones's. This made four mills in a row. In 1863 
Dorilus Morrison built a mill some distance further 
along on the platform than Ankeny, Robinson & 
Pettit's mill. This was equipped with two gangs and 
a circular saw. One of them was a round-log gang 
that sawed the logs without being slabbed, and the 
other using cants or slabbed logs from the circular 
saw to nni them more smoothly and evenly and make 
more and better lumber. In 1863 W. D. Washburn 
& Co. built a mill between the Ankeny, Robinson & 
Pettit and the Morrison mills, filling in the space. 
This firm 'was W. D. Wa.shburn and A. B. Stickney. 
Tliis was called the Lincoln Mill and completed the 
row of six mills. In 1862 I\Ir. Wolcott built a steam 
mill above where the Great Northern bridge crosses 
the river and below the mouth of Bassett's Creek. 
This site was afterward occupied by the Shevlin- 
Carpeuter Company. It contained a gang and a cir- 
cular. On the east side, above 20th Avenue, Albert 
Marr & Co. put up a steam mill in 1857, in which was 
a muley and a circular saw. This was the site of or 
part of the old Lamoreaux ]\Iill that was built or 
reconstructed about 1875. under the firm name of 
Crocker, Lamoreaux & Company. In 1867 JIajor 
Bassett sold the old Pioneer 'SUM, which he built 
on the Falls, and constructed another over on 
the river bank, just above the Falls, where the 
pumping station was afterward located. He built 
and operated this mill for a number of years and in 
1871 he sold the site and moved the machinery a 
little farther- up the river into an addition or recon- 
structed mill. Afterward this part of the mill was 
purchased by the city for an adctition to the pumping 
station. 

LOOKIXG THROUGH A \T[STA OP FIFTY YEARS. 
BY CHARLES M. LORING. 

In the autumn of 1860 a party of some fifty persons 
left Chicago on an excursion to the far away Falls of 
St. Anthony, traveling by rail to Prairie du Cliien, 
and by steamboat to St. Paul, the head of navigation 
on the ^lississippi River. 

When the party reached the river a grand rush 
was made for its banks to view the wonderful stream 
that many of the excur.sionists had read of in their 
geographies, but had never expected to see. It was a 



greater wonder to them than the Yosemite, the Yellow- 
stone Park, or the Glacier Park is to the traveler of 
today. The voyage up the great river tilled them 
with astonishment and delight; many declared the 
scenery from La Crosse to St. Paul as grand and 
beautiful as that on the Rhine or the Hudson Rivers. 
The party strolled around the little frontier city of 
St. Paul and were entertained by the strange sights 
of Indians, half-lireed and French voyageurs with 
trains of two-wheeled carts, drawn by one ox or cow, 
loaded with furs from the Hudson's Bay Company's 
stations in tlie far Northwest. 

The journey to the Falls of St. Anthony, on an 
old-fashioned .stage coach, was a constant source of 
pleasure. The invigorating, balmy air of that Sep- 
tember morning, the beautiful quiet scenery from the 
road which skirted the river, the wide plateau on the 
opposite bank, covered with "burr-oak openings" 
whiidi resembled a vast apple orchard, the scattered 
village and then the grand falls, with a picturesque 
little suspension bridge hanging in the air above them, 
made a picture that will never be forgotten. The 
little city of St. Anthony was like a New England 
village, with its neat one- and two-story white houses, 
and the drive from it across the old bridge to the 
Island, which was densely forested with maple and 
elm trees clothed in their autumn foliage, was beauti- 
ful beyond description. At the suspension bridge a 
toll-keeper inspected and passed us up the steep hill 
to the business street, which was lined with small 
stores for two blocks. Just over the bridge on the 
left was a neat white cottage, enclosed by a paling 
fence, which we were told was the first house built 
on the west side of the river, and was occupied by 
Col. Stevens, its builder, who was the first settler. 

At what seemed quite n distance from the river we 
saw a large tn-ick building standing alone, which 
proved to be the Nicollet Hotel. It occupied the west 
cjuarter of a city block, looking very imposing and 
lonely. The quarter block on the east was occupied 
as a lumber yard with a small stock. Across the 
street on the west was, a pretty white cottage that 
looked as if it might have been moved from a New 
England village. 

We were met at the door of the hotel by a genial 
man whom everybody called "Mace," w-ho proved to 
be Mr. J. M. Eustis, one of the proprietors, and a 
better host was never born ; he made our stay so 
pleasant and I found the air so invigorating, that I 
decided to remain in ^linnesota a few weeks in the 
hope of recovering my health, which was much 
impaired. 

After the excursionists left, there were some twelve 
or fifteen guests that lived at the hotel ; among them 
was a young marrii>d couple named Fletcher, who were 
very kind to our small family, and especially to our 
two-year old boy. The weeks passed so rapidly, and 
we enjoyed the climate and people so much, that we 
stayed on till November. Everyone was cordial and 
the spirit of hospitality so generous that we were 
frequently invited to family dinners and soon came 
to know nearly all the citizens of the town. A recent 
writer in one of our daily papers stated that the town 



156 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



as late as the early "seventies"" was a village of 
''shacks boarded and battened." Nothing could be 
further from the truth, as most of the houses were 
neatly painted and some of them ((uite large. Awaj' 
out on the prairie, were three brothers, Asbury, Wil- 
liam, and Hugh Harrison, and their sister, ^Irs. Go- 
heen, who had moved from Illinois and built four large 
houses which are still standing; two on Nicollet Ave- 
nue, one on Seventh Street, and one on Second Avenue. 
Judge Atwater lived in a large brick house, surrounded 
by beautiful grounds, on the river bank : Dr. A. E. 
Ames had a tine large white house, with greenhouse 
and garden, on Eighth Avenue: J. B. Bassett had a 
large brick hou.se on North Washington Avenue; John 
Jackins occupied the block on which the Syndicate 
Block now stands; Charlie Iloag, the man who named 
]\Iinneapolis, had a fine house and stable on Fourth 
Street Norlli; a Mr. Babbitt lived in a large brick 
house, still standing, at tlie corner of Tenth and Park 
Avenue: "Sir. Crafts lived in a large brick house where 
the Tribune building now stands; ^Mr. Hidden, in a 
large brick house on the site on which the Minneapolis 
Club byiilding was erected ; Deacon Harmon erected on 
his claim, near the Parade, a fine large house, and 
thei'e wei'e a niunber of comfortable one- and two- 
storied houses scattered through the towai. Nearly 
all of these houses, with the exception of the Harri- 
sons', were built on the claims their owners had made 
on Government lands. These men were great opti- 
mists, and they believed that Jlinneapolis would grow 
to be a large city in a short time. It was surprising 
the things they did in the few years after the Reser- 
vation was opened for settlement. They laid out two 
centers, built a hotel in lower town in competition 
with the Nicollet, and built a ])ridge at about Eighth 
Avenue Soutli. The rivalry between the two sections 
was very great and had not the lower bridge been 
destroyed by a freshet, it is hard to predict where 
the business center would be to-day. 

There never was a town settler! by a more enter- 
prising, cultured, hospitable people than was Minne- 
apolis; but alas! they could not realize that they 
were a decade ahead of the agricultural development 
of the State when thej' mortgaged their claims to 
build fine houses. The effects of the panic of 1857 
came upon them like a cyclone, and wdth like effect, 
for their homes were swept away by the twelve to 
twenty-four percent mortgages, and w'hen I reached 
the town every one of the large houses I have men- 
tioned, except the four owned by the Harrisons, had 
fallen into the hands of the mortgagees and the places 
were for sale at a small percentage of the cost of tiie 
improvements. It may not be uninteresting if I quote 
a few of the prices placed upon property tliat was 
offered to me. The Jackins property, boundi'fl liy 
Nicollet and First Avenues. Fiftli and Sixth Streets, 
with a good two-story house, $8,000. The Crafts 
property, one acre on Fourth Street between First 
Avenue and Nicollet, with large brick house. $2,500. 
Large white hou.se on Nicollet, with one-fourth acre 
lot, $700. The two lots on which the Andrus block 
now stands, $500. and so on all through the town. 

Jolin Green preempted a claim and lived on it free 



from mortgage until his death, this property being 
now known as Green's Addition. J. S. Johnson also 
lived on his claim and platted it as John.son's Addi- 
tion. The home of Mrs. E. P. Wells, his daughter, 
and many other beautiful homes on Oak Grove Street 
and Clifton Avenue are on this original claim. Lor- 
ing Park and the site of St. jMark"s Church are also 
portions of it. The lake in Loring Park was long 
known as Johnson's Lake. From this lake quite a 
large stream flowed into Bassett 's Creek; it wa.s 
crossed by a bridge at Hennepin Avenue. The streets 
of the town were laid out as broad and the lots were, 
as large as was to be expected they would be by the 
large-hearted Col. Stevens and his associates, but the 
native trees and hazel-bushes grew in most of them 
and it was no easy matter to get from one section of 
the city to another. Parties were frequently lost in 
the winter in going to Pudge Atwater 's, who enter- 
tained frequently, as indeed did many other house- 
holders, and the houses were so scattered that the 
route to them was by a deviated course. The town 
was dead, very dead, but not the people. They were 
philosophical over their losses and were as cheerful 
and hospitable as if their dream of wealth had come 
true. 

There was but little money in circulation, and that 
w-as called "wildcat," and its value constantly fluc- 
tuated. If one took a bank note at night, it might be 
of little or no value in the morning. Trade was car- 
ried on very largely by "barter." It was said that 
shingles were a legal tender. The people had little 
or nothing to do, and they helped one another to do 
it. But provisions were very cheap and the farmers 
were always willing to take "store pay.'" Himl- 
quarters of beef were three cents a pound, eggs five 
and six cents a dozen, chickens three to five cents a 
pound, and maple wood from $2.00 to $2.50 a cord. 
I made an arrangement with the proprietor of the 
Nicollet to board my wife, two-year old boy, and my- 
self for six dollars a week for the three. This in- 
cluded laundry and fire. Fletcher had the best quar- 
ters in the house, and I the next. We were the only 
married people in the house, except occasiouall\' tran- 
sients who stayed a day or two. 

There were several young men boarders with whom 
we soon made acquaintance which lasted a life-time. 
We noticed that all the men we met were called by 
an abbreviated name. I did not hear one called 
"Mr." So and So, biit all were "Tom, Dick, and 
Harry." There was in one family *'Gene" Wilson, 
who became a noted lawyer and M. C; "Dave" Red- 
field, also a law;\-er of note; "^Fac," Hon. W. W. ^Ic- 
Nair, prominent in after years as a lawyer, business 
man. and politician; "Thompson," J. II. Thompson, 
who became a wealthy merchant, member of the City 
Council, etc.; "Fletch," Hon. Loren Fletcher, nu^r- 
ehant, political fighter for IMinneapolis, etc. Theie 
were a number of citizens who gathered at the hotel 
to learn if there was any news. Among them was 
"Jake" Sidel, who brought $20,000 in gold from 
Pennsylvania, and carried it about with him in a 
hand-bag several weeks before deciding to open a 
bank. He became, the first president of the First 




UASHIXinON A\ K. LudKIM; -\(IKTH FKU.M aU AVK. SULTH IX 1837 




[i-Ji Ifillllillli; ijj 



h^ 




i.MMixiS(, >iii III i)\ w A>iii\(,r(iN AM) iK(i\i iii:\\Kri\ in i> 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, JIINNESOTA 



157 



National Bank. A very iuteresting visitor was called 
"Bill" King, afterwards known as the Hon. W. S. 
King, M. C, the greatest "boomer" the eity ever 
had; no citizen did more than he toward laying the 
foundation of the present city. 

"Doril." ^lorrison became a wealthy lumberman 
and mill owner, and the first mayor of Minneapolis. 
He was engaged in lumbering when the "boom 
busted," and like the majority, owed a great many 
people, among them men who liad worked for him in 
the woods. One day a delegation waited on him and 
told him they were going to "lick"' him if he did 
not pay. He was a very dignified man. He faced 
the men and said; "All right, gentlemen; all right; 
if you can get any money out of my clothes, I wish 
you would. I have been trying to find some for two 
months." He did not get "licked" and the men did 
not get the money, as there was none, but he had a 
supply store and they took their pay in goods. Later, 
when the Northwestern Bank was organized, Mr. ]\Ior- 
rison was made its president ; business had improved, 
and there was more money in circulation, but his de- 
mands were larger than the supply and he constantly 
overdrew his account. The ca.shier said to him, "^Mr. 
Morrison, the directors think you ought not to give 
checks when your account is overdrawn." Mr. ^lor- 
risou replied: "Throw them out." The cashier re- 
plied : "It does not look well to throw out the checks 
of the president." "Pay 'em, then; pay 'em!" He 
lived to be able to own several banks. He was one 
of the most honorable men I ever knew, but he could 
"stave 'em off" when hard up. I once heard a gen- 
tleman who held a note of five thousand dollars 
against him say to Mr. ]\Iorrison, "Doril, you can 
never pay this note, give me a new note for fifty 
cents on the dollar and I will destroy this." Mr. 
Morrison replied, "If I can pay fifty cents you will 
still have a claim for twenty-five hundred dollars and 
I shall pay that, ' ' and he did within two years. 

There was a tall, muscular young fellow who 
seemed a favorite with every one. whom they called 
Braekett. There was great .iealousy between the citi- 
zens of St. Anthony and the "ujistart village" on 
the West Side, and occasionally when some of the 
"East Siders" celebrated, a number would come over 
the bridge with the avowed intention of "cleaning 
out" the ^Minneapolitans. Bridge Square was an 
open field on which there was many a skirmish be- 
tween the warriors of the two villages. George Braek- 
ett, his brother, and two Goff boys defended the honor 
of the younger city, and it was said they were al- 
ways victorious. George Braekett from that day to 
this has been fighting for Minneapolis, and as chief of 
the fire department, alderman, mayor and all around 
progressive citizen, has won every battle. 

A young, genteel gentleman who came to the hotel 
occasionally and was always in evidence on every 
public occasion, was called "Bill" Washburn. He 
was Surveyor General of Logs and agent of the JMin- 
neapolis Water Power Company. Tiiis company had 
built a dam and was ready for business, but there 
was no business. The first mill power that was util- 
ized was given to a man who established a small 



machine shop on the site. "Bill" Washburn was for 
many years known by his fellow citizens as the Hon. 
W. D. Washburn, legislator, member of Congress, U. 
S. Senator, railroad projector and builder, and lead- 
ing citizen. 

Isaac Atwater, who pre-empted a farm on the river 
bank and erected a house which for many years was 
the center of hospitalit.v, was a Justice of the Su- 
preme Court; "Bill" (W. W.) Eastman built the 
first paper mill and the first flour mill : E. S. Jones, 
one of the noblest of men, with J, E. Bell, organized 
the Farniin-s & IMechanics Savings Bank. J. E. and 
D. C. Bell had a small country store and they devoted 
much time to the up-building of the town. Frank 
Cornell, a young lawyer, became Justice of the Sn. 
preme Court. 

And so I might go on, naming so many good men I 
met in that winter of 1860-61, who in after life be- 
came prominent in political and commercial circles. 
It seems now that a large majority of the citizens of 
the village were men of rare abilit.v. Is it any won- 
der, that with such a start, ^Minneapolis became one of 
the most enterprising cities in the country? 

The business sect ion of the village was between the 
river and Second Street, and its buildings were cheap 
wooden structures, nearly all of one story with a 
scjuare front and as ordinary a lot as can be seen 
today in the smallest villages. 

During the winter, "Fletch," who had a small dry 
goods store near the bridge, proposed that I join him 
in business and purchase the largest building on 
Bridge Square, which proposition I accepted, and the 
firm of L. Fletcher & Company was organized. I had 
not been in business a great while before I found that 
my new' partner was a "sprinter." With "Gene" 
Wilson, "Dave" Redfield, "Pat" Kelly, and one or 
two others he would propose that we close the store 
and go out on the sf|uare and see the foot races. I 
.soon found that "Fletch" and "Gene" Wilson were 
the champions, with "Fletch" the favorite. Every- 
body closed their stores to go to the races. "Fletch" 
was so elated with his success on the square that he 
went into the race for a seat in the State Legislature 
and won, and for twelve years, two as Speaker, he 
fought for the interests of Minneapolis and his State. 
Then he made the race for Congress and, as iisual, 
won that, and for twelve years he worked as an ^I. 
C. for this city. State, and country, when he began 
to realize that younger men had aspirations for poli- 
tical powers, and he retired, after thirty years of 
valuable service. 

In the early part of the year 1860, a man from 
La Crosse named Winslow, conceived the idea of 
building a telegraiih line from his town to St. An- 
thony and Minneapolis. He solicited subscrii^tions 
from the to\\nis along the river and it was .said that 
he had quite a surplus left after he had finished. He 
sold the line to Simmons & Ha.skins, who owned a 
line from Jlilwaukee to La Crasse. The new owners 
visited Minneapolis and they decided to take down 
the wire between here and St. Paul, as the receipts 
were not enough to pa.v the salary of the operator. 
The merchants of JMinneapolis held a meeting and 



158 



HISTORY OF :\IINNEAPOLIS AND ITENXEPIX COUNTY. illNNESOTA 



arranged with the owners of the telegi-aph line to 
leave the wire and they would make np the amount 
the receipts were short of paying the salary. All were 
anxious to receive President Lincoln's inaugural 
message, but the operator refused to take it unless he 
was paid extra, so a purse of forty dollars was sub- 
scribed, and a large number of citizens sat up nearly 
all night and heard the message read. The next 
morning the operator disappeared, and we were with- 
out telegraph news for several days. 

After having decided to become a citizen of ilin- 
neapolis I hired a house, on the outskirts of the town, 
which at that time was considered one of the best 
in the village and for which I paid but six dollars a 
month rent. It is still standing on the corner of 
Third Avenue and Sixth Street. There were not over 
five or six hou.ses south of it and cattle were pastured 
on the prairie around it. 

At the breaking out of the War every yomig man 
who could do so enlisted and we saw the boys gather 
at Fort Snelling and embark on steamers for the 
South. Of the First Regiment but few returned. 
George Braekett went with them, and we lost his in- 
fluence for a time. The AYar caused a demand for 
flour and farm products; business improved and 
money became a familiar ob.iect again, but the Sioux 
Indian outbreak, in 1862, caused a panic among the 
residents of the village, and several sold their holdings 
for anything they could -get and left the State. It 
was predicted that it would be years before ]\Iinne- 
sota would recover from the eft'ects of the great In- 
dian Massacre. Day after day crowds of refugees 
swarmed into the city and had to be provided for. 
I saw two children whose wrists had been cut by the 
savages, and several men who were wounded. The 
Indians came within twenty miles of the village after 
their attack on Hutchinson, where a spirited little 
battle was fought. Our citizens prepared for the de- 
fense of Minneapolis, but fortunately the Indians 
turned westward and the danger was over. 

When the Government began paying bounties for 
soldiers money became quiie plentiful, and it was ex- 
pended with great prodigality. Women whose bus- 
hands had received the bounty and gone to the War, 
came in from the farms and purchased everj'thing 
that .struck their fancy. It .seemed as if they thought 
the first few hundred dollars they ever possessed 
would last forever. Business improved and the town 
began to grow. New people came into the village 
and upon the farms, but it was not until 1865 that 
there was much building. However, it did not take 
much to excite the enthusiasm of Minneapolitans. 

On Saturday evenings a number of the prominent 
business men of the town met at the office of McNair 
& Wilson to play "old sledge," or some other game, 
and incidentally talk over village affairs. This was 
really the first civic association in Minneapolis. One 
evening one of the club remarked that the town was 
growing and cited several men who had come with 
money to invest, and the talk became general. About 
this time "Jimmie" Cyphers, who had the only 
restaurant in town, a snuiH room 10x20 feet, served 
the usual Saturday evening refreshments to the Club. 



As the meal progressed some of the members became 
more and more enthusiastic about the growth of the 
town and rashly .stated that thej^ believed that some 
day th^re would be fifty thousand people in ]\Iinne- 
apolis. Another member said if that were to be so 
it was time to be looking out ground for a park. 
W. W. McNair said that one of his Eastern clients 
had twenty acres of land that he would sell for six 
thousand dollars and take certificates drawing 7 per 
cent in payment. It was decided then and there that 
a town meeting should be called for the purpose of 
considering this proposition. 

The meeting was held in a building on the corner 
of Washington Avenue and Second Street, owned by 
I\Ir. Dorilus Morrison, and was quite largely attended. 
There was a long discussion, in which one prominent 
citizen stated that there would never be a house south 
of Tenth Street, and that the whole coiuitry was a 
park; then, with vehemence, he declared that the 
young fellows who favored tlie purchase would ruin 
the town with their extravagant ideas. When the 
vote was taken the "young fellows" were in the ma- 
.jority, and the resolution to make the purchase was 
carried. The supervisors were instructed to issue the 
certificates, but they were opposed to the project and 
allowed the matter to go by default. This property 
is now bounded by Grant and Fifteenth Streets, and 
First and Fourth Avenues South. 

About this time Mr. H. G. Harrison built the stone 
building on the corner of Nicollet and Washington 
Avenues ; in the third story he provided a hall where 
for many years all the entertainments were held. 
One of the store-rooms in this building was taken by 
J. E. and D. C. Bell, and into it they moved their 
drj^ goods stock from Bridge Square. Nearly everj'one 
predicted their failure through getting so far away 
from the center of trade which was between First 
and Second Streets. But the young men who 
had participated in but survived the battles 
of the Soutla were returning, and their influence 
in building up the town was soon felt and 
business improved. The fame of the prosperous 
young frontier city reached the business centere of 
the country, and cultured young men came from the 
Eastern States to as.sist in making ^Minneapolis the 
Queen City of the West. 

In 1865 all the business buildings on the west side 
of Bridge Square were destroyed by fire, and in 1866 
all on the east side of the Square were destroyed. 
The rebuilding of these stores brought many to the 
city and it was at this time that the structures now 
facing the Gateway Pai*k were erected. The.v were 
considered palatial ; that erected by Fletcher and Lor- 
ing was long known as "the Masonic Building" as all 
of the ]\Iasonic lodges were housed in its third story. 
There has not been a building erected since that time 
that created more favorable comment by the press 
and the people. John S. Pillsbury built a stone build- 
ing ad.ioining the Masonic Block and moved his hard- 
ware stock from St. Anthony into it. This same year 
he opened the State Fniversity whose windows had 
been boarded up several years, and until his death he 
was the honored president of its Board of Regents. 



HISTORY OF IMINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, JONNESOTA 



159 



He was another son of New England, who as mer- 
chant, legislator, and Governor of the State, did noble 
work for the city of which he was so proud. 

It would not be possible to name all who have 
added renown and brought prosperity to our city, 
but I cannot refrain from mentioning a few who were 
most intimately connected with its development. 

The Regents of the University, in searching for a 
president, met iu the East a young Colonel of En- 
gineers who had served with distinction through the 
Civil War, and induced him to become the head of 
that educational institution which had been closed 
for several years. It was not a very tempting offer 
for an ambitious young scholar, but fortunately for 
the State, Dr. W. W. Folwell decided to assume the 
responsibility and began his work here under dis- 
couraging conditions, but these he overcame, and for 
nearly half a century he has been a power in the up- 
building of the city. 

Rev. Dr. James H. Tuttle, who came in 1866 as 
the pastor of the Church of the Redeemer, soon made 
his inlluence for good recognized. He served his 
clairch and worked for the interest of the city, and 
after twenty-tive yeai-s he resigned his pastorate and 
passed from this life in 1895. mourned and beloved 
by all who had ever met him. 

A tall, slim young man arrived in the city one day 
in 1867 and rented rooms over a store in a small 
wooden building situated on the corner of Second 
Street and Nicollet Avenue, and put up a modest sign, 
reading, "Thomas Lo^^Ty, Attorney at Law." As the 
rent of the rooms was rather beyond his means, he 
shared them with a young doctor, who came the same 
year, and whose sign read, "Dr. H. H. Kimball." 
Mr. Lowry became the president of the Twin City 
Electric Railway Company and president of the Min- 
neapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. ]\Iarie Railroad 
Company, and one of the most public-spirited, gener- 
ous, lovable of citizens. He passed to the other life 
in February, 1909. and the citizens are erecting a 
beautiful monument as a token of their love for his 
memory. Dr. Kimball is still practicing his profes- 
sion. 

Among the young merchants of the early days were 
two brothers, "Pat" and Anthony Kelly, who had 
a small grocery store on the corner of Second and 
"Washington Avenues, and who became the first whole- 
sale merchants in Minneapolis and did much to de- 
velop the trade of the Northwest. They often told 
of their first wholesale customer who came to the 
little store for a chest of tea. Take all they had in 
slock, and it would not amount to a chest, so they 
took what thej' had, purchased what they could from 
other grocers, and filled the order. 

Among the young men who came to ^linneapnlis 
to take up life's work was Thomas B. Walker; ener- 
getic, honest, and with great natural abilit.y, he grad- 
ually climbed the ladder of prosperity until he be- 
came one of its foremost citizens. His great work as 
president of the Library Board and in the encourage- 
ment of art and civic improvements will long be re- 
membered by future generations, and the several 



large buildings he erected will stand as monuments 
to his enterprise. 

In 1867, R. J. Mendenhall built the two-story stone 
building on the corner of First Street and Hennepin 
Avenue for his bank, at a cost of ten thousand dollars. 
This was considered an act of extravagance, and 
was unfavorably commented on by the patrons of the 
bank. 

This same year ]\[r. John W. Pence built, on the 
corner of Second Street and Hennepin Avenue, the 
brick building now .standing. The upper stories were 
finished as an auditorium and the building was called 
the Pence Opera House. The walls were of common 
white plaster and looked very cold and inhospitable.- 
An effort was made to have Mr. Pence decorate the 
walls, but he said the building had cost more than he 
had anticipated, and he could not afford to put in any 
more money. So a fund of .'fil,500 was rai.sed by 
subscription and the auditorium decorated, and we 
were very proud of our opera house. At the dedica- 
tion, Hon. W. D. "Washbuni delivered an address in 
which he congratulated the citizens upon having such 
a magnificent place of amusement, and upon the 
growth of the city. He predicted that, at the rate the 
city had grown in the past five years, it would not be 
long before it would contain 50,000 inhabitants. 

In 1872 the cities of Minneapolis and St. Anthony 
united as one municipality which began to grow with 
wondrous strides, and several young men were at- 
tracted to it and became active iu its development. 
From New York came George R. Newell, who en- 
gaged in business with H. G. Harrison, founding the 
wholesale grocery house now known as George R. 
Newell & Company, one of the largest in the North- 
west. Mr. Newell is one of the progressive citizens 
whose names may always be found among the list 
of workers for the improvement of the city. 

From Massachu.setts came John S. Bradstreet, who, 
more than any other, has led the citizens to higher 
ideals in the artistic embellishment of their homes. 
This influence in city building has been invaluable. 

ilr. E. J. Phelps joined Mr. Bradstreet. and for 
several years was a mem])er of the firm ; he retired to 
engage in banking and is now a prominent capitalist. 
He is a public-spirited citizen and, as president of the 
Board of Park Commissioners, is doing good service. 

Fresh from college came "Charle.y" Reeve, who 
engaged in banking business and soon became a gen- 
eral favorite as he still is, as General C. McC. Reeve, 
a title he earned and received during the War with 
Spain. 

"Jim" Gray, after graduating from the Univer- 
sity, took up newspaper work and was soon noted as 
a reporter who knew what he was writing about and 
he had the confidence of everyone. He is now the 
Hon. James Gray, ex-l\Iayor, near-Governor, and an 
interesting writer on the Journal. 

Wallace G. Nye, after learning the drug business in 
Wisconsin, heard that ^Minneai^olis was a thriving 
village, came to see if all the wonderful stories he had 
heard about it were true, aiul he saw and was con- 
quered, and started a drug store in North IMinHc- 
apolis. His neighbors soon learned the metal that- 



160 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, JIINNESOTA 



he was made of aiid elected him to various positions 
of trust, and now he is the progi-essive mayor of this 
progressive city. 

Then came William Henry Eustis, full of the 
breeze and energy he had imbibed from the ozone of 
St. Lawrence County, N. Y. He, too, became an ac- 
tive worker for the city of his adoption and wlieuever 
a strong man was needed to help in any project for 
the good of the community, the call was for Eustis. 
It was thought that he was needed as the head of the 
municipal government, and the people elected him to 
the office of i\Iayor. 

And now I am down to the year 1880, when the 
young fellows came in so rapidly and made places 
for themselves in the growing city that I could no 
longer keep track of them, and if I could, it would 
take a large volume to record the history of their 
success. 

But what of the pioneer women? It would be a 
pleasure to mention each individually and record the 
large part she played in the development of the city. 
First and foremost, the stranger was welcomed and 
made to feel at home, and one of my most grateful 
recollections is of their unbounded hospitality. As 
far as early conditions would permit they were en- 
gaged, too, in altruistic work of a public nature like 
women of the present day. There were manj' beauti- 
ful gardens in which flowers were growni, and as earl.y 
as 1866 a flower show was held in which nearly every 
lady took an active part. They organized church and 
social societies and entertainments for the young. x\ 
happier, more intelligent, and cheerful gi-oup of 
women never blessed a new country. The Minneapolis 
Improvement League, which is still doing active work, 
is the successor of one of these earlier organizations. 
Other improvement leagues and the Women's Ckib 
of today are the result of that spirit for civic better- 
ment which was born with the pioneer women. 

Nearly all of the pioneer workers have passed to 
the other shore, but those who have succeeded them 
imbibed their spirit and are continuing their work in 
such organizations as the fifty or more Improvement 
Leagues, the Commercial Club, the Civic and Com- 
merce Association, the Society of Fine Arts, and many 
other associations which have made Minneapolis what 
it is today, one of the most prosperous and beautiful 
of all the American cities. 

Was there ever another city with such a glorious 
past! The example that was set by the early settlers 
has been followed by those who came after them, and 
the future promises to be as bright as that of the 
past. The little village has growai to be a great city, 
and it is not so great a stretch of the imagination for 
the citizen of today to predict that, in a few yeai-s, 
llie population will exceed one million, as it was for 
those of 186.') to prophecy that some day there would 
l)e fifty thousand peoi)le in .Miinieapolis. 

EARLY ROLLER MILLS AND THEUi TREATMENT BY THE 
RAILROADS — BY GEORGE H. CHRISTL^N. 

The state of the art of milling wheat in 1870 in 
Great Britain was Ijchind tliat of Continental Europe. 
The English mill owner, inheriting his property, is 



apt to leave the mechanical conduct of his mill to 
suljordinates, who, .satisfled with following in the 
footsteps of their predecessors, are wont to set their 
faces steadily against new devices or machinery ; nor 
are liis common workmen the equal of the same class 
in America in the manipulation of machinery. The 
English public, too, were satisfled with their bread, 
ignorant of the better quality of the Continent. 

In 1870 the most important of the then new ma- 
chinery originated in France, and as it happened to 
be of a i)eculiarly difficult character to operate, re- 
quiring expei-t care, it was not adopted l)y tlie Eng- 
lish. In this country, knowledge of the art was de- 
rived from the British, and we were quite ignorant 
at that time of the progi'ess made upon the Continent. 

The hard spring wheat of ^linnesota was unflt for 
the old style milling: the greater force required to 
crush it ground up the bran to an important extent 
and darkened the flour. The improved method 
treated the wlieat l)y gradital reductions, and when 
in 1870 I was induced to try the French machinery 
and shortly after when I abandoned the traditional 
mill-stones, and adopted chilled iron rollers for re- 
ducing the wheat after the German method, I found 
the combination of the French and German improve- 
ments of peculiar advantage for ^Minnesota wheat. 
Meanwhile the New York and Boston markets had 
relegated the flour of the Northwest to a second or 
third place. They preferred the flour of the softer 
winter-wheat, some spring wheat millers even occa- 
sionally branding their flour as fi-om St. Louis, Mo., 
the headquarters of winter-wheat flour in those days 
of unregulated business ; Ijut after these improvements 
had been installed they preferred the Minneapolis 
flour, and its price, for the quality, at once sold at 
two to three dollars per barrel in advance. Tliis 
magic change was felt like an electric shock in iMin- 
nesota throiighout all kinds of Inisiness for wheat. 
The principal and almost sole agricultural product 
of the time, spring wheat, shared the advance of flour 
and the rapid development of the Northwest set in 
with ever increasing force. 

It was my fortune to be the first to inti-oduec this 
new process of milling in this country. It was done 
in the Wasli))urn ]Mills of Jlinneapolis, which I was 
operating under the firm name of George II. Chris- 
tian & Co.. and fi'om here its adojitioii spread over 
all the United States with wonderful rapidity, wliile 
the flood of improved flour from this country so filled 
England that the millers there were forced Xo take 
it up. 

Its use re(|uired a large reduction in the output of 
flour, rendering for several years the profits abnormal. 
This attracted the army of sharks wliicli haunt the 
patent office at Washington. They forthwitli pro- 
ceeded to take out patents for the machinery, easily 
finding a man who claimed to have invented if, and 
even patenting the very process of making flour from 
wheat. One cannot believe that .such patents shouhl 
liave been issued by the Patent Office, and can hardly 
believe that they were issued without nndue influence. 

All of file principal mills of the UnitiMl Stati's were 
sued for royaltv, and the Washburn r»Iills. in which 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



161 



these iinprovemeiits first saw the light in tliis coun- 
try, were enjoined by the courts from making flour 
by tliis machinery and forced to give bonds for .$250,- 
000. It cost several years of anxious effort and an 
expenditure of several hundred thousand dollars be- 
fore the mills of America were able to sliow the falsity 
and wickedness of these claims, but the patents were 
finallj' defeated. 

But resistance against such injustice was not the 
only trial which the flour manufacturer had to en- 
dure in those days. The law regulating interstate 
commerce had not then been framed, and railroad 
managers ran their roads as if they were their own 
personal property, and did not recognize the right 
of the public to complain of unjust preferences in mak- 
ing rates of freight. The general manager gave re- 
duced rates to favorites and to large shippers, and 
the scheduled rates were only applied to the unfortu- 
nates without influence or whose business was not 
large enough to attract favorable attention. When 
the general manager came to the city he was be- 
sieged by shippers of all classes asking for reduced 
rates that they might be in position to meet competi- 
tion or perhaps to crush it. Rebates were granted on 
every species of mei-chandise and not always for con- 
siderations of advantage to the railroad. No one 
knew what was the lowest rate, for all rebates were 
.SL'cret and paid at the headciuarters of the road. 

On one occasion the Chicago, ililwaukee & St. Paul 
Railroad which was the only railroad reaching from 
Minneapolis to Milwaukee or Chicago, put a wheat 
buyer on the streets of Minneapolis to buy of the 
farmers bringing their wheat by team to this mar- 
ket, erected a warehouse ^nd paid i)rices for wheat 
which were designed to destroy the milling business 
here. This was done because the millers sold me flour 
which I shipped at a period of high water by steamer 
from here via St. Louis and Pittsburg. The policy 
of that road was at that time distinctly hostile to 
i\linneapolis. It distributed agents along the ilinne- 
sota Valley Railroad (now the C. ^M.. St. P. & Omaha 
Ry. ). between Shakopee and JMankato, to buy wheat 
and ship it to Milwaukee at a time when wheat was 
exceedingly scarce and the millers could not get near 
enougli to supply their trade with flour. Their agents 
paid prices which made wheat cost the ilinneapolis 
inilli-rs. who bought in competition, ten to fifteen cents 
])er Imshel more than the ^lilwaid^ee price, (then the 
govei'ning wheat market) less the established rates 
of freight, while the millers were obliged to pay the 
freight to Milwaukee or Chicago, as high as eighty 
cents per barrel of flour, more than it often costs to 
ship to Liverpool, England, in these da.ys. 

The Minnesota Valley Railroad had its general 
ofYices in St. Paul and regarded itself as a St. Paul 
enterprise. It allied itself with the Milwaukee Road 
in the purchase of wheat, giving that road, without 
doubt, a large rebate from its scheduled tariff to 
]\rendota. where it joined the ^lilwaukee, while the 
^linneapolis millers had to pay its full tariff. Never- 
tlieless when I complained at a nu'ctiiig between 
its President, its General Freight Agent, and my- 
self of this discrimination, the General Freight 



Agent said, "Why do you Minneapolis millers buy 
wheat on our road? We don't want you!" Such 
was the hostility felt by St. Paul railroads towards 
Minneapolis merchants. This same road owned tliu 
grain elevators for receiving and storing wheat 
along its line. It gave to this man their manage- 
ment and agreed to let him have what he could 
make, he guaranteeing that the railroad should be 
at no loss. 

In those days no wheat was shipped to this city 
except it had been previously bought by the mill- 
ers, who bought direct of farmers' teams, placed 
the wheat in these elevators, and obtained a receipt 
for it. The wheat was mingled with other wheat of 
the same grade and when the miller had accumulated 
a car load it was shipped to i\Iinneapolis. When 
the wheat arrived here and was weighed out, it was 
generally short more than a normal amount, and 
in some cases as high as one hundred bushels per car 
of the quanfit.y the railroad agent (who was also the 
elevator agent) had billed as shipped. No reclam- 
ation for this shortage could be obtained. Without 
doubt when all wheat was shipped at the end of the 
season to the various millers and others, the elevator 
at each station was found what is technically called 
"over," or with a quantity of wheat accumulated 
by this rascally method, to the profit of the agent or 
some one else. 

There was a quantity of wheat in a St. Paul ele- 
vator one winter and I was anxious to buy it and 
bring it to Minneapolis to grind. There was no 
published tariff on wheat to ^Minneapolis from that 
city. I called upon the general manager of the St. 
Paul & Pacific Railroad, now the Great Northern, 
and asked for a rate. After much hesitation I was 
given a rate which evidently he thought prohibitive. 
I immediately accepted it, but before I could get 
out of the office I was informed by this St. Paul par- 
tisan, with a round oath or tM'o, that the rate was 
withdrawn and that the railroad would not carry 
wdieat from St. Paul to Minneapolis at any price. 
This wheat, be it remembered, lay at the eastern 
terminal of the road ; there was no mill in St. Paul 
to grind it, and the railroad manager could not ex- 
pect to earn further freight from it, for it must pass 
east by the only route, the river, at the opening of 
navigation. Hatred of IMinneapolis was paramount 
to his duty to his stockholders. 

I was asked by the general manager of the Lake 
Superior & Mississippi Railroad, now the St. Paul 
& Duluth, to go down to Lake City, Red Wing, and 
other points on the IMississipjii where there were 
grain warehouses, to buy the wheat stored there, 
Jiave it brought to Stillwater by boat, and from there 
he promised his road would bring it to Minneapolis, 
at a reasonable rate. This I did. The sclieilnled 
rate, a prohibitive one, was however collected, with 
an understanding that the freight department would 
refund me the difference. I sent in my account but 
could get no response. This road was leased hy tiie 
Northern Pacific. T began to hear ominous rumoi's 
of the financial condition of tlie Northern Pacific aHd 
urged my claims the harder, without efi'eet. The 



162 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



amount involved was large and at last, in despera- 
tion, I unloaded the last of my wheat on that road 
(it was a large quantity) at the end of the season of 
water navigation and refused to pay the freight. 
Suit was commenced against our firm, but in a short 
time the company concluded to carry out their agree- 
ment and the suit was withdrawn. Soon afterwards 
the road was in the hands of a receiver. The local 
freight agent of the same road received, through 
error of the bookkeeper, from me an over-payment, 
but nothing was said about it. nor did I discover it 
until an employe of the railroad agent was dis- 
charged who came to me saying. '"When rogues fall 
out honest men get their due," revealing the mis- 
take, when, of course, the money was returned. In 
those days free passes for travel were generally dis- 
tributed to tho.se whose good will was thought of 
advantage to the railroad. Judges of the court truv- 
eled on these passes. 

We relied upon the territoiy covered by the St. 
Paul & Pacific for the greater part of our wheat. 
That road owned in Minneapolis a grain elevator 
near the corner of Washington Avenue and their 
tracks. Tliis elevator received all the wheat con- 
signed to Minneapolis millers. It was weighed in, 
hut the railroad refused to weigh it out or be respon- 
sible for an equal weight delivered. A grain bin was 
a.s.signed to each consignee. The miller hauled the 
wheat as he needed it. On one occasion a carload 
of mine was carelessly dixmped by the railroad agent 
into my neighbor's bin. The railroad refused to re- 
fund or to call on my neighbor to refund, who foimd 
his wheat was over what I was short. It seemed a 
hopeless thing to sue the road as they held ray re- 
ceipt for the wheat, for they always required a re- 
ceipt liefore the wheat was touched. I therefore an- 
nounced I would receipt for no more wheat until I 
had verified the count upon hauling it out. The 
railroad company refused to let me have any more 
wheat unless receipted for before hauled. I let my 
wheat remain with the railroad company until the 
constantly arriving stream filled the elevator, and 
the unloaded cars covered all their tracks. They 
then notified me that double storage rates would b° 
charged on all my wheat to that time and I could 
have my wheat except a few thousand bushels which 
tliey would hold as a test. Wlieu I got ready to 
grind it I replevined it and sued for damages. The 
lower court decided that it was a reasonable regula- 
tion to make one sign even before an opportunity 
to verify could be had. The .judge added that if I 
did not like the regidation I need vnt &)(!/ wheat on 
the line of that road! I appealed to the Supreme 
Court, and of course the .iudgment of the lower court 
was reversed. I got my wheat and the railroad paid 
damages. This leads to the reflection, What a change 
in the attitude of railroad managers the Interstate 
Commerce law ha,s wrought and the decisions of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, to-wit : that 
railroads are the servants of the people and can be 
compelled to do their duty. Respected judges, 
schooled in the practice that railroads were an irre- 
sponsible power, could join with railroad managers 



in dictating to the troublesome public, either to ser- 
vilely submit to arbitrary injustice or cease to do 
business ! 

Indeed it was not uncommon for a railroad man- 
agement to attempt to destroj- a business or a city, 
as we have seen. A superintendent of the only rail- 
road reaching to the Lake ports told a firm of terri* 
fied Jlinneapolis millers that he would make grass 
grow in front of their mill door, because I shipped 
flour down the river by boat which I Imd bought of 
them. If one should make this threat now he would 
not be pleased with his treatment. I well remember 
with what misgivings the first enactment of the In- 
terstate Commerce law was received l)y the public 
in general. It was generally predicted that the reign 
of the mob had commenced and property was no 
longer sacred. As a matter of fact the regulation 
of railroads has been an inestimable blessing. ;\Ian 
when he is possessed of irresponsible power is a 
ratlier despicable creature. • 



EXCERPT FROM "THE PIONEER WOODSMAN AS HE IS 

RELATED TO LUMBERING IN THE NORTHWEST." 

BY GEORGE H. WARREN. 

The relationship of the pioneer woodsman to lum- 
bering in the Northwest can best be told l)y narration 
of events as they occur in his daily life. These, how- 
ever, are so varied, that only an excerpt of a more 
complete retrospection I have written on the subject, 
may here be given. 

In order that his unique duties may be fairly under- 
stood, I invite the reader aiong on the journe.v of the 
pioneer woodsman, from comfortable hearthstone, 
from family, friends, books, magazines, and daily 
papers, and to disappear with him from all evidences 
of civilization and from all human companionship 
save, ordinarily, that of one helper who not infre- 
quently is an Indian, and to live for weeks at a time 
in the unbroken forest, seldom sleeping more than a 
.single night in one place. 

The woodsman and his one companion must carry 
cooking utensils : axes, raw provisions of flour, meat, 
beans, coifee. sugar, rice, pepper, and salt ; maps, plats, 
l)Ooks for field notes : the simplest and lightest possible 
equipment of surveying implements; and, lastly, tent 
and blankets for shelter and covering at night to pro- 
tect them from storm and cold. 

Some incidents of daily life, as they occurred to me, 
will be shown to the reader in this condensed recital. 

In the summer of 1874, I went to the head waters of 
the Big Fork River with a party of hardy frontiers- 
men, in search of a section of country, which was as 
yet unsurveyed by the United States Government, and 
which should contain a valuable body of pine timber. 
Having found such a tract of land, we made arrange- 
ments through the Surveyor-General's office, then 
located in St. Paul, to have the land .surveyed. The 
contract for the survey was let bv the TTnited States 
Government to Mr. Fendall G. Winston, of Minne- 
apolis. 

I met Mr. Winston and his assistant survevors at 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, JIINNESOTA 



163 



Grand Rjipids about the middle of Au^ist. There 
were uo roads leading into the country that we were 
to survey, and, as our work would extend nearly 
through the winter, it was necessary to get our sup- 
plies in sufficient quantity to last for our entire cam- 
paign, and take them near to our work. This was 
accomplished by taking them in canoes and boats of 
various sorts. Our first water route took us up the 
Mississippi River, into Lake Winnibigoshish, and 
from that lake on its northea.sterly shore, we went into 
Cut-foot Sioux, or Keeskeesdaypon Lake. From this 
point we were obliged to make a four-mile portage 
into the Big Fork River, crossing the Winnibigoshish 
Indian Reservation. From an Indian encampment on 
this reservation, at the southwest shore of Bow String 
Lake, we hired some Indians to help pack our supplies 
across the four-mile portage. Before half of our sup- 
plies had been carried across the portage, the Indian 
chief sent word to us by one of his braves, that he 
wished to see us in council and forbade our moving 
any more of our supplies until we had counseled with 
him. Although the surveyors were the agents of the 
United States Government, for the sake of harmony, 
it was thought best to ascertain at once what was 
uppermost in the eluef's mind. 

That evening, a conference was held in the wigwam 
of the chief. First, the chief filled full of tobacco a 
large, verj' long stemmed pipe, and, having lighted it 
with a live coal from the fire, took the first Avhiff of 
smoke; then immediately passed it to the nearest one 
of our delegates to his right; and thus the pipe went 
round, until it came back to the chief, before anything 
had been said. The chief then began a long recital, 
telling us that the Great Father would protect them in 
their rights to the exclusive use of these lands. The 
chief said that he was averse neither to the white man 
using the trail of his people, nor to his using the 
waters of the rivers or lakes within the boundaries of 
the reservation, but. if he did so, he must pay tribute. 
In answer to his speech, the chief surveyor of our 
party, Feiidall G. Winston, replied that he and his 
men had been sent to survey the lands that belonged 
to the Great Father, and, that in order to reach those 
lands, it was necessary that his people should cross 
the reservation which the Great Father had granted to 
his tribe : nevertheless, that they felt friendly to the 
Indians: that if they were treated kindly by himself 
and his tribes-men, they should have an opportunity 
to give them eonsideralile work for many days, while 
they were getting their supplies across his country to 
that of the Great Father, where they were going to 
work during the fall and winter: and that they would 
also make him a present of a sack of flour, some pork, 
some tea, and some tobacco. He was told, too, that 
this was not necessary for the Great Father's men to 
do, but that they were willing to do it, provided that 
this should end all claims of every nature of the chief 
against any and all of the Great Father's white men, 
whom he had sent into that country to do his work. 
This having been sealed with the chief's emphatic. 
"Ugh," he again lighted the pipe, took the first whiff 
of smoke, and passed it around. Each, in token of 
friendship, did as the chief had already done. This 



ended the conference, and we were not again ques- 
tioned as to our rights to pass over this long portage 
trail, which we continued to use until our supplies 
were all in. 

As nearly as I can now recall, our force was made 
up of the following men: Fendall G. Winston, in 
■whose name the contract for the survej' was issued; 
Philip B. Winston, his brother: Hyde, a j'oung engi- 
neer from the University of Minnesota; Brown, civil 
engineer from Boston; Coe, from the Troy Poly- 
technic School of Engineering; Charlie, a half-breed 
Indian; Franklin, the cook; Jim Flemming, Frank 
Hoyt, Charlie Berg, Tom Jenkins, George Fenimore, 
Tom Laughlin, Joe Lyon, Will Braekett, Miller, and 
myself. 

Flemming, poor fellow, was suffering with dysentery 
when he started on the trip. On reaching Grand 
Rapids, he was no better, and it was thought best not 
to take him along to the frontier, so he was allowed to 
go home. Miller was not of a peace loving disposition, 
and, having sho^vu this characteristic early, was also 
allowed to leave the party. It was best that all weak- 
lings and quarrelsome ones should be left behind, 
because it was easily foreseen that when winter closed 
in upon the band of frontiersmen, it would be difficult 
to reach the outer world, and it would be unpleasant to 
have any in the party that were not, in some sense, 
companionable. 

Considerable time was consumed in getting all of 
our supplies to headquarters camp, which consisted of 
a. log cabin. The first misfortune that befell any one 
of our party came to Frank Iloyt, who one day cut an 
ugly gash in the calf of his leg with a glancing blow 
of the ax. The cut required stitching, but there was 
no surgeon in the party. Will Braekett, the youngest 
of the party, a brother of George A. Braekett, and a 
student from the University, volunteered to sew up 
the wound. This he did with an ordinary needle and 
a piece of white thread. The patient submitted with 
fortitude creditable to an Indian. Some plastic salve 
was put on a cloth and placed over the wound, which 
resulted in its healing ton rapidly. Proud flesh 
appeared, and then the ■(^'isdom of the party was called 
into requisition, to learn what thing or things available 
could be applied to destroy it. Goose quill scrapings 
were suggested, there being a few quills in the posses- 
sion of the party. Braekett. however, suggested the 
use of some of the cook's baking powder, because, he 
argued, there was sufficient alum in it to remove the 
proud flesh from the wound. "Dr." Braekett was 
considered authority, and his prescription proved 
effectual. Hoyt was left to guard the provision camp 
against possible visits from the Indians, or from bears, 
which sometimes were known to break in and to carry 
away provisions. 

It is never necessaiy for surveyors M'hose work is 
in the timber, nor for timber hunters, to carry tent 
poles, because these are easily chosen from among the 
small trees : yet nine of our party, one time in 
October, with the rain falling fast and cold, found 
themselves, at the end of the four-mile Cut-foot Sioux 
Portase. on a point of land where there were no poles. 
All of the timber of every description had been cut 



164 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



down and used by the Indians. The Indian chief and 
several of his family relations lived on this point. 
They had built the house of poles and cedar bark, in 
the shape of a rectangle. Its dimensions on the ground 
were about twelve by twenty feet; its walls rose to a 
height of about five feet ; and it was covered by a hip 
roof. 

Our party must either obtain shelter under this 
roof or must get into the canoes and paddle nearly 
two miles to tind a place where it could pitch its tents. 
At this juncture, the hospitality of the Indians was 
demonstrated. The chief sent out word that we should 
come into his dwelling and remain for the night. The 
proffer was gladly accepted. When we had all assem- 
bled, we found within, the chief and his squaw, his 
daughter and her husband; the hunter, his squaw, and 
two daughters, besides our party of nine, making a 
total of seventeen human beings within this small en- 
closure. A small fire occupied a place on the ground 
at the center of the structure^ an ample opening in the 
roof having been left for the escape of the smoke and 
live sparks. Indians can always teach their white 
brothers a lesson of economy in the use of fuel. They 
build only a small fire, around which, when inside their 
wigwams, they all gather with their usually naked feet 
to the fire. It is a physiological fact that when one's 
extremities are warm, one's bodily sufferings from 
cold are at their minimum. Our party boiled some 
rice and made a pail of coffee, without causing any 
especial inconvenience to our hosts, and, after having 
satisfied hunger and thirst, the usual camp fire smoke 
of pipes was indulged in, before planning for any 
sleep. Our party had l)eeu assigned a portion of the 
space around the open fire, and our blankets were 
brought in and spread upon the mats that lay upon 
the earth floor. 

The additional presence of nine Indian dogs had not 
previously been mentioned. Before morning, however, 
they were found to be live factoi-s, and should be 
counted as part of the dwellers within the walls of this 
single room. They seemed to be nocturnal in iuibit. 
and to take an especial delight in crossing and re- 
crossing our feet, or in trying to find especially cozy 
places between our feet and near to the fire, where Ihey 
might curl down for their own especial comfort. It 
was not for us, however, to complain, inasmuch as 
the hosintality that had been extended was sincere; 
and it was to be remembered b.v us that it was in no 
way any advantage to the Indians to have taken us in 
for the night. Therefore, we were truly thankful 
that our copiier-colored friends had once more demon- 
sti-ated their feelings of humanity toward their white 
lirothers. The.\' had been subjected to more or less 
inconvenience by our presence, but in no way did they 
make this fact manifest by their actions or by their 
words. The rain continued at intervals during the 
entire night, and it was with a feeling of real grati- 
tude, as we lay upon the ground, and listened to it, 
that we thought of the kindly treatment we were re- 
ceiving from these aborigines. In the morning we of- 
fered to pay them money for our accommodations, but 
this they declined. They did, however, accept some 
meat and some flour. 



The pine timber lying east of Bow String Lake, and 
included in the survey of 1874 and 1875, was all trib- 
utary to waters running north, into the Big Fork 
Eiver, which empties into the Rainy River. Levels 
were run across from Bow String Lake into Cut-foot 
Sioux River, and considerable fall was found. The 
distance, nearly all the way, was over a marsh. It was 
shown that a dam could easily be thrown across from 
bank to liank of the river at the outlet of Bow String 
Lake, and by thus slightly raising the water in the 
lake, plus a little work of cleaning out portions of 
the distance across the marsh, from Bow String Lake 
to Cut-foot Sioux, the timber could be driven across 
and into the waters of the ^Mississippi River. All of 
this engineering was before the advent of logging rail- 
roads. However, before the timber was needed for the 
ilinneapolis market, many logging railroads had been 
built in various localities in the northern woods, and 
their practical utility had been demonstrated. When 
the time came for cutting tliis timber, a logging rail- 
road was constructed to reach it. and over its tracks, 
the timber was brought out, thus obviating the neces- 
sity of empounding the waters of Bow String Lake. 

Our frail lurch canoes had been abandoned as cold 
weather approached', and we had settled down to the 
work of surveying. Sometimes, however, we came to 
lakes that must be crossed. This was accomplished by 
cutting some logs, and making rafts by t>'ing them to- 
gether with withes. Sometimes these rafts were found 
insufficiently buoyant to float above water all who 
got upon them, so that when they were pushed along 
there were no visible signs of anything that the men 
were standing on. When on a raft, Hyde was always 
afraid of falling off, and would invariably sit down 
upon it. This subjected him to greater discomfort 
Ihan other members, but as it was of his own choosing, 
no one raised any objection. 

On one occasion, when the raft sank muisually deep 
beneath the water, one of the party who had attended 
Sunday school in his youth and remembered nnicli of 
his Bible, said, ' ' I wonder if this is the way Christ 
walked on the water." 

One day, several of the party had gone to the supply 
camp to bring back some provisions which the cook had 
a.sked for. Returning, not by any trail, but directly 
through the unbroken forest, we fouiul ourselves in a 
wet tamarack and s])ruce swamp ; and, although we 
believed we were not far from the camp where we had 
left the cook in the Tuorning. wc were not certain of 
its exact location. Mr. F. G. Winston said he thought 
he could reach it in a very short time, and suggested 
that we renmin where we were. He started in what he 
liclit'ved to be the direction of the camp, saying that lie 
would return in a little while. We waited until the 
shades of night began to fall ; and yet he did not come. 
Preparations w'ere then made to stay in the swamp 
all night. The ground was wet all around us. nor 
could we see far enough to discern any dry land. We 
commenced cnttiuEr down the smaller trees that were 
like poles, and with these poles, constnicted a plat- 
form of sufificicnt dimensions to afford room for four 
men to lie down. Then another foundation of wet 
logs was made, on which a fire was kindled, and by the 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



165 



fire, we baked our bread and fried some bacon, which 
constituted our evening meal. A sack of flour was 
opened, a small place within it hollowed out, a little 
water poured in, and the flour mixed with the water 
until a dough was formed. Each man was told to pro- 
vide himself with a chip large enough on which to lay 
the piece of dough, which was rolled out by hand, made 
flat, and then, having been placed in a nearly upright 
position against the chip in front of the fire, was baked 
on one side ; then turned over and Iniked on the other. 
In the meantime, each man was told to provide him- 
self with a forked stick, which he should cut with his 
jack-knife, and on it to place his piece of bacon and 
cook it in front of the fire; thus each man became liis 
own cook and prepared his own meal. There was no 
baking powder or other ingredient to leaven the loaf — 
not even a pinch of salt to flavor it. But the owner 
of each piece of dough was hungry, and. by eating it 
immediately after it was baked and before it got cold, 
it was much better than going without any supper. 
The following morning the party resumed its journey, 
and met I\Ir. Winston coming out to find it. He had 
found the cook's camp, but at so late an hour that it 
was not possible for liim to return that night. 

After leaving Grand Rapids about the middle of 
August, we saw very few white men for many months 
following. In October, on our survey, local attraction 
was so strong on part of our work, that it was neces- 
sary to use a solar compass. This emergency had not 
been anticipated ; it, therefore, became necessary to 
go to ^Minneapolis to secure that special instrument. 
Philip B. AVinston, afterwards mayor of Minneapolis, 
and I started in a birch canoe, and in it made the 
whole distance from our camp on Bow String Lake 
to Aitkin, Minnesota, on the Mississippi, the nearest 
railroad station. We were in Minneapolis but two 
days, when we returned, catching the steamer at 
Aitkin, and going up the Mississippi to Grand Rapids, 
the head of navigation for steamboats. 

('a]itain John Martin, of Alinneapolis, the well- 
known lumberman and banker, wished to return with 
us for his final fishing trip in open water, for that 
season. He fished successfully for a number of days, 
and. at the end of each da,v. personally prepared and 
cooked as fine a fish chowder as anyone would ever 
wish to eat. On the da.v of his departure, I took thi' 
Captain in my canoe, and landed him on the four-mile 
portage with an Indian escort who was to take liim 
to Gi'and Rapids, whence he would return by steamer 
to Aitkin, a station on the line of the Northern Pacific 
Railroad. 

I was left alone in my canoe and must return to 
camp, crossing the open water of Bow String Lake. 
On my arrival at the main lake, the wind had in- 
creased its velocit.y, and the white-caps were breaking. 
I hired an Indian, known as "the hunter.'' to help 
me paddle across the lake and up a rapid on a river 
flowing into Bow String, up and over which it was not 
possible for one man to push his canoe alone. 

The animal payment to the Indians by the United 
States Government was to occur a few days subse- 
quentl.v, at Leech Lake, and the Indians were bu.sy 



getting i-eady to leave, to attend the payment. The 
hunter's people were to start that day, and he seemed 
to realize, when half way across the lake, that, owing 
to our slow progress, because of the heavy sea, he 
would be late in returning to his people at camp. He 
said so, and wished to turn back, but 1 told him that 
he must take me above the rapid, which was my prin- 
cipal object in hiring him. After sitting stoically in 
the bow of the canoe for a few moments, he suddenly 
turned about, and, drawing his long knife, said in 
Chippewa, that he must go back. I drew my revolver 
and told him to get down in the canoe and paddle, 
and tliat if he did not, he would get shot. There 
was no further threat by tlie Indian, and we made as 
rapid progress as possible over the rapid, landing my 
canoe — his own having been trailed to the foot of the 
rapid. Both stepped ashore. Then he said in Chip- 
pewa, "]\re bad Chippewa; white man all right;" and 
bidding me good-by, hurried off to his canoe at the 
foot of the rapid. 

Captain Martin was the last white man that any one 
of our party saw for four months. Winter closed in 
on us before the beginning of November. The snow 
became very deep, so that it was absolutely necessary 
to perfonn all of our work on snowshoes. The winter 
of 1874 and 1875 is shown to have been the coldest 
winter in Minnesota, of which there is any record, be- 
ginning with 1819 up to, and including, 1913. 

The party was mostly comnosed of men who had 
had years of experience on the frontier, and who were 
inured to hardship. With a few. however, the experi- 
ence was entirely new, and, except that they were 
looked after by the more hardy, they might have per- 
ished. As it was, however, not one man became seri- 
ously ill at any time during this severe winter's 
campaign. 

The compass-man's work that winter was rendered 
very laborious from the fact that his occupation made 
it necessary for him, from morning until night of every 
day, to break his own path through the untrodden 
snow, for it was he who was locating the line of the 
survey. I was all of the time running lines in the in- 
terior of the .sections, following the work of the sur- 
veyors, and choosing desirable pine timber that was 
found within each section. I had no companion in 
this work, and thus was separated most of each day 
from other members of the part.v. but returned to tlie 
same camp at night. 

In the morning, each man was furnished by t);e 
cook, with a cloth sack in which were placed one or 
two or more biscuits, containing within slices of fried 
bacon and sometimes .slices of corned beef. also, prv- 
haps, a doughnut or two. This he tied to the belt of 
his jacket on his back and carried until the lunch hour. 
Ordinarily a small fire was then kindled, and the 
luncheon, which generally was frozen, thawed out, and 
eaten. Under such mode of living, every one returned 
at night bringing an appetite of ample dimensions. 

One of the most acceptable of foods to such men at 
the supper hour was bean soup, of a kind and quality 
such as a cook on the frontier, alone, knows how to 
prepare. Plenty of good bread was always in abun- 
dance at such time. Usually there was also either 



166 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



eorued beef or boiled pork to be had by those who 
wished it; generally also boiled rice or apple duiiip- 
liugs, besides tea aud coffee. 

The work of the froiitiereiiian is more or less hazard- 
ous in its nature, and j-et bad accidents are rare. Oc- 
casionally a man is struck by a falling limb, or he may 
be cut by the glancing blow of an ax, though he learns 
to be very careful when using tools, well knowing that 
thei'c is no surgeon or hospital near at hand. Some- 
times in the early winter, men unaccompanied, yet 
obliged to travel alone, drop through the treacherous 
ice aud are drowned. Few winters pass in a lumber 
country where instances of this kind do not occur. 
One day, when alone, I came near enough to such an 
experience. I was obliged to cross a lake, known to 
have air holes probably caused by warm springs. The 
ice was covered by a heavy layer of snow, consequently 
I wore snowslioes, and before starting to cross, cut a 
long, stout pole. Taking this firmly in my hands, I 
macle my way out on the ice. All went well until 
I was near the opposite shore, when suddenly the bot- 
tom w-eut out from under me and I fell into the water, 
through an unseen air hole which the snow covered. 
The pole I carried was sufficient in length to reach the 
firm ice on either side, which alone enabled me, after 
much labor, impeded as I was by the cumbersome 
snowshoes, to gain the surface. The next ab.solutely 
necessary thing to do, was to make a fire as cpiickly as 
possible, before I should become benumbed by my 
wet garments. 

The survey went steadily on, the snow aud cold in- 
creased, and rarely was it possible to make an advance 
of more than four miles in a day. Frank Hoyt re- 
mained at the warehouse and watched the supplies 
whicli wore steadily diminishing. One day, Philip 
B. Winston, two men of the crew, and I, set out to the 
supply camp to bring some provisions to the cook's 
camp. The first day at nightfall, we reached an 
Indian wigwam that we knew of, situated in a gi-ove 
of liard wood timber, near the shore of a lake, directly 
on our route to the supply camp. Our little party 
stayed with the Indians and shared their hospitality. 
It was a large wigwam, covered principally with cedar 
})ark, and there was an additional smaller wigwam 
so close to it, that a passage way was made from one 
wigwam to the other. 

In the smaller wigwam, lived a young Indian, his 
s(|uaw, and the squaw's mother; in the larger wigwam 
lived the chief, his wife, his daughter, son-in-law, and 
the hunter, his wife, and two daughters, all of whom 
were present except the hunter. There was an air 
of expectancy noticeable a.s we sat on the mats around 
the fire in the wigwam, after having made some coffee 
and eaten our supptu- outside. Presently the chief 
informed us that an heir was looked for that evening 
in the adjoining tent. Before nine o'clock, it was an- 
nounced that a young warrior had made his appear- 
ance, and all were happy over his arrival. The large 
pipe w!is brought forth, filled with tobacco, and, after 
the chief had taken the first smoke, it was passed 
around to their guests, and all the men smoked, as 
well as the married women. 

The next morning, we continued our journey across 



the lake and on to Hoyfs camp, where, it is needless 
to say, he was glad to see some white men. Their 
visits were rare at his camp. Filling our packs with 
things the cook had ordered, we started on our return 
journey, arriving at the Indian camp at nightfall. As 
we left the ice to go up the banks of the lake to the 
wigwams, we met the mother of the young warrior 
who had made his first appearance the preceding 
night, going down to the lake with a pail in each hand 
to bring some water to her wigwam. The healthy 
yuung child was brought into the wigwam and shown 
to tile members of our party, who complimented the 
young mother and wished that he might grow to be 
a Brave, woi-thy to be chieftain of their tribe. 

That evening a feast had been prepared at the 
chief's wigwam, in honor of the birth of the child, 
to which our party was invited. The menu consisted 
principally of boiled rice, boiled muskrat, and boiled 
rabbit. The three principal foods, having been cooked 
in one kettle and at the same time, were served as 
one course, but the guests were invited to repeat the 
course as often as they desired. This invitation was 
accepted by some, while others seemed satisfied to 
take the course but once. I have always found the 
hospitality of the Chippew-a Indian unsurpassed, and 
more than once, in my frontier experiences, I have 
found that hospitality a godsend to me and to my 
party. 

It was in the month of February, 1875. when the 
surveying party completed its work east of Bow String 
Lake, and finished, one afternoon, closing its last lines 
on the Third Guide Meridian. At the camp, that 
afti'rnoon, preparations were being made for a gen- 
eral move of considerable distance. It is not always 
possible for the frontiersman to reach his goal on the 
day that he has planned to do so. An instance in point 
occurred next day, when our surveying party was 
moving out to Grand Rapids. The snow was deep 
and the weather intensely cold when we broke camp 
that morning, hoping before nightfall to reach one of 
Hill Lawrence's logging camps. Some Indians had 
been hired to help pack out our belongings. Our 
course lay directly through the unbroken forest, with- 
out trail or blazed line, and the right direction was 
kept only by the constant use of the compass. All 
were on snowshoes, and those of the party who could 
be depended upon to correctly use the compass, took 
turns in breaking road. Each compass-man woiild 
break the way through the snow for half an hour, then 
another would step in and break the way for another 
half hour, and he in turn would be succeeded by a 
third compass-man. This change of leadership was 
contiimed all the way during that day. 

About the middle of the afternoon, the Indians 
threw down their packs and left our party altogether, 
having become tired of their jobs. This necessitated 
dividing up the Indians' packs and each man suf- 
ficiently able-bodied taking a part of these abandoned 
loads in addition to his own pack; and thus we con- 
tinued the journey. 

Night was fast approaching, and the distance was 
too great to reach the Lawi-ence camp that night. 



HISTORY OF .rilNNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



167 



Fortunately, there were some Indian wigwams not 
far in advance. These we reached after nightfall, 
and, as our part.v was vei-y tired and carried no pre- 
pared food, we asked for shelter during the night 
with the Indians. They soon made places wliori; our 
men could spread their blankets around the small Hre 
in the center of the wigwams. Then we asked if we 
could be served with something to eat. We received 
an affirmative "Ugh," and the squaws commenced 
preparing food, which consisted solely of a boiled 
rabbit stew with a little wild rice. It was once more 
demonstrated that hunger is a good cook. After hav- 
ing partaken of the unselfishly proffered food, and, 
after most of our party had smoked their pipes, all 
lay down about the fire, and fell asleep. Even the 
presence of Indian dogs, occasionally walking over 
us in the night, interfered hut little with our slumbers. 
The next morning our party started out without break- 
fast, and by ten o'clock reached the Lawrence camp, 
where the cook set out, in a few minutes time, a great 
variety of food, and an abundance of it, of which 
each man partook to his great satisfaction. 

From Lawrence camp we were able to secure the 
services of the tote team that was going out for sup- 
plies, which took our equipment through to Grand 
Rapids. From that point, we were able, also, to hire 
a team to take our supplies to the Swan River, crossinji 
which, we went north to survey two townships, which 
would complete the winter's contract. 

It has been stated that this winter of 187-4 and 1875 
was the coldest of which the "Weather Bureau for ilin- 
nesota furnishes an.v history. Besides the intense cold, 
there were heavy snows. Nevertheless, no serious in- 
jury or physical suffering of long duration befell any 
member of our band of hard.y woodsmen. Not one 
of our number was yet thirty years old, the youngest 
one being eighteen. Two only of the party were mar- 
ried, Fendall G. Winston and myself. On leaving 
Grand Rapids in August, we separated ourselves from 
all other white men. The party was as completely 
separated from the outside world as though it had been 
aboard a whaling vessel in the Northern Seas. No 
letters nor connnunications of any kind reached us 
after winter set in, until our arrival in Grand Rapids 
in the month of February following. Letters were 
occasionally written and kept in readiness to send out 
by any Indian who might be going to the nearest 
logging camp, whence they might bv chance be carried 
out to some post office. Whether these letters reached 
their destinations or not, could not lie known by the 
writers as long as they remained on their work, hidden 
in the forest. 

I had left my young wife and infant daughter, not 
yet a year old. in Minneapolis. Either, or both misht 
have died and been buried before any word coidd have 
reached me. It was not possible at all times to keep 
such thoughts out of my mind. Of course every day 
was a busy one, completely filled with the duties of 
the hour, and the greatest solace was found in believ- 
ing that all was well, even though we could not eom- 
nnmicate with each other. As I recall, no ill befell 
any one of the party nor of the partv's dear ones, dur- 
ing all these long weeks and months of separation. 



Evei-y man of the jiarty seemed to become more rugged 
and to possess greater endurance as the cold increased. 
It became the common practice to let the camp fire 
burn down and die, as we rolled into our blankets to 
sleej:) till the morning hour of arising. 

Not every night was spent in comfort, however, 
though ordinarily that was the average experience. 
The le.ss robust ones, of whom there were very few, 
sometimes received st)ecial attention. 

Long living around the open camp fire in the winter 
months, standing around in the smoke, and accumu- 
lating more or less of the odors from foods of various 
kinds being cooked by the open fire, invariably result 
in all of one's clothing and all of one's bedding be- 
coming more or less saturated with the smell of the 
camp. This condition one does not notice while living 
in it fi-om day to day. Imt he does not need to be out 
and away from such environments for more than a few 
hours, before he becomes personally conscious, to some 
degree, that such odors are not of a quality that would 
constitute a marketable article for cash. On arriving 
in ^Minneapolis at the close of the winter's campaign, 
without having changed our garments— as we had 
none with us that had not shared with us one and the 
same fate — ilr. P. B. Winston and I engaged a hack 
at the railroad station, and drove to our respective 
homes. 

It was ■ Mr. Winston 's domicile that was first 
reached, and it happened, as the driver stopped in 
front of his house, that his fiance. Miss Kittie Stevens, 
(the first white child born in Sliinieapolis), chanced 
to be passing by. Of course their meeting was unex- 
pected to either, but was a pleasant and joyous one, 
though somewhat embarrassing to Mr. Winston. The 
wind was blowing, and I noticed that he took the pre- 
caution to keep his own person out of the windward. 
He had been a soldier in the Confederate Army, and I 
smiled with much satisfaction as I observed his splen- 
did maneuver. 

On meeting me next day, Mr. Winston inquired 
Avhether his tactics had been observed, and, being as- 
sured that they had, he said that that was the eml)ar- 
ra.ssing moment for him, for he did not know but 
that the young ladj' might have considered that she 
had just grounds for breaking the engagement. Both 
of us. however, knew better, for she was a young lady 
possessed of a large degree of common sense and love- 
liness. The young people later were married, ]Mr. 
AVinston liecoming mayor of Minneapolis, remaining 
always, one of its best citizens. Often afterwards, in- 
cidents of that winter's experience, a few of which 
have been herein recorded, wei'e gone over together 
with great pleasure b.v the parties interested. 

The occupation of the pioneer woodsman as he is 
related to lumbering in the Northwest is one which 
demands many of the highest attributes of man. He 
nnist be skillful enough as a surveyor to always know 
which description of land he is on, and where he is 
on that description. He must be a good judge of tim- 
ber, able to discern the difference between a sound 
tree and a defective one, as well as to estimate closely 
the ((lumtify and qualit.v of lumber, reckoned in feet, 
board measure, each tree will likely produce when 



168 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTS*, MINNESOTA 



sawed at the mill. He must examine the contour of 
the country where the timber is, and make calculations 
how the timber is to be gotten out, either by water 
or by rail, and estimate how much money per thou- 
sand feet it will cost, to bring the logs to market. The 
value of the standing pine or other timber in the woods 
is dependent on all of these conditions, which must 
be reckoned in ai-riving at an estimate of the desirabil- 
ity of each tract of timber as an investment for him- 
self, or for whonisoeverhe may represent. 

Possessing these ((ualifications, he must also be hon- 
est; he must be industrious; he must be courageous. 
He must gain the other side of rivers that have no 
bridges over them, and he must cross lakes on which 
there are no boats. He must find shelter when he has 
no tent, and make moccasins when his shoes are worn 
and no longer of service, and new ones are not to be 



obtained; he must be indefatigable, for he will often 
be tempted to leave some work half finished rather 
than overcome the physical obstacles that lay between 
him and the completion of his task. 

On the character of this man and on his faithfulness, 
his honesty, his conscientiousness, and on the correct- 
ness of his knowledge concerning the quality, quantity, 
and situation as to marketing the timber he examines, 
depends the value of the investments. Hundreds of 
thousands of dollars are invested on the word of this 
man, after he has disappeared into the wilderness and 
emerged with his report of what he has seen. The 
requisitions of manhood for this work are of a very 
high degree, and, when such a man is found, he is 
entitled to all of the esteem that is ever accorded to an 
honest, faithful, conscientious ca.shier, banker, or ad- 
ministrator of a large estate. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
THE BANKING INTERESTS OF THE CITY. 



SKETCHES OF SOME OP THE IMPORTANT AND TYPICAL BANKS AND TRUST COMPANIES OP MINNEAPOLIS THE PIRST 

NATIONAL THE NORTHWESTERN NATIONAL THE SECURITY NATIONAL MINNEAPOLIS TRUST CO. MINNESOTA 

LOAN AND TRUST CO. — THE STATE INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS FARMERS AND MECHANICS SAVINGS BANK — 

SCANDINAVIAN-AMERICAN NATIONAL METROPOLITAN NATIONAL — ST. ANTHONY FALLS BANK — THE NATIONAL 

CITY BANK OF MINNEAPOLIS — THE GERMAN-AMERICAN NATIONAL — EAST SIDE STATE BANK. 



The first bank at St. Authony was established by 
Richard Martin, in 1854; later the same year Far- 
iniin & Traey started. The first bankers on the west 
side of the river were Simon P. Snyder and Wm. K. 
McFarlane, who came in 1855. They not only estab- 
lished a banking house with ample capital but en- 
gaged somewhat extensively as dealers in real estate. 
They did a great deal for the advancement and pi'og- 
ress of the young city. C. H. Pettit came also in 
1855 and founded the second bank in Minneapolis 
proper. 

From the very fir.st years after they came into 
existence the local banks have operated for good to 
an extent surpassing the money exchanges of almost 
every other American city. The chief factors in the 
development, growth, and prosperity of Minneapolis 
have been its mills and other factories, and these 
could not have succeeded but for the banks. 

Following are notices and sketches of a few of the 
banks of the city, leading in their character and 
ri-garded with great favor in the public estimation. 
The few mentioned here are typical and representa- 
tive of the whole number. 

FIRST NATIONAL BANK. 

The First National Bank of Miiniea])i>lis was 
founded under circumstances of more than ordinary 
romance and adventure, and the history of the insti- 
tution is in brief and by implication that of the re- 
gion in which it is located. The sum of .^10,000, on 
which it was founded, was lirought bv stage in 1857 
to what was then the little village of Minneapolis. The 
money belonged to J. K. Sidle, a young man from the 
city of York, Pennsylvania, and he brought it for 
the purpose of starting a liank. He secured the as- 
sistance of Peter AVolford in the enterprise, and to- 
gether they established a private bank under the firm 
name of Sidle & AYolford. which carried on a flour- 
ishing business for a short time before being incor- 
porated as a State institution under the name of the 
Alinneapolis Bank. 

In 1864, in obedience to a call from President 
Lincoln, banks all over the country hurried to nation- 
alize under a new banking law then recently passed 
by Congress. The Minneapolis Bank made applica- 
tion for a charter under which to work as the First 



National Bank of Jlinneapolis early in the year, 
but it was not until December 12, that year, when 
the application was perfected and the capital was 
all paid in. The first stockholders and directors were 
J. K. Sidle, H. G. Sidle, Henry Sidle, G. Scheitlin, 
Loren Fletcher, D. C. Bell. E. A. Veazie, Anthony 
Kelly, E. B. Ames, Capt. John Martin, and W. A. 
Penniman. J. K. Sidle was elected president and 
H. G. Sidle cashier. Later Geo. Pillsbury became 
a stockholder and director, serving until his death. 
The last statement of the IMinneapolis Bank, made 
on Mav 31. 1864, showed resources amounting to 
$126,960.03, a capital stock of $60,000, and depos- 
its aggregating $41,922.92. The First National 
Bank began business with a capital stock of $50,000, 
which was increased to $100,000 in 1872, to $200,000 
in 1874, to $600,000 in 1878, to $1,000,000 in 188(1, 
and to $2,000,000 in 1903, the sum at which it now 
stands. In 1894 F. M. Prince was elected cashier, 
and in January, 1895, vice president, being suc- 
ceeded in the eashiership by C. T. Jaffray. At the 
same time Captain John Martin was elected presi- 
dent. On the death of Captain Martin, in 1904. Hon. 
John B. Gilfillan was elected president. But after 
two years Mr. Gilfillan was nuide chairman of the 
board of directors and Mr. Prince was elected presi- 
dent. The officers of the bank in 1913 were: F. ^I. 
Prince, president; C. T. Jaffray, A. A. Crane, 
George F. Orde and D. Mackerchar, vice presidents ; 
H. A. Willoughby, cashier, and G. A. Lyon and P. 
J. Leeman, assistant cashiers. The board of direct- 
ors consists of: J. B. Gilfillan. chairman; George C. 
Bagley, Earl Brown, E. L. Carpenter, R. H. Chute,- 
Hovey C. Clarke, A. E. Clerihew. Elbridge C. Cooke, 
Isaac" Hazlett, Horace M. Hill, W. A. Lancaster, A. 
C. Loring, John D. McMillan, John H. Mc^Millan. 
S. G. Palmer. E. Pennington, Alfred S. Pillsbury. 
Charles S. Pillsburv, R. R. Rand, John Washburn, 
F. B. Wells, A. M." Woodward, F. M. Prince, C. T. 
Jaffray, A. A. Crane, and George F. Orde. 

In 1906 the bank built its present banking house 
at the corner of First Aveinie South and Fifth 
Street, in the center of tlie business district of the 
city. The building has a frontage of 165 feet, is 
forty feet high, and is especially worthy of coin- 
mendation for its excellent light provisions. The 
floor space of the main banking room contains 15,000 



169 



170 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



square feet, and the institution is fully equipped in 
the most modern stjie for its work. In addition to 
the usual departments of business conducted by 
banks, the Fii-st National has an equipment of safety 
deposit vaults; a ladies' department, with a rest room 
for this class of its patrons and other provision for 
their comfort; a savings department, and a foreign 
exchange department. It was one of the first banking 
institutions in the country to distribute a portion of 
its earnings each year to every member of its staff. 
This it does by crediting to the account of each man 
the l)onus allowed annually for ten years and paying 
interest on the fund thus accumulated, which ma- 
tures and the whole amount becomes payable at the 
end of that period. It has also established a pension 
fund for its employes whereby each of them, after 
he has served fifteen years from his twenty-first 
birthday, is entitled to a pension if he becomes in- 
capacitated, or he may retire on his pension wheu 
he reaches sixty years of age. In case of his death 
his family receives a definite amount of care and 
assistance from the bank. The institution has long 
realized that a large part of its business success is 
due to the proficiency of its emplo.yes, and has felt 
it a duty to give them a part of what they help to 
earn. 

This enterprising and progressive institution, 
which is one of the leaders in the banking business 
in the country, will in 191-i celebrate its fiftieth 
anniversary. It has done its whole duty in aiding 
the development and progress of the Northwest, and 
done it well. The aggregate of its resources is now 
nearly $35,000,000, and the volume of business it 
transacts is enormous No financial panic, however 
widespread and generally disastrous, has ever .shaken 
its firm foundations or seriously disturbed its prog- 
ress; and no "wild cat" or speculative project, how- 
ever spectacular and alluring, has ever been given 
any consideration by it. The bank has kept on the 
straight line of legitimate lianking operations, with- 
out variation or shadow of turning, except as the pas- 
sage of time has brought about new departments and 
facilities for its patrons, and now it is impregnable 
in its ma.ssive strength and without reservation of 
any kind or degree in the faith and regard of its 
immense body of well satisfied patrons. 

THE NORTHWESTERN NATIONAL BANK. 

The people of Minneapolis and its ever-widening 
business zone are fortunate in having always avail- 
able banking facilities that are ample, quickly re- 
sponsive to the community's needs, and adapted to 
its specific wants. Such facilities are furnished, to 
an extensive degree, by the Northwestern National 
Bank. In times of misfortuiie it has loyally served 
its community, and, at all times, its management, 
while exercising prudence and an essential conser- 
vatism, has supplied with a spirit of liberal accom- 
moilation every legitimate requirement. 

To an institution of good size and attainment there 
is sometimes given the honor of reflecting upon its 
city and territory a certain distinction, one which 



may serve, in a measure, as a return for benefits re- 
ceived. This gratification has in recent years been 
afforded the Northwestern National Bank. It lies 
in the fact that the institution has niateriallj' raised 
the financial rank of ^linneapolis among the cities 
of the United States. In point of population the city 
ranks eighteen; in a comparison of all national banks 
showing deposits of $25,000,000 and over, Minne- 
apolis, by means of the record of this bank, assumes 
eleventh place. This fact was fir.st made apparent 
by the publication in the "Wall Street Journal, in 
October, 1913, of a list based upon this classification. 
Among all the national banks of the country the 
Northwestern ranked thirty-third. 

Another item of national comparison may be cited. 
Consequent upon the consolidation of the National 
Bank of Commerce and the Swedish American Na- 
tional Bank with the Northwestern, in 1908, and its 
affiliation with the Minnesota Loan and Trust Com- 
pany in 1909, the association became "the largest 
financial institution in the West north of a line 
drawai from Chicago through St, Louis to the Pa- 
cific," This territory, it may be explained, does not 
include the city of San Francisco, 

It was in April, 1872, at the Nicollet House, where 
many meetings of much future import were held in 
those early days, when the fii'st meeting of sub- 
scribei's for stock in the proposed new bank took 
place. The men who came together upon that occa- 
sion were prominent in the early afiairs of Minne- 
sota, or destined later to achieve such prominence. 
They chose as directors, Dorilus Morrison, AYilliam 
Windom, C. M, Loring, Clinton Morrison, C, G. 
Coodrich, Henry T. AYelles, Anthony Kell.v, and C. 
H. Pettit. William Windom. eminent in national 
politics (being at that time a United States Senator), 
subsequently became a member of President Gar- 
field's Cabinet, and, in 1899, Secretary of the Treas- 
ury vmder President Harrison. Thomas Lowry, who 
was afterwards president of the Soo Road and of 
the Twin City Rapid Transit Company, acted as 
secretary of this first meeting. Dorilus ]\Iorrison 
was elected president of the new bank and S. E. 
Neiler cashier. 

The name chosen, the Northwestern, was sug- 
gested by the name of the wide territory that the 
institution was destined later to serve — the North- 
west, It has apparently been an inspiration through- 
out its existence, as the growth of this territory, re- 
markable though it has been, has been accompanied 
by a parallel growth of the bank a.ssuming its name. 

In September, 1872, the new institution opened its 
doors to the public. The location that had been 
chosen as the most advantageous site in the financial 
district was 100 Washington Aveiuie South, The 
capital had been placed at $200,000, but this amount 
sufficed for a few years only. It was increased in 
1876 to $300,000, and at varving periods thereafter, 
as th(> need aros;\ to $500,000, $1 ,000,000, $1 .250,000, 
.$2,000,000, and finally, in 1909, to .$3,000,000. Its 
present capital, surplus, and undivided profits are 
$5,698,000. 

Towards the close of the '80s the volume of the 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



171 



bank's busiuess had increased to the point of over- 
taxing the offices at Washington Avenue. Following 
the up-towu tendency they were removed, therefore, 
in 1891, to the newly completed Guaranty Loan, now 
called the ^Metropolitan Life, building. In the year 
following, 1892, the institution was granted its sec- 
ond charter. This renewal, besides indicating the 
pa.ssing of a twenty-year pei-iod of its life as a na- 
tional bank, marked the close of a first epoch of 
very substantial progress, and the beginning of a 
second even more notable. Its deposits had increased 
from !{!50.000 to $3,000,000. :Minneapolis had grown 
rapidly, having arrived at a population of 200,000. 
The strategic location of the city and its increasing 
railway facilities were making it the important mar- 
ket of the Northwestern States. As for the North- 
west, the eyes of the whole nation were attracted by 
its vast development. 

The bank had, indeed, already experienced a 
growth during its first twenty years that justified 
the compreliensive name, the Northwestern, chosen 
liy its founders. Through the agency of its leading 
spirits, its career had been closely identified with 
tliat of its territory. The storj- of the reclamation 
of Missis.sippi water power at Minneapolis, of the 
modernization of the milling industry and the estab- 
lishment of its international supremacy in the Flour 
f'ity. 111' thi' I'liibliiiof up ol' N'ortbwestern grain, lum- 
ber, and mercantile businesses, is epitomized in such 
names, taken from the list of the bank's directors, 
as Van Dusen, Pillsbury, Janney, Peavey, Welles, 
liackus, ilorrison, Dunwoody, and W\Tnan. 

Further, the institution developed an unusual 
amount of striking financial talent. S. A. Harris, 
entering the bank in 1879, .spanned in nine years 
all the offices from assistant cashier to president. 
James B. Forgan and David R. Forgan, each .join- 
ing the management in the capacity of eashier. one 
in 1888 and the other in 1892, have attained national 
reputations, James B. Forgan being now (in 1914) 
president of the First National Bank of Chicago, 
and David R. Forgan the president of the National 
City Bank of the same city. Gilbert G. Thorne. who 
was elected cashier in 1896. is now vice president 
of the National Park Bank. New York. Edward W. 
Decker, entering the service in 1887, and Joseph 
Chapman in 1888, both as raessengei'S, now hold th(^ 
office of president and vice president in the bank 
of their first choice. As for junior talent, it is said 
that there have been more young men graduating 
from this bank to official positions in Northwestern 
banks than from any other bank in the United 
States. 

The roll of the presidents of this first charter 
period records that Dorilus Morrison was succeeded 
in 1873 by H. T. Welles. ]\Ir. Welles served thirteen 
years, being followed by S. A. Harris, who was suc- 
ceeded in turn liy George A. Pillsbury, in 1890. 
Among the directors elected during this twenty-year 
jK'riod were W. H. Dunwoody, Woodbury Fisk, 
Thomas Dowry, Winthrop Young, J. A. Christian. 
Anthony Kelly, M. B. Koon, F. H. Peavey, G. W. 
Van Dusen, 0. C. Wyman, and T. B. Janney. 



A season of national financial depression was 
ushered in by 1893, the first year following this 
epoch of great beginnings. The Northwestern, thanks 
to the soundness of its policies and the wisdom of 
its management, withstood the ordeal with excep- 
tional success. At the close of the year Mr. David 
R. Forgan, in the customary annual report of the 
cashier, made the following statement: "The past 
year has been a trying one. Not only had extraordin- 
ary care to be exercised in loaning money, but the 
financing, while New York banks had virtually sus- 
pended, was a constant worry. So many banks were 
failing all over the country that the ordinary routine 
work of sending checks and collections became a re- 
sponsibility recpiiriug the most careful watching. 
The fact that we passed through the panic without 
losing a dollar, a check, or a collection by a susjiendcd 
bank, I think not only reflects credit upon the man- 
agement, but shows that every member of the staff 
attended to his duties and followed his instructions 
carefully and intelligently." During the few years 
of national stagnation that attended this difficult 
year in 1893, it is significant that the deposits of the 
Northwestern not only maintained their high level 
but that they showed a steady increase. When gen- 
eral conditions at length became normal, the growth 
was rapid. 

As a matter of fact, the second charter period, 
from ]892 to 1912, was a time of extraordinary 
growth for the institution. It acquired, indeed, a 
national reputation, its consolidations with other 
banks, as has been .stated, assisting in thus raising its 
prestige among the great banks of the country. 
These consolidations may be noted as follows: On 
March 11, 1902, diiring the able administration of 
James W. Raymond, (who succeeded Geo. A. Pills- 
bury as president in 1898) the Northwestern pur- 
chased the business of the Metropolitan Bank of Min- 
neapolis. By its last statement before the sale, the 
Metropolitan showed a capital stock of $200,000, 
surplus and undivided profits .$24,431.43, and indi- 
vidual deposits $1,188,049.7.5. Again, on June 6, 
1908, the directors passed, a resolution expres.sing the 
advisability of the purchase of the business of the 
National Bank of Commerce. Three davs latei- this 
purpose was consummated. The capital of the ac- 
(fuired bank was $1,000,000, surplus $500,000, with 
a deposit liability of $6,6.50,036.67. On November 
28th of the same year, the business of the Swedish- 
American National Bank was also taken over. The 
capital of this institution was $500,000. surplus $350,- 
000 and its deposits, at the close of business on the 
dav of sale, were $3,769,619.15. 

In a report to the .shareholders at the close of 1908. 
the year of these latter two consolidations, Edward 
W. Decker, then vice president, marked it as a won- 
derful .year in the liistorv of the bank: "The yeai- 
has been in some respects the most importa)it in our 
history. We began it with deposits of $12,900,000: 
we clo.se with deposits of $25,.500,000. " 

One more item is necessary to comidete the record 
of the alliances of this bank with other institution.s. 
The accommodations afforded by the functions of a 



172 



HISTORY OF MINNEAl'OLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



trust eompauy being found to be an increasing need 
with a bank of its now commanding size, overtures 
looking towards an affiliation were made to the Min- 
nesota Loan and Trust Company at about this time. 
These efforts were successful and the desired affilia- 
tion was accomplished in 1909. the result being that 
the usefulness of both institutions was largely in- 
creased. 

Midway in the course of this second twenty-year 
pei-iod, it was again found necessary to look for 
more commodious qunrters. In 1902 ground space 
was leased on First Avenue South, now Marquette, 
between Fourth and Fifth Streets. The new building 
that was erected thereon was completed in the sum- 
mer of 190-1, and on July 25 of that year the busi- 
ness was transferred to the new offices. The build- 
ing is of steel skeleton fireproof construction. The 
facade is built of white (Jeorgia marble; Italian 
marble is used in the interior, and the wood finish- 
ings are executed in Honduras mahogany. The affili- 
ated Minnesota Loan and Trust Company occupies 
the connecting first floor of the adjacent Northwestern 
Bank building, a six-stoi"y structure acquired l)y the 
bank in 1909. This property is situated on the im- 
portant Marquette and Fourth Street corner. 

The third charter, which served to mark the 
bank's fortieth anniversary, was received in 1912. 
This anniversary year was imposingly opened liy a 
banquet given on January 4, at the Minneapolis 
Club in honor of President William II. Dunwoody 
and Vice President Martin B. Koon. ]\Ir. Dunwoody 
had been elected to the presidency in 1903, succeed- 
ing James AY. Raymond, anil had been a director 
since 1876. while Judge Koon first entered the serv- 
ice of the bank in 1881 as director and liad held the 
oflSce of vice president since 1903. The banquet was 
especially noteworthy for the presence of men of 
high position in financial and commercial life, heads 
of great industries, and men of eminence in educa- 
tional and professional life, from all over the United 
States. This mark of honor was singularly timely. 
for only a stiort time later occurred the death of 
Judge Koon. and, two years later, tliat of his col- 
league. 

Shortly after this gathering at the Jlinneapolis 
Club, Jlr. Dunwoody was elected Chairman of the 
Board of Directors. He was succeeded in the presi- 
dency by Edward AY. Decker, who. though still a young 
man, had long been connected with the hank, having 
.ioined the staff as a boy twenty-five years previously. 
After the death of Air. Dunwoody. February 8, 1914. 
Oliver C. AYyman, President of the widely known firm 
of Wyman. Partridge & Company, and for twenty- 
two years a director of the Northwestern, was elected 
chairman of the board. The present officers (in 
1914") are Edward W. Decker, president; Joseph 
Chapman and James A. Tiatta. vice presidents; Alex- 
ander V. Ostrom, cashier; Robert E. Macgregor, 
Huntington P. Newcomb, William M. Koon. S. H. 
Plummer, and Henry J. Riley, a.ssistant cashiers. 

As indicative of the extent of the business of this 
bank a writer in the Outlook in March, 1912. may 
be quoted: "Every one whom I consulted on bank- 



ing matters." .says the writer, '"named the North- 
western National Bank as the largest and most in- 
fluential of its class. As the Northwestern carries 
open accounts with hundreds of county banks scat- 
tered over the big territory between Wisconsin and 
the Pacific, its books furnish as fair an index as can 
be found anywhere, not only of the existing state of 
business in the concrete, but of popular feeling as 
well." 

Tile total Minneapolis bank clearings for 1913 were 
$1,312,000,000. To compare this amount with the 
Northwestern 's, it may be stated that the clearings 
of the latter were, during tlie same year, $422,000,000, 
or nearly one-third of the total. This figure was an 
increase for the bank of thirty-eight millions over 
its previous highest total. A more complete idea of 
the bank's business, however, is given in its total 
volume of business, by which term is meant the 
aggregate of all credits entered on its books for a 
specified time. In 1913 "this figure amounted to 
.'f;l,982,000,000, or nearly two billion dollars. 

This narrative of the Northwestern National, as 
is the case with all bank narratives, necessaril.y runs 
much to names and statistics, but to the reflective 
reader these details are highly significant. Between 
the lines runs a story of vigorous, progressive enter- 
prise coupled with that wise discretion that builds a 
bank success. In the phrase "established in 1872," 
which phrase is sometimes used to characterize the 
bank, is condensed a world of meaning. It implies 
strength and victory, bitter fights against pioneer con- 
ditions, and .siiccess over the obstacles imposed on 
the banks of a generation and more ago. The vic- 
tories of the Northwestern have sei"ved chiefly to 
harden its fiber into greater strength. 

That this liank's duty towards its stockholders has 
been generously performed is shown by the fact that 
dividends averaging over eight per cent annually, 
or more than five and a half million dollars, have 
been paid since its organization. Dividends have 
never been passed. To the public the bank has al- 
ways endeavored to give the benefit of a banking 
.service of the highest excellence. Among other items 
evincing this service it may be noted that a ladies' 
department, for many years a deseiwedly popular 
feature, was established in 1901. In 1905 a savings 
department was established, tlie Northwestern being 
tlie first of the national banks in Alinneapolis to make 
this development. That a special care has been shown 
towards its employes is instanced by the pension 
system inaugurated for their benefit in 1911. 

THE SECURITY NATIONAL BANK OF 
MINNEAPOLIS. 

Messrs. T. A. Harrison, H. G. Harrison, and 
William M. Harrison, brothers, after a long busi- 
ness career in St. Louis and its vicinity came to 
Minneapolis in the later fifties and soon thereafter 
engaged in the lumbering liusiness. On the death of 
William, about 1875, the two surviving lirothers dis- 
continued the lumbering business, and having had 
extended experi(>nce as directors and olTicers of Itanks 
in Belleville, III, St. Louis, Mo., the First National 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



173 



Bank, St. Paul, and in Minneapolis banks, tliey de- 
cided to start a new bank in ^Minneapolis. They en- 
listed the cooperation of several of the leading busi- 
ness men in the city and organized the Security Bank 
of ilinnesota, a State bank, which opened for busi- 
ness January 2, 1878, on the northwest corner of 
Hennepin Avenue and Third Street, with a paid in 
capital of $300,000 and with a board of seven direct- 
ors: T. A. Harrison, president; H. G. Harrison, 
vice president; Joseph Dean, cashier; C. E. Vander- 
burg, J. M. Shaw, Franklin Beebe, and W. W. Mc- 
Nair, directors. 

The Security Bank soon had a fair share of the 
banking business of the city and within three years 
had increased its paid-in capital tirst to .ii400,000, 
then to .'^1,000,000. It continued to occupy the bank- 
ing building on the corner of Third Street and Hen- 
nepin Avenue until 1890 when it reiuoved to the 
Guaranty Loan Building, on Second Avenue South 
and Third Street, where it continued until the fall of 
1906 when it removed to its present quarters in the 
Security Rank Buildi'ig. The Security Bank of Min- 
nesota was conducted under its state charter as a 
State bank until June 1, 1907, when, pursuant to the 
laws of the United States, it was converted into a 
national banking association under the name the 
Security National Bank of ^linneapolis, and has since 
been operated as a national bank. The stockholders 
from the tirst were careful to select conservative men 
for directors and officers of the liank and there have 
been few resignations. 

In addition to a Board of Directors, the officers of 
the Security Bank consist of a president, four vice 
presidents, a casliier and three assistant cashiers. 
All of the present officers of the bank have been many 
years in its service. jNIr. Perry Harrison has the 
longest record of continuous service, having entered 
the bank's employment in 1878 as messenger. 

The connection of the present officers with the bank 
is, briefly stated, as follows: 

F. A. Chamberlain: — Pi-esident from 1892 to 1915. 

F. G. AVinston: — Vice President from 1911 to 191o. 

Perrv Harrison : — Vice President from 1898 to 1915. 

E. F. Jlearkle :— Vice President from 1895 to 1915. 

J. S. Pomerov: — Vice President from 1913 to 1915. 

Fred Spatt'ord :— Cashier from 1913 to 1915. 

George Lawther: — Assistant Cashier from 1905 to 
1915. 

Stanley H. Bezoier: — Assistant Cashier from 1907 
to 1915. ■ 

Walter A. Meaeham: — Assistant Ca.shier from 1911 
to 1915. 

MINNEAPOLIS TRUST COMPANY. 

Among the financial institiitinns that meet a n-al 
and growing demand in the cf.mmtinity and (hat are 
important factors in aiding to push forward the de- 
velopment and improvement of the city, the IMinncap- 
olis Trust Company occupies a prominent position 
and commands attention by the strong hold it has 
upon the confidence and regard of the community 
and the conservative and careful ])usiiiess methods 
whereby it secures and maintains that hold. 



This useful and progressive institution was founded 
in 1888 and had its otrices in the Kasota Building, at 
the corner of Hennepin Avenue and Fourth Street, 
until 1894 and for a number of years thereafter on the 
corner opposite at 331 and 333 Hennepin. 

It was organized by one hundred of the leading 
citizens of Minneapolis, its tirst official staff consisting 
of Samuel Hill, president; Thomas Lowry, first vice 
president ; H. G. Morrison, second vice president ; 
Clarkson Lindley, seci'ctary and treasurer, and these 
gentlemen, together with James J. Hill, H. F. Brown, 
A. F. Kelly, Daniel Bassett, Isaac Atwater, A. H. 
Linton, C. G. Goodrich and Charles A. Pillsbury 
constituted its first Board of Directors. 

The capital stock of the company at the beginning 
of its operations was $500,000.00. It is now $1,000,- 
000.00, and the present surplus (1913) is $100,000.00. 

The officers at this time are : 

President' and trust officer, Elbridge C. Cooke; 
vice president and treasurer, Robert W. Webb; 
vice presidents, James S. Bell, C. T. Jaffray, William 
G. Northup ; secretary, D. I. Case ; assistant secre- 
tary and treasurer, Benjamin Webb; assistant trust 
officer, A. B. Whitney ; assistant treasurer, H. 0. 
Hunt. 

Its Board of Directors is composed of the following : 
Howard S. xVbbott, James S. Bell, E. L. Carpenter, 
Hovey C. Clarke, John Crosby, Wm. H. Duuwoody, 
Isaac" Ilazlett, James J. IlilC C. T. Jaffray, J. K. 
Kingman, Cavour S. Langdon, W. A. Lancaster, W. 
C. Leach, F. W. Little, W. L. Martin, Wm. 6. North- 
up, A. F. Pillsbury, Geo. F. Piper, P. M. Prince, 
John Washburn, F. B. Wells, Elbridge C. Cooke, Ben- 
.jamin Webb, Robert W. Webb. 

The offices of the company are now at 109 Fifth 
Street South. A new building is in course of erec- 
tion between its present location and the New York 
Life Building. During the erection of that building 
the company will occupy temporary offices in the 
New York Life Building, as during the construction 
of its new safety deposit vaults the transaction of 
business in its present quarters will be rendered im- 
possible. 

When completed the new safety deposit vaults of 
the company will be thoroughly up to date. Con- 
tracts have been let to the Diebold Safe and Lock Co., 
and the vault construction will be most modern in 
every resjiect as to shell, electric protection, steel lin- 
ing, doors, time locks, etc. The boxes will be of more 
generous size than those usually furnished and will 
be equipped with interchangeable locks such as are 
now being put in in the best institutions in the 
country. 

The resources of this large and growing institution 
aggregate a total <;f over one million and a half dollars, 
inclucling a guaranty fund with the State Treasurer of 
a quarter of a million dollars. This guaranty fund 
stands as a surety for the faithful performance of its 
duties in all its fiduciary relations and is accepted b.v 
the State of Minnesota in lieu of bonds. 

The company does no banking business and its de- 
mand liabilities are practically nothing. 

Its trust obligations are rej)rcsent(Hl by deposits in 



174 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



various banks in its name as trustee and by secvirities 
held by it in its name as trustee in each particular 
trust. 

The names of the men at the head of it furnish suffi- 
cient guaranty of its ability to carefully and honestly 
manage its business and to meet everj' requirement 
of conservative and legal investment of the funds in- 
trusted to it. 

The nature of this company 's business and the key- 
note of its policy is conservation of accumulated 
wealth. 

And to this end it acts as executor, administrator, 
guardian, and trustee and is thoroughly equipped to 
manage estates and to make investments, having well 
organized bond, farm loan, and city loan depart- 
ments. 

Its real estate department is under efficient man- 
agement and is equipped to care for the real estate 
business of the company in its various trust capaci- 
ties and for all clients who desire to transact their 
business in connection with real estate with a re- 
liable, efficient, and financially responsible agent. 

The history of the company has been one of growth. 
Its first and most important department is for the 
execution of tnists. It has added various depart- 
ments, necessary to enable it to properly carry out 
its trust functions. 

The policy of the company is well defined in this 
regard, and it believes that the public desires and 
will sustain a trust company in this community that 
is not complicated in any way with commercial bank- 
ing or the risks incident thereto. 

MINNESOTA LOAN AND TRUST COMPANY. 

This institution, founded on May 1, 1883, was the 
first trust company organized northwest of Chicago. 
Its founders composed the law firm of Koon, Mer- 
rill & Keith, with Eugene A. Merrill, the firm's senior 
member, as the originator and leading .spirit of the 
project. The company was organized in 188.3, as has 
been stated, with Mr. Merrill as president, George A. 
Pillsbury as vice president, and Edmund J. Pheljjs 
as secretary and treasurer, these gentlemen also being 
directors. The other directors at the beginning were : 
Thomas A. Harrison, Theodore B. Casey, John M. 
Shaw, Samuel A. Harris, Mart B. Koon, Joseph H. 
Thompson, Anthony Kelly, Frederick W. Brooks, 
Robert B. Langdon, ]\Iortimer L. Higgins, Valentine 
G. Hush, and Nelson F. Griswold. Mr. Phelps retired 
as secretary and treasurer in 1892 and was succeeded 
by F. M. Prince, now president of the First National 
Bank. 

The company has had a profitable business from 
the .start, and, as the rates of interest have been higher 
upon the same classes of securities in the West than 
in the East, it has succeeded in attracting a laree 
amount of Eastern capital to the city of Minneapolis 
and the State of 'Minnesota. Its reputation as a care- 
ful and judieinus investment corporation has stead- 
ily grown Tintil the present time, and during the more 
than thirty years of its history it has done a larger 
business in investing Eastern capital, and Weste'rn 



capital also, than perhaps anj' other corporation in 
the Northwest. 

In the meantime, the company's business of acting 
as trustee, for which it was primarily organized, has 
increased with the growth of estates in the city and 
State; and it is in this field that the public is more 
benefited by the careful management and financial 
strength of the corporation than in any other. That 
this fact is appreciated is evidenced by the great num- 
ber of trusts which have already been satisfactorily 
administered by it as well as by the steadily increas- 
ing number and size of those which are committed to 
its care and management. 

The original capital stock of the company was 
$200,000. This was increased in the second vear of its 
history to .1!300.000, and in 1885 to $500,000, fully 
paid. In 1909 the company affiliated with the North- 
western National Bank, and at that time its capital 
was increased to $1,000,000. In addition it now has a 
surplus of $250,000. ]\Ioreover, the two institutions 
have a combined capital and surplus of $6,890,299.75, 
and deposits aggi-egating $31,302,630.43. 

Mr. Merrill continued as president of the company 
for twTnty-.seven years, and since his retirement fro>n 
that office he has served as chairman of the board of 
directors. The active officers in 1913 were : E. W. 
Decker, president ; W. A. Durst, A. M. Keith, vice 
presidents; H. L. Moore, secretary and treasurer; H. 
D. Thrall, assistant secretary; I. W. Chambers, assist- 
ant treasurer; S. S. Cook, cashier, and J. R. Byers, 
assistant cashier. 

In the course of its business, with the view of mak- 
ing itself as broadly and practically useful to the 
community as possible, this great institution has 
establi.shed a safe deposit department. This has 
proven to be so popular and highly appreciated that 
it now has a greater number of patrons than any othei 
city. A money deposit department has also been 
established, which allows interest on savings and i:i- 
active accounts. The deposits in this department at 
this time aggregate $3,000,000. 

The conservatism of its board of directors and the 
prudent and judicious management of its affairs 
which characterized the earlier years of the com- 
pany's activity have continued throughout its his- 
tory, and. with its enlarged cajiital and clientele, and 
its affiliation with the richest and most influential and 
imposing national bank in the Northwest, its jiresent 
business and rate of growth are greater than at any 
previous period. All tiiist funds and investments 
are kept separate and apart from the assets of the 
company, and every precaution is taken for the pro- 
tection of every customer in evei-y way and to the 
fullest possible extent. These facts, however, are so 
well known that there is scarcely any need of stating 
them here, and none at all of dwelling on them. 

THE STATE INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS. 

This well-known bank is regarded throughout the 
State as one of the safest, soundest and mast progress- 
ive savings institutions in the Northwest. It has a 
paid-up capital of $400,000, which is iowr times that 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



175 



of any other bauking iustitution iu the State devoted 
exclusively to savings. It contiues its business wholly 
to handling savings, on which it has for 25 years paid 
four per cent interest. These features give it special 
advantages in caring for the class of accounts it car- 
ries, and protecting those who have them. The men 
in charge of its business are of superior ability and 
well trained iu this particular line of banking. 

The funds of the bank's depositors are invested 
entirely in real estate mortgages, and the institution 
is under rigid State inspection and supervision. All 
the officers and directors are under bonds, guarantee- 
ing the faithful performance of their duties. The 
bank is wholly a IMinneapolis enterprise and transacts 
its business in a very handsome and imposing build- 
ing of its own, built by Minneapolis labor, and located 
at 517 Firet Avenue South. 

The bank was founded in 1888 as a mutual savings 
institution and in 1899 it was capitalized at $400,000. 
Its first officers were: Dr. W. A. Hall, president; 
W. E. Johnson, vice president ; II. E. Fairchild, 
secretary and treasurer: and they, with George E. 
Bertrand, Howard "W. Field, James D. Shearer, C. 
H. Chikls, James W. Plain, and John W. Knight, 
were directors. The present guarantee fund of the 
institution amounts to $200,000, and its resources 
aggregate more than $1,000,000. 

In the management of its business and the treat- 
ment of its patrons this bank is up to date in every 
particular. Its officers are men of affairs, keenly 
alive to all the ins and outs of banking, and well 
trained in their work. They know just how to secure 
the largest and readiest returns from any outlay. 
Every employe is strictly required to show the utmost 
courtesy and consideration to every patron and give 
prompt and efficient attention to every call, whether 
the account involved be large or small. All are also 
under rigid injunctions to fully explain to inquirers 
all features of the business. In consequence of this 
policy and the general wisdom of its management, the 
business of the bank has grown to very large propor- 
tions and its reputation is high and widespread. 

FARMERS' AND MECHANICS' SAVINGS BANK. 

This institution has existed for forty years. Ac- 
cording to an official statement made by the board of 
trustees at its beginning, its object is "to provide a 
perfectly safe depo.sitory for savings and to invest 
such savings in the best securities. It will receive no 
biisiness accounts, nor will it transact a general bank- 
ing business." As an evidence of the care and pru- 
dence with which the institution is managed, its regu- 
lations require that investments of deposits be made 
only in the authorized securities prescribed by the 
laws of the State of IMinnesota, which investments 
are examined regularly by the public examiner of 
the State. The strict manner in which the regulations 
are obeyed, and the high character and ample re- 
sources of the men in control of th» bank's affairs 
give proof of its strength and security that the people 
have found to be entirely satisfactory. 

The bank was incorporated September 9, 1874, as 



a mutual savings bank, without capital stock, under 
the general laws of the State passed in 1867. The in- 
corporators were H. T. Welles, Clinton Morrison, "Wil- 
liam Chandler, Charles McC. Reeve, E. H. Moulton, 
Paris Gibson, W. P. Westfall, Thomas Lowry, and A. 
D. Mulford, and they also constituted the first board 
of trustees. They met and organized for business at 
the offiee of Thonias Lowry, October 10, 1874. Before 
the end of that year the bank began receiving depos- 
its. It occupied at the first a small room on Washing- 
ton Avenue, under the Nicollet Hotel, By Januai-y 
1, 1875, the deposits amounted to the very substantial 
sum for that period of $17,540.55. 

In April, 1875, under authority conferred by an 
amendment to the original savings bank law, permit- 
ting the capitalizing of savings banks, the board of 
trustees amended the articles of incorporation so as 
to authorize the issue of capital stock amounting to 
$50,000, which was subscribed for and issued. In 
1879 a new savings bank law was enacted, which was 
substantially the same as the present law. The next 
year, under the provisions of this law, the bank again 
reorganized, retired all capital stock, and amended 
its articles of incorporation to conform to the new 
requirements. It thus once more became a mutual 
savings bank witiiout capital stock. 

In the meantime, however, in 1878, when the de- 
posits had increased to over $100,000, the bank moved 
into the red brick building on the southeast corner 
of Washington and Nicollet Avenues. The business 
kept on increasing more and more rapidly, and in 
1886 the deposits aggregated more than $2,000,000. 
The great and growing volume of its transactions 
forced the institution to move into larger quarters, 
which it did by securing commodious rooms in Tem- 
ple Court. The move was a wise one, which was soon 
made manifest by the leaps and bounds with which the 
bank went forward in its new and better location and 
with its augmented facilities. 

By 1891 the deposits had gi'own to over ,$4,500,000. 
The amount of business requiring the attention of the 
bank had now become so great that the trustees de- 
cided to erect a building for the use of the bank 
alone. This building was completed in 1893, and 
since then has been continuously occupied by the 
bank and used for no other purpose than the business 
of its owner. It was the first building erected and 
used exclusively for banking purposes in Minneapolis. 

Jaiuiarv 1, 1906, Ihe number of depositors had 
reached a total of 51,041 and the deposits amounted 
to $12,674,154.54. April 1, 1913, the depositors num- 
bered 64,748, and the deposits were $15,940,067.05; 
of the deposits $41,771.10 were made by school chil- 
dren, numbering 24,712. During its existence the 
hank has paid out in dividends to depositors the sum 
of $7,640,453.10. The figures are striking in their 
magnitude; the progress of the institution is thor- 
oughly characteristic of the community in which it 
operates, in its rapidity and steadiness ; the volume of 
bu.siness it has transacted and is now carrying on is in 
keeping with the spirit of the age, and of the people 
among whom it has had its growth. But there are to^ 
tals which cannot be stated in mathematical aggre- 



176 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



gates. Among these are the benefits it has conferred 
on the community, the homes it has helped to build and 
keep in comfort for their inmates, the habits of thrift 
and frugality it has engendered, and the vast contribu- 
tions it has made to aid in the development, conduct, 
and expansion of great industries, to say nothing of 
the good it has done in moral, intellectual, and social 
■ways. 

The present officers of the bank are : T. B. Janney, 
president; 0. C. Wyman and William G. Northup, 
vice presidents; N. F. Hawley, secretary; and these 
gentlemen, with E. H. Moulton, A. F. Pillsbury, John 
Washburn, Cavour S. Langdon, John Crosby, C. C. 
Webber and Karl De Laittre, constitute the trustees. 

One of the mo.st interesting features, and one pro- 
ductive of a vast amount of good, is the school sav- 
ing system operated by the l'''armers' & Mechanics' 
Savings Bank since 1908. In this department the chil- 
dren of the public schools throughout the city are 
encouraged in forming the habit of saving their pen- 
nies instead of spending them, and the figures are 
most surprising when one stops to consider the large 
sums that are gathered annually from this one source. 

In operating this system the bank employs a num- 
ber of young women who are interested in the work 
and capable of explaining its operation to the chil- 
dren. They visit the schools at stated periods and 
receive from the children their small savings. Each 
child is given a stamp-card which holds brightly 
colored lithographed stamps ranging from one cent 
to one dollar, and when filled amounts to five dollars. 
No interest is paid uiion the stamp account, Init as 
soon as five dollars is collected, the child is advised 
to open a regiilar savings account, with some reliable 
savings bank in the city, the adviser making no effort 
to influence them to open their account with this 
particular bank. These accounts are subject to the 
control of the parents or guardians, and no child is 
permitted to withdraw its savings without their con- 
sent. A great deal might be written on this suliject 
that would be of great interest to the people of the 
city. Suffice to say that since this one department 
of the bank has been opened, it has grown to such an 
extent that there are now over twenty-five thousand 
school children eaiTying savings accounts with this 
bank alone, and June 14, 1912, their total deposits 
amounted to nearly fifty thou.sand dollars. 

Another interesting feature is the fact that the 
largest number of depositors are from the schools that 
are attended largely by the children of the working 
classes, and that the smallest per cent of savings is 
gathered from the schools where the parents are well- 
to-do people. Minneapolis ranks first of any of the 
Western cities in the number of school children with 
savings accounts, and this is due almost wholly to the 
interest that the Farmers' & Mechanics' Savings Bank 
has taken in this particular line of work. 

SCANDINAVIAN AMERICAN NATIONAL 
BANK. 

The Scandinavian American National Bank was 
organized in May, 1909, in response to a pronounced 



sentiment that the banking business of Minneapolis 
had become so concentrated in large institutions that 
there was a field for a bank of moderate size. The 
original capital was $250,000. Deposits came in so 
fast that it was immediately evident that an increase 
in capital was necessary, and therefore it was in- 
creased to $500,000 before the bank was six mouths 
old. 

At this writing the surplus and undivided profits 
are $150,000, and the deposits are $4,500,000. 

Mr. N. 0. Werner, former president of the Swedish 
American National Bank, was the first president. 
He died in 1910 and was succeeded by Theodore Wold. 
The other officers are Chas. L. Grandin and A. Ue- 
land, vice presidents; Edgar L. Mattson, cashier, and 
E. V. Bloomquist, assistant cashier. 

The directors are as follows: Frank G. Brooberg, 
Aaron Carlson, A. M. Dyste. P. C. Frazee, C. L. 
Grandin, G. B. Gunder.son, C. J. Hedwall, Erik Jacob- 
son, John Lind, Edgar L. ]\Iattson. Ed. Pierce. Geo. 
J. Sherer, C. J. Swanson, Eugene Tetzlaft', A. Ueland, 
Theodore Wold. 

This institution, in a period of less than five years, 
has attained an unprecedented growth, which has 
attracted the attention of the depositing public, and 
has demonstrated that there was a field for it. It 
has a number of stockholders who have used their 
influence on behalf of the bank, and this, together 
with an energetic board of directors and official staff, 
has made the institution a success from the start. 

The quarters, at 52-54 South Fourth Street, are 
very attractive, the building being a high one-story 
structure devoted entirely to the liusiness of the bank. 

THE SWEDISH AMERICAN NATIONAL BANK. 

This old-time financial institution, now merged in 
the Northwestern National Bank, deserves mention 
in the history of that bank. 

The Swedish-American National Bank was organ- 
ized originally as a State bank, iinder the name of 
Swedish-American Bank, in 1888. and began business 
with a capital of $100,000. Col. Hans Mattson, at 
that time Secretary of State, and a long time resi- 
dent of Minneapolis, was the prime mover in the 
organization of the bank, and he associated with liira 
^Ir. O. N. Ostrom, who at that time was a lianker at 
Evansville, Minnesota, and interested in the grain 
business. 

The first officers of the bank were O. N. Ostrom, 
president: Hans Mattson. vice president, and N. 0. 
Werner, formerly of Red Wing, cashier. 

The bank gained a foothold at once, and its growth 
was rapid and substantial, necessitating in two years 
an increase in capital to $250,000. Shortly thereafter 
the liai'k moved into larger quarters at First Avenue 
Soutli and Washington. ]\Ir. Mattson resigned the 
vice presidency about this time and was suceeedej by 
Mr. C. S. Ilulburt. wlio fur many years occupied the 
position of City Treasurer. In 189:3 occurred the 
death of President Ostrom. and Mr. Werner suc- 
ceeded him. 

In 1894 the bank was reorganized under a national 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



177 



charter. The capital was again increased in July, 
1905, to $500,000. In 1908 the bank went out of ex- 
istence as a separate institution, consolidating with 
the Northwestern National Bank. At the time of 
the consolidation it had a surplus and undivided profit 
account of $400,000 aud deposits amounting to 
$4,000,000. 

In liquidation the stockholders of the bank have 
been paid 180 per cent, and it is estimated that they 
will eventually receive 200 per cent, a striking evi- 
dence of the conservative and enterprising manage- 
ment which this bank had enjoyed. 

The officers of the bank at the time of the consolida- 
tion were N. 0. Werner, president : C. S. Hulburt and 
J. A. Latta, vice presidents; Edgar L. Mattson, 
casliier; A. V. Ostrom, assistant cashier. 

METROPOLITAN NATIONAL BANK. 

This bank was started on its servicea])le career May 
20. 1907, and has had a course of unbroken progress. 
It has encountered some rough places on the road, 
undoubtedly, but it has met them with full prepara- 
tion for the difficulties they involved, and passed 
over them with no delay in its advancement and no 
injury to its machinery. From the beginning the 
management of the bank has been in capable hands 
and judicious in every particular. It has reached out 
to the limit of safety for .sub.stantial and steady re- 
turns, ])Ut it has risked nothing of the interests it 
has had in charge, and never, for a moment, endan- 
gered the safety of any of its patrons. 

The first officers of the bank were: George C. Mer- 
rill, president ; Murray R. Waters, vice president ; 
V. H. Van Slyke, cashier, and C. F. Wyant, assistant 
cashier. And these gentlemen, with the exception of 
Mr. Wvant, in company with J. 0. Davis, P. M. 
Endsley, S. H. Hudson," F. R. Chase, J. W. Crane, 
Albert E. Clarke, Ceorge F. Blossom, H. G. Fertig, 
George B. Norris, Peter Menderfield, W. P. Cleator 
and Frank K. Sullivan comprised its board of direct- 
ors. The capital stock was, at first, $100,000, but the 
enlargement of the bank's operations has necessitated 
an increase of its capital from time to time, until it 
is now $300,000, and the surplus and undivided profits 
are .$95,000. 

The officers at the time of this writing (1914) are: 
V. H. Van Slyke, president ; George B. Norris. vice 
president ; C. F. Wyant, ca.shier, and George Vollmer, 
assistant ca.shier; and the directors are J. C. Andrews, 
George F. Blossom, Jav W. Crane, F. R. Chase, P. 
M. Endsley, H. G. Fertig, W. P. Cleator, S. H. 
Hudson, George B. Norris, F. K. Sullivan, Jacob 
Stoft, E. E. Shober, V. IT. Van Slvke, Wm. J. Miller, 
Clinton L. Stacy, John T. Conley and C. F. Wyant. 

ST. ANTHONY FALLS BANK. 

This valued financial institution, which has been of 
great service to many persons in the city of Minne- 
apolis, and a highly appreciated aid in pushing for- 
ward the progress and improvement of the city, espe- 



cially that part of it which, lies on the eastern side of 
the river, was founded in July, 1893, by Joseph E. 
Ware, who has been its cashier from the time when 
it opened for business. The other officers at the be- 
ginning were : Hiram A. Scriver, president, and Wil- 
bur F. Decker, vice president; and they are still 
holding the po.sitions in the direction of the bank's 
affairs to which they were elected when its history 
started twenty years ago. 

The capital stock of the bank was originally $35,- 
000, but the business of the institution has grown so 
great in the course of its operations that the amount 
has been raised by successive stages to its present 
aggregate of .$200,000, of which $75,000 was earned. 
The surplus and undivided profits have grown to 
$110,000, and the deposits to a total of $2,000,000. 
The bank is a State corporation, and is therefore under 
State supervision and control. But the spirit of enter- 
prise and liberality which it has displayed ; the 
prudence and strict discipline which have controlled 
its management, and the vigor and success with which 
it has met every financial crisis or panic in the coun- 
try since its organization would give it a strong hold 
on the confidence and regard of the community in 
which it is located, even if there were no outside or 
official safeguards of its soundness. 

The lioard of directors at this time (1914) is com- 
posed of: Aaron Carlson, Henry R. Chase, Wilbur 
F. Decker, Henry T. Eddy. Theodore A. Foque, An- 
drew M. Hunter, Arthur H. Ives, Hiram A. Scriver, 
Joseph E. Ware, William P. Washburn, William F. 
Webster and John F. Wilcox. These are all men of 
high standing in the city, who have proven their 
right to public confidence by their success and prog- 
ress in the management of their own affairs, and 
their very connection with the institution is in it- 
self a guaranty of wisdom, great care and the utmost 
circumspection in reference to every detail in the 
direction of its business. The bank carries on a 
general banking business, including every department 
of the industry as at present conducted, and makes 
a specialty of its savings department, which pays 
three and one-half per cent interest on deposits, the 
interest being compounded four times a year. 

NATIONAL CITY BANK OF MINNEAPOLIS. 

This highly valued and rapidly progressive finan- 
cial in.stitution, which is one of the best of its capac- 
ity in the Northwest, was organized on March 14, 
1914, with a capital stock of $500,000. Its fii-st official 
staf¥ consisted of H. R. Lyon, president; George F. 
Orde. C. B. Mills, vice presidents; S. E. Forest, vice- 
president and cashier. Mr. Orde, prior to his con- 
nection with The National City Bank was vice presi- 
dent of the First National Bank of Minneapolis four- 
teen years. 

The officers and directors are now (1914) : Officers 
— H. R. Lyon, president; Geo. F. Orde, vice presi- 
dent : C. B. Mills, vice president : S. E. Forest, vice 
president and cashier. Directors — S. E. Forest. H. 
R. Lvon, Geo. F. Orde, Geo. H. Rogers, C. B. Mills, 
J. S." Mitchell, S. H. Bowman, S. J. Mealey, Douglas 



178 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



A. Fiske, M. B. Cutter, R. W. Akin, G. H. Heegaard, 
A. E. Walker, II. S. Ileliu, Harry B. Waite, Stewart 
W. Wells. 

The bank purchased the fixtures of the Commercial 
National Bank, which was merged into The National 
City Bank and is located in the Lumber Exchange. 
Its capital stock is $500,000 and its surplus is now 
$100,000. It carries deposits amounting to over a 
million dollars,. Its growth has been rapid but steady 
and wholesome, and its standing in public estimation 
has been continuous and always well sustained; for 
it has been wisel.y managed and all its affairs have 
been conducted with its own welfare and that of its 
patrons clearly in view. 

Business in this bank was begun at once and the 
institution is therefore less than one year old. 

THE GERMAN AMERICAN BANK. 

Organized liy men of brain, capital, and wholesome 
enterprise, for the purpose of founding and building 
up a strong and conservative banking institution, 
which was to he conducted for the benefit of all whose 
interests it might have in charge and also for the gen- 
eral and special welfare of the community in which 
it is located, as far as its opportunities might allow, 
the German American Bank of Minneapolis has fully 
carried out the purposes of its founders and has been 
a great power for good to many business institutions 
and hosts of people of many classes in the territory 
subject to its steadily expanding operations. 

The bank was opened for Imsiness on August 16, 
1886. It was organized by Edmund Eichhorn, George 
Huhn, Henry Winecke, John Heinrich, Anthony 
Kelly, Robert Pratt, Robert B. Langdon, John C. 
Oswald, A. H. Linton, A. W. Henkle, John A. 
Schlener, J. M. Griffith, Henry Doerr and Charles 
Gluek, with a capital of $50,000. In 1904 the capital 
was increased to $100,000, and in 1910 it was raised 
to $200,000. Its present surplus is over $200,000, 
and its deposits aggregate $2,800,000. It is the larg- 
est bank in the city of those not centrally located, 
and its strength and the wisdom of its management 
are amply demonstrated by the fact that it has regu- 
larly paid dividends on its stock, even during the 
panic period of 1893. Since April, 1905, it has occu- 
pied its own Georgia marble front banking house, 
which is one of the handsomest distinctively banking 
buildings in Minneapolis. 

The directorate of the bank at this time (1914) 
consists of: Francis A. Gross, president; Charles 
Gluek and Henry Doerr. vice presidents; George E. 
Stegner, cashier; Jacob A. Kunz, a.ssistant cashier; 
and Charles Gluek, J. M. Griffith, Henry Doerr, Ar- 
thur E. Eichhorn, Francis A. Gross, I. V. Gedney, 
Jacob Kunz. Peter J. Seheid, George M. Bleecker, 
William J. Von der Weyer, George Salzer. Charles J. 
Rwanson, William P. Deverenx and William P. Clea- 
tor. directors. These gentlemen are all widely and 
favorably known in the Northwest and many other 
parts of the country as men of extensive resources, 
fine business ability and genuine interest in the wel- 
fare of their home community and its residents. They 



have conducted business enterprises of their own to 
conspicuous prominence and success, and the qualifi- 
cations that have made them prosperous and influen- 
tial in their own affairs are well known to have been 
applied by them to the management of the business 
of the bank. 

An interesting feature in the history of the Ger- 
man American Bank is the fact that only three 
men have held the office of president during the 
twent.y-seven years of its existence, and as each has 
combined a wise conservatism with an enlightened 
progressiveness, the original policy of the institution 
has remained unchanged. Edmund Eichhorn held the 
executive chair in 1886 and 1887. He was succeeded 
by George Huhn, who filled the office until his death 
in 1903, when Francis A. Gross was elected to it, and 
he has held it since. Another executive officer who 
was known to fame vias the late Robert Pratt, who 
was vice president for a number of years. 

The rapid growth of this bank since its opening 
affords matter for gratification and serious thought. 
At the close of the first four and a half months of its 
business the total deposits amounted to $36,000. Five 
.years later the deposits had increa.sed just ten fold. 
At this time the terrible panic of 1893 swept over the 
country, and although the German American Bank 
weathered the storm with flying colors, it being one 
of only three in the citv which paid dividends during 
this period, deposits fell off to $319,000 in 1896. In 
the next five .years, however, the deposits were more 
than doubled, "amounting to $644,000 in 1901. Public 
confidence rewarded the concrete expression of finan- 
cial integrity, and another hundred per cent was 
added by the end of 1906, when the deposits reached 
$1,396,000. Since then the same phenomenal pace 
forward has been maintained, until now the total has 
mounted to the lofty altitude of $2,800,000. 

EAST SIDE STATE BANK. 

This enterprising, progressive and highly service- 
able fiscal institution was opened for business on Octo- 
ber 8, 1906, with a capital stock of $100,000. Its first 
directorate was composed of Fred E. Barney, presi- 
dent; F. E. Kenaston and I. Ilazlett, vice presidents; 
Howard Dykman, cashier; and W. E. Satterlee, Rob- 
ert Jamison, Louis Andersch. E. J. Couper and II. R. 
Weesner, directors in addition to the officers named 
above. 

Mr. Dykman continued to serve as cashier until 
May 1, 1907, at which time he resigned and D. L. 
Case was appointed his successor. F. E. Kenaston 
was one of the vice presidents until January. 1908. 
when he also resigned. The present officials and 
directors (1914) are the following: Fred E. Barney, 
president; Isaac Hazlett, vice president; D. L. Case, 
cashier; and these gentlemen, with W. E. Satterlee, 
Robert Jamison, Louis Andersch. II. R. Weesner, 
W. C. Johnson, John Schmidler. J. F. Wilcox and 
S. L. Frazier, directors. C. L. Campbell is assistant 
cashier. 

The bank is under careful and capalile manage- 
ment and has made rapid progress. Its capital .stock 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



179 



is still $100,000, and its deposits now aggregate 
$675,000. Its policy is liberal as well as prudent, and 
it has been of great service to institutions, industrial 
and other kinds, to individual patrons and to the 
public generally, in aiding to keep the wheels of 
progress in motion and promote improvements of all 
kinds, especially in the section of the city in which 



it is located. The men at the head of it, who have con- 
trol of its affairs, are among the leaders in business 
on the East Side, and they give to its direction the 
same careful and judicious attention they bestow on 
their private affairs, and seek to imbue it with the 
safe enterprise they use for the furtherance of their 
own welfare. 



BIOGRAPHICAL DEPARTMENT 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



183 



THOMAS LOWRY. 

Back of every considerable enterprise there will invariably 
be found one man who has builded out of himself the structure 
which stands as the tangible and obvious result of his life's 
work — one dominant personality, gifted with vision of the 
future, faith in accomplishment, power to endure and intelli- 
gence to achieve. Behind the Twin City Rapid Transit com- 
pany of St. Paul and Minneapolis loom ever and will ever 
loom, in colossal proportions, the form and features of the 
late Thomas Lowry, the builder and maker of the great enter- 
prise, and through all its history to the present time run the 
golden threads of his clear foresight, indomitable energy, limit- 
less resourcefulness, keen business acumen and abiding faith. 

Mr. Lowry was born in Logan county, Illinois, on February 
27, 1843, and died in Minneapolis on February 4, 1909. Into 
the forty-five years of his manhood he crowded much more 
of event and achievement than many men of wide renown 
for large affairs bring forth in much longer periods. And yet 
he never boasted of what he did or plumed himself over the 
great results of his work, but ever bore himself modestly as 
one who merely did what he could to make the most of the 
opportunities he found or hewed out. He was a man of rollick- 
ing, irrepressible and unquenchable wit, and this must have 
come from his ancestry, as doubtless did his energy and per- 
sistency, for his father was born in Ireland and his mother in 
Pennsylvania, so that he combined in himself the versatility 
and readiness of the Irish race and the sturdiness, firm balance 
and indomitable industry of the German people. His parents 
located in Central Illinois in 1834, and were pioneers there. 

The early experiences of Mr. Lowry were those common to 
the sons of farmers on the frontier, in moderate circumstances, 
plain-living and hard-working founders of new empires. He 
began his education in the primitive country school of his 
boyhood, which he attended until he was old enough and 
sufficiently prepared to enter Lombard University at Gales- 
burg, Illinois. In that institution, at the age of seventeen, 
he began his more extended studies, which he continued until 
he completed the university course. Then, after a short 
trip through the West, he became a student of law in the 
office of Judge Bagby, in Rushville, Illinois, where he remained 
until his admission to the bar in 1867. 

In that year he became a resident of Minneapolis, arriving 
in the city in -July, and opened an office as a lawyer. Two 
years later he formed a partnership for the practice of law 
with A. H. Young, which lasted until Mr. Young was elected 
judge of the Hennepin County Court of Common Pleas. Mr 
Lowry continued to practice law until 1875, when his con 
nection with the street railway interests of the city began 
For several years previous to that time he had dealt in Minne 
apolis real estate, and through his activity in this line of busi 
ness had become interested in a considerable amount of out 
lying property. Probably the value of a connecting line to 
this class of realty turned his attention to what was then a 
very feeble, doubtful and insignificant project and kindled 
his ardor in its promotion. 

The panic of 1873 had left Minneapolis, in common with 
all other new Western towns, in a collapsed and discouraged 
condition. Times were bitterly hard and money was diffi- 
cult to obtain. Mr. Lowry was poor in purse, but rich in hope 
and ambition. He saw even then a dim but constantly 
brightening vision of the city that was to be, and believed 
that the arduous work of its pioneers must ultimately be 



crowned with magnificent success. The street railway service 
of that time offered a means to the end he aimed at, and 
with the courage that always characterized him he embraced 
the opportunity it presented and became vice president of 
the puny company controlling the infant, awkward and 
unpromising utility. 

Three years later he became president of the company, which 
was still a struggling and well-nigh bankrupt corporation, 
meeting its little payrolls with difficulty and having no sur- 
plus for extending or improving its equipment and opera- 
tions. It was then, at the darkest hour in the history of this 
enterprise, that he resolutely set aside all other employment 
and opportunity for advancement and determined to give 
hostages to fortune and hazard all his future on the success- 
ful development of the undertaking that had won his faith. 
From that time to his death he devoted himself almost 
exclusively to the street railway business. 

The story of the decade that followed reads like an indus- 
trial romance. Triumphing over almost insurmountable diffi- 
culties, involved in a mountain of debt incurred by his cor- 
poration, for which he did not hesitate to make himself 
personally liable, this modern Hercules cast all fear to the 
winds, and with an optimism that was heroic stubbornly 
fought his way toward the end which he had in view — the 
completion of the system, its establishment on a firm and 
enduring basis, and a public service that should be unsurpassed 
by anything in the country. 

His confidence in the future greatness of Minneapolis never 
faltered for a moment. He did not simply believe, he knew 
that it was to be a great city, and in that greatness he felt 
assured the success of his undertaking would lie. So he worked 
on courageously, not alone for himself, but for his city and its 
residents as well. There was no movement for the up-building 
of the place that he did not aid; no project for its enlarge- 
ment or beautification that he did not encourage by his praise 
and his purse; no laudable private or public charity to the 
appeal of which he turned a deaf ear, or gave slight or 
indifferent attention. 

As Mr. Lowry hoped so he labored, with indomitable, uncon- 
querable will. No discouragement could quench his gaiety, 
no obstacle darken the transcendent optimism of his nature. 
The great task of financing his enterprise, which might have 
daunted a less courageous soul, only served to inspire him 
with intensified zeal and vigor. He had both faith in the 
future and patience in the present. To build, equip and operate 
a transportation system; to accommodate the shifting and 
growing necessities of a rapidly widening area; to abandon 
one motive power after another as the improvements 
demanded; to construct in advance of the population and wait 
for the traffic to slowly follow — these were elements in the 
proljlem he had to solve, and they required the supply of a 
constantly increasing stream of money and the resources to 
withstand long intervals of unrcmunerative operation. 

In 1886, Mr. Lowry's foresight, already justified by actual 
results, led him to conceive and execute the brilliant plan of 
bringing the street railways of Minneapolis and St. Paul under 
one control and management. This resulted in the formation 
of the Twin City Rapid Transit company. The advantages 
which have accrued to the residents of both cities by reason 
of this consolidation are today so obviiuis that it is unneces- 
sary to recount them, and it is doubtful if that could be 
done in absolute fulness. 

On .January 11, 1892, the citizens of Minneapolis and St. 



184 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Paul united in a fine tribute to the man whose courage and 
foresight had given them a system of electric transporta- 
tion as nearly perfect as it was possible to devise. The tes- 
timonial took the form of a reception and banquet, and was 
given at the West Hotel, Minneapolis, a hostelry in the pro- 
duction of which he was a very potential factor. On this 
occasion the Governor of the state presided, and Mr. Lowry's 
fellow citizens and friends bore ample testimony in sincere 
and eloquent words to the regard in which they held him 
and the value of the service he had rendered to the two 
communities. He had done his part for them with admirable 
success. They showed him that they appreciated it by a 
demonstration as fervent and commendatory as they were 
able to make it. 

While Mr. Lowry lived to see his confidence in the future 
of his city fully justified, and the establishment of his enter- 
prise practically completed, it was not given him to remain 
long in the satisfaction which the fulfilment of his hopeful 
projects brought him. To the very end his was to be a life 
of struggle, and when the great difficulties already referred 
to had been overcome, he found himself confronted with 
another battle, which was to be his last on earth. This was 
an unequal contest with a long standing ailment, which had 
persistently attended him during the greater part of his life, 
but which he had held in abeyance by sheer force of will 
through the years of his great and long continued activity. 

The heroic battler met this final enemy with his customary 
courage and fortitude. Conditions which might well have 
overwhelmed a less gallant soul, did not terrify him. He 
manfully summoned every energy to combat disease, bore 
his sufferings patiently, and when, after a most extraordinary 
and prolonged defense, he finally surrendered to the inevitable, 
he died as he had lived, calmly, bravely and hopefully. The 
news of his death was received with sincere sorrow; not only 
throughout the city in which he had lived so long and to 
wjiieli he was so loyally attached, but in other cities East 
and West, and wherever he was well known. There was 
sorrow not alone in the homes of the rich, but in humble 
habitations, the dwellings of the poor, where Mr. Lowry's 
unostentatious and unfailing generosity had shown him to be 
a man who was good to the needy and the oppressed. 

Thomas Lowry was a real man. Rising above limitations 
imposed on him by his early and obscure environment, by 
poverty and by physical ailment, he lived fully up to his 
opportunities in life and made the most of them. He made 
a record, too, for great kindness, tolerance and benevolence. 
He had no words of condemnation for the unfortunate. Even 
for the vicious he favored pity and pardon rather than 
l)unishment. He walked humbly himself, and his charity for 
otiiers was unlimited. Above all he was an optimist, always 
firm in his faith and ready to believe the best of both men 
and things, and he lived, not for himself alone, but for 
others as well. 

He had in him the stuff of which true greatness is made, 
and showed it repeatedly in the intrepidity of his ventures, 
the loftiness and loyalty of his faith, and the gallantry 
with which he led many a forlorn hope to ultimate victory. 
He showed it also in the utter absence of ruthlessness by 
which his career was marked. He never built upon the ruin 
of others, nor did he seek to gain selfish advantage from the 
mistakes of those who failed. On the contrary, he was 
always willing to help the tottering, if it was within his 
power and proper under the circumstances to do so. 



Mr. Lowry was married on December 14, 1870, to Miss 
Beatrice M. Goodrich, the daughter of Dr. C. G. Goodrich, 
at that time a leading Minneapolis physician. Two daughters 
and one son were born of the union. Horace Lowry, the son, 
has taken his father's place, in large measure, in the busi- 
ness the latter had in hand when he died, and is endeavor- 
ing to conduct every enterprise he is connected with accord- 
ing to his parent's lofty standards. 



JOSEPH ALLEN. 



Joseph Allen, agent for the Holmes & Halloway Coal com- 
pany and a member of the board of city park commissioners, 
IS a native of Ireland, born in the county Armagh. May 19, 
1866. As a lad he was employed in a bakery and confec- 
tionery shop in the city of Belfast. After spending seven 
years there, at the age of eighteen he came to the United 
States, arriving in New York city with his financial re- 
sources limited to ten cents. Having read of the opportunities 
offered by the prosperous farming districts of Iowa he set 
out for that place, compelled to defray the expenses of the 
trip by working enroute. At the end of fifteen days he 
reached Howard county, Iowa, and secured a position with an 
importer and shipper of fine stock as manager of his large 
stock farm. He spent several profitable years here, investing 
in stock and accumulating a neat capital and then returned 
to the old country for a short time. He came back to Erie, 
Pennsylvania, where he was employed in the Erie City Iron 
works for two years. His first position was as a common 
workman, but his services were soon recognized by promotion 
and at the end of a few months he was made foreman of the 
foundry department. At the end of two years he was offered 
the superintendency of the Port Townsend Nail Manufactur- 
ing company whose machinery was made in the iron works 
where he was employed. He accepted the position and pur- 
chased transportation for Port Townsend, Washington. Mr. 
Allen had always retained an interest in Minneapolis since 
his youth when he had become familiar with the name through 
the use of Minneapolis flour in the Belfast bakery, and he 
took the opportunity on his way to Washington to visit the 
city with the result that he resigned his position with the 
western company and became a citizen of Minneapolis. In 
1891 he was a street car conductor on the Fourth avenue 
line, receiving for his services eighteen cents an hour. At the 
end of two years he purchased a team which he used for a 
time on grading and sodding contracts. He then realized the 
materialization of his plans, making an independent venture 
into the commercial world as a coal dealer and continued in 
this successful enterprise for several years when at the 
organization of the Holmes-HoUoway company he accepted 
his present position as agent and manager of the yards which 
are located at 291G Nicollet avenue. He has been a member 
of the park board sinie January, 1913, and is a member of 
the finance committee and of the committees on privilege and 
purchases. In the administration of the board he advocates 
the policy of improving the present property rather than 
extending the purchases. Mr. Allen assumed the duties and 
privileges of citizenship in this country while residing at 
Erie, Pennsylvania, and as a member of the Republican 
party has been actively associated with political affairs, serv- 
ing as chairman of the Eighth ward Republican association 



II 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



185 



for twelve years. He is chairman of the county committee 
of the Progressive party and takes a keen interest in the 
political questions of the day. He has been notably asso- 
ciated with the interests of the commercial organizations of 
the city, participating in their organization and their efforts 
for the public good. He was one of the leading promoters 
of the West Side Commercial club, securing its first member- 
ship and through his energetic service as chairman of the 
building committee the club secured its present attractive 
quarters on Lake street. In January, 1913, his assistance 
was solicited in the organization of the Calhoun Commercial 
club and he was tendered the office of chairman. Although 
in existence but a few months this club has already ren- 
dered marked service in securing new and improved service 
on Lake street and a twenty foot boulevard on Thirtj'-first 
street between Pleasant and Hennepin avenues. Mr. Allen 
is a prominent member of the Masonic order in the Hennepin 
lodge. Ark chapter, is a Knight Templar and a member of 
the Mounted Commandery. He was married in 1S94 to Miss 
Sophia Berg of Minneapolis. Three children have been born 
to this union, Crawford, Lockart and Sophia. 



JOHN W. ALLAN. 



John W. Allan is a native of Massachusetts, born at Hyde 
Park, a suburb of Boston, March 16, 1861. His uncle, Mr. 
Albert L. Russell, was a lumber manufacturer in Minneapolis 
and in 1876 Mr. Allan joined him there and a year later 
accompanied him in his removal to Chicago. He remained in 
that city for the next few years, attending school and assist- 
ing his uncle in the lumber business during the vacation 
periods. He spent the year of 1880 in Minneapolis and tnen 
became superintendent of a manufacturing plant engaged in 
the constniction of fire apparatus in the east. He became an 
expert in this line and after four years, returned to Min- 
neapolis as superintendent of a similar factory and subse- 
quently operated another plant on the east side of the city. 
When th.e fire department repair shops were installed by the 
city he was placed in charge of the work and for ten yearii 
held this position, he gave the city the benefit of his extensive 
knowledge of fire figliting machines. During this time he de- 
signed and built a great derJ of new apparatus for the local 
department, including chemical engines, wagons and trucks 
and invented a number of engine improvements. In April, 
1898, he became secretary of the Minnesota & Alaska De- 
velopment company. Mr. E. R. Beeman was president of this 
company which owned two steamboats that covered the route 
from Seattle and up the Yukon river. Mr. Allan spent two 
summers as engineer on the "Minneapolis" navigating the 
northern waters. He made the run from St. Michaels at the 
mouth of the Yukon to the head of the Kinakuk river, a trip 
that covers 2000 miles and ends in the arctic circle. He made 
other memorable trips as engineer of the "Luella", which sailed 
ninety miles above Arctic City on its first voyage and estab- 
lished the head of navigation. For several years after his 
return, Mr. Allan engaged in general engineering work. In 
1905 when the office of smoke inspector was created he was 
one of nine competitors in the examination for the position, 
and here his years of experience and well known efficiency 
easily marked him as the man for the place. At the end of 
his first term of office he declined the reappointment and 



spent the next two years as a salesman for mechanical sup- 
plies and also engaged in the construction of steam plants. 
In 1909 he accepted the appointment of smoke inspector 
which was again ofi'ered him and with an increased salary. 
He has been a valued member of the park board for nine 
years. Mr. Allan is a Knight Templar and a Shriner. His 
marriage to Miss Nellie A. Haughey of Bloomington, Minn., 
occurred in 1892. 



HOWARD STRICKLAND ABBOTT. 

Born, reared and educated in Minnesota, both in his youth 
and throughout his manhood to the present time Howard 
Strickland Abbott has dignified and adorned the citizenship 
of the state and creditably kept up the record of his distin- 
guished ancestry and near relations. His father, Rev. Abiel 
Howard Abbott, a Methodist clcrgj'man of renown, was re- 
lated directly or by marriage to Oliver Ellsworth, the tliird 
Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court; former 
President Ulysses S. Grant; the distinguished authors, John 
S. C. and .lacob Abbott; the prominent lawyers Austin and 
Benjamin V. Abbott; Dr. Lyman Abbott, editor of The Out- 
look Magazine; Bishop Lawrence, Bishop of Massachusetts of 
the Protestant Episcopal church; Albert L. Lowell, at this 
time (1914) president of Harvard LTniversity, and Ezra Ab- 
bott, the noted biblical scholar, besides other persons prom- 
inent and widely renowned. 

The paternal grandmother belonged to the famous Town- 
shend family, the elder branch of which remained in England 
and there produced such men as Charles Townshend, prime 
minister, and the other Charles Townshend, chancellor of the 
exchequer, during the years preceding the American Revolu- 
tion. On his mother's, the Strickland, side of the house 
Mr. Abbott can trace his ancestry directly back to Sir Thomas 
Strickland of Sizerg castle, Westmoreland county, England. 

Howard Strickland Abbott was born on September 15, 1863, 
at Farmington, Minnesota, a son of Rev. Abiel Howard and 
Mary Ellen (Strickland) Abbott. His early life was passed 
in Minnesota, and at the Minneapolis Academy he was pre- 
pared for the State University, from which he was graduated 
with the degree of Bachelor of Literature in 1885. He 
shawed a tendency to authorship in early life, and during his 
years at the LTniversity was managing editor of the Ariel 
and also of the Junior Annual for 1884, which were University 
publications, and his work on them gave abundant promise 
of the elevation he has since reached and the reputation he 
has since won as an author. 

Literature was, however, enly a pastime with him, his 
more serious business being the legal profession, for which 
he was prepared by diligent and thoughtful study, and to 
which he was admitted by oral examination in the supreme 
court of Minnesota in April, 1887. He at once entered upon 
the practice of his profession, and before the end of his first 
year in it was appointed assistant general solicitor of the 
Minneapolis & St. Louis and the Soo Line Railroad companies, 
a position in W'hich he served them well and wisely for tlirce 
years, from 1887 to 1890. 

Mr. Abbott was also secretary of the Wisconsin, Minnesota 
& Pacific Railroad from :88S to 1890; attorney for the 
Atchison, Topcka & Santa Fe from 1890 to 1897; special 
master in chancery in connection with the Union Pacific re- 



186 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



ceiversliips from 1897 to 1901; master in chancery of the 
United States Court in Minnesota from 1897 to date; and 
has been lecturer on private and public corporations and 
civil law in the Law School of the University of Minnesota 
since 1898, filling all these positions with great credit to 
himself and pronounced advantage to the institutions he 
served and the interests he had in charge in '•onnection with 
each of them. 

It is easy to see that Mr. Abbott's professional career has 
been a very busy and fruitful one. But it has not included 
all his work. He has written a number of books and in 
them has realized his early promise as a writer, although his 
achievements in this line have been almost wholly within the 
boundaries of his profession. Among them are case books on 
public and private corporations; "Notes, Authorities and De- 
ductions on Corporations," which ran easily through two 
editions; "Public Corporations," one volume; "Abbott's Elliott 
on Private Corporations," one volume; "The Law of Public 
Securities," one volume; "The Elements of the Law of Pri- 
vate Corporations," one volume, and "The Law of Municipal 
Corporations," three volumes. 

The work last named, from its publication in 1906 has been 
considered the standard and leading text book on the subject 
it treats of. It is widely cited as an authority by courts in 
all parts of the country, and has received the highest enco- 
miums from eminent judges and lawyers for its style, analyti- 
cal argument, thorough grasp of the topics discussed, and its 
scholarly treatment of the subject matter. The books are 
all, however, exhaustive and comprehensive as to the siibjectS' 
elucidated in them, elevated in tone and terse and vigorous 
in diction. 

In his political affiliation Mr. Abbott is a Republican, but 
he has never been an active partisan, and never has he sought 
or desired a political office. His religious connection is with 
the Protestant Episcopalians, among whom he holds his mem- 
bership in St. Mark's church, Minneapolis, of which he has 
been a vestryman since 1900. He is also a member of the 
board of trustees of the diocese of Minnesota in his denom- 
ination. Socially he is a member of the Minneapolis and 
Minikahda clubs and the Delta Kappa Epsilon college frater- 
nity. In business relations outside of his ])rofession he is 
one of the directors of the Minneapolis Trust company, and 
in his profession he is an active member of the American 
Bar Association and the Minnesota State Bar Association. 
From 1905 to 1911 he was the Minnesota commissioner on 
Uniform Legislation of the American Bar Association. 

On .June 29, 1898, Mr. Abbott was united in marriage with 
Miss Mary Louise Johnson of Racine. Wisconsin, who is a 
direct descendant, on her mother's side, of Thomas Welles, 
for many years Colonial governor of Connecticut and one of 
the courageous men who took part in the Charter Oak episode, 
which immortalized a tree, Captain Wadsworth, the chief 
factor in it, and everybody who was connected with it. Mr. 
and Mrs. Abbott have two children, their daughter Emily 
Louise, who was bom on October 22, 1900, and their son 
Howard Johnson, whose life began on January 24, 1904. 



HON. JOHX SARGENT PH.LSBURY. 

The strong, true men of a people are always public bene- 
factors. Their usefulness in the immediate and specific labors 



they perform can be defined by metes and bounds. The good 
they do through the forces they put in motion and through 
the inspiration of their presence and example is immeasurable 
by any finite gauge or standard of value. The death of any 
one of such men, even though he be, at the time of his final 
summons, full of years and of honors, is a public calamity, 
because by it the country loses not only his active energy, 
but the stimulus and fecundating power of his personal influ- 
ence. There is, however, some compensation for this loss 
in the value and memory of his services, the effect of his 
example and the continuing fruitfulness of the activities he 
quickened into life. 

The late John Sargent Pillsbury, three times governor of 
Minnesota, for nearly fifty year^ one of the leading business 
men and civic forces of Minneapolis, and for long one of the 
greatest potencies in progress and development in this part 
of the country, was a man of this character. His name still 
shines in large and luminous phrase from such a height in 
local estimation as proves it to have been a talisman of the 
rarest value here, and it spread its light so far as to have 
attracted the attention of nearly all parts of the civilized 
world. 

To epitomize his life, character and achievements within the 
limits which this work allows is impossible to mortal utter- 
ance. The stalwart proportions of his living presence are 
vividly realized by the void made by his death. But less 
than most men intellectually his equal and his match in 
business capacity does he need the voice of eulogy. The clear- 
ness of his purposes, the soundness of his judgment, his ample 
sweep of vision, his tireless activity, his indomitable will, 
his great achievements, his unbending uprightness, and withal 
his large and unostentatious benevolence, have all impressed 
"the very age and body of the time," making his life a force 
that cannot die, and continuing it in widening waves of bene- 
faction even though he passed away himself some twelve years 
ago. 

Governor Pillsbury was born at Sutton, Merrimac county, 
New Hampshire, on July 29, 1828, and was the son of John 
and Susan (Wadleigh) Pillsbury, descendants of early Puritan 
stock in New England. The progenitor of the American 
branch of the family on the father's side was Joshua (Hudson 
says William) Pillsbury, who came from England to this 
country in 1640 and settled on a grant of land given him 
by the Mother Country near Newbuiyport, Massachusetts, a 
portion of which is still held by some of his descendants. 
One of the descendants of this God-fearing emigrant from the 
land of his fathers removed to Sutton in 1790 and founded 
the New Hampshire branch of the family, and since then 
succeeding generations of the household have won distinction 
in many walks of life in various sections of the country. 

Mr. Pillsbury's father was a manufacturer and long potent 
in local and state affairs in New Hamp.shire. The son had no 
special advantages. He received a limited education at the 
village school, which was primitive in character and narrow in 
range. Early in life he entered a printing establishment to 
learn the trade, but soon afterward found his taste much more 
inclined to mercantile life and became a clerk in the store 
of his older brother, George A. Pillsbury, who afterward 
became prominent in Minneapolis, and a sketch of whom will 
be found in this volume. 

The dawning ambition within him for a business and career 
of his own soon broadened, however, into a commanding force, 
and he quit his brother's store and formed a business partner- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



187 



ship witli Walter nairiman. who hiter became governor of 
New Hampshire. After the tlissohition of this partnership 
the future governor of this Northern star in tlie diaiiem of 
American empire removed to Concord, the ea])ital of New 
Hampshire, and there engaged in a business whicli lie con- 
ducted for two years. 

By the end of that period his imagination had been 
quickened and his appetite for adventure and large exploits 
had been intensified by suggestions of the great opportunities 
for business in the great Northwest, and in 1853 he started 
on a prospecting tour to and through the region which had 
sung to his fancy in a voice so melodious and persuasive. 
The facilities for travel west of the AUeghanies were at that 
time limited and primitive, and embodied considerable hard- 
sliip and privation. Railroads extended far in the wake of 
the setting sun, it is true, but they were few in number 
and crude in equipment and sparse in accommodations. 
Beyond them horseback, the stage coach and the lake and river 
boats were the only means of transportation. The slowness 
of progress and lack of comfort incident to these conditions 
would now be intolerable, but in that day were only necessary 
incidents to a long journey and the facilities available were 
even thought to mark a high state of advanced development 
in science and art and were highly commended. 

Mr. Pillabury accepted what he could command with com- 
placency, and even found pleasure in the prospect of his 
speedy arrival in the land of promise, enduring patiently and 
cheerfully what was really very trying. The records at hand 
give no account of his journey, its deprivations and discom- 
forts, nor do they mention any of the incidents of his trip — 
tlie changing scenes of nature which brightened his eyes, the 
awakening greatness of the country which quickened his pulse, 
or the thrilling adventures which gave spice to his experiences 
and made every fiber of his being throb through the daring 
which possessed him: 

The hardy adventurer reached St. Anthony, now Minne- 
apolis, in June, 1855, and at once was impressed with its 
great possibilities for business. He determined to make it his 
future home, and, in company with George F. Cross and Wood- 
bury Fisk, opened a hardware store. The business prospered 
for a time, but the failure of many "wild cat" banks in the 
panic of 185" and a fire loss of $48,000 the same year not only 
wiped out all his accumulations, but left him with a heavy 
burden of debt on his shoulders. He was, however, of heroic 
mold in spirit and reorganized the business. He also paid 
the firm's debts and continued his retail hardware operations 
until 1875, when he founded the wholesale hardware establish- 
ment, which still exists and is the largest in the Northwest. 
From that date to his death he gave his attention also to the 
milling and industry and other lines of trade, in each of which 
he was the controlling and moving spirit. He began milling 
in association with his nejihew, Charles A. Pillsbury, under the 
firm name of C. A. Pillsbury & Company, which in time 
became the greatest flour manufacturing enterprise in the 
world, and still occupies that imperial rank. 

The lumber industry in this section early arrested the at- 
tention of Mr. Pillsbury and he soon began dealing extensively 
in pine lumber. Under his vigorous and progressive manage- 
ment the lumber business he started in a few years became 
one of the leaders in the line and opened the way to the great 
success of many other men of ability in this industry, among 
them Charles A. Smith. Later he became largely interested 
in the railroads of this state and a director of the Minneapolis 



& St. Louis and "Soo' roads, and a.ssisted vastly in their devel- 
opment and progress. He was also a director of several banks 
and of the Stock Yards company, and for all of these, too, he 
was an inspiration for advancement and an impregnable bul- 
wark of defense. 

This is in brief the record of Governor Pillsbury's business 
achievements, and is that of a remarkable mercantile and in- 
dustrial career. But great as was that career it pales into 
insignificance, or at least shrinks into much smaller propor- 
tions, in an estimate of his life, in comparison with other 
great things he did, some of which he began even before he 
was fixed on a firm business basis. He began at a very early 
period during his residence in this state to take a most earn- 
est and helpful interest in the University of Minnesota. This 
institution was no more than a name at the time of his ar- 
rival here. In 1856 a building was begun, but the plans were 
injudicious and the panic of 1857 stopped the work of con- 
struction. The university was endowed by a congressional 
land grant, but had no other resources, and this grant was in 
great danger of being lost through the foreclosure of a mort- 
gage of $100,000 on the campus and unfinished building. 

In this emergency the great man's greatness became mani- 
fest and the saving power of the situation. In 1863 he was 
appointed a regent of the University, and soon afterward was 
elected a member of the state senate. While in that body he 
had a law passed placing the affairs of the institution in 
charge of a board of three regents with full power to adjust 
its affairs according to their best judgment and as if the Uni- 
versity were their own. Such unlimited authority has seldom 
if ever elsewhere been given to a public board. But the sit- 
uation was critical and called for unusual and heroic measures. 
Great as was the governor's reputation for resourcefulness and 
business capacity, everybody predicted his failure here. 

But his hand was skillful, his will was iron and his per- 
sistency considered no defeat. His determined soul laughed 
at impossibilities and cried "It shall be done!" He began his 
adjustment of the claims against the property. The lands 
he had to offer Avere inaccessible, but he sold them. With 
the cash thus received he compromised claims on the best 
terms he could. He rode thousands of miles through a new 
country hunting up creditors and purchasers and lands to sell 
to them. He traveled to the East for aid, and the burden of 
his correspondence in this connection was enormous. But he 
accomplished the mighty work he had undertaken, and at the 
end of four years was able to announce that the University 
was free from debt, with its campus and building intact and 
32,000 acres of its endowment of 46.000 still in its possession 
without incumbrance on any part of the ])roperty. 

Following this great achievement the University was reor- 
ganized, the neglected building was completed, a faculty was 
engaged, and tlic real work for whicli the institution was 
founded was begun. Mr. Pillsbury continued to serve as one 
of its regents until his death on October 18, 1901, his service 
in this capacity covering a period of thirty-eight years, and 
tlnoughout this long period he was the financial guide and 
guardian of the institution. In his service of thirteen years 
in the state senate he was able to accomplish much in secur- 
ing appropriations, and he was also the man who brought 
about the consolidation of the land grants made directly to the 
University and that given for the purpose of agricultural 
education and experiment work. 

Notwithstanding his successful work for the institution 
there was often a plentiful lack of dollars for current ex- 



188 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AKD HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINTvIESOTA 



penses and other needs. But by this time Mr. Pillsbury had 
become a man of wealth, and his means were always at the 
disposal of this child of his fond parentage and devoted affec- 
tion. When the experimental farm was needed in connection 
with the University and there was no money for the purchase 
of one, he advanced the $8,500 required. The land then bought 
was afterward sold for $150,000 and the proceeds were used 
in securing the present University farm. Then, in 1889, 'The 
Father of the University," as he has been called since his con- 
nection with the institution began, quietly handed the board 
of regents $150,000 for the erection of a much needed science 
hall, which was called Pillsbury Hall. 

In addition to all this he gave to the affairs of the institution 
his own time, strength and capacity freely and continuously. 
A very conservative estimate made by his friends is that he 
devoted one-fourth of his time during the thirty-eight years 
of his service as regent to the University. This means that 
ten years of actual time were taken from his business and 
other pursuits in earing for the educational institution which 
he saved from ruin and built up to greatness. His life-long 
services to it were recognized in 1900 by the erection of a 
life-size statue of him on the campus. 

A man of such intense patriotism and devotion to his coun- 
try, locally and generally, as was Mr. Pillsbury could scarcely 
be kept out of the political activities around him. In his ear- 
lier years, and. indeed, until late in life, when his activities 
began to abate in business and everything else except the Min- 
nesota University, the governor was in almost constant po- 
litical service. In 1858, before the end of the year in which he 
arrived at St. Anthony, he was elected to the city council 
for six years. The cloud of the Civil war was then deepening 
over the country, and long before the end of his term it burst 
with all its fury over our unhappy land and he turned aside 
from every other engagement, as far as necessary, to assist 
in organizing the First, Second and Third Minnesota regiments 
for service in defense of the Union. A year later, when the 
outbreak of the Indians in this state brought about such a 
terrible condition of affairs for our people, he aided in raising 
a mounted company for service against them. 

The door for his progress in civil and political affairs by 
this time was open wide, and at the end of his term in the 
city council of St. Anthony he was elected to the state senate, 
and in that high forum he continued to be one of the leading 
and most forceful agencies in promoting the welfare of the 
people of the whole state for an almost unbroken period of 
thirteen years. During his tenure of the office of senator so 
amply did he demonstrate his broad, comprehensive and ac- 
curate knowledge of public affairs and his ability for admin- 
istering them for the best interests of the commonwealth that 
in 1875 he was nominated and elected governor of the state 
without any of the usual accompaniments of candidacy and 
canvass. Ho was re-elected in 1S7T and again in 1879, and 
could have been in 1881 had lie not positively refused to serve 
again. 

The period during which he was at the helm of the ship of 
state was a very troviblesome one, and Governor Pillsbury 
was called upon to deal with more problems of momentous 
importance and diverse bearings than have confronted and 
tried the mettle of any other governor of this state. When 
he a8.sumed the office the "grasshopper plague" was in full 
force, and he had to deal with it vigorously and immediately. 
With characteristic public spirit and self-sacrifice he went 
personally to the scene of the calamity, investigated its ex- 



tent and the condition of the sufferers, and from his qwd 
means furnished relief in many cases. He then returned to 
the state capital and urged remedial legislation with such force 
as to secure prompt and effective means for the aid of the peo- 
ple afflicted and the destruction of the pests. Then came the 
destruction of the state capitol and the principal insane. hos- 
pital of the state by fire; and just before the end of his execu- 
tive control of the state's interests he was called upon to organ- 
ize relief for the town of New Ulm, which was destroyed by a 
tornado. 

While he was governor Mr. Pillsbury also recommended and 
secured the passage of some of the best laws we have. Among 
these were acts providing for a public examiner, a state high 
school board and biennial sessions of the legislature. In addi- 
tion he had an unusual number of appointments to make to 
important public offices. These included justices of the su- 
preme and district courts and many other officials on whom 
rested the greatest and gravest responsibilities and whose 
duties were of the most momentous character. 

The crowning glory of his official career, however, was his 
triumph in removing from the name of Minnesota the stain 
of repudiation. Unwise legislation in the early fifties had led 
to the issue of over two million dollars' worth of bonds for the 
encouragement of railroad building in the state. The panic of 
1857 prevented the completion of the railroads contemplated, 
and so exasperated were the people by the status of affairs 
in this connection that they voted to refuse payment of the 
debt and redemption of the bonds. The governor, in his first 
message to the legislature, urged the discharge of these obli- 
gations; and. although he met with indifference generally, and 
with violent opposition in some quarters, he continued to de- 
mand that the honor of the state be preserved. After over- 
coming the most tremendous obstacles in legislation and legal 
entanglements he had the enjoyment of his greatest triumph 
in seeing the blot wholly and forever wiped out. 

In the foregoing paragraphs the great work of Governor 
Pillsbury in helping to build up the educational. indu.striaL 
commercial and general business interests of this city and 
state, and his personal trials and triumphs in connection with 
them, have been set forth with some fullness of detail. His 
services when the integrity of the Union was threatened by 
armed resistance and when the savage fury of the Indians 
became destructive, showing itself in butchery and flames, 
have been mentioned. His long, brilliant and most useful 
official career has been briefly outlined. But no pen can tell 
of his private benevolence, for of that there is no record, and 
he never intended that much of it should be known. Enough 
has come to light, however, to show that it must have been as 
imperial in magnitude as it was unostentatious in bestowal. 
In this exercise of his goodness he strictly obeyed the injunc- 
tion of the Scriptures, not letting his left hand know what 
his right hand did. His public benefactions are, however, well 
known and worthy of mention, especially for their princely 
munificence and the elevated and noble purposes for which 
they were intended. His gift of $150,000 to the University 
has already been mentioned. In addition to this he gave to 
Minneapolis an endowment of $100,000 for the Home for Aged 
W^omcn and Children. He also provided a home for young 
women working for small salaries, which he erected and fur- 
nished at a cost of $25,000, and which was named in honor of 
his wife the "Mahala Fisk Pillsbury Home." In addition he 
started a beautiful library building, put up at an outlay of 
$75,000, and especially intended for the use of the residents- 



IIISTOKV OF MLX.NE.U'OLIS AND 1IEN.\EI>1X CUl XTY, ilLWESOTA 



189 



of tile "East Side." ThU was not completed at the time of his 
death, but his heirs carried his wishes into full elfeet with re- 
gard to it, and it is known as "I'illsbury Library." The*e are 
the most conspicuous of his buuiitiful donations in the city 
of his liome, but there are others of less note. 

Governor I'illsbury was married on November 3, IS.IO, to 
Miss Mahala Fisk, a daughter of Captain John Fisk. who came 
from Kngland in 1S37 and located at Windon, Massachusetts. 
Four children were born of the union: Addie, who became the 
wife of t'harle-s M. Webster: Susan, who married Fred B. 
Snyder; Sarah Belle, who is now Mrs. Edward C. Gale; and 
Alfred Fiske Pillsbury. Mrs. Webster and Mrs. Snyder died 
a number of years ago. Alfred F. I'illsbury has succeeded to 
many of the business interests and responsibilities of his 
father. He is president of the Minneapolis Union Elevator 
company and the St. Anthony Fall Water Power company. 
He is also a member of the board of directors of the I'illsbury 
Flour Mills company. 

Governor Pillsbury's death occurred on October 18, 1901. For 
many years he was a regular attendant of the Congregational 
church and a liberal contributor to its support. But his 
bounty to churches was not limited to this sect. He gave 
freely to all, and was liberal as well to every public charity 
and aided in promoting every worthy undertaking in his com- 
munity in which the welfare of the people, or any consider- 
able part of them, was involved. The story of this great 
man's life may be fitly epitomized in Hamlet's description of 
his father: 

"He was a Man. Take him for all in all, 
We shall not look upon liis like again." 



JAMES CUKRIER .\NDREWS. 

James Currier Andrews, assistant manager of the Pillsbury 
Flour Mills and prominently identified with the commercial 
interests of the city, was born at Concord, New Hampshire, 
October 6, 1867, the son of William G. and Lucinda J. (Cur- 
rier) Andrews. Thomas F. and George H. Andrews, brothers 
of his father, were pioneer settlers of Minneapolis and in 
1900 his parents removed to this city, where the death of 
the father occurred three years ago. .James C. Andrews 
attended the public schools of Boston and completed his 
high school course in Manchester, X. H., in 1885. Subse- 
quently he spent one year in Marietta College in Ohio. In 
1888 he came to Minneapolis and in October of that year 
entered the employ of the Pillsbury company as ollice boy. 
His marked clKciency and quiet perseverance were speedily 
recognized by promotion and he was advanced to the ship- 
ping department and in 1903 was appointed tradic manager. 
From the position of head of this department, he was pro- 
moted to assistant manager of the company, and since 1909 
has served in that capacity. Mr. Andrews is extensively 
connected with the business interests of the city and notably 
associated with its cimimercial organizations. He is president 
and major stockholder in the Brunswick Investment company 
which erected and owns one of the finest hotel buildings in 
the city and is president of the Andrews Hotel company, 
which operates the hotel. He is a director of the .Metropoli- 
tan bank and secretary and treasurer and an original stock- 
holder of the Despatch Laundry company. He is chairman 
of the transportation committee of the chamber of commerce 



and in 1912 was elected chairman of the trallic division of 
the Civic and Commerce association, in which organization 
he holds the office of second vice president. In 1889 he 
enlisted in Company I, Minnesota National Guard, as a pri- 
vate and during his several years of service in this company 
rose to the rank of lieutenant. He was made adjutant of 
the First regiment and resigned his commission in 1K98. He 
was married in 1895 to Miss Harriet L. Blake, daughter of 
Edwin W. and Sarah A. Blake of Manchester, \. H. Mr. 
Andrews and his wife are attendants of the Trinity Baptist 
church. Mr. Andrews finds his favorite recreation in out-of- 
door sports and is an ardent fisherman and hunter. He is a 
member of the Minneapolis, Minikahda and Auto clubs, and 
a charter member of the Commercial club. His fraternal 
afliliations are with the Elk lodge. 



HEZEKIAII S. ATWOOD. 



Hezekiah S. Atwood was a pioneer who came to this locality 
at twenty-six and died in the new settlement in the wilderness 
at the early age of thirty-five, having made a mark in local 
history that endures. He was born in England, and as a 
boy, was brought by his parents to Nova Scotia, where he ■ 
was reared and educated. At the age of twenty-one we find 
him at Southington, Connecticut, where he learned the 
machinist trade. In the spring of 1849 he came by boat to 
St. Paul and by stage to St. Anthony, crossing the river by 
ferry. 

Calvin Tuttle, a brother of Mrs. Atwood, and Colonel Stevens 
were the only residents on the West Side, and, in company 
with Mr. Tuttle, he built the first little saw mill on the 
west bank of the river. Some time afterward he built a saw 
mill on Minnehaha creek below the falls for Ard. Godfrey, 
and in 18.j4 went to Minn'?tonka and built a millwliich he 
continued to operate until his death. He had hardwood logs 
cut on the upper lake and floated down the lake and creek 
to the mill, where he had built a dam. He made chairs, bed- 
steads and other furniture, his plant being equipped with 
lathes, a paint shop and other adjuncts. The business was 
beginning to expand and become profitable when the pro- 
prietor's death occurred March 11, 1857, the result of exposure 
after falling into the lake when buying logs. Obliged to 
remain for hours in wet clothing, severe cold and pneumonia 
resulted. He succeeded in having a posloflicc established, and 
his mill afforded employment to the citizens. For ."iorae time 
b\isiness done at Minnetunka exceeded that of Minneapolis. 
Indians Avcrc plentiful at Minnetonka. often bringing their 
wounded braves there after battles with other tribes at 
Shakopee. 

Mr. Atwood was married in Connecticut in 1845 to Abbie 
Tuttle. who survived him twenty-five years, dying in the early 
eighties at the age of fifty-seven. .She married John Richard- 
son of Richlield, and their son, George Richanlson. is still a 
resident of that town. The Atwood children were three 
daughters. Jennie, in 1868, married the late James Pratt. 
Ella is the wife of Frank Willson. of Edina. a sketch of whom 
appears on another page. Kmma is the wife of Perry Gilmore, 
who died in 1913. 

JAMES PRATT, who was born in Maine in 1854, came at 
the age of ten to Minneapolis with his parents. .Job and Mary 
(Chesley) Pratt, who pre-empted land in what is now St. 



190 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Louis Park. But they afterward sold this and resided in 
Minneapolis, where tlie father died about 1879, having survived 
his wife a number of years. Their children were Chesley, Jay, 
Olivia and James, Jay being the only survivor and a resident 
of the Soldiers' Home at Milwaukee. AH three sons were 
Union soldiers, Chesley and James being members of Company 
D, Sixth Regiment, and Jay in the Cavalry. Chesley died 
soon after the war from results of hardship and exposure. 
James's health was permanently impaired by his three years 
of service. Olivia married Joseph Hamilton of St. Louis Park 
and died young, leaving one child, Chesley Hamilton, who was 
sheriff of Hennepin county, and who died suddenly in middle 
age. 

Mr. Pratt was a grocer, later building apartment houses for 
sale, being so engaged for about twenty years and erecting 
about forty apartment and residence structures. He put up 
twelve flat buildings on Lyndale avenue alone, owning several 
at his death. He died October 13, 1913, in the home at 2508 
Hennepin avenue, in which he had lived for eight years. 

Prohibition appealed strongly to Mr. Pratt, and he became 
an ardent advocate of it, and was proud that the Eighth ward 
has always been "dry." He was a member of the old Volunteer 
Fire Department, his grocery store being opposite the first 
fire house, and his old grocery horse generally led the com- 
pany to a fire. He was an active worker in what is now 
the Joyce Methodist Episcopal church, long a member of its 
board of trustees and prominent in its missions and works of 
benevolence. He was a close student, of extensive reading, 
and warmly attached to his home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Pratt had six children. Ernest C. is a fuel 
dealer and member of the school board. Ella V., who was 
educated at the State Normal Scliool, is a teacher in the 
Madison school. Burton A. is connected with the Chicago 
Telephone company. Clyde is a contractor and builder. Harold 
F. died at the age of seventeen, and Bcrnice I. is a stenographer 
and bookkeeper. Mrs. Pratt is a zealous worker in the 
Women's Christian Temperance Union, the Ladies' Aid Society, 
the Lincoln Circle, missionary interests, and in connection 
with many other agencies engaged in uplift and improvement 
work. 



CHARLES M. AMSDEN. 



Mr. Amsden was born in Belvidere, Boone county, Hlinois, 
on April 13, 1849, and is a son of Noah C. and Sarah S. 
(Hulbert) Amsden, natives of the state of New York, who 
came to Hlinois in 1846. The son was educated in the public 
schools of Dubuque, Iowa, and began his illustrious and success- 
ful business career as a general merchant at Lemars in that 
state. From 1873 to 1879 he was connected with the Singer 
Manufacturing company in Louisville, Kentucky, and was 
successfully occupied in helping to expand its business and 
add to its prosperity and importance. 

But he felt an increasing inclination to dwell in a more 
northern climate and a region farther removed from the centers 
of civilization in the East, to enjoy the wider range and 
broader and better opportunities to be found in the undevel- 
oped West. So in 1879 he came to Minneapolis to live and 
engage in business. Soon after his arrival in this city he 
became associated with Messrs. PilLsbury & Hulbert in the 



grain elevator enterprise, with which he was connected until 
he retired from business altogether. 

In 1882 this firm was incorporated under the name of the 
Pillsbury &, Hulbert Elevator company, at which time Mr. 
Amsden became a member of it. When Mr. Hulbert sold 
his interest in the company its name was again changed, and 
then became the Minneapolis & Northern Elevator company. 
This was in 1885, and a little while afterward, in 1889, an 
English syndicate bought the Pillsbury mills, and the- company 
disposed of all its holdings, but Mr. Amsden continued in 
charge as president and general manager until August, 1908. 
The line was then leased lor two years to Mr. Amsden, and 
in 1910 Mr. Amsden retired from connection with it. It owned 
100 elevators in Minnesota and North Dakota, and carried on 
a very extensive, active and profitable business. Mr. Ams- 
den's fine business capacity, excellent judgment and wide 
sweep of vision enabled him to see, seize and make the most 
of every opportunity for its advantage and the extension of its 
operations, and he built its business up to very large propor- 
tions and made it very fruitful in prompt and abundant 
returns for the money invested in it. 

The trade of- this company was very large, as has been 
indicated, and its demands upon the time and energies of its 
president and manager were very numerous and exacting. 
Nevertheless, he found opportunity to give attention to other 
enterprises and help to make them successful also. He was 
a charter member of the directorate of the Swedish-American 
Bank when it was founded in 1S88, and remained on the board 
until the bank was absorbed by the Northwestern National. 
He is a member of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and 
the Minneapolis club, serving as president of the latter in 
1898. He still holds his membership in that club, and in 
addition belongs to the Intci-lachen, Minikahda and Lafayette 
clubs. 

Wliile he is not an active partisan and has never held or 
desired a public office of any kind, Mr. Amsden believes 
firmly in the principles and theories of government proclaimed 
by the Republican party, and supports that organization in all 
state and national elections. In local affairs he considers 
first and only the good of his community and the welfare of 
its residents, and seeks always to advance them in all his 
public declarations and acts, although he is modest and 
unostentatious in doing so. 

Like most other men born and reared in the West and 
moved by its invigorating inspirations, ^Ir. Amsden is fond 
of outdoor life. He finds great enjoyment, profitable recreation 
and full relief from business cares in horseback riding, and 
is a devotee of that form of pleasure and improvement. In 
all the relations of life he is thoroughly upright and straight- 
forward, and in social relations he is a very genial, companion- 
able and entertaining gentleman. 



WILLIAM HOOD DUNWOODY. 

The late William H. Dunwoody, whose death occurred at his 
home in Minneapolis on February 8, 1914, was a most useful, 
productive and highly esteemed resident of this city for forty- 
three years, and during all of that period one of its leading 
business men and citizens. It was here that he lived his life. 
Here, also, he accumulated the bulk of his fortune; and here 
he has left the greater part of it to be used in connection with 
works of practical value to the people of his city. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



191 



The story of Mr. Dunwoody's life is best told in tlie fol- 
lowing thoughtful, appreciative and discriminating account of 
his career, which was published in "The Northwestern Miller" 
of this city in its issue of February 11, 1914: 

"To few men is it given to see the beginning, the gradual 
growth and the ample fruition of an enterprise. Usually Paul 
plans, Apollos waters, but neither of them reaps the fruits. 
In the case of the late William Hood Dunwoody, who died in 
Minneapolis on Sunday, February 8, the good fortune was 
};ivcn him not only to bear an important part in the initial 
work, the foundation building of the milling business in Minne- 
apolis, but to remain an active participant in its enormous 
activity until death called him: to both sow and reap; to 
wisely plan and to share generously in the legitimate rewards 
of his foresight. 

Mr. Dunwoody was a pioneer in the creation of the world's 
greatest milling center. He was a contemporary of Governor 
Cadwallader C. Washburn, founder of the Washburn plants, 
John A. Christian, George H. Christian, Charles A. Pillsbury, 
.Tohn .S. Pillsbury and all those famous millers who in the sev- 
enties performed such valuable service in establishing the or- 
ganizations which have built up the reputation of spring wheat 
Hour and extended its consumption throughout the world. Of 
these men, all of them great in their individual ways, Mr. 
George H. Christian alone now survives. 

Moreover, Mr. Dunwoody's career was continued through 
the coming and going of other notable millers whose work 
made an impress upon the Northwest, and his influence ex- 
tended throughout many other activities that were a part of 
the life of a city which was but a village when he first came 
to it; railway, financial, elevator interests all received his at- 
tention, and in all that makes the inner and truer life of a 
city, its benevolences, improvements, art and learning, his 
beneficent assistance was never lacking. 

He was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on March 14, 1841. 
At the age of eighteen he went to work in the grain and feed 
store of his uncle, Ezekiel Dunwoody. in Philadelphia. Some 
years later he became senior partner in the firm of Dunwoody 
& Robertson, doing business in the same city and in the same 
line. 

Mr. Dunwoody came to Minneapolis in 1809, and began his 
operations by purchasing flour for eastern connections. Two 
years later he became a miller, as a member of the firm of 
Tifi'any, Dunwoody & Co., operating the Arctic mill, and of 
H. Darrow & Co., the Union mill, both concerns being under 
his personal management. 

In 1877 Governor Cadwallader C. Washburn, having com- 
pleted what was then regarded as a phenomenally large flour 
mill, induced Mr. Dunwoody to go to Great Britain for the 
purpose of establishing direct connections with the foreign 
markets. TTntil that time spring wheat flour had never been 
sold abroad direct from the mill, and it is doubtful if any con- 
siderable quantity had found its way there indirectly. Gov- 
ernor Washburn said to him: 'Go to England. Start the peo- 
ple there buying our flour, and where stand these mills, which 
now seem so large, will be erected others far surpassing tlieni 
in importance and capacity.' 

The prophetic vision of the great [)ioneer miller was not 
mistaken. Mr. Dunwoody proceeded to Great Britain and his 
mission was successful. It was not accomplished, however, 
without much opposition and discouragement, but Mr. Dun- 
woody's superb patience and great tact were fully equal to 
the demands of the situation, and he established connections 



which were destined to be a tremendous force in the develop- 
ment of the milling industry in the Northwest. For many 
years the export flour trade was a very important factor in 
the operation of the Minneapolis mills. 

In May, 1878, a fire broke out in the Washburn mills, 
resulting in a great explosion which completely destroyed 
their efficiency. With indomitable resolution the plants were 
quickly rebuilt on a much larger scale of capacity than before. 
So great was the possible outturn for that period in the mill- 
ing business that doubts were generally expressed whether 
the enterprise could possibly succeed, owing to its largely in- 
creased capacity. Such suggestions had no influence whatever 
in curbing the ambitions of the founder and his associates. 
The latter, in 1879. consisted of Mr. Dunwoody, John Crosby 
and Charles J. Martin. 

On the death of Governor Washburn, which occurred in 1883, 
the milling plants passed into the possession of the C. C. Wash- 
burn Flouring Mills company, consisting of the estate and its 
heirs. This ownership continued for almost twenty years. 
Meanwhile the properties were leased to Washburn Crosby 
and Company, of which firm Jlcssrs. Dunwoody, Crosby and 
Martin were members. During this period Mr. Dunwoody 
was actively engaged in the business, although Jlr. John 
Crosby was at its head. 

The capacity of the plants leased by the firm was then eight 
tliousand barrels. Mr. Crosby died in 1887. In 1888 Mr. Dun- 
woody. being in ill health, temporarily retired from business, 
but resumed his connection the following year as vice-presi- 
dent of the Washburn-Crosby Company, a position he held 
until the time of his death. For the past quarter of a century 
Mr. James S. Bell has been the directing head of the company, 
and Mr. Dunwoody's relations with him continued as they 
had been with his predecessors, Mr. Crosby and Governor 
Washburn. 

For many years Mr. Dunwoody has been known as a man of 
great wealth and eminent in many directions besides milling, 
but it is as a miller that his greatest claim to distinction and 
success will rest. The two epochs which stand out in his ca- 
reer above the long, steady years of constant and beneficent 
activity are those of 1877, when he went to Europe to estab- 
lish a direct export trade, and of 1899, when he purchased 
the milling plants from the heirs of the Washburn estate and 
subsequently transferred them to their present ownership. 

This latter episode in his life deserves especial mention, not 
only because his action was of the utmost importance to the 
milling interests of Minneapolis, but because it was indica- 
tive of his character, showing his willingness to sacrifice per- 
sonal inclination and ease of mind in order to be of service 
to others. 

At that time a strong effort was being made to bring all 
the larger mills of the country into one huge corporation, hav- 
ing in mind the creation of a flour trust that ultimately would 
be able practically to control competition and regulate the 
output. Thomas A. Mclntyre, of New York, was the promoter 
of this undertaking and he had succeeded in securing the mills 
of Superior and Duluth, as well as several in Milwaukee, Buf- 
falo and New York. He was exceedingly anxious to purchase 
the Washburn mills and include them in his combination, a 
proposal tliat seemed the easier of accomplishment because 
they were owned in Philadelphia by the Washburn heirs, and 
the Minneapolis company was operating them under lease. 

Mr. Dunwoody at the time was not in very robust health. 
He had been in business in Minneapolis for nearly thirty years 



192 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



and during that time liad carried heavy burdens of respon- 
sibility. He was already in possession of ample means and had 
nothing to gain by the jeopardy of new enterprises and a fresh 
start in milling. His tastes and personal inclinations were 
toward a life of retirement and comparative ea.se, and he had 
every justification for permitting the sale of the property to 
proceed w-ithout intervention. 

Believing that the formation of the proposed combination 
was against public policy and would prove a serious detriment 
to the development of the Minneapolis industrj', and a par- 
ticular hazard to those who found work in these mills, he put 
aside his personal desires, and, by making the purchase of the 
plants, placed them beyond the reach of ilr. Jlclntyre, while 
at the same time he deliberately put himself in the harness of 
active business for the renuiinder of his life. 

The foregoing is a relation of the leading events of ^Ir. Dun- 
woody's long career in the milling business, during which he 
held a reputation for business honor and probity which was 
spotless. Other interesting chapters might be written concern- 
ing his connection with northwestern railway and banking in- 
terests in which he was prominent. He was chairman of the 
board of the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis, an 
establislinient in which lie took great pride and which he had 
done much to upbuild. In many other institutions he was a 
director, and in all with which he was connected he was held 
in the especial regard and esteem of his associates. Only re- 
cently he contributed one hundred thousand dollars toward 
the funds being raised to build a great art institute in Min- 
neapolis. 

Mrs. Dunwoody was Katie L. Patten, of Philadelphia, wlio 
survives him. For some years Mr. and Mrs. Dunwoody liave 
lived in the summer on the shore of Lake Minnetonka and in 
winter at 'Overlook,' their beautiful Minneapolis residence, 
which, standing high on the hill, overlooks the great city to 
the wealth and prosperity of which ilr. Dunwoody contrib'.ited 
so greatly. 

At a very notable dinner, probably the most impressive ever 
held in Minneapolis, given by the directors of the Northwest- 
ern National Bank to Mr. Dunwoody and .Judge Koon on Jan- 
uary 4, 1912, in congratulating Mr. Dunwoody on his con- 
tinued activity and his youthfulness of heart, one of the 
speakers quoted the following lines by Oliver WciiiUll Holmes: 

Call him not old, whose visionary brain 
Holds o'er the past its undivided reign. 
For him in vain the envious seasons roll 
Who bears eternal summer in his soul. 
H yet the minstrel's song, the poet's lay. 
Spring with her birds, or heavenly dreams of art. 
Stir the warm life-drops creeping round his heart — 
Turn to the record where his years aie told — 
Count his gray hairs — they cannot nuike him old! 

Despite his perennial interest in the atl'airs of his world; 
the strong and abiding friendships which grew up between 
him and the young men who came to take up relationship 
with him where their fathers, who had passed on, left olf; the 
rational care which he took of his health and the strong tics 
of alfection which constantly brought into his life reserves of 
strength, Mi'. Dunwoody began to grow weaker some months 
ago. A recurrent fever which baffled the skill of the best 
physicians in the country afflicted liini and sappeil his 
strength. 

At first this was regarded as a ])assing ailment, ami hi> went 



to Philadelphia with Mrs. Dunwoody to consult the eminent 
physician in whom he had great confidence, Dr. S. Weir Mitch- 
ell. This journey proved unavailing and he returned to 
'Overlook,' where he gradually grew more and more feeble, 
until last Sunday he peacefully passed to his rest. 

For one who knew Mr. Dunwoody intimately and for many 
years, as the writer did. it is exceedingly difficult to write con- 
cerning his character without dwelling more upon his acts of 
beneficence and the unostentatious good he did than upon his 
achievements in business and his material success, which was 
very great, but no greater than he deserved. To do this, how- 
evei-, would be to disregard the most emphatic wish that, had 
he the power to speak, he would most certainly express, and 
this would seem unjustifiable. 

Mr. Dunwoody was one of the very few people in this world 
who 'do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.' The 
most unpretentious of men, it seemed actually to pain him to 
be praised for his innumerable kind and generous acts, and, 
as far as possible, he avoided receiving thanks or acknowledg- 
ments. His gentleness, his thoughtfulness for others, his read- 
iness to help in time of need, his true kindliness of heart and 
his sympathy with those in distress or trouble, made him sin- 
cerely beloved by all who knew him, but he was so exceedingly 
diffident about being given credit for what he did that very 
few indeed, even among his most intimate associates, realized 
to what extent his acts of benevolence reached. Probably his 
devoted wife, who shared in all his good works and was the 
companion of a lifetime, did not know more than part of his 
good deeds, for they were past enumeration and manifested 
daily in innumerable ways. Verily 'there is that scattereth 
and yet increaseth' and this great but humble-minded miller 
exemplified the truth of the proverb. 

In the garden of 'Overlook' there lies an ancient millstone 
taken from the mill that he helped to make famous. Its owner 
put it there, doubtless, to remind himself and others of the 
industry to which he belonged and which he so highly honored 
by his career. It was a quiet acknowledgment of his indebt- 
edness to industry and trade for his success, but whatever that 
debt might have been, as he regarded it, he has paid it back 
ten thousandfold by what he has done for others and the 
bcautif4il and enduring example of his unostentatious and 
blameless life. 

O still, white face of perfect peace. 

Untouched by passion, freed from pain — 

He who ordained that work should cease 
Took to himself the ripened grain. 

noble face! your beauty bears 

The glory that is wrung from pain — 

The high, celestial beauty wears 
Of finished work, of ripened grain. 

Of human care you left no trace. 

No lightest trace of grief or pain — • 
On earth, an empty form and face — 

In Heaven stands the ripened grain." 

In the disposition of his property Mr. Dunwoody remem- 
bered the charitable, educational and religious institutions of 
the city in which he lived so long and to whose welfare he 
was ardently devoted with great liberality. After making 
bounteous provision for his widow, relatives, friends, asso- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



193 



ciates and employes, and in addition to other gifts to public 
uses, his three great bequests of public interest were: 

To the Slinneapolis i^ociety of Fine Arts, for the purchase 
of i)ictures and works of art. $1,000,000. 

To the Uunwoody Home, for the care of convalescent 
patients from Philadelphia, to be located on the old Dunwoody 
farm at Newton Square, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, 
$',000,000. 

To "The William Hood Dunwoody Industrial Institute," a 
school where handicrafts and useful trades will be taught, 
with special emphasis on those relating to milling and machin- 
ery, the residue of the estate, estimated at $1,000,000 to 
$3,000,000. 



CAPTAIN ROBERT K. ALCOTT. 

Independence and originality of thought characterized the 
life of the late Rev. A. N. Alcott, and the same characteristics 
mark the individuality of his son. Captain Robert K. Alcott, 
attorney at law. The father was a clergyman who, entering 
lirst the Presbyterian church, gave earnest service to that faith 
in its pulpits, until he could no longer abide conscientiously 
by its tenets, and then became as widely known as a minister 
of the Universalist denomination. He was born near Gowanda, 
New York, December 6, 18,38. In due time he entered and was 
graduated from Haysville Academy, in Ohio ; took the theologi- 
cal course in Washington and Jefferson University, W^ashing- 
ttin, Pennsylvania, and being ordained a clergyman in the 
Presbyterian church, held pastorates in that denomination in 
Ohio until 1882. He was pastor of a Universalist church in 
Kalamazoo, Michigan, from 1882 to 1887, then was pastor of 
tlie principal Universalist church in Elgin, Illinois, until 1898, 
wlien he came to Minneapolis to be pastor of All Souls 
Universalist church, in the old and cultured University 
district of the city. Here both Mr. Alcott and his wife 
were intensely interested in sociological as well as church 
work. Mr. Alcott possessed varied talents, and in addition 
to his ministerial work had taken special courses in the 
University of Chicago. He had been admitted to the bar 
in Michigan, and there had tecome well known as an eloquent 
speaker and debater, ever ready to sustain his views in 
politics as well as religion and sociology. It was his activity 
in this manner that led him to accept a nomination for 
Congress as a Prohibition candidate, and it was the same 
earnest advocacy which made him editor of a paper. In 1896, 
when the silver issue became paramount, Jtr. Alcott cam- 
paigned through Illinois on the money question as a supporter 
of the principles of the Republican party. Mr. Alcott con- 
tinued as pastor of the All Souls church in Minneapolis until 
1905, when he went to Webster City, Iowa, and later to 
Illinois, where he died December 26, 1910. 

Captain Robert K. Alcott was bom in Shelby. Ohio, October 
28, 1878. His early schooling was in the common schools of 
Kalamazoo and Elgin, there graduating from the high school 
in 1895. He went to Leland Stanford University, Palo Alto, 
California and entered the freshman class. There world hap- 
penings turned him from college to military life. With fifty 
other students young Alcott enlisted 1898 in Company K, 
First California Volunteer Infantry and went to the Philippines 
where he spent a year and a half. His regiment was among 
the first of the United States troops sent, and so he was at 
the battle and capture of Manila. He saw a great deal of 



hard service, especially during the insurrection, when he 
took part in long marches being detailed on important scouting 
service. 

The First California and the Thirteenth Minnesota regi- 
ments went to the Philippines together, and throughout their 
service were thrown closely together, sustaining exceptionally 
friendly relations. So that when young Alcott returned and 
found his father had meanwhile become a resident of Min- 
neapolis, he came to this city and in 1900 entered the 
University of Minnesota, graduating in law in 1904. Mean- 
while, spun-ed by his service in the Philippines, he had become 
interested in military affairs, and it needed little urging on 
the part of his friends of the Thirteenth Minnesota to induce 
him to enlist in the First Regiment, Minnesota National 
Guard. He is a military enthusiast, who believes in making 
the militia so proficient as to be ready at any moment to step 
into active service of the nation. He has advanced steadily 
from the ranks, being now captain of Company K, one of the 
most proficient units of the crack regiment of the state. 

Captain Alcott was for three years in partnership with 
Milan Velikanje, who is now in Washington. He is now in 
general practice in partnership with Frank E. Reed with 
offices in the Century building. He has taken an active part 
in politics, and is recognized as a forceful and persuasive 
orator. He has campaigned in the interest of James C. Haynes 
for mayor, for George R. Smith for congress, and for Governor 
A. O. Eberhart. He was an incorporator and is an instructor 
in the Minnesota College of Law. in which he lectures on 
contracts, domestic relations and many other subjects. 

He manied Josephine E. Tunier, daughter of Joseph Turner, 
a native of Minneapolis and a former student in the University. 
They have no children. Tlicy are affiliated with the Cliristian 
church. 



JUDGE ELI B. AMES. 



.Judo'e Ames established his residence in Minneapolis more 
than half a century ago and became one of the representative 
pioneer members of the bar of the state. He held various 
positions of distinctive public trust, and prior to coming to 
Minnesota had sen'ed as United States consul to Hamburg, 
Germany. His title of judge was gained through his effective 
service on the bench of the circuit court in Springfield, 111., 
and he not only lent dignity and honor to the legal profession 
in Minnesota but also did well his part in the furtherance of 
civic and material enterprises and measures that conserved 
the development and upbuilding of his home city and state. 
He was summoned to eternal rest on the 12th of February, 
1897, at the venerable age of seventy-six years. 

A scion of the staunchest of New England stock, and a 
representative of a family that was founded in America in 
the colonial era of our national history, .Judge Eli Bradford 
Ames claimed the fine old Green Mountain state as the place 
of his nativity. He was born at Colchester, Chittenden 
county, Vermont, and in his native state he gained his pre- 
liminary educational discipline, which was supplemented by 
attending various educational institutions in the city »f 
Chicago, Illinois, to which state his parents removed when 
he was a youth. He gave close and ambitious attention to 
the study of law and was finally admitted to the bar of 
Illinois, in which state ho attained to no little ))rominence 



194 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



in his chosen profession. He began practice at Hennepin, 
Illinois, later maintained liis professional headquarters in 
Springfield, the capital of the state, and his practice in time 
covered many parts of that commonwealth. At Springfield lie 
served si.x years as i)rivate secretary to Governor Mattison, 
and in that city he became a leading representative of his 
[irofession, as contemporary of many distinguished lawyers 
wliose names later became conspicuous in national affairs. 
I'nder the administration of President Pierce Judge Ames was 
appointed United States consul at Hamburg, Germany, where 
he remained two years and where he gave a most able and 
popular administration of the diplomatic affairs entrusted to 
his supervision. He always thereafter reverted with special 
satisfaction and pleasure to his experience during this period 
of service, and his cherished and devoted wife likewise found 
their sojourn in Germany one attended with unqualified pleas- 
ure and gracious associations, so that she too reverts to the 
experience with marked satisfaction, after the lapse of many 
years. At the expiration of two years .Judge Ames returned 
to America, primarily for the purpose of organizing and estab- 
lishing a line of steamships to play between New York and 
Hamburg, Bremen having previously been tlie principal German 
port' of the trans-Atlantic service. He was successful in the 
organization of the company in New York and became one 
of its stockholders and officials, as representative of the 
German capital involved. Judge Ames became well known 
in the city of \Va.shington and numbered among his jiersonal 
friends many of the leading pul)lic men of the day. 

Alfred Ames, M. D., a brother of the Judge, had established 
himself in the practice of his profession in Minneapolis in 
the pioneer days, and to this city the Judge himself came 
in the year 1857. He engaged in the practice of law, and 
became one of the leading members of the Minneapolis bar, 
but he soon found it expedient to give his attention largely 
to the insurance business, as representative of a numlier of 
the strongest of the eastern insurance corporations. In this 
field he built up a large and prosperous business and he con- 
tinued the enterprise for many years. 

In politics Judge Ames ever accorded staunch allegiance to 
the Democratic party and he was an effective exponent of 
its principles and policies. He served with marked loyalty 
and distinction as a member of the state legislature but 
never manifested special ambition for political preferment. 
He was a large stockholder and a director of the First National 
Bank of Minneapolis and encountered large financial loss in 
the involuntary liquidation of this institution. This bank 
was organized in 1864 and he was a member of its first board 
of directors. Judge Ames ever manifested a most lively 
interest in all that concerned the progress and prosperity of 
his home city and he served as mayor of Minneapolis in 
1870-71. The Judge was afliliated with the Masonic fraternity 
and his religious faith was that of the Protestant Episcopal 
church, of which his widow likewise is a devout communicant, 
as a member of the parish of St. Mark's church. 

In 1857 was solemnized the marriage of Judge .■\mes to 
Miss Delia Payne, of Sacketts Harbor, New York, and their 
wedded life was one of ideal order, marked by mutual devotion 
and most gracious associations. Mrs. Ames still resides in 
Minneapolis, where she has a wide circle of friends, and the 
fine city is endeared to her by many hallowed memories. 
Judge and Mrs. Ames became the parents of three children, — 
Mrs. Alice D. Hasey, who remains with her venerable mother; 
Mrs. .'\delaide Haven, who likewise resides in Minneapolis; 



and Mrs. Agnes Pulsifer, who was a resident of the city ot 
Chicago at the time of her death. 



O. E. BRECKE. 



Mr. Brecke is a native of Iowa, and a product of the 
educational systems of two states. He was born in Winnishiek, 
Iowa, March 25, 1862, the son of Andrew and Anna Brecke, 
pioneers of Iowa who had come to that state in 1847 and 
had gone forward to leadership in one of the most prosperous 
communities of that great farming state. The boy Otto lived 
on the farm until he was thirteen years old, and was a pupil 
in the country school. His next step in schooling was in 
Luther College, in Decorah, Iowa, from which he was graduated 
in 1881, winning the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and later 
took a post-giaduate course in the University of Minnesota. 

His university course completed, Mr. Brecke entered the 
busines's world, and shortly became attracted to the ocean 
transportation business. By the early nineties he had become 
agent of steamship lines, and was soon known widely as 
representative in the Northwest of the great White Star line. 
He continued in this position for ten years. Then, with the 
organization of the International Mercantile Marine Line, Mr. 
Brecke was made Northwest agent of this great tranportation 
system, embracing the White Star line, the Atlantic Transport 
line, the Red Star line, the Holland-American line, the Leyland 
line, and the Dominion line. The headquarters of this agency 
were in Minneapolis, but its territory included U])per Wiscon- 
sin, Upper Michigan, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho 
and Washington and Oregon. The volume of traffic 
originating in this great region and bound toward Europe is 
enormous, and it is all closely related to the degree of 
development of the Northwest itself, so Mr. Breck may be 
said to have his finger on the pulse of Northwest prosperity. 



.JOHN De LAITTRE. 



In the United States, as in many other countries, "the con- 
servative temperament." as it is called, has rendered consid- 
erable service in preserving and advancing libertj- and pro- 
moting progress. But its movements have always been slow, 
its pathway has been carefully selected, its spirit has been 
one of endurance rather than effort, and its achievements have 
been more in the line of holding on than of going forward. 
Enthusiasm, enterprise, vehemence, experiment and adventure 
— these have rendered services far greater and much more 
valuable, for they are the attributes which carry the standards 
of progress and human happiness through every difficulty, 
over every obstacle and into every field of endeavor. 

Particularly does the history of our country, esjiecially in 
the great Northwest, show this to be true; and the men who 
laid the foundations of civilization, and those w-ho have aided 
in erecting the superstructure of present day conditions in the 
locality of St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi river, have 
from the start been ]iossesse<l of these attributes in a meas\ire 
and with a force that have crowded the growth and develop- 
ment w-hich, under the other potency counts far centuries in 
its record, into less than two generations of human life and 
effort. 



HISTORY OF JIINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, :\IINNESOTA 



195 



Among the men of the earlier days in this region, and among 
those whose potency and usefuhiess in development and 
improvement continued to our time, the late John De Laittre 
was one of the most prominent, and his work for tlie advance 
of the region was among the most considerable done by indi- 
vidual promoters. He came to Minneapolis when tlie city 
was in its infancy, and lie lived in it and contributed to its 
growtli and advancement until it became a metropolis of over 
300.000 inhabitants, an industrial and commercial center of 
commanding magnitude and a civic and municipal entity of 
great power and inlluence, holding tributary to its continuing 
growth not only all the surrounding country, many leagues in 
extent, but a large portion of the civilized world. 

John De Laittre's American ancestors were French Hugue- 
nots who fled from religious persecution in their native land 
after the edict of Xantes was revoked by Louis Le Grand in 
16S5, and settled on Frenchmen's bay on the southern coast 
of Maine while that part of America was still under French 
control. Mr. De Laittre's life began at Ellsworth. Maine, not 
far from this bay, on March 5, 1832. He was a son of Charles 
and Rosalie L. (Desisles) De Laittre, persons of fair pros- 
perity for that time and locality, and obtained his education, 
such as he had opportunity to acquire of a scholastic character, 
in the common school of his native town. 

For the man born and reared almost within the sight and 
sound of the heaving ocean, the sea has always a winning 
smile, and its followers are oftenest the products of the shores 
which limit its untamed dominion. The subject of this brief 
review yielded to its charms and became a sailor after leaving 
school. He served for a time on a smack engaged in the cod 
fisheries, and then shipped on a trading brig voyaging back 
and forth between his section of the country and the West 
Indies. He remained on the brig two years, and this period 
carried him beyond the dawn of manhood and into the early 
excitement over the discovery of gold in California. 

The voice of the siren, which proclaimed the almost fabu- 
lous wealth of treasure and opportunity on the shining slope 
of the Pacific, deadened his sense of the charms of the sea 
and completely captivated him. He gave up his berth on the 
trading vessel and all his hopes of success and prominence 
as a navigator, and journeyed to the gold fields by way of the 
Isthmus of Panama. While in California he was engaged in 
lumbering and mining, and as his success was satisfactory to 
him. he remained in that region from 1852 to 1865. He then 
returned to Maine, also by the Isthmus route, and went to his 
old home, where he found his mother ill. 

In the same year, July 18, 1865, he was united in marriage 
with Miss Clara Eastman at Conway, New Hampshire. Two 
children were born to them. Karl and Corinne. But, having 
always had a taste for adventure, and having fed his appetite 
in this respect by his experience on the ocean and in the mines, 
accordingly he brought his young bride to the Northwest and 
took up his residence in the village, as it was then, of Min- 
neapolis, which seemed full of promise to his awakened vision, 
and throughout all his subsequent years proofs multiplied 
tliat he was not mistaken in his first judgment of the possi- 
bilities around him. 

.Mr. De Laittre and his wife made the journey to their new 
home by rail to La Crosse, Wisconsin, and thence by steamer 
to St. Paul and stage to St. Anthony Falls. They were there- 
fore prepared for the conditions they found and prepared to 
cope with them. For the latter stages of the journey at least 
indicated to them that they w'ere moving into the wilds and 



toward the verge of civilization. liut thej' were made of the 
metal cast for privation, hardship and endurance, and accepted 
their new surroundings and unaccustomed deprivations with 
cheerfulness and entered upon the work of improving them 
with alacrity. 

He died on September 19, l'.(]2, but was an active figure 
in the financial district of Minneapolis until four days before 
his death, when he visited his olllce for the last tinn% al- 
though he passed his eightieth anniversary of birth before 
his death. 

Before coming to this part of the coimtry he made a trip 
to California in 1852 at the height of the gold excitement, as 
has been stated above, and was one of the party of eight white 
men wlio first saw what has been called the eighth wonder of 
the world — the Washingtonia Giganteas — stately palms 
indigenous to the southern part of the Golden State and 
highly prized for ornaments in lawns. 

During the first four years of his residence in the Mill 
City he was engaged in the manufacture of woolens and flour, 
but in 1869 he be'came a member of the Eastman, Bovey, De 
Laittre Lumber company, which was later incorporated as 
the Bovey-De Laittre Lumber company, of which he was 
president until his death. He was also president of the' 
Nicollet National Bank from 1884 to 1888, when it was 
absorbed by a larger bank, and at the time of his death he 
was president of the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank. 

He gave his banking interests close and careful attention, 
but his lumber trade was his chief concern. His operations in 
this were very extensive and made him one of the most prom- 
inent lumbermen in Minnesota. He built a large steam saw- 
mill in Nortli Minneapolis, at which his company cut the logs 
from their ample timber interests in the northern part of this 
state. In his later lumbering operations he was conspicuous 
and very serviceable in the development of Cloquet, Minnesota. 

Although Mr. De Laittre's business was very extensive and 
exacting he did not allow it to wholly absorb him or render him 
indifferent to the enduring welfare and continued improvement 
of his home city. He was a pronounced Republican in his 
political faith and allegiance, and as such was elected mayor of 
Minneapolis in 1877, the opposing candidate being Dr. A. A. 
Ames, but at the end of his term he declined to be a candidate 
for re-election. He did, however, serve as prison inspector 
seven years, being first appointed to this position by Governor 
John vS. Pillsbury in 1879, and being reappointed b}' him, and at 
the end of his second term being reappointed again by Gov- 
ernor Hubbard. He was also a member of the commission that 
built the new state capitol and of the commission that erected 
the present city hall and courthouse in Minneapolis. 

About the time Mr. De Laittre severed his connection with 
the Nicollet National Bank he began extensive vacation trav- 
els. He made a trip to Egypt in 1889, and later visited the 
West Indies, Mexico and other Spanish-American countries. 
On his last trip to the Bermudas he met a number of Minneap- 
olis men and found great enjoyment in recalling his old sailing 
days when the ships he sailed on made the islands, and in the 
winter of 1911, on a trip to the Panama canal, he sto))ped over 
to search for and found the spot where the party of which he 
was a member landed in 1852 when journeying from Maine to 
California. 

In religion this strong business man ami eniiiu^nt citizen 
was a devout Christian and for many years a regular attend- 
ant of Plymouth church. In all the relations of life he was 
a gentleman of high ideals and true at all times to his sense 



/ 



196 



HISTORY OF :\IINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



of duty, which was strong within him. In life he enjoyed 
the respect and admiration of all who had knowledge of him 
for his elevation of character, the force of his personalitj', his 
great business capacity and the fruitful usefulness of his long 
life; and his memory is ensluined in the strong and unwaver- 
ing regard of the whole comnuinity which he served so long, so 
wisely and so faithfully. 



REV. LORENZO B. ALLEN. 



For many years a minister of the gospel, going into new 
communities and building churches, and at different periods 
of liis life at the head of influential educational institutionji ; 
fluent and forcible as a preacher, platform orator and writer; 
a gentleman of extensive learning, excellent judgment, tliorough 
knowledge of human nature and strong personality, and an 
indefatigable worker in behalf of whatever he had in charge, 
the late Rev. Lorenzo B. Allen, for some years pastor of the 
First Baptist church in Minneapolis, lived a very useful life, 
and when it was ended left an influence for good that is still 
felt and acknowledged in man}- places. 

Mr. Allen was born in Jeft'erson, Lincoln county. Maine, in 
1816, June 14th. He was a son of Rey. William Allen, of 
that city, and Dr. Peter Gray, father of the late Thomas K. 
Gray, a sketch of whom apjjears in this volume, was tiie 
family physician in the Allen household. Through this asso- 
ciation came the acquaintance, intimate intercourse and sub- 
sequent marriage of Mr. Gray with Miss Julia Allen, the 
daughter of the immediate subject of this review. She is 
still living in the old Gray home at the corner of Oak Grove 
and Spruce streets, which was built by Mr. Gray early in 
the history of the city. 

Rev. Lorenzo B. Allen was graduated from a college at 
Waterville, Maine, which is now Colby University, and soon 
afterward became pastor of a Baptist church at Thomaston in 
his native state, having pursued the theological course of 
instruction in the institution named. Seven years later he 
was made pastor of a church of the same denomination at 
North Yarmouth, Maine, and there met Miss Nancy Pope 
Prince, the daughter of Hezekiah Prince the "village squire." 
to whom he was maiTied about 1841. She was a lineal 
descendant, through both her father and her mother, of the 
renowned Elder William Brewster, who came to New England 
in the Mayflower when that historic vessel brought over the 
first of the Pilgrim Fathers, and her father numbered twenty- 
five other Puritans among his American ancestors. 

Some years before the beginning of the Civil war Rev. Mr. 
Allen came west to Burlington, Iowa, to take the presidency 
of a Baptist college there. He threw his whole energy into 
his Work in that institution, taught the department of ancient 
languages, looked after the business interests of the college, 
enlisted popular support for it, and practically rehabilitated 
it, building it into a strong and very progressive center of 
learning. But when the war broke out nearly all its male 
students enlisted in the Union army, forty of them being 
enrolled in one week, and the college was depopulated and 
abandoned because of its empty seats. 

In 1865 Mr. Allen came to Minneapolis and took charge of 
the First Baptist church in this city. The structure in which 
the congregation worshiped at that time stood on the site 
of the present Nicollet hotel, and the services were held in its 



basement until it was condemned as unsafe. The congregation 
then moved to a frame house at the corner of Fifth street and 
Hennepin avenue, which had been built for it through the 
influence of Mr. Allen. He served this congregation three 
years, and then became the head of an academy at Wasioja, 
Jlinnesota, where he died a few years later. In the manage- 
ment and teaching work of this academy he was assisted by 
his wife and two daughters, Mrs. Allen having charge of the 
classes in Latin for a time and doing other work of value to 
the institution and its pupils. 

Mr. Allen did a great deal to advance the cause of education 
in this state. He was largely instrumental in interesting 
George A. Pillsbury in the founding of the Baptist academy at 
Owatonna, but he did not live to see that institution in 
operation. His Alma Mater conferred on him the honorary 
degree of Doctor of Divinity early in his life in recognition 
of hfs superior educational and ministerial work, and he was 
well known in many parts of the country as an educator of 
great ability. Many young men were prepared for the ministry 
by him, and they gave him high credit for his influence for 
good in molding their characters and broadening their vision 
as to their work. The state superintendent of schools of 
Iowa has given him a very complimentary notice in a book 
he published, and John E. Clough, a missionary in India, and 
still a diligent worker in that field, gives Dr. Allen credit for 
his own steadfastness to the church, declaring it is the result 
of the teaching of that eminent divine coupled with the 
influence of his impressive example. 

His daughter has also always been deeply interested in 
evangelical and educational work. She is a charter member 
of the Young Women's Christian Association, and was the 
provisional president of the Minneapolis branch at the time 
of its organization, and assisted in its incorporation. She 
has long served on its board of trustees or directors, as she 
was for five years on that of the Maternity Hospital, on 
which she has worked with Dr. Ripley and other enter{)rising 
and philanthropic persons. In addition, she takes a cordial 
and helpful interest in literary clubs and similar uplifting 
organizations. The Doctor was twice married, first in Thomas- 
ton, Maine, and again in 1858 at Burlington. Iowa, to Miss 
Adelaid Smith of that city. One son, Henry B. Allen, was 
a M. D. He died in Minneapolis in early life after practicing 
his profession some years. The wife and mother is still 
living, being the widow of Rev. Mr. Fish of Minneapolis. 



ALEXANDER THOMPSON ANKENY. 

One of the most enthusiastic and eflicient participants in 
public onterjiriscs, and one of the most highly honored members 
of the Minneapolis Bar, is Alexander Thompson Ankeny. He 
is of Dutch colonial ancestry, his father being Isaac Ankeny 
and his mother Eleanor (Parker) Ankeny, of Somerset, Penn- 
sylvania, where he was born December 27, 1837, and there 
received a common school education. Later he attended the 
Disciples College, at Hiram, Ohio, where James A. Garfield 
was then a professor; also an Academy at Morgantown, West 
Virginia, completing his education in Jefferson College at 
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. He read law in the oflice of Hon. 
Jeremiah S. Black, Attorney-General of the United States at 
Washington. In April, 1861, he was admitted to the bar at 
Somerset, Pennsylvania, and there began his practice. Edwin 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



197 



M. Stanton, upon becoming Secretary of War, gave young Mr. 
Ankeny a position in the Quarter-master General's Department 
in Wasliiiigton, in which he continued until near the close of 
tlie war, when he resumed practice at his old home. 

Mr. Ankeny came to Minneapolis in 1872, and engaged in 
lumber manufacture with his brother Wm. P. Ankeny, the 
firm being Wm. P. Ankeny and Brother, and so continued for 
six years. He has since enjoyed a general practice, his definite 
knowledge of the law combined with marked forensic talents, 
having made him conspicuous as a leader of his profession. In 
1890 he was defeated for District Judge by but a small 
majority, and in 1896 was the choice of the Democrats for 
Mayor. 

Mr. Ankeny has ever been deeply interested in educational 
matters and for more than a decade served on the Board of 
Education, lieing for a number of years its President, thus also 
being a member, ex-officio, of the library board. He was 
President of the State Normal Bostrd from 1899 to 1903, 
during which period, the fifth Normal School was established 
at Duluth. When the Masonic Temple Association was 
formed in 1885, he was one of the incorporators, succeeding 
R. B. Langdon as its president in 1894. In everything per- 
taining to the progress and development of the city, IMr. 
Ankeny has not only been interested, but has displayed a 
liberal and progressive spirit. 

He is a member of the Portland Avenue Church of Christ, 
of which he is one of three trustees. 

He is of quiet and studious habits finding cliief pleasures in 
tlie comiianionship of books and in tliat of old friends. Not 
fully in accord with modern tendencies of thought or the spirit 
of commercialism, his reading has embraced the old classical 
authors, including svich celebrated works as Montaigne's 
Kssays and Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. A student of 
Shakespeare, he finds, with Donnelly, abundant proof of the 
Baconian authorship. Socially he is genial and democratic 
and much endeared to many friends who are liberal in testify- 
ing to his many sterling qualities. 

Mr. Ankeny was married in 1861, to Miss Martha V. Moore, 
of Wheeling, West Virginia, and whose death occurred May 
27th. 1904. Four of his children are residents of Minneapolis. 
One daughter, Mrs. Chester McKusick, died in Duluth in 1900. 



ELMER E. ATKINSON. 



In tlie city of Waterloo, judicial center and metropolis of 
Blackhawk county, Iowa. Elmer E. Atkinson was born on ihe 
28th of March, 1867, he is a son of Dr. Thomas and Anna M. 
(Holloway) Atkinson, both natives of Belmont county, Ohio, 
and representatives of sterling pioneer families of that section 
of the old Buckeye state. Isaac Holloway, maternal grand- 
father of the subject of this review, was an extensive land- 
holder and influential citizen of Belmont county, and he served 
as representative of his county in the Ohio legislature. The 
Atkinson family also held prominent status in Belmont county, 
where Dr. Thomas Atkinson was engaged in the practice of 
medicine for a number of years prior to his removal to Iowa, 
wliere he became one of the pioneer pliysicians and surgeons 
of Waterloo and attained to distinction as one of the influential 
and honored citizens of that part of the state. Both he and 
his wife continued to reside in Iowa until their death and of 
their children two sons and two daughters are living. 



The public schools of Dewitt, Clinton county, Iowa, alTorded 
to Elmer E. Atkinson his early educational advantages, and as 
a youth lie identified himself with mercantile activities, in 
connection with wliich he was eventually employed in leading 
department stores in the city of Chicago. In the establishment 
of the Parisian Suit Company of that city he gained intimate 
and valuable experience in tlie special line of enterprise to 
wliich he is now giving his attention in an independent way. 
In 1887 he engaged in the retail dry-goods business at Anthony, 
Harper county, Kansas, and though he was but twenty years 
of age at the time of initiating this independent venture he 
showed his good judgment and excellent ability, with the result 
that he built up a prosperops trade. At the expiration of 
two years he sold the business which he had thus developed 
and went to the city of Cleveland, Ohio, where he assumed 
the management of the woman's apparel department of one 
of the largest mercantile establishments in the Forest City. 
In this capacitj' he further fortified himself in detailed knowl- 
edge and in efTective familiarity with general business methods 
and policies. 

In 1897 Mr. Atkinson came to Minneapolis, and later ha 
passed one year in California, but the salubrious climate and 
many advantages and attractions of the Minnesota metropolis 
led him to return to this city, where, through close application 
and cfi'ective policies he has succeeded in building up a most 
flourishing and substantial business, his operations having 
given him status as one of the popular and representative 
merchants of the city. His admirably stocked and appointed 
store is most eligibly located in the fine modern building at 
the corner of Seventh street and Nicollet avenue, and the 
solidity and constant expansion of his business is indicated by 
the fact that he has a ninety-nine year lease of the property 
adjoining on Nicollet avenue. This property has a frontage 
of fifty feet and the entire building will be utilized for the 
accommodation of the extensive business, the lease having but 
recently been effected. 'September, 1909, Mr. Atkinson opened 
a similar establishment in the city of St. Paul, at the corner 
of Sixth and Cedar streets. This is known as the Sixth Street 
Store and is one of the most attractively appointed mercantile 
places in the capital city, with a trade that fully justifies the 
wisdom of Mr. Atkinson in thus extending his operations. 
His two sons, Harold E. and Alfred M., are actively associated 
with him in his business activities in the Twin Cities and 
are numbered among the alert and popular young business 
men of Minnesota. 

Mr. Atkinson is emphatically progressive and liberal as a 
citizen as well as a man of affairs. He became an active 
member of the Minneapolis Commercial Club and later identi- 
fied himself zealously with the Civic & Commerce Association 
of the cit}% which absorbed the original Commercial Club and 
which has done much to further the civic and material advance- 
ment of Minneapolis. Jlr. Atkinson was the last to hold the 
office of chairman of the public-affairs committee of the 
Commercial Club, and he has since been an influential factor in 
the benignant activities of the Civic & Commerce Association. 
Mr. Atkinson has made judicious investments in Minneapolis 
real estate, and he personally erected the annex building used 
in connection with his business operations in Minneapolis, 
this being on the previously mentioni'd lot adjoining his 
original store. In 1914 he completed the erection of his fine 
modern residence at the corner of Lincoln and Logan avenues, 
and this attractive home, the architectural design and appoint- 
ments of which largely represent the personal ideas of the 



198 



HISTORY OF .MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



owner, commands a fine view of Lake of the Isles. The 
residence was completed and occupied in the autumn of 1914 
and is known for its generous and gracious hospitality, and 
as a center of representative social activities, as the family 
has a wide circle of friends in the city of Minneapolis, as 
well as in St. Paul. 

Though never manifesting any desire to enter the arena of 
practical politics, Mr. Atkinson takes a loyal interest in 
governmental aft'airs and in public matters of a local ordi'r, 
his allegiance being given to the Republican party. In the 
time-honored Masonic fraternity he has attained to the thirty- 
second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite and is also 
affiliated with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the 
Mystic Shrine. As a golf enthusiast he is identified with the 
Minikahda Club, and he also holds membership in the Min- 
neapolis Club, the Lafayette Club and the Minneapolis Auto- 
mobile Club. Belongs to the Sixth Church of Clirist Scientist. 

On the 36th of September, 1888, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Atkinson to Miss Minnie F. Morey, of Clinton, 
Iowa, and she is the gracious and popular chatelaine of their 
new and beautiful home. Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson have three 
children: Harold E., who is associated with his father in 
business,, as previously noted, wedded Miss Margaret Moyer, 
daughter of Dr. David E. Moyer, who was at that time a 
resident of Montevideo, Chippewa county, but who is now a 
resident of Minnoapolis, a son was born to H. E. and Mar- 
garet, January 6th, 1914, named Harold M.; Alfred M. 
likewise is actively associated with his father's business 
affairs; and Anita, who completed the work of the junior year 
at Stanley Hall, a leading educational institution of Minne- 
apolis, is now a student the Elizabeth Somers famous finishing 
school for young women, at Washington, D. C, in which insti- 
tution she will be graduated as a member of the class of 
1915. 



CHARLES A. BOVEY. 



Of the many men who came from the State of Maine and 
became large figures in the development of Minneapolis, none 
stood higher than Charles A. Bovey, now deceased. For more 
than forty years he was one of the leaders among the busi- 
ness men of the city. Indeed, Mr. Bovey was a notable exam- 
ple of the men from New England who played so large a part 
in the civic and commercial upbuilding of Minneapolis. With 
hardly an exception they were men whose interest in the bet- 
terment of the city loomed as large as did their attention to 
business aflfairs. These early residents seem now to have 
given more freely of their time to the upbuilding of the city 
than do the young men of succeeding generations. And 
Charles A. Bovey was pre-eminently of this type. 

As Mr. Bovey was a native of Maine, so it seems natural 
that he should be a lumberman, as were so many of the Maine 
men who came to Minneapolis. He was born in Bath, Maine, 
May 27, 1832, of English parents — his father, John Bovey, 
having come from Devonshire, England, in 1815. The original 
, Bovey homestead in Bath is still standing, as is the school- 
house where Charles A. Bovey received his common-school edu- 
cation. It was when Mr. Bovey was still a boy that he entered 
the business which was to form his life pursuit. He made a 
trip to New Brunswick, and there entered the employ of a 
large lumbering and importing concern, which was engaged in 



the West Indies trade, as well as in logging and lumber manu- 
facturing. He continued in this connection for twenty years, 
or until tlie late sixties. 

In 1869, attracted to the West by alluring descriptive articles 
in Eastern publications, chiefly those of Charles Carleton Cof- 
fin. Mr. Bovey came to Minnesota and took up his residence 
in Minneapolis — then and for twenty years thereafter the lum- 
ber center of the Northwest. His first business venture in his 
new home was an important one, in that it gave to the busi- 
ness circles of the growing city a man of constructive abilities. 
He formed a partnership with two lumbermen, who stood side 
by side with him in business importance for many years. They 
were W. W. Eastman and John De Laittre. The firm name at 
first was Eastman, Bovey and Company. Later Howard M. 
De Laittre, cousin of John De Laittre. joined the firm. The firm 
still exists under its later name of tlie Bovey-De Laittre Lum- 
ber Co. 

The first business property of the new firm was the old 
Pioneer sawmill, on the west side of the Falls of St. Anthony — 
a mill that was famous in the early daj's of lumbering in Min- 
neapolis, for it was the nucleus of the great West Side lumber 
business, which endured in the Falls location until the middle 
eighties, by which time all the firms in the lumber industry 
abandoned the Falls site and moved up the river to more 
advantageous places along the east and west banks, where 
yard as well as railway facilities were better. 

The Eastman-Bovey firm gave up the Pioneer Jlill when the 
water power comjiany took over the leases and went to the 
East Side, continuing there until fire destroj'ed the mills in 
1887. And on a site at Thirty-ninth Avenue North, the incor- 
porated company, the Bovey-De Laittre Lumber Co., built the 
big mills, which for years were strong competitors for the best 
of the lumber trade. 

It is not alone in the commercial history of ilinneapolis 
that !Mr. Bovey's name is written large. Hardly had he become 
a citizen when he entered actively into the political, social and 
civic life of the city. Perhaps the most interesting story of 
the institutions of Minneapolis is the history of the Public 
Library as a development from the old Atheneum. The early 
years of the library were years of no little stress, and it was 
to the earnest guidance of the early directors of the institu- 
tion that the present library owes its splendid stability. One 
of these directors for several years was Charles A. Bovey, 
which illustrates his appreciation of the finer things of life 
as factors in the city's development. In political affairs, as 
in civic matters, Mr. Bovey took active interest, although he 
never sought or filled public office. He was a Republican by 
affiliation, but reserved the right of personal selection of the 
best man, regardless of party, when it came to local office. 

Mr. Bovey's family have followed in his footsteps in public 
activities — his sons taking an active interest in the growth 
of the city. 

Mr. Bovey married, in 1856, in Salem, Mass., Miss Hannah 
Caroline Brooks, a daughter of Luke Brooks, a Boston mer- 
chant. Mr. and Mrs. Bovey made their home on Harmon Place 
at Thirteenth Street, then almost in the outskirts of the city — 
the house being built in 1870. There are six children, all 
living: Frank A., associated for some years with his father 
in the Bovey-De Laittre Company; Charles Cranston and Wil- 
liam H., associated in the Washburn-Crosby Company: .John 
A., a member of the Bovey-Shute Lumber Co., and two daugh- 
ters. The family's church affiliation is with Plymouth Con- 
gregational Church. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



199 



Mrs. Bovey died in 1906 and Mr. Bovey November 2, 1911 — 
only about a year before the death of his long-time partner, 
John De Laittre. 



ROMAN ALEXANDER. 



Roman Alexander, leading Minneapolis manufacturer of 
bank, otlice and store fixtures, was born in Krakow Austrian 
Poland, in 184S, being the son of Joseph Alexander, a grain 
merchant. With the advantages afforded by an excellent high 
school Roman learned the trade of cabinet maker. 

In 1870 he came to Milwaukee where he again worked at 
his trade, becoming foreman in the establishment of Conway, 
Radway & Company. During a vacation he visited Min- 
neapolis, and in 18S1 he made it his residence. 

His first employment was with Smith & Parker, now the 
Smith & Wyman company, for two years, and then started 
his present enterprise which flourished, it being the pioneer 
in the exclusive manufacture of fixtures, everything of that 
kind previously being furnished from Chicago or even farther 
east. 

His reputation is based upon achievement, examples being 
the interior woodwork of the Unitarian church; the finish of 
the public library, including the mantels and book eases; the 
woodwork of the Samuel Gale residence being at the time 
the most artistic dwelling in the city; that of the S. T. 
McKnight residence, and that of the F. B. Semple residence, 
also the interior of the much admired residence of ex-UniteJ 
States Senator Power of Helena, Montana. 

He fashioned and installed the interior woodwork in the 
Donaldson shoe store, and the Seventh street store ol the 
Glass block, Dayton's and the Minneapolis dry goods stores. 
He has also installed the fixtures in more than 500 banks 
between Minneapolis and the Pacific coast. In 1898 he built 
a large factory, which has recently been enlarged, the plant 
no^v employing regularly more than forty workmen. 

He served in the council from 1894 to 1898, being the 
only Republican who was ever elected to the council from 
the First ward. His services were rendered with the same 
enterprise, prudence and good judgment as indicated in his 
private afl'airs, being of signal benefit to the community. 

In 1883, Mr. Alexander was married to Miss Margaret 
Wernich. They have five children: Arthur, associated with 
his father as general manager; Helen, Margaret, Wanda, 
Roman, Jr. Arthur married Pearl Wolsey and has one child, 
Mercedes. Mr. Alexander's family belong to the Immaculate 
Conception Catliolic church. 



WILLIAM CRAWFORD BAILEY. 

Mr. Bailey was born at Milford, Penobscot county, Maine, 
on July 22, 1836, the son of Charles and Mary Jane (Ring) 
Bailey, both of whom belonged to old New England families 
residing in that part of the country from early Colonial days. 
The paternal great-grandfather, Amos Bailey, .Ir., was a 
lieutenant in the Patriot army during the Revolutionaiy war, 
and other members of the families on both sides of the house 
also took part in that momentous struggle for freedom and 
self-government. 



William C. Bailey attended the district school of his native 
town and at different periods was a student at Hampden 
Academy and Bucksport Seminary in Maine. When lie left 
school he was employed for a time in the taveni kept by 
his father, and afterward clerked in the poatollice and worked 
on a farm. None of these various occupations satisfied his 
ambition, and he became a school teacher, following that 
profession until 1864, when he decided to become a logger. 
From that time until his death he was continuously engaged 
in the lumber business, the scale of his operations in the 
industry enlarging as the years passed until they became very 
extensive. 

In 1880 Mr. Bailey came to Minneapolis, and in 1881 began 
to deal in hardwood lumber. Long before this, however, his 
business in lumbering prospered and was giving him steady 
headway in life when the Civil war began. He had very 
promising interests at stake at the time, but his patriotism 
overbore his desire for personal gain, and he determined to 
leave all his prospects and go" to the front in defense of the 
U^nion. On July 31, 1862, he enlisted in the Federal army 
at Bangor, Maine, and was at once made second lieutenant 
of his company. Before his term of service in the army 
expired he took part in the battles of Antietam, Maryland, 
Fredericksburg, Virginia, and several other contests of greater 
or less importance. 

After the war this valiant soldier, when conditions required 
him to be such, or made it desirable that he should, and highly 
successful business man when peace held sway, kept alive the 
memories of the great sectional strife, but without any of 
its bitterness, by active membership in Chase Post No. 22, 
Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was the commander. 
He also belonged to the St. Anthony Commercial club during 
his residence in Minneapolis, and was one of its most active 
and serviceable members. In politics he was a stauncli 
Republican from the foundation of the party, but he never 
sought or desired a political office, although he was at times 
an energetic and effective worker for its success. His relig- 
ious affiliation was with the LTniversalists, and he held his 
membership in All Souls church, Minneapolis, of that sect, 
but was liberal in his feelings toward and his contributions to 
all church interests. 

Mr. Bailey's business in this city flourished vigorously and 
grew to large proportions. He was energetic and judicious in 
the management of it, omitting nothing in its personal super- 
vision and overlooking nothing opportune or useful in expand- 
ing its volume and value. But he did not allow it to obscure 
or abate his interest in the welfare of the community or make 
him neglect any of the duties of citizenship. He was at v!l 
times progressive and enterprising in his public spirit, and not 
only did valuable things himself but stimulated others to 
great activity by his influence and the force of h;is example. 
No public interest went without his intelligent attention and 
earnest and fruitful support. And. when, on October 23, 1910, 
he passed over to the activities that know no weariness, he 
was held in the highest esteem as one of this city's most 
serviceable and representative men. 

On May 38, 1880, Mr. Bailey was united in marriage with 
Miss Phebe L. De Witt, who is still living. She was born 
in the province of New Brunswick, Canada, and lived there 
until her marriage. Four children were born of their union: 
Mary, who is now the wife of L. E. Evans and has her home 
at Waterloo, Iowa; Catherine, who married with P. D. Carpen- 
ter and resides in Minneapolis; George C, who manages the 



200 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, :\IINNESOTA 



business, which is located at Fifteenth and Central avenues 
northeast, for his mother; and Anna Lucretia, who died on 
December 31, 1910, at the age of twenty-four years, a few 
weeks after the death of her father. She was a student at the 
University of Minnesota at the time of her death. All the 
members of the family stand well in public estimation in 
the community, and all deserve the universal regard and good 
will bestowed upon them. 



FRED ELISHA BARNEY. 



Fred Elisha Barney, president of the East Side State Bank 
of Minneapolis, has exhibited in his business career the salient 
characteristics of the New Englanders in the way of thrift, 
prudence, good management and other business traits that 
command success. The founder of the American branch of 
his father's family, came to the colony of Massachusetts Bay 
from England in 1634. Fred E. Barney's life began at Swanton, 
Franklin county, Vermont, on October 10, 1859, and he is a 
son of Valentine G. and Maria L. (Hadwen) Barney, both 
natives of Vermont. The father was a dealer in marble in 
Vermont until the beginning of the Civil war, when he enlisted 
in defense of the Union, and through efliciency and gallantry 
in the service during the memorable sectional conflict he 
rose to the rank of Lieutenant-colonel of the Ninth \ermont 
Volunteer Infantry. After the close of the war he returned 
to his former home, where he remained four years, then, in 
1869, moved his family to Minneapolis, and from here in J872 
to Charles City, Iowa. 

His son Fred accompanied the rest of the family to this city 
and later to their home in Iowa. He began his education in 
the public schools of his native town, continued it in those 
of Minneapolis, and completed it in those of Iowa. From 1878 
to 1881 he was employed in an abstract and loan business in 
Charles City, Iowa, but in the year last mentioned returned to 
Miimeapolis to take a clerkship in the Commercial Bank. He 
remained in the employ of the bank until 1888, and during 
the last three years of his time with it served as assistant 
cashier. 

In March, 1888, he gave up his position in the bank and went 
into business for himself, clioosing real estate, loans and 
insurance as his field of operation. He has worked up his 
business to large proportions and profitable returns, and the 
capacity he has shown in conducting it has given him a high 
rank in business circles here and elsewhere. He is a member 
of Minneapolis Real Estate Board and served as Vice President. 
He is also a member of National Board. In the insxirance 
department of his enterprise he represents five important com- 
panies and renders tliem extensive and excellent service. 

Upon the organization of the East Side State Bank in 1906, 
he was elected president of it and still occupies that position 
in its directorate and continues to direct its affairs with 
good judgment. He is also secretary of the Jlerriman-Barr jws 
company, which owns and controls property in the city. But, 
while giving the bank close and careful attention and doing 
the same for the Merriman-Barrows company, he pushes his 
own private business with constant enterprise and energy. 

Mr. Barney has always taken an earnest interest and an 
active part in the general work of improvement in his com- 
munity. His political faith and allegiance have been given 
to the Republican party from the dawn of his manhood, and 



as a member of it and its candidate he was elected a member 
of the board of county commissioners of Hennepin county in 
1900. He served in the office four years, and during the last 
two years of his tenure was chairman of the board. 

Mr. Barney has also mingled freely and serviceably in the 
social life of his home city as a member of the Commercial, 
and Whist clubs. In each of these organizations he has a 
potent influence for its good, and had been a member of the 
public affairs committee of the Commercial club, of which be 
was one of the directors. He also belongs to the St. Anthony 
club on the East Side, in which he has served as director and 
member of its public affairs committee. Fraternally he is a 
Scottish Rites mason and in this connection is also a Noble 
of the Mystic Shrine. 

On September 17, 1885, Mr. Barney was married at Charles 
City, Iowa, to Miss Mary Case of that city. They have three 
children, their son, Hadwen Case Barney, who is associated 
with his father in business, and their daughters, Elizabeth and 
Mary. 



CHARLES ALFRED PILLSBURY. 

World leaders in the various domains of human enterprise 
are few in number, infrequent in appearance and never the 
products of accident or extraneous circumstances. The quali- 
ties which give them their rank are innate and would win 
distinction in any line of action. But circumstances and the 
specific features of opportunities sometimes give tliem their 
trend and form of expression, because these world leaders, 
their masters, see what can be made of them and command 
them to such service as is desired. 

The late Charles Alfred Pillsbury of Minneapolis was for 
many years a world leader in the manufacture of flour, both 
in quantity and quality, and his record furnishes a striking 
illustration of the mastery of mind over matter, and the condi- 
tions and surroundings amid which it is found. The master 
mind takes it as it appears, and while making the most of 
what is, uses that to multiply vastly the production of its own 
kind and expand itself and what springs from it in ever widen- 
ing extents and varying forms of usefulness for the service 
and enjoyment of mankind. 

Mr. Pillsbury was born on October 3, 1842, in the town of 
Warner, Merrimack county. New Hampshire, the son of 
George A. and Margaret S. (Carleton) Pillsbury and a grand- 
son of John P. and Susan (Wadleigh) Pillsbury, all New Eng- 
landers and natives of New Hampshire. A sketch of the 
father will be found in this work, and in it will be seen that 
the family traces its American ancestors back to William 
Pillsbury, who came to this country from England in 1640 and 
settled at Dorchester, in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. He 
was a gentleman of high standing, and the family coat of arms 
bore this motto: "Labor Omnia Vincit," a truth that has been 
demonstrated many times in the subsequent history of the 
family. The great-grandfather of Charles A. was Micaiah 
Pillsbury, who located at Sutton, New Hampshire, in 1795. 

Charles A. Pillsbury was reared on a farm, like most other 
New England boys in the rural districts, and enjoyed about 
the same advantages of education in early life that others 
tliere at that period enjoyed Afterward he pursued a full 
academic course of instruction at Dartmouth College, from 
which he was graduated at the age of twenty-one. During his 




S^gaA. a. f!MJ^. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



201 



college life he partially supported himself by teaohing school 
at intervals. After obtaining his degree, with all the world 
to choose a place of residence and base of operations in, he 
went first to Montreal, Canada, where he passed six years in 
various employments. 

In 1S69 Mr. Pillsbury came to Minneapolis by invitation of 
his uncle, the late Governor John S. Pillsbury, to engage in 
the milling business He first purchased an interest in the 
Minneapolis mill, then owned and operated bj' J. W. Gardner 
and G. \V. Crocker. The milling industry was at that time 
in an inchoate stage in Minneapolis, and the mill in which 
Mr. Pillsbury began his great career as a manufaeturerer of 
flour had a capacity of but 150 barrels a day. Nevertheless, 
it was the acorn from which the mighty oak of the Pillsbury 
Flour Mills Company's business has grown, and that company 
now turns out 25,000 barrels of flour every day. 

When this genius of the mill arrived in Minneapolis the 
railroads extended but a few miles north and west of the city. 
The supply of grain was limited to local production and the 
value of the hard wheat of the Northwest for the produc- 
tion of flour was unknown. That wheat was, in fact, consid- 
ered the worst in the world for floiu'. It kept its rich stores 
of (lour quality securely locked from the invasion of all 
inquirers until its real master spoke the words of command, 
and then it cheerfully yielded them up for his advantage and 
the benefit of the world. 

Within a few years after the arrival of Jlr. Pillsbury the 
railroads were built into the northwestern part of this state 
and a long way into the Dakotas, and this made additional 
grain fields of vast extent tributary to the mills of Minne- 
apolis ; and within the same period the self-binder was 
invented, which cheapened the production of wheat, and many 
new inventions were also introduced in the mills, all of which 
added to their capacity in productiveness and heightened the 
quality of their output. One of these was the middlings puri- 
fier, a Jlinneapolis invention, which Mr. Pillsbury at once 
adopted and which he found very profitable. Another was 
the steel roller process of milling, brought to this country 
from Europe, and these two innovations alone revolutionized 
the making of flour in this region. 

The hour and the man for the full and ra|iid development 
of flour milling in this part of the country had come In 1870 
the firm of Charles A. Pillsbury & Company was formed, the 
men composing it being Mr. Pillsbury, his uncle, the governor, 
and his father, George A. Pillsbury. They bought the Taylor 
mill (now the Pillsbury B), with a capacity of 300 barrels a 
day, and two years later they leased the mill built by L. S. 
Watson of Leicester, Massachusetts, on the site of the old 
woolen mill, which had been destroyed by fire. This mill had 
a capacity of 250 barrels a day and was modern in all its 
ajipointments. In 1874 Governor Pillsbury traded other prop- 
erty for the Anchor mill with a capacity of 250 barrels, and 
in that year Mr Pillsbury's brother, Fred C. Pillsbury, was 
admitted to membership in the firm. Still on the lookout for 
enlargements to its business, in 1877 the company leased the 
Excelsior mill built by Hon. Dorillas Morrison, which had a 
daily capacity of 800 barrels, raising its producing capacity 
to 1.750 barrels. 

But the business kept pace with the facilities acquired and 
soon went beyond them. Greater facilities were provided by 
the erection of the celebrated Pillsbury A mill in 1881. At 
first this had a daily capacity of 7,000 barrels, but that has 
since been doubled and more through the improvement of 



machinery, and it is now 12,000 barrels. When it was built 
this mill was the largest in the world and it still is. Prior to 
the erection of this mill Jlr. Pillsbury passed five years in 
Europe, going and coming at intervals His purpose in mak- 
ing these trips abroad was to study practically and in detail 
every phase of the production and transportation of wheat, 
the making and marketing of flour and its by-products, and 
everything else connected with his business. He became widely 
known in many parts of Europe as the mose extensive manu- 
facturer of flour in the world, and was greatly admired for 
the magnitude of his operations, as he always was everywhere 
for his genial and companionable disposition and charming 
personality. 

Mr. Pillsbury's business record was not, however, to be 
an unbroken success. In 1877 the Anchor mill was destroyed 
by fire and in 188^ the Empire, Minneapolis, Pillsbury B and 
Excelsior suffered a similar fate. This burden of disaster 
did not daunt him. On the contrary, it stimulated him to 
greater activity and enterprise. Some of the burnt mills were 
rebuilt and equipped with the latest machinery. Large ele- 
vators were also erected, and the business was enlarged all 
along the line 

In 1890 the Pillsburys disposed of their holdings to the 
Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company, Limited, but 
retained a large interest in the new company, although the 
bulk of the stock was purchased by an English syndicate. 
The new company also acquired the Palisade and Lincoln 
mills at the same time, and has ever since operated all its 
properties with the greatest enterprise and constancy, produc- 
ing regularly 6,000,000 barrels of flour a year and easily main- 
taining its place at the head of the industry and in imperial 
command of the markets of the whole civilized world. 

Notwithstanding his enormous business and its multitu- 
dinous exactions, Mr. Pillsbury took an active part in many 
other industrial, commercial and financial enterprises and also 
in public afi'airs. He was one of the most energetic and 
resourceful promoters of the city's advancement and improve- 
ment this community has ever had, and while he was averse 
to public life, and declined numerous offers of political prefer- 
ment, he was always a zealous and practical factor in the 
efforts made to secure good government for his city and state. 
The only political oflSce he held while living in Minneapolis 
was that of state senator, to which he was first elected in the 
fall of 1876, and which he continued to fill with great credit 
to himself and acceptability to the people for a period of ten 
years. 

Wlien the Pillsbury interests in the mills were sold to the 
Pillsbury-Washburn company Mr. Pillsbury's connection with 
them did not cease. He was kept at the head of the business 
by the new company at a very large salary, and directed its 
course successfully. By his advice the company secured a 
controlling interest in the whole of the water power at St. 
Anthony's Falls. And a few years later, again on his recom- 
mendation, the company constructed an auxiliary dam a short 
distance below the Falls by which an increase of 10,000 horse 
power was added to its resources. 

This was the last great work of construction done under 
Mr. Pillsbury's direction. The plow, which had held its 
course so steadil)' and so long, was Hearing the end of its fur- 
row. Mr. Pillsbury died at his home in Minneapolis on Sep- 
tember 17, 1899. During the thirty years of his active life in 
Minenapolis he was probably the most ])opular businesss man 
in the city. He was always, until his end approached, in excel- 



202 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



lent health, and at all times in good spirits, genial, sunny, 
easily accessible and generous almost to a fault. His public- 
spirit was a stimulus and an inspiration; his patriotism, 
locally and generally, was genuine, practical and intense; his 
public benefactions were bountiful, and his private benevo- 
lences were almost innumerable, but they are, for the most 
part, unrecorded. He was liberal to all worthy agencies at 
work for the good of his community and to those in need of 
help from an inborn sense of generosity, and never, in the 
slightest degree for ostentation, ambition or personal aggran- 
dizement in any way. 

Mr. Pillsbury mingled freely in the social life of the com- 
munity as a member of several clubs and other local organiza- 
tions. He was very prominent in tlie Minneapolis Chamber of 
Commerce and its president from 1883 to 1894. On Septem- 
ber 12, 1866, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary A. 
Stinson, a daughter of Captain Charles Stinson, .one of the 
prominent and most highly esteemed citizens of Goffstown, 
New Hampshire, Their two sons, Charles S. and John S., the 
only living children of the household, have assumed many of 
the business relations held by their father and are exemplify- 
ing in connection with them the sterling manhood and great 
business capacity for which he was renowned. Their mother 
died on September 26, 1903. The members of the family have 
all attended Plymouth Congregational church, and the sons 
have built, as a memorial to their parents, Pillsbury House 
in South Minneapolis, where the settlement work of this 
church is carried on. In reference to such a man as the sub- 
ject of this brief review the voice of eulogy is hushed. His 
great works speak for themselves, and anj' attempt to portray 
him in terms of adulation would be an effort to gild refined 
gold or paint the lily, and this, in his case would be entirely 
out of place. 



WILLIAM HOWARD BOVEY. 

William Howard Bovey. director and general superintendent 
of the Washburn Crosby Milling company and eminent citizen, 
is a native of Minneapolis, born Februaiy 25, 1871, the son 
of Cliarles A, and Hannah Caroline (Brooks) Bovey. Charles 
A. Bovey was bom at Bath. Maine, May 2T, 1822. In 1869, 
after spending some years in St. .Johns, New Brunswick, he 
removed to Minneapolis, where he became a prominent lumber 
man and leading citizen. He was an active member of the 
lumber firm, Bovey De Laittre Lumber Co., formerly Eastman 
Bovey & Company, until liis death. November 2. 1911. His 
son, W. H. Bovey attended the city schools and completed 
his high school course in 1889. He then entered the famous 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was grad- 
iiated in 1894. Although equipped with the thorough technical 
training which years of conscientious study had given him, he 
returned to Minneapolis and sought a position as an inex- 
perienced workman in the mills of the Washburn Crosby 
company, determined that he would master every phase and 
mechanical detail of the flour manufacture throiigh practical 
e.\perience. His skill and ability were speedily recognized by 
a series of rapid promotions and at the end of five years, 
he was entrusted with tlie general superintendency of tlie 
mills. In this capacity, he holds one of the most responsible 
positions of the flour industry in the world, with nine hundred 
men under his direct supervision. The great efliciency he has 



displayed in the discharge of the duties of this authorative 
post has won him the esteem, not only of the employees, 
but of all with whom he comes in contact. Mr. Bovey also 
has prominent interests in the lumber business, as president 
of the Thompson McDonald Lumber company and director of 
the Bovey Shute Lumber company. He has never souglit 
public honors bvit his efforts and influence have been given 
freely to any movement for civic improvement. He has served 
as chairman of the smoke committee of the Civic and Com- 
mercial association and has recently been appointed a member 
of the board of Park Commissioners. With a mind alert to 
the needs of the day and a keen foresight into the future of 
Minneapolis, he realizes the city's obligation to its youthful 
citizens and is earnestly interested in the provision of adequate 
playground facilities. He was married in 1896 to Miss 
Florence McKnight Lyman, daughter of Mr. George N, Lyman 
of Minneapolis. They have two children, William Howard, 
Jr., and Elizabeth. Mr. Bovey is a member of the Minneapolis, 
Minikahda, La Fayette and University clubs. 



ANSON STRONG BROOKS. 



Mr. Brooks is a native of Redfleld, Oswego county. New 
York, where his life began on September 6, 1852. When he 
was four years old his parents, Sheldon and Jeannette (Ran- 
ney) Brooks, moved their family to Minnesota and located on 
a farm in Winona county. Here the son grew to manhood, 
attending the neighborhood country school and taking part in 
the work of the farm until he reached the age of sixteen 
years. In 1868, when he was the age mentioned, he began 
the struggle of life for himself as a telegraph operator, which 
he continued to be until 1872. 

In 1873 he formed a partnership with his two brothers, 
under the name of Brooks Bros., to handle grain in the great 
Northwest. Tlie firm of Brooks Bros, remained in the grain 
business until 1907, twenty-four years, and when it sold 
this department of its mercantile enterprise in the year last 
named it owned thirty-five country grain elevators and exten- 
sive holdings of other property subsidiary to them and neces- 
sary for their successful operation. 

About two years before giving up the grain business the 
brothers aided M. J. Scanlon and Henry E. Gipson in organ- 
izing the Scanlon-Gipson Lumber company. The new field of 
mercantile endeavor opened such widening views of profitable 
enterprise to them that they determined to devote themselves 
wholly to it, and for that reason sold their grain outfit as soon 
as they could conveniently do so. In the meantime the new 
company bought the lumber business of H. F. Brown of 
Minneapolis in order to secure a wholesale yard in the very 
heart of the lumber operations here in the Northwest. This 
venture proved very successful, enabling the company to carrj' 
on a business aggregating sixty million feet of lumber a 
year. 

In 1898 it built a double band sawmill at Cass Lake, Min- 
nesota, which was also a great success, turning out forty 
million feet of lumber annually. Later this mill was destroyed 
by fire. In IKDO Mr. Scanlon. the head of the company, visited 
the Pacific slope, and arranged to ■purchase a large tract of 
yellow pine in Western Oregon, he and his fellow members of 
the Scanlon-Gipson company organizing the Brooks-Robertson 



HISTORY OF IMINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



203 



Lumber company for tlie purpose. Tlie Brooks-Robertson com- 
pany now owns large amounts of timber in the west. 

In 1901 the Brooks-.Scanlon Lumber company was organized 
with a capital of $1,750,000 to engage exclusively in manu- 
facturing and wholesaling. Almost immediately afterward the 
company built a very large five band and gang sawmill at 
Scanlon, Minnesota, which had a daily capacity of 600,000 
feet and was probably one of the most extensive and com- 
pletely equipped sawmills in the world. Mr. Brooks is treasurer 
of the company and a very influential force in the direction of 
its affairs. He is also second vice president of the Minnesota 
& Northern Wisconsin Railway, which was built in 1897 to 
haul logs to a plant owned by the company at Nickerson, Pine 
county, this state, and was subsequently extended to perform 
the same service for the one owned by the company at Scanlon 
in the adjoining county of Carlton. In addition to hauling 
logs to these two mills, the road does a large general freight 
business, although the main purpose of its construction was 
to serve the needs of the luml)er company. 

Mr. Brooks is also associated with Mr. Scanlon, a sketch of 
whom will be found in this volume, in the Brooks-Scanlon 
company, which owns and operates two modern sawmills at 
Kentwood, Louisiana, and of which he is secretary, as he is 
of the Kentwood & Eastern Railway. This line is forty-five 
miles in length of trackage, and was built to haul logs to the 
lumber mill at Kentwood. But it, too, is very useful to the 
territory through which it extends, carrying on a considerable 
commercial business for the general public there. In addition 
to his official relations with large lumber institutions already 
named, Mr. Brooks is president of the Brooks Elevator com- 
pany, vice president of the Scanlon-Gipson Lumber company, 
and a leading spirit in the Brooks-Scanlon-O'Brien company, 
limited, and the Brooks Timber company, as well as one of 
the directors of the Security National Bank of Minneapolis. 
In politics he is a Republican, in fraternal affiliation a Free- 
mason i^nd in social relations a member of the Minneapolis, 
Lafayette and Automobile clubs of his home city. He is also 
an ardent and helpful supporter of every judicious under- 
taking for the welfare and improvement of the community 
in which he lives. 

On July 34, 1876, Mr. Brooks was married at McGregor, 
Iowa, to Miss Georgie L. Andros. They have one child, their 
son Paul A., who is now extensively associated with his 
father in business as secretary of the Brooks Elevator com- 
pany, the Brooks-Scanlon-O'Brien company, limited, the Brooks 
Timber company and the Powell-River company. He is also 
treasurer of the DeSchutes Boom company and the Kent- 
wood & Eastern Railway company. In connection with these 
various enterprises he displays the same high order of business 
capacity that distinguishes his father. 



DENNIS C. BOW. 



Dennis C. Bow was born in Rookford, Illinois, on December 
5, 1865, and when he was five years old was taken by his 
parents to Nora Springs, Iowa, where he remained until he 
reached the age of seventeen. On January 1, 1883, his parents, 
Michael and Catherine (Maher) Bow, moved their family to 
Minneapolis, where the son has ever since resided. The 
parents were born in Ireland and brought to this country by 
their parents. They were married in Freeport, Illinois, in 1859, 



The father was an iron molder, and after his arrival in this 
city w'as employed in the old Minneapolis Harvester Works. 
Before coming here he had served in a similar capacity in the 
Nora Springs Iron Works, whose operations and products were 
like those of the Minneapolis establishment. He remained 
in the employ of the Harvester Woiks in this city for a num- 
ber of years until he was disabled for further duty by losing 
one of his lower limbs in a railroad accident. He died on 
January 5, 1913, at the age of seventy-nine, his last years 
being spent at the home of his son Dennis. The mother passed 
away some twenty years before the father. Both belonged 
to Holy Rosary Catholic church, and were very faithful and 
devout in attention to its precepts and their church duties 
in general. 

Dennis C. Bow obtained his academic education in the public 
schools at Nora Springs, Iowa, and was prepared for business 
by a course of special training at the Curtis Business College 
in Minneapolis. Circumstances led him to the occupation of 
his father and he too became a molder and worked in a 
foundry for a time. But his inclination was strongly to 
mercantile life, and he became a clerk in the grocery store 
of A. D. Libby on Minnehaha avenue, where he worked faith- 
fully in the interest of his employer eight years. At the end 
of that period he entered the employ of the Walter A. Wood 
Harvester company as a bookkeeper, and he continued his 
connection with the company in that capacity four or five 
years. The plant employed 800 to 1,200 persons in all, and 
some years ago was removed to Hazel Park in St. Paul. 

After he left the Harvester company Mr. Bow was ap- 
pointed to a clerkship vuider City Engineer Cappelan in 1896. 
He continued to work in the city engineer's office until 1903, 
when he was elected to the city council as alderman from the 
Twelfth ward. He has been re-elected twice and is now 
serving his third term in the couneil. His first two elections 
were won by him as a Republican in a Democratic ward. But 
his last candidacy was non-partisan, and he won easily, as 
he had never allowed partisan considei^ations to overbear or 
sway his sense of duty to the whole people and the best 
interests of the city, whose welfare he has always striven 
earnestly to promote. 

In Mr. Bow's first terra in the council he was chairman of 
the committee on claims, and in the present council he is 
chairman of the committee on commerce and markets. He 
has always been warmly interested in the progress and suc- 
cess of the Minneapolis market, and to confirm his judgment 
of its usefulness and value has studied the market systems 
in Eastern cities. The further he went into the subject the 
firmer his belief in the city market system as a wise and 
beneficial institution became. In his second term in the 
council he was chairman of the committee on roads and 
bridges, and thereby a member of the city park board ex 
officio. During that term he was also a member of the com- 
mittee on health and hospitals, one of the most important in 
the council. 

But Mr. Bow has not allowed himself to get out of business 
because he has been in oflice. Soon after his first election to 
the council he became connected with the advertising depart- 
ment of the Minneapolis Tribune for a few montlis, and then 
was appointed city salesman for the Ziegler Coal company. 
At the present time (1914) he is city and outside salesman 
for the Ziegler District Colliery company, the successor of the 
Ziegler Coal company, with headquarters in the Security Bank 
Building. 



204 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



On January 7, 1891, Mr. Bow was married in Minneapolis 
to Miss Viola Libby, the daughter of Allen D. Libby, his old 
employer in the grocei-j' store on Minnehaha avenue. They 
had three children: William Everett, who is a graduate of 
St. Thomas College, St. Paul : Dennis Judson, who died on 
June 27, 1908, aged fifteen, and Viola May, who is a student 
at St. Margaret's Academy. Their mother died on Xovember 
30, 1906. The father belongs to the Knights of Columbus, 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Wood- 
men. They are all members of the Holy Rosary Chureli. He 
is energetic and tireless in all his business and official duties, 
and when the pressure of these is off he is an enthusiastic 
devotee of outdoor recreations and sports. 



THOMAS B.\ELO\V WALKER. 

The great achievements of American manhood in all parts 
of our country have been the subjects of an oft-told tale, but it 
is one that never loses its interest. The manner in which 
many of our leading men in industrial life have raised them- 
selves to consequence and affluence and built up gigantic enter- 
prises for the development of our natural resources, giving 
employment to hosts of toilers, magnifying our commercial 
greatness along widely beneficent lines and keeping the wheels 
of production in motion for the benefit of all the people, con- 
tains in its exposition elements of interest and inspiration 
that never grow stale or pall on the taste. 

Many of these men have contended with serious opposition 
and confronted almost insuperable obstacles. But they have 
been made of the stuff that yields to no pressure of circum- 
stances, and have made, even of their difficulties, wings and 
•weapons for their advancement. One of the most illustrious 
examples of this fiber is Thomas Barlow Walker of Minne- 
apolis, for many years a leading lumber man of the world. The 
story of his rise from a small beginning, over great and con- 
tinued trials and impediments, to' the commanding rank he 
now holds in the industrial and commercial world, is full of 
encouragement for struggling young men, and shows in a 
graphic and impressive way the possibilities open to ability 
and enterprise in this land of almost boundless resources and 
opportunities. 

ilr. Walker was born in Xenia, Green county, Ohio, on Feb- 
ruary 1, 1840, the son of Piatt Bayliss and Anstis (Barlow) 
Walker. He obtained his early education in the public schools 
and through the teachings of his mother. When he was six- 
teen years of age the family moved to Berea, Cuyahoga county, 
in his native state, in order that the mother might secure 
better educational advantages for her children. She was a 
lady of great force of character and breadth of view, and be- 
longed to a strongly intellectual family, two of her brothers 
being judges for many years, Thomas Barlow in New York 
and Moses Barlow in Ohio. Her husband died on his way 
to California in 1849, leaving her to struggle with adversity 
and provide for her four children, who were all young. 

At Berea Mr. Walker had the advantages of several terms 
attendance at Baldwin University, but was obliged to devote 
all his spare time to his first occupation as a lumberman in 
the woods. While working in the woods he studied nights and 
Sundays, and later, wlien he became a traveling salesman, he 
carried his books with him and studied them iis industriously 
as his work would allow. In this wav he became in a measure 



Self-educated, especially in the higher branches of mathematics 
and science. His business knowledge was gained by travel 
and e.xperienee, contact with business men, studying business 
methods, solving big problems, and pushing himself forward in 
the world generally, in which he emjjloyed all his ability, cour- 
age and self-reliance to advantage and with good judgment. 

At the age of nineteen, after various business adventures, 
always attended with hard work and generally with success, 
he taught a district school in a township in the adjoining 
county. He next became a traveling salesman, selling grind- 
stones, wooden bowls and wagon spokes, and journeying 
throughout the Middle West to sell his goods. He was So much 
impressed with the business possibilities of this region that 
he determined to make his home in it. and in 1862 located in 
Minneai)olis. Soon afterward lie joined a surveying party 
and began work as a United States surveyor. 

While this engagement occupied him only a part of each 
year he continued in it a long time, and during the period 
helped to survey a considerable portion of Northern and 
Western Minnesota, and divide it into townships and sec- 
tions. His experience in it was of great advantage to himself 
and the country in a business way. It made him familiar with 
the white pine regions of the state, and led him to begin pur- 
chasing tracts of them, in connection with other persons, for 
the manvifacture of lumber, thus changing his purpose of de- 
voting his energies to railroad surveying and construction and 
making him a lumberman on a verj' large scale. 

In the lumber business he formed a partnership with Levi 
Butler and Howard Mills under the firm name of Butler. Mills 
& Walker, of which he was the manager. Failing health took 
Mr. Mills out of the firm when its mills were destroyed by 
fire, and a new finn was organized under the name of L. Butler 
& Company. This firm built one of the largest saw mills on 
the Mississippi and did a very extensive manufacturing busi- 
ness for several years. In 1877 Mr. Walker and Major George 
A. Camp formed the well-known firm of Camp & Wajker and 
bought the Pacific mill, long operated by .loseph Dean & Com- 
pany, and considered at that time one of the leading lumber 
mills in this part of the world. 

Mr. Walker's mind has always been expansive and broad 
of vision. In 1880 he began to purchase large quantities of 
pine land on the head waters of Red Lake and Clearwater 
rivers, and to utilize the timber there he and his oldest son. 
Gilbert M. Walker, organized the Red River Lumber company, 
erecting mills at Crookston, Minnesota, and Grand Forks on 
the Red river in North Dakota. In 1887 this enterprising 
and far-seeing man formed another partnership with H. C. 
Akeley of .Minneapolis. This firm sold large numbers of 
logs to the Minnesota Logging company and became the 
largest timber firm in the state. Mr. Walker afterward ex- 
tended his land interests into California, where he is recog- 
nized as one of the largest owners of timber properties in the 
United States. 

While Mr. Walker's timber, logging and lumber manufac- 
turing business has been conducted very largely outside of 
Minneapolis, he has always manifested the strongest feeling 
and desire for the welfare of the city and its residents and a 
fruitful ambition to see it among the foremost cities of the 
country in its educational, industrial, commercial and social 
importance. He founded the Business Men's union, the fore- 
runner of the Commercial club, and with Major Camp, planned 
and established the Central Market and Commission district, 
now one of the greatest wholesale markets and wholesale ex- 




'^ // r J )i n .J ■/> //''/fAYi', 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



205 



changes in tlie world and wliicli has made Minneapolis the 
third city in this country as a commission center, it being 
surpassed only by New York and Chicago. He also furnished 
the capital for and built the Butler building, when it was a 
question whether the Butler company would locate its North- 
western branch in Minneapolis or St. Paul. By this act he 
secured for the Flour City the largest wholesale establishment 
west of Chicago. 

But Mr. Walker's business success, great and instructive as 
it has been, is neither the only nor the best feature of interest 
in his career. Ho has been a great student and made himself 
master of many lines of thought and action. He is a recog- 
nized connoisseur in art, an authority on literature, ancient 
and modern, and has a vast wealth of information on every live 
and timely topic of consideration. Minneapolis is indebted to 
him for its fine public library, and he has been annually elected 
president of its executive board from the beginning of its 
history in 1885. An early member and patron of the old 
Athenaeum Library, he foresaw the need of a free public 
librarj' and secured the enactment of the law which gave to 
the city its present fine library buildiijg. The rapid growth 
of the library in capacity and popular favor since its opening 
day in 1SS9 has given it a standing in circulation fourth 
among the public libraries in the United States. 

But this is not all of Mr. Walker's manifestation of interest 
in the finer side of life. The Walker home occupies half a 
city block in Minneapolis, and here he has a large and splendid 
private library, covering standard authoils in philosophy, sci- 
ence, history, political economy, poetry and art, and what is 
even more notable, a rare collection of fine paintings and other 
art products, which is said to constitute one of the finest art 
galleries in America or Europe. The collection represents about 
four hundred fine paintings by the old masters and modern 
American and European artists gathered in from the fine 
galleries of England, France, Italy. Germany and Spain, and 
from many of the galleries of this country. In addition to 
these he has about one hundred and twenty-five large paint- 
ings in the public library and over one hundred unhung. 

This sumptuous art gallery is also enriched by a large 
assortment of the finest Chinese, Persian, Japanese and Corean 
pottery and porcelain, and one of jades that stands ahead of 
any known collection in beauty of form and color. He has in 
addition a magnificent assemblage of carved hard stones of 
most beautiful color and form, together with a large number 
of gems and precious stones and splendid crystals, an exten- 
sive and superior lot of ancient sunspot bronzes, mostly from 
China but some from Japan, and the finest aggregation of 
ancient glass to be found in any museum or collection. The 
gallery is open every week-day to the public without any 
charges for entrance fees or catalogues. It consists of ten 
rooms adjacent to his residence, and he has recently, during 
the current year (1913), begun the erection of a .$20,000 
addition to it. In the gallery at the public library he has 
a large and valuable collection of porcelains and other works 
of art in addition to the paintings he has there, and in the 
museum of the Academy of Science he has a fine selection of 
ancient art work, pottery, porcelain, ancient glass, Greek and 
Persian vases, and a magnificent case of a'ncient bronzes. 
These two rooms are each one hundred and forty feet long. 

From the character of his chief business operations Mr, 
Walker has naturally given much thought, attention and study 
to the forestry question, and he has so posted himself with 
reference to it that he is better prepared to discuss it in- 



telligently tliun almost any other man in the country. Ho 
is now deeply and practically interivsted in the conservation 
of the forests we have left, and his extensive experience in 
the lumber trade, together with his judicious study of the 
subject, has given him a grasp of it that no other man 
possesses. On this subject he has delivered a considerable 
number of fine addresses and written many articles for publi- 
cation in the press and in pamphlet form. In these he has 
set forth the only plan of conservation that is intended or ex- 
pressed as a complete one. And his plan will undoubtedly 
prove successful if public sentiment and legislative enactments 
by the government and the timber states back it up. He is 
striving earnestly to get it adopted and put in practical opera- 
tion, and seeking to induce the authorities who are desirous 
of intelligent conservation to join him in the movement. 

Mr. Walker has also, for many years, been actively, intelli- 
gently and elTectively engaged in helping to promote agencies 
for the moral uplifting of the American people. He has been 
deeply interested in the Young Men's Christian Association in 
Minneapolis, at the State University and throughout thi.s 
state; and for years he has been the Northwestern member of 
the National Committee of that organization, which is one 
of the most important and useful committees in the country. 
He is also ardently and serviceably energetic in church work, 
especially in connection with the Methodist sect or denomina- 
tion. For a number of years he has been the president of the 
Methodist Church Extension and Social Union of Minneapolis, 
and through the agency and helpfulness of this organization, 
and very largely by reason of his work and contributions, 
Methodist churches in Minneapolis, particularly those of the 
cojnmon people, are better established, freer from debt and 
more prosperous generally thaii those in any other city in 
America. 

Mr, Walker has moral endowments as well as mental power 
of a high order. The best principles of integrity and honor 
govern him in all his transactions, and his word has ever been 
as good as his bond. He has a clear head and a strong mind, 
and these have been cultivated throughout his long career by 
reading, study and observation, and by constant intercourse 
with many of the best citizens of his state and other localities, 
all of whom he numbers among his friends. In the interesting 
and domestic character of husband and father he is particu- 
larly amiable, enjoying the unbounded affection of his family, 
and as a man he is just, generous and upright, ever eager to 
promote the welfare of his fellow men without challenging 
constant laudation by obtrusive benefits. In manner he is 
cultured and refined, and is of a genial and sympathetic na- 
ture; and as a Christian he lives a life full of good works and 
■well worthy of general emulation. His whole life, domestic 
and commercial, is marked by fixed principles of purity and 
benevolence. 

On December 19. ISfiR. Mr. Walker was united in marriage 
with Miss Harriet G. Hulet, a daughter of Fletcher Hulet. 
They have five sons and one daughter living. The living sons 
are Gilbert M., Fletcher L., Willis J,, Clinton L, and Archie 
D, They are all associated with their father in his lumber 
interests. The daughter living is Julia, the wife of Ernest F. 
Smith, who has four children. The son who died was Leon 
B., who passed away in 1887. and the daughter who is dead 
was Harriet, who was the wife of Rev. Frederick 0, Holman, 
pastor of Hennepin avenue Methodist Episcopal church. Her 
death occurred in 1904. 



206 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, INHNNESOTA 



GKORGE L. BRADLEY. 

Having i)ractically finished his business work for this world, 
George L. Bradley, founder of the G. L. Bradley Produce Com- 
mission company, is now living retired from active pursuits, 
enjoying the rest his long and busy career entitles him to, and 
secure in the confidence and esteem of the whole community 
in which a large part of his useful life to the present time 
has beei) passed, and in which he has made the mark of his 
enterprise, business ability and high character as a man and 
citizen. 

Mr. Bradley was born at Wheeloek, Caledonia county, Ver- 
mont, November 1, 1837, in a family of merchants for three 
successive generations. His grandfather operated a general 
store at Wheelook Hollow. Sewell Bradley, the father of 
George L., succeeded the grandfather in the business, and 
George L. was destined to be a merchant too. At the age 
of seventeen he was bound to apprenticeship in a store at a 
compensation of $75 a year. In the performance of his duties 
he allowed molasses from a barrel to run over the vessel he 
was filling on two separate occasions. His employer, a Mr. 
Quimby, told him that if this occurred again he would be 
discharged. With characteristic spirit he replied that if it 
occurred again he would take his cap and go liomc. On 
January 14, 1914, he received from Mr. Quimby a little brown 
jug full of molasses, with an inscription on it saying that it 
would remind him of his first mercantile experience. 

In September, 1857, Mr. Bradley came to Fox Lake, Wiscon- 
sin, where he was employed in clerking until 1861. He then 
passed a few months in the Water Cure Institute at Dansville, 
Kew York, when he returned to Vermont and located at 
Sheffield, near his old home, where he was engaged in mer- 
chandising five or six years. From Sheffield he moved to 
Sutton and later to St. Johnsbury, and formed the firm of 
Cross & Bradley, manufacturers of crackers, a business which 
has grown to immense proportions. He was occupied in this 
business twelve years. In 1885 he came West again and 
located in Minneapolis, where he bought stock in the Sidle- 
Fletcher-Holmes Milling company and took a position in the 
office, also acting as a salesman for the company, i.ater he 
was with H. E. Fletcher in the City Elevator company. 

About fifteen years ago Mr. Bradley opened an olfice on 
Central Market and started a produce commission business. 
He did well and built up a large trade, and this was the 
beginning of the G. L. Bradley Produce Commission comjianv. 
He sold out his principal interest in the company when he 
retired five years since, but the business is still carried on 
under the old name. While living at St. Johnsbury, Vermont, 
he was connected with the First National Bank, of which 
Governor Fairbanks was president, and also had an interest 
in the Savings Bank, both old and well established and pros- 
perous institutions. 

Mr. Bradley being averse to ollicial life has never sought 
public service of any kind. He was married on January 
14, 1864, at Sheffield, Vermont, to Miss Jane M. Morgan, of 
old New England stock. The fiftieth anniversary of their 
wedding was most pleasantly remembered by many of their 
old friends. They have reared a family of three orphans of 
other households from childhood. They are W. W. Bradley, 
secretary of the Minneapolis Humane Society; Fannie C, 
who is now the wife of A. A. Crane, vice president of the First 
National Bank, and Nellie P., wife of I. W. I.4iwrence. pro- 
prietor of the Hennepin laundry, the two girls being daughters 



of Mr. Bradley's sister. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley are members 
of the Second Church of the Christian Scientists, having been 
attracted to it through actual personal experiences, and they 
illustrate its teachings in their home and their daily lives. 
While not given much to sport, Mr. Bradley has found great 
pleasure in fishing for speckled trout. 



HENRY F. BROWN. 



The life story of this great lumber merchant, renowned live 
stock breeder and strong potency in public afi'airs is one of 
unusual interest and embodies a high example of vigorous 
stimulating influence for struggling young men, while it is 
illustrative, at the same time, of the best attributes of ele- 
vated American citizenship, to which Mr. Brown was an orna- 
ment, and of which he was an illuminating specimen. He 
passed over to the activities that know no weariness on 
December 14, 1913, but he has left his name in large and 
enduring plirase on ,the industrial, mercantile, commercial, 
educational and moral life of the community in which he so 
long lived and operated on a large scale, and it will be remem- 
bered with grateful appreciation by the people of that 
community in all walks of endeavor. 

Henry Francis Brown was born on his father's farm at 
Baldwin, Maine, on October 10, 1837, and began his academic 
education in the neighborhood district school. As soon as he 
was old enough he was sent to the Fryeburg Academy, 
Oxford county, in his native state, for two years, and after- 
ward for two years more to an academy of a higher grade 
at Limerick in Y'ork county. He was a son of Cyrus S. and 
Mary (Burnham) Brown, both members of old New England 
families domesticated in that section of the country from 
early colonial times. ' The father was born at Baldwin, Maine, 
where he always lived, and where he reared a family of ten 
children. He was a man of considerable wealth for that time 
and locality, a leading man in his neighborhood and prominent 
in the political activities of the state. Five of his children 
are living. They have retained the old family homestead and 
go there every year for a family reunion. 

Early in life the mighty Northwest, with its boundless re- 
sources and great wealth of opportunity seized upon Henry 
F. Brown's fancy, and its hold was strengthened and intensi- 
fied by the flight of time. When he was nineteen years old 
it drew him, as with the tug of gravitation, into its choicest 
region, locating him in Minneapolis in 1860; but prior to 
coming to this city he taught sdiool for a short period in 
Wisconsin. On his arrival in Minneapolis he at once entered 
the lumber business, and in this he was engaged until he 
retired from active pursuits a short time before his death, 
but he sold the bulk of his lumber interests in 1896, as he 
then had other claims on his time and attention which were 
more agreeable to him, and he had also began to feel the 
burden of years upon liim. 

It was in the lumber industry, however, that he laid the 
foundation of his fortune. He earned his first money in it 
by driving a team in the woods at twenty dollars a month. 
His progress at this i-ate was too slow to satisfy the demands 
of his ardent nature, and he turned his attention temporarily 
to other pursuits. He rented a farm, which he worked in the 
summer, and for three years in succession taught school in the 
winter. When he had acquired one thousand dollars in this 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. ^MINNESOTA 



207 



way he put it in the lumber trade, but lie lost it all the first 
winter and found himself in debt one thousand dollars more. 

This reverse would have changed the whole life of many 
a man, but Jlr. Brown was made of firm fiber and gifted with 
a resolute will. He continued lumbering and soon recovered 
from his losses and started on the upward way to consequence 
and wealth at a rapid rate. In the course of a few years 
other enterprises of magnitude proved inviting to him and 
he also engaged in tliem. He acquired a three-fourths interest 
in two flouring mills in Minneapolis; became a leader in the 
formation of the North American Telegraph company, or- 
ganized by Twin City capital to oppose the Western Union, 
and was one of the most extensive holders of its stock, and 
for years one of its directors; was the first president of the 
former Union National Bank, and a director in the Minne- 
apolis Trust company and the Minneapolis Street Railway 
company, the latter afterward becoming a part of the Twin 
City Rapid Transit company. He was also interested in a 
leading way in the Minneapolis Land and Improvement 
company. 

Notwithstanding these numerous and exacting claims on 
his time and energies, this gentleman of gigantic business 
enterprise and capacity found opportunity to give attention 
to other interests. He was for thirty-six years one of the 
largest individual operators in lumber in the Northwest in 
both wholesale and retail lines, and he carried the burden of 
his business in that line of trade easily. He was also the 
owner of an extensive iron property in the Mesaba range, 
which has been among the best producers of the United 
States Steel Corporation's development. In addition he was 
extensively engaged for many years in general farming on 
his faiTU of more than 400 acres near the city limits of 
Minneapolis. 

But the work in wliich Jlr. Brown took most delight, ami 
which carried his name in renown around the world, was 
breeding Shorthorn cattle. The Browndale herd, on the farm 
of this name above mentioned, became famous in all the 
states of this country and in almost every foreign land. It 
took the sweepstakes prize and many others for individual 
members of the herd at the world's fair in Chicago in 1893, 
and has done the same at many state and county fairs. 
Visitors from many parts of the world have been to Brown- 
dale to see the famous herd and attend the annual Browndale 
auction of Shorthorns, and the Browndale strain has repre- 
sentatives wherever men value high-bred and superior live 
stock. So many notable animals have been bred on this 
farm that its output figures with great prominence in the 
pedigree records in this country and abroad. 

Mr. Brown's prominence as a breeder caused him to be 
elected president of the American Shorthorn Breeders' asso- 
ciation in 1906, 1907 and 1908, and his continuance as a 
member of its board of directors and its executive committee 
until his death. He gave the affairs of this association the 
most careful attention and helped most effectively to expand 
and magnify its power and usefulness. This was the case 
with everything he turned his mind to. No interest or enter- 
prise with which he was ever connected failed to feel in the 
most serviceable way the quickening impulse of his resource- 
ful mind and ready hand. In social life he long took an 
active interest as a member of the Commercial club of Min- 
neapolis and the Saddle and Sirloin club of Chicago. 

From his youth Mr. Brown was an ardent supporter of the 
policies and theories of government advocated by the Repub- 



lican party, and during the earlier period of his life he was a 
very active worker for them. He served his party well and 
wisely as a committeeman and campaigner for years, but 
was never known as a seeker of ofiice. Only once did he allow 
his name to appear on the ballot. That was as presidential 
elector in 1884 for Benjamin Harrison, who was nominated 
for president in Minneapolis. But the welfare of the party 
to which he belonged was always a prime interest with him 
and he sought to promote its success, as long as he was 
active, by every proper means at his command. 

In respect to other matters of public interest Mr. Brown 
was also energetic and potential. He was an enthusiastic 
motorist, and this made him an earnest advocate of good 
roads. As a member of the Automobile club of Minneapolis 
he gave his support ardently to the improvement of highways 
in the Northwest. His energy and helpfulness in this behalf 
were very noticeable and of great value to the whole section 
of country througliout which they were employed, and he is 
well remembered for them. He was also earnestly and prac- 
tically interested in public charities, and on his own account 
maintained numerous private benevolences, but always with- 
out ostentation and with a decided aversion to public notice 
of his generosity in this connection. For his own enjoyment 
and recreation he was a great traveler whenever his business 
gave him the opportunity to indulge his taste in this respect. 
In the course of his life he visited nearly every section of 
the United States, and for many years usually passed his 
winters in Southern California, making Los Angeles his heacl- 
quarters and traveling wherever he wished from there. 

On July 19, 1865, Mr. Brown was united in marriage witli 
Miss Susan H. Fairchild of Maine. The marriage was solemn- 
ized at Saco. York county, in that state, where the bride 
was then living. One child was born to them, Grace, who 
died at the age of eight years. Mrs. Brown, who died in 
1906, was a lady of great public spirit and very active in 
uplift work. Her philanthropic undertakings were numerous 
and very serviceable, and won her high regard among the 
people of Minneapolis. She was a member of the Chicago 
World's Fair commission for the state of Minnesota and 
took an active part in the management of the Women's 
department of that great exposition. Her services there 
were valued, as they were in every other enterprise with 
which she was ever connected. She and her husband worked 
hand in hand for every good purpose and kept achieving good 
results for their fellows in the human struggle for advance- 
ment, of which they were such strong and noble advocates, 
and their names are enshrined in the loving remembrance of 
all who knew them. 



HENRY MARTYN BRACKEN, M. D. 

Secretary of the State Board of Health was born Feb. 
37, 18.54, at Noblestown. Penn. His father was Dr. Wm. C. 
Bracken, whose ancestors were pioneers of Delaware, and his 
mother, Electo Alvord, was a descendant of early ininiigraiits 
to Massachusetts. 

At thirteen Henry M. entered Eldersridge Academy, then 
conducted by a relative, to be fitted for Washington and 
.Ted'erson College. At seventeen he taught a summer school. 
Returning to the academy, he decided to enter Trinceton 
University. The death of his father changed his plans and 



208 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



he decided to take up liis father's profession, arranging for 
study in a physician's. office. Teaching to bear his expenses, 
he persisted till he was able to matriculate in the Medical 
Department of the University of Michigan. Resuming the 
duties of a teacher, he later took a course in the medical 
department of Columbia College, in New York City, where 
his degree was acquired in 1877. 

In 1879 he received a diploma as licentiate of the Royal 
College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, Scotland, and soon after 
began three years' service as surgeon on the ocean liners of 
the Royal Mail Steamship Company of England. He was in 
general practice in Thompson, Connecticut, for a year or 
more when he became surgeon to a mining camp in Mexico. 
A year and a half later he returned to "the States," and 
after post-graduate work in New York City, he in 1885 
came to Minneapolis. He was offered the chair of materia 
medica and therapeutics in the Minnesota Hospital College 
in 1886. When the Medical Department of the University 
was organized in 1887 he was given the same position, hold- 
ing it till 1907, when he resigned to devote his whole time 
to the State Board of Health. lu 1895 his appointment as a 
member of the State Board of Health led to his becoming one 
of the most important servants of the state. Two years 
later, he was made Secretary of the Board, and thus became 
the principal executive guardian of public health. It became 
his duty to virtually organize his department and develop its 
various elements to that degree of efficiency that has made 
Minnesota noted for advance in health work. 

Dr. Bracken's achievements have made him well known in 
the world of medical and kindred sciences. He has been 
honored by election to high offices in such organizations as 
the National Association for the Study and Prevention of 
Tuberculosis, the American Public Health Association and 
the American Climatological Association. He is president of 
the American School of Hygiene Association, for 1914, and 
others allied with the parent body, the American Medical 
Association. He has published numerous papers and treatises 
on health subjects, and is recognized authority among state 
health officers. As chief executive officer of the State Board 
of Health the interests of the State have been his interests 
throughout, and he is given credit for honesty of purpose and 
earnestness of leadership in behalf of the people. 

Dr. Bracken's home is in Minneapolis. He was married 
February 13, 1884, to Miss Emily Robinson, of Orange, New 
Jersey. 



MARTIN B. KOON. 



Martin B. Koon died at his home in Minneapolis, on August 
20th, 1912, in his seventy-second year. 

He had been a member of the Minnesota bar since 1878. In 
that year he removed from Southern Michigan, took up his 
residence in Minnesota and began the active practice of his 
profession here. He was then thirty-seven years of age. He 
had practiced law in Michigan for about eleven yeare before 
he moved to Minnesota. He had been admitted to the Michi- 
gan bar in the year 1867, when he was twenty-six years of age. 

Although born in Schuyler county, New York, he had lived, 
boy and man in southern Michigan since his early childhood. 
He was the son of a Michigan pioneer farmer, who was a man 
of Scottish ancestry, and in moral and mental fibre of the 



mould of an old Scottish covenanter. The son had apparently 
inherited from his father some of the same qualities. 

He was early trained in the occupation of his father and 
disciplined in the heavy work of clearing and opening a farm 
in Southern Michigan, in the fourth and fifth decades of the 
last century. His early schooling was only such as the dis- 
trict school of that region and day afforded. Later he at- 
tended HiHsdale College, situated at the county seat of the 
county in which he lived. He there sustained himself largely 
by teaching and other work, while he carried on his studies. 

Impaired health in the year 1863 induced him to go to Cali- 
fornia, where he remained two years, and was principally 
occupied in teaching school. At the end of that period he re- 
turned to Michigan, studied law in the law office of his brother 
in Hillsdale, and was. there admitted to the bar and practiced 
his profession until he removed to Minnesota. 

Judge Koon was married November 18, 1873, to Josephine 
O. VanderMark. To them two daughters were born. Kate 
Estelle (Mrs. Clias. C. Boveyi and M. Louise (Mrs. Chas. D. 
Velie). 

There is nothing new or unusual in the facts of Judge 
Koon's early life, above sketched. Other lawyers have earned 
honorable positions at the bar, in spite of early disadvantages 
and lack of opportunit.v. But the lawyers at the bar are few, 
who have that broad knowledge of the law and legal acumen, 
and at the same time that keen business sense and practical 
business judgment that Judge Koon possessed. All of these 
qualities in an unusual degree belonged to him, and they 
formed the basis of his great success as a lawyer, and of his 
influence and pqwer among men of affairs and in the business 
world. In addition to these qualities he was a good judge of 
human nature; he had keen perception, quick wit, great power 
of direct thought and terse exjjresSion, good command of 
strong, idiomatic English, depth of feeling, considerable imag- 
ination, and a persuasive and winning manner — all part of the 
equipment of the successful advocate at the bar. His ability 
to state a legal proposition clearly, tersely and in plain, sim- 
ple language was very great. He could state a legal proposi- 
tion or any question clearlj' because he thought clearly. He 
possessed, in a marked degree, what is called a legal mind, that 
is, a mind that, without great effort and almost unconsciously, 
anal.vzes any legal question presented by distinguishing at 
once the material from the immaterial matters, and that al- 
most intuitively goes by direct course to the kernel of the 
question and sees the real point involved. He had great power 
of mental concentration and intense application, and a brain 
that worked with great rapidit.v and almost always at high 
pressure. He was thus able to ])erf<irm a large amount of 
work within a short time. Indeed, his working hours in his 
office were usually short and he seldom burned the midnight 
oil. He used to say — but in no boastful spirit, for he was in 
no sense a vainglorious man — that it was his belief that he 
could accomplish more effective law work in his office, in a 
given length of time, than any lawyer he had ever known. 
And this also was the experience and belief of his associates 
and those who worked with him. 

In the later years of his life he was not a very diligent 
student of law books or careful reader of the reported deci- 
sions of the courts, and yet, such was his ability to think, 
discriminate and reason closely upon questions of law that, 
without any considerable investigation or study of the deci- 
sions, he was able to reach conclusions and opinions upon 
questions presented to him, the accuracy of which was usually 




^£/^^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



209 



confirmed when his associates came to examine tlie law. He 
used to say to some one of the young men in liis office: "This 
question has been presented to me, and here is my opinion as 
to wliat the law should be in regard to it. Look up the ques- 
tion carefully and tell me what the law is as you find it in 
the books." But ability to form closely accurate conclusions 
upon legal questions, without immediate investigation and 
study of the law involved, is not altogether a natural gift. 
It is the result of hard study and labor at some period in the 
lawyer's life. A so-called strong, legal mind is a mind, nat- 
urally logical and strong, that has been moulded into what it 
is by hard study of the law and severe discipline in its prac- 
tice before the courts. Judge Koon was a hard and tireless 
student of the law during his student life and the early years 
of his professional life. For eleven j-ears before coming to 
Minnesota he had been in active, general practice in Michigan, 
where he had been disciplined at the bar under the old system 
of common law and chancery pleadings and practice, which 
there prevailed, a discipline not acquired or known by the 
young lawyer of today, who learns only modern code plead- 
ings and practice. These years of general practice at the 
Michigan bar, in the criminal as well as the civil courts — for 
he not only appeared frequently for the defense in criminal 
cases — but he was for four years the prosecuting attorney of 
his county — appear to have been really the most important 
years of his professional life. They were the years when an 
unusually acute, active, discriminating, logical and strong 
mind, under the stern discipline of hard close study of the 
law and of the preparation and trial of common law and 
chancery cases, and of hard fought trials in the criminal 
courts, was being fashioned and moulded into the strong, legal 
mind which Judge Koon exhibited when he first came to the 
Minnesota bar, and which together with his keen business 
sense and executive ability, enabled him to dispatch business 
during the two years and more, from January, 1884, to May, 
1886, that he sat as a Judge upon the bench of the Fourth 
Judicial District, with an apparent ease and a rapidity not 
before known to the practitioners before that Court. His de- 
cisions were indeed sometimes reversed by the Supreme Court, 
b<it lawyers and suitors were pleased with his businesslike 
methods upon the bench, and the proinptness with which he 
decided the cases submitted to Iiim. The late Judge John M. 
Shaw, in speaking at one time of Judge Koon's alibity as a 
lawyer, facetiously remarked that he \vould be a great lawyer 
if he were not so good a business man. While Judge Koon 
enjo}'ed his work upon the bench, yet after a time he began to 
feel that the bench was too retired and quiet a place for one 
of his temperament. His great business and executive ability 
made him restless there, and in May, 1886, after he had been 
elected to fill a seven years' term as .Judge of the District 
Court, he resigned and came back to the bar, where he was 
engaged in more or less active practice until about a year 
before his death. 

There was, however, not a little wisdom in the remark of 
Judge Shaw. Unlike many, perhaps unlike the great majority 
of lawyers, Judge Koon was a Strong business man. He had 
unusually keen business sense and practical business judgment, 
and he possessed, above all. strong common sense. It was 
these qiuilitics which, taken in connection with his legal abil- 
ity, made him a strong practical Judge on the bench and law- 
yer at the bar. He was pre-eminently a business man's law- 
yer. Men of affairs and business consulted him because he 
could not only advise them well about the law, but bc(^ause 



he could put himself in their places and look at their affairs 
and counsel them from a practical business standpoint. He 
had large business interests of his own. He was for more than 
thirty years a director and for many years vice-president of 
the Northwestern National Bank. He was a director of the 
Minnesota Loan & Trust Company from its beginning, and an 
officer for many years. He was for a number of yeai"8 a 
director of the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Rail- 
way Company and its general counsel. He was for twenty- 
seven years a director of the Minneapolis Street Railway 
Company, and for a period its treasurer. He was a director 
of the Twin City Rapid Transit Company. He was for many 
years a director of the Minneapolis General Electric Company, 
and also its president. He was interested in and director of 
several of the large grain and milling companies engaged in 
business in Minneapolis and in other cities in the Northwest. 
He was an earlj' member of the Minneapolis Chamber of Com- 
merce. He was interested in other business enterprises, but 
from the foregoing it is plain to be seen that he was a man of 
affairs and of large business interests, as well as a practicing 
lawyer. 

He was a man of public spirit. He had great faith in the 
stability and future growth and was greatly interested in 
the welfare of Minneapolis and of Minnesota and of the North- 
west. During the later years of his life he freely gave his 
time and his best efforts to inaugurating and advancing busi- 
ness and philanthropic projects and undertakings, ' w-hich he 
believed were of public necessity or would be helpful and ele- 
vating to the people of his city and state. Judge Koon took 
a very active part in the organization of the Civic and Com- 
merce Association. 

He had a strong sense of what was just and right and 
of what was unjust and wrong. He reasoned honestly. In 
his thinking he was alwaj's honest, both with himself and with 
others. When he had reached a conclusion he stood squarely 
upon it, and never allowed himself or others to be deceived 
in regard to it. He was fearless in making expression of his 
views to friend or enemy on any question, when he regarded 
it necessary, and often such expression came from him with a 
directness and force that was startling and almost cruel. 
There \vould be no indirect approach to the matter in hand, 
no circumlocution, no waste of words by him. And yet, or- 
dinarily he was kind, gentle, gracious and pleasing in his words 
and conduct to others. 

Lastly, Judge Koon possessed what really is of greatest 
value to man or woman — the conlidence. esteem and respect 
of his friends, of his neighbors, of the citizens of his city 
and state, and of all persons who knew him ])ersonally or by 
reputation, and he possessed also the warm affection of all 
those w'ho knew him well. 

To Sum up: He was a sound and capable Judge, and able 
and distinguished law3-er, a wise counsellor, a strong and 
sagacious business man. a good citizen, a man generous and of 
(Uiblic spirit, a ukiii who commanded the respect and won the 
affection of all wlio knew him, a kind and generous husband 
and father, an industrious, hard-working, honest man of power 
and influence for good in his day and in the communit.y in 
which he lived — Such was Martin B. Koon. What further or 
better words of remembrance or eulogy can be spoken of 
any man? He had passed his three score years and ten, and 
li;i(l llllcd the full nu'asure of a useful and a noble life. 

"Cod's linger touched him. and he slept." 



210 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



EDGAR C. BISBEE. 

Among the men and women who took part in the early 
historj' of Minnesota and helped to redeem part of it from the 
wilderness, or at least to further its early progress and de- 
velopment, were the parents of Edgar C. Bisbee of Minneapolis, 
John and Ardelia (Francis) Bisbee, who saw stirring times 
in the first few years of their residence in the State. The 
father was a native of Maine and a merchant by occupation. 
He came to Minnesota in 1864, and was making his way by 
wagon to Madelia when the Indian uprising was in progress. 
Every hour of his trip was fraught with peril and required 
the utmost care and circumspection on his part. But he 
reached his destination in safety. 

His son, Edgar C. Bisbee, was born at Madelia, Minnesota, 
on March 15, 1871, and reared in that town. He was grad- 
uated from the high school there, and afterward entered the 
scientific department of the State University, from which he 
received his degree in 1894. During his attendance at the 
University he was a member of its football team in 1891, 
1893 and 1893, and the team won every game and the cham- 
pionship in each of those three years in contests with the 
best teams of the west, including Michigan and Wisconsin. 

After leaving the University Mr. Bisbee engaged in the 
insurance, real estate and loan business for a few months, 
but before the end of the year became connected with the 
Dubuque iiinseed Oil company. He at once saw great oppor- 
tunities and possibilities in the business and determined Co 
master it in every detail. With this end in view he studied 
every department of. the business night and day, and also 
acquired extensive and expert knowledge of the machinery 
used in the manufacture of linseed oil. By this means he 
became one of the best posted men in the business, and made 
himself so valuable also to the company that in less than 
three years he rose from a minor position to that of superin- 
tendent and manager. 

From the Dubuque Linseed Oil company, at the end of three 
years after entering its employ, Mr. Bisbee went over to the 
St. Paul Linseed Oil company as manager and. at the same 
time, took the management of the Northwestern Shot and 
Lead Works. In 1900, in connection with E. C. Warner and 
W. D. Douglas, he organized the Jlidland Linseed Oil com- 
pany. This has since been changed to the Midland Linseed 
Products company, and Mr. Bisbee is now its vice president. 
He is putting his extensive knowledge of the business in 
which the company is engaged to good use in its behalf, and 
its operations are large and profitable. He is also financially 
interested and a director in several other prosperous 
institutions. 

Mr. Bisbee's business capacity and reputation are such that 
his counsel is much sought and highly valued in business 
circles generally. He is an active and prominent member of 
the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and the Minneapolis 
club, Commercial club, and St. Anthony Commercial club, and 
also president of the Twin City Paint club. He is active in 
behalf of all public improvements, and zealous in his aid in 
promoting tbe welfare of the community and its residents in 
every line of usefulness. 

On May 19, 1897, Mr, Bisbee was united in marriage with 
Miss Mattie May Arnold of Hornellsville, New York. They 
have two children, their daughter Helen Francis, aged eleven, 
and their son, Edgar Arnold, aged seven. The father was 
one of the trustees of Andrew Presbyterian church for three 



years and president of the board, but he and his wife now 
attend Westminster church of the same denomination. In 
political faith and allegiance he is a loyal Republican, but he 
is not an active partisan and has never desired a political 
office of any kind, either by election or appointment, prefer- 
ring to serve his city, state and country from the honorable 
and independent post of private citizenship. 



ABNER LACOCK BAUSMAN, D. D. S. 

One of the residents of Minneapolis who was entitled to 
recognition and esteem as a pioneer, was the late Dr. Abner 
Lacock Bausman, the first dentist in Minneapolis proper, wlio 
opened an office for the practice of his profession in 1857, on 
Second avenue south, then Helen street. He won particular 
regard, too, by his elevation of character, earnest interest in 
the welfare and progress of the community and positive, 
patriotic and useful citizenship. 

Dr. Bausman was born in Ebensburg, Cambria county, 
Pennsylvania, on March 25, 1834, of German ancestry. He 
was sent to school in Pittsburg for his academic education, 
and passed his boyhood and youth to the age of fifteen on his 
father's farm. In 1854 he became a dental student in an 
office in Pittsburg, and in 1856, having acquired a mastery of 
his profession and being in search of a suitable locality for 
his future operations, he came to Minnesota and took up a 
tract of government land on the Minnesota river near Man- 
kato, on which he started improvements and the work of 
cultivation. 

Professional life was more inviting to him than farming, 
even in the fruitful section in which his land lay, and in 
May, 1857, he moved to Minneapolis and opened an office for 
the practice of dentistry, sharing it with Dr. G. H. Keith. 
He was in active practice in this city for a continuous period 
of about forty-three years, but retired in 1900 becau.se of 
failing eyesight. 

Dr. Bausman took a great and helpful interest in every- 
thing pertaining to his profession and contributing to its 
advancement. He was a charter member of the Minnesota 
Dental Association and one of the most active supporters. 
The science of medicine generally enlisted his attention also 
to -the extent of inducing him to aid in the organization of 
the Homeopathic Medical College, of which he was president 
for a number of years after 1870, when it was founded. In 
1888 this college conferred on him the honorary degree of 
M. D., and he is now said to have been the only dentist who 
received this degree of learning as an honor in recognition of 
general scientific attainments and professional skill. But he 
was an authority on many questions of medical theory and 
practice, and was frequently consulted by physicians. For a 
number of years his office was in fact a kind of medical 
headquarters, and many important meetings of doctors were 
held in it. 

The doctor was also a charter member of the Young Men's 
Library Association, which afterward became the Athenaeum, 
and was one of the organizers of the present Public Libraries 
of the city. He was one of the directors and the secretary of 
this organization for fifteen years. A Baptist in religious 
faith, he was a devout . and zealous member of the First 
Baptist church of Minneapolis, and at his death its oldest 
conununicant in both the number of his years of life and the 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, IMINNESOTA 



211 



length of his membership. He served it as a trustee for a 
long time, and took a leading part in organizing the Baptist 
Union, of which he was one of the directors from the beginning 
of its history. 

In politics the doctor adopted the principles of the Repub- 
lican party at its organization, and throughout his life he 
adhered to them. He was an active partisan, but never 
sought a political office of any kind. He was well known all 
over tlie city and was a great favorite with its older physi- 
cians and all classes of the earlier residents, and toward all 
men he was genial, obliging and companionable at all times, 
and practically serviceable when he could be. 

The declining years of his life Dr. Bausman spent very 
quietly at his home. To him his home life meant more than 
anything else. He was a student of tlie Bible and very fond 
of all reading. His health failing the later years of his life, 
Dr. Bausman died in Minneapolis August 29, 1911. At the 
time of his death he was one of the few Territorial Pioneers 
remaining in Minneapolis. His friends were almost all among 
tlie old residents of the city. 

Dr. Bausman was a man of great moral courage, kind, 
generous, always ready to see the good in everyone and to 
overlook their weaknesses, a man greatly loved and respected 
by his friends and acquaintances for his integrity and high 
sense of honor. 

Dr. Bausman was first married in 1863 to Miss Fannie R. 
Abraham of ilinncapolis. She died in 1876, leaving one son 
and one daughter. George A. Bausman, the son, is connected 
with the National Equipment company, of Springfield, Mass., 
of which Mr. Frank H. Page is the head. The daughter, 
Bertha Bausman, is the wife of Mr. Page. The doctor was 
married a second timte, in 1879, to Miss Rebecca Fenby of 
St. Louis, Missouri, who is still living. Her fatlier was a 
prominent grain and flour merchant in St. Louis, having gone 
to that city from Baltimore in 1858. The daughter's acquaint- 
ance with Dr. Bausman began in her childhood, when the 
family came to Lake Minnetonka to spend the summers. She 
and the doctor became the parents of two sons and one 
daughter. Richard Fenby, the older of the sons, is in the 
sales department of the Washburn-Crosby Company, in which 
capacity he has made several foreign trips. Alonzo Linton, 
the second son, is superintendent of the National Equipment 
company and the inventor of a number of machines which it 
manufactures. The daughter, Marion Douglas Bausman, who 
is living at home with her mother, attends the Minneapolis 
School of Fine Arts. Mrs. Bausman has been prominent in 
church and social work. She is a most estimable lady, richly 
deserving of the high regard the people have for her. 



FREDERICK BUTTERFIELD CHUTE. 

Among those wlio liave dignified and adorned the real estate 
business and kept it active and fruitful, Fred B. Chute, who 
operates principally on the East Side, is entitled to a high 
rank. His career in his dual activity as a practicing lawyer 
and dealer in real property is all the more gratifying to the 
city in which he operates from the fact that he is a product 
of it and has passed his life to the present time (1914) almost 
eontinuouslj' within its limits. 

Mr. Chute was born in Minneapolis on December 21, 1872. 



He is a son of Dr. Samuel H. and Helen E. A. (Day) Chute, 
the former a native of Columbus, Ohio, and the latter of 
the province of Ontario, Canada. A complete record of the 
life of Dr. Samuel A. Chute will be found In this volume. 

Fred B. Chute grew to manhood in Minneapolis, and here 
he obtained his preparatory education from tutors and in 
private schools. In 1885 he entei'ed the preparatory depart- 
ment of Notre Dame University, Indiana, and from that insti- 
tution he was graduated in 1892 with the degree of Bachelor 
of Letters. He then passed one year in the law department of 
the same university, but deciding to continue his law studies 
at home, he returned to Minneapolis and entered the law 
department of the University of Minnesota. At the completion 
of his post-graduate work in 1896 he received the degree of 
LL. M. He had already begun practicing, however, and was 
making progress in his professional career. But a little later 
he was obliged to give more attention to the business of the 
Chute Realty Company, of which he wias one of the incorpo- 
rators, his brother, Louis P. Chute, being another. Since that 
time, although he has practiced law independently to some 
extent, his energies have been occupied mainly in the real 
estate business, the several firms with which he is connected 
having been agents in the consummation of some of the 
largest transactions in realty which have taken place in the 
city within his experience in the business. 

Mr. Chute at this time (1914) is vice president and .secre- 
tary of the Chute Realty Company; vice president and secre- 
tary of the Chute Brothers Company, and a member of the 
firm of L. P. & F. B. Chute, and he is active in the manage- 
ment of the financial and 'commercial interests which tliese 
institutions represent. 

Mr. Chute is favorably known in Minneapolis social circles 
as well as in the business world, being connected with the 
larger Social organizations, among them the Minneapolis, Mini- 
kahda and Minnetonka Yacht, clubs in the city proper, and the 
St. Anthony Commercial club on the East Side. He also 
belongs to the Sons of the American Revolution, the Knights 
of Columbus and the State Bar Association. In religious 
faith he is a Catholic. For some time he was connected with 
the Minnesota National Guard, and during two years of this 
period was the first lieutenant of one of the Minneapolis 
companies. His political allegiance is given to the Republican 
party, but he has never desired a public office. He did. how- 
ever, consent to serve for five years on the school board, and 
while a member of it showed his intelligent interest in the 
cause of public education by his activity in promoting some 
of the most desirable and approved improvements in the 
school system. 

Both sides of the house are of English descent, the Chute 
family having been founded in this country by Lionel Cliutc, 
who emigrated from his native land to the colony of Massa- 
chusetts Bay in 1636. The mother's family was related to 
Aaron Burr, and several members of it were prominent on 
the American side in the Revolutionary war. Mr. Chute was 
married on May 26, 1909, to MiSs Elizabeth McKennan Haw- 
ley, a native of Red Wing, this state, and a daughter of Dr. 
A. B. Hawley of that city. Two children have blessed and 
brightened the family circle, a daughter named Margaret M. 
and a son named Frederick H. He and his brother Louis are 
leaders in promoting the progress of the city on the eastern 
side of the river, but take a warm interest in all parts of it. 



212 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



GEORGE A. PILLSBURY. 

In every community there are a few men wlio leave some 
distinct impress. Minneapolis has had many such men in its 
various stages of development. They have come from all 
parts of the world, and their activities have been along all lines 
of educational, moral, industrial, commercial and political 
progress. Very few have been great factors along all these 
lines, yet George A. Pillsbury touched them all and left a 
deep impression on each. 

One of the first things to attract the attention of the visitor 
to Minneapolis is that it is a city of homes, — not only of the 
citizens of wealth, but equally so of the humblest laborer. 
Whatever a visitor's views may be as to the wisest manner 
of lessening the evils of the liquor traffic, he observes that 
Minneapolis is a well ordered city, and that no drinking places 
exist outside of a limited zone of the city where there is a con- 
tinuous police patrol. He sees no saloons in the residential 
portions of the city, and he feels sure that he can select a 
home in a part of the city where no saloon can ever come. On 
further investigation he finds that there is a legally established 
"patrol limit" confined to a small business portion of the city, 
beyond which the sale of liquor is not permitted. This is 
what George A. Pillsbury did while Mayor of Minneapolis. 
In every other large city of the country into which the traveller 
goes he finds saloons — scattered anywhere and everywhere 
according to the whim or means of the brewer or saloon 
keeper, — but not so in Minneapolis. This is a fact which 
makes Minneapolis unique among the dozen largest cities of 
the country. Except in Minneapolis a traveller can find a 
saloon almost any vv fieri'. 

George A. Pillsbury came to Minneapolis in 1878, when he 
was sixty-two years of age. He had already rounded out in 
New England a successful business career; and he became a 
citizen of Minneapolis at a time in life when most successful 
business men deem themselves entitled to retire. He had 
worked hard and had accumulated ample means upon which 
to retire. Most men, under his circumstances, would have re- 
tired, but to a man like George A. Pillsbury the removal from 
New Hampsliire to Minnesota was but the opening of a new 
chapter, and a new opportunity. And opportunity was what 
he had sought from his boyhood days. 

George A. Pillsbury was born at Sutton, N. H., August 29. 
1816. He had only the common school education of a century 
ago, when the children were taught "to read, write and cipher." 
With the Yankee instinct, which has never been questioned 
as to the Pillsbury family, he knew how "to cipher." After 
Serving as a clerk in liis native town and in Boston, he returned 
to New Hampshire, became postmaster of Warner, N. H., from 
1844 to 1849; was selectman in 1847 and 1849, town treas- 
urer in 1849 and a member of the New Hampshire legislature 
in IS.'iO and IS.'il. In November, 1851. was appointed pur- 
chasing agent and adjuster of the Concord Railroad (which is 
now an integral part of the Boston & Maine R. R.). This 
position of purchasing agent and adjuster he held for twenty- 
seven years. How strenuous his duties and responsibilities dur- 
ing that period were, the business man of to-day can readily 
guess. But he was never a one-idea man. During these 
twenty-seven years he was active in many lines. Always a 
Baptist he was strong in religious work. In building constrvic- 
tion lie was especially sought, not only by the City of Con- 
cord, but by the State of New Hampshire, in its public build- 
ings. In lSf,4 he with others established t)ie First National 



Bank of Concord and until he came to Minneapolis was its 
[iresident. He also established a Savings Bank in connection 
with the National Bank. In 1871 and 1872 he was elected a 
member of the legislature of New Hampshire, then a member 
of the city council of Concord, and in 1876 he was elected 
Mayor of Concord, which position he held until he decided to 
come to Minneapolis in 1878. What drew him to Minneapolis 
was the fact that his brother, John S. Pillsbury, and his sons, 
Charles A. Pillsbury and Fred C. Pillsbury, had already pre- 
ceded him. John S. Pillsburj' had not only become a factor 
in the development of Minnesota, but his son, Charles A. 
Pillsbury, had established the flour milling business of Pills- 
bury, Crocker & Fisk and C. A. Pillsbury & Co., which are 
referred to elsewliere in tliis w'ork. 

Upon coming to Minneapolis, Mr. Pillsbury was quickly 
recognized as a man of affairs. He was elected alderman of 
the Fifth Ward in 1833 and in 1884 was elected Mayor of the 
city. Upon his accession to the mayoralty he initiated and 
carried through the "patrol limit" system which confined the 
sale of intoxicating liquors to a restricted district in the heart 
of the city where there was (to use his own words) "a con- 
tinuous police patrol" and the exclusion of the sale of liquor 
from all other parts of the city. Space does not permit the 
details of this controversy which are exceedingly interesting, 
but George A. Pillsbury prevailed and posterity has the bene- 
fits of his fight. Hence Minneapolis is to-day the only large 
city in the United States where no intoxicating liquors are 
scrfd in residential portions of the city. No one can calculate 
the moral and financial advantages which this policy has al- 
ready conferred upon Minneapolis, much less can one com- 
pute the moral advantages it gives to the city's future. 

Aside from his duties as Mayor, Mr. Pillsbury became deeply 
interested in the various activities of the city, — and this at a 
time when constructive work was needed. He was one of 
the projectors of the Syndicate Block, at a time when large 
business blocks were needed to transform Minneapolis from 
a frontier town to a metropolitan city. He superintended 
the erection of the famous Pillsbury "A" Mill, — then as now, 
the largest .flour mill of the world: he was President of the 
Chamber of Commerce, a Trustee of Lakewood Cemetery, a 
member of the Board of Education, a Trustee of the Hennepin 
County Savings Bank, and for several years and up to the time 
of his death on July 17, 1898, was President of the North- 
western National Bank of Minneapolis. During all this time 
he was interested in educational and religious work. Shortly 
after coming to Minneapolis he became interested in the 
academy at Owatonna and shortly afterwards became one of 
its trustees. This academy had been organized in 1856, and 
while doing a good work, it was limited in its means and had 
not flourished to the degree its friends had intended. Mr. 
Pillsbury at once applied his business tact to the building 
up of this academy. With his private means, and under his 
personal supervision, several needed buildings were erected and 
donated to the academy, and in his will a large beqviest for 
other improvements and a fund fur tlie jierpetnal maintenance 
of the institution were provided. In honor of his work the 
legislature of the state changed the name of the institution 
to Pillsbury Academy. The liberal endowment of Mr. Pills- 
bury put the academy on a strong financial basis, and it is 
now one of the strong educational and moral forces in the 
nnrt Invest. 

All this whil.. Mr. Pillsbury did not forget his New England 
Imnic. In lumor of his w'lir. Margaret Spraguc Pillsbury. he 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



213 



built niul donated to tlie city of Concord, N. H., the Margaret 
Pillsbviry Hospital, erected a Soldier's Monument to the old 
Soldiers of Sutton, N. H., and did other works of public 
charity. All of this was in addition to a long line of private 
charities of which only he and the beneficiary had knowledge. 
Mr. Pillsbury died at his home, 225 South Tenth Street, 
which is the present site of The Leamington, on July IT, 1898, 
survived by hi.s widow, Margaret Sprague Pillsbury, and his 
son, Charles A. PiUsburv. 



ALFRED MELVIN BREDING. 

Born in Minneapolis and educated in the institutions of the 
city Alfred Melvin Breding is one of the prominent young 
attorneys of the city. He is the son of John O. Breding and 
Marie (Lyng) Breding. His father was a tailor and the 
family are all natives of Minnesota and have lived here all 
their lives with the exception of two years which they spent 
in Philadelphia. Mr. Breding began his education in the 
graded schools of the city, entered the Central High School 
and graduated in 1897. He graduated from the law depart- 
ment of the Minnesota State University in 1906 and imme- 
diately began an active practice in the city. During the 
years after his graduation from high school and his entrance 
in the University he was gaining experience which would be 
useful to him in his profession by working in an attorney's 
office and gaining a knowledge of human Mature and of 
business by acting as solicitor for advertising — incidentally 
he was earning the money for his law course. 

Socially Mr. Breding is democratic and genial. He has 
numerous social affiliations being a member of the B. P. 0. E., 
the University Club, and the Masons. He is also a member 
of the Commercial Law League of America. Miss Lucene A. 
Burbank became his wife on September 14, 1906, and they 
have two daughters. They have a beautiful home at Lake 
Harriett, and have a charming circle of friends. 



ARTHUR EDWIN BENJAMIN, M. D. 

As often happens. Dr. Arthur Edwin Benjamin followed 
in the footsteps of his father, Dr. John Benjamin, his mother 
being Elizabeth (Garner) Benjamin, and both of English 
birth. John Benjamin became a physician in his native land, 
and practiced in Boston, from 1847 imtil 1857, when he be- 
came a lianker and merchant at Rockford, 111. In 1860 he 
went to Hutchinson, Minnesota, which was founded by the 
Hutcliinson family of singers. When the Sioux Indians at- 
tacked the settlers in their stockade in Hutchinson, it was 
he who cared for the sick and wounded, and who was physician 
to the refugees in the stockade during the fall and winter. 
His latter years were devoted to his farm and to his pro- 
fession, dying at the age of eighty. It was near Hutchinson 
on "Fairy Glen" farm that Arthur E. was born, December II), 
1868. He attended the public schools, including tlie high 
school, graduating in 1887, when he taught for one year. 
Then entering the University, he was graduated an M. D. 
in 1892. 

.He, locating in ilinneapolis, for a time was in general 
practice, when he began to confine his attention to surgery. 



finally coming to be widely recogniied(''yis a specialist in 
surgery and gynecology. He availed himself of the great 
hospitals and centers of surgical science in the East, and 
took post-graduate work in the most celebrated American 
and European Hospitals. He did service for the State Uni- 
versity as clinical instructor and assistant for 17 years. He 
has read numerous papers on surgery before the various 
medical societies and which have been published. His articles 
on Stomach and Intestinal Surgery and Gynecology espcciallj' 
attracting attention and being awarded favorable reception. 
He has held important olTke in several medical societies, and 
is accorded high standing in the profession. He has also 
served on staffs of several of the most important hospitals 
in Minneapolis. 

In 1900 Dr. Benjamin married Miss Blanche Grimshaw, a 
member of one of the leading families of the city. They 
liave four children, Edwin Grimshaw, Harold Garner, Maude 
Elizabeth and Alice Louise. Mrs. Benjamin is an active 
member of social and literaiy clubs and in the work of Park 
Avenue Congregational Church. The Doctor belongs to the 
Interlochen, Lafayette and New Athletic Clubs and the Civic 
and Commerce Association, and finds further recreation in 
hunting, and has a pleasant summer home at Minnotonka 
Beach. 



WILLIAM MORSE BERRY. 



William Morse Berry, for twenty-two years superintendent 
of parks in Minneapolis, and now living in retirement with 
his son-in-law, Arthur W. Hobert, w-as born at Georgetown, 
Maine, August 12, 1826. His father was Joseph Berry, a ship 
builder and lumber manufacturer at Georgetown, Bath and 
Bowdoinhara, Maine, and was educated at academies in Lewis- 
town and Brunswick. At the age of eighteen he took charge 
of his father's mill at Bowdoinham, which he operated for 
ten years. During six years of this period he was president 
of a bank and for a part of the time was president of the 
village, being elected as such at the age of twenty-two. 

After the financial panic of 1857, which seriously crippled 
his father's business, he came to Green Bay, Wisconsin, where 
he built barks for ocean traffic. He became captain of the 
second one built, and which becoming water-logged in a storm 
in mid-ocean, was abandoned .and never again sighted. In 
1861 he went to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where during the next 
eight years he was engaged in the grain trade. In 1869 he 
became the first superintendent of the South Side park 
system in Cliicago, over which he had control for fourteen 
years, laying out Washington and Jackson parks and Drexel, 
Garfield, Grand and Western boulevards. 

Mr. Berry's work in Chicago attracting the attention of 
Prof. II. W. S. Cleveland, the landscape architect of Minne- 
apolis, he was induced to come to Minneapolis for one year 
at a salary of $1,500. The park board was so well pleased 
with his work that it added $1,000 to tlie' salary agreed on 
for the first year and offered him an annual comjjensation of 
$3,000 to remain. From then until he retired from active 
pursuits in 1907, at the age of eighty-one, his whole energy 
and ability was devoted to the extension and improvement of 
the park system of the city. His duties required a large 
executive power, and this he had acquired in his experience 
as a lumber manufacturer, ship buihler and master. His 



214 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 






parkway, and his^Pcellent business management is amply 
demonstrated by tlie magnitude of achievements without ex- 
cessive cost. 

In 1847 he married Betsy Ann Godfrey, a native of Saco, 
Maine, and wlio died in 1906 after nearly sixty years of 
ideal companionship. Of the seven children born six are 
living. Bessie is the wife of Arthur W. Hobert. Helen is the 
wife of E. A. Merriam, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he 
is cemetery superintendent after several years connection 
with the National Bank of Commerce of Minneapolis. Hattie 
is the wife of Gorham Norton of Brooklyn, a woolen mill 
operator. Dora is the wife of J. X. Buchanan, of Chicago. 
Alphonso G. is at Los Angeles. J. W. lives in Seattle, Wash- 
ington, and Herbert M., who was a mine operator, was killed 
by a blast in one of his own mines at about 40 years of age. 



frank; h. peavey. 



Tlie untimely death of the late Frank H. PeaA-ey, of Min- 
neapolis, occurred in Ciiicago, December 30, 1901, when Mr. 
Peavey was but 51 years of age, and when his enormous busi- 
ness interests Seemed to most require his continued attention 
and management. His life was not long, but it was a veiy 
useful one. and it displayed the best and most admirable 
human qualities. He aimed at nothing less than the highest 
and best results in every endeavor, and its every shaft of his 
effort pierced the center of the mark. 

Mr. Peavey was born at Eastport, Maine, January 20, 1850, 
the son of Albert D. and Mary (Drew) Peavey, also natives 
of New England. The father was a lumber and shipping mer- 
chant of fine business capacity and great force of character. 
The son was reared in his native town to the age of fifteen. 
Th.'n his father died and he became almost the sole depend- 
ence of the mother. 

The youth, though but an immature boy, at once entered 
upon the high and holy duty before him with ardor, and from 
then to the end of his life he was never idle. He was con- 
stantly on the lookout for opportunities for advancement, and 
as he grew older they came to him in satisfactory numbers 
and value. The great Northwest attracted him. He located 
first in Chicago, where he became a bookkeeper in the North- 
western Bank. Two years later, in 1887, he moved to Sioux 
City, Iowa, and entered the employ of H. D. Booge & Company. 
By this change of location Mr. Peavey found an open way 
to success. He made friends on every hand, and steady prog- 
ress in advancement. Half his earnings were sent back regu- 
larly to his mother, to whom his first duty was always paid. 
In a short time he became a partner in an agricultural im- 
plement business, and in 1871 brought his mother and the 
other members of the family to Sioux City and set up a 
home. Twice his business property was destroyed by fire, 
but he continued his work with intensified energy and deter- 
mination. 

In time, Mr. Peavey became interested in the grain trade, 
tlien in its infancy, in the Northwest, both in volume and 
method. But thi.s far-seeing man divined its possibilities and 
confidently embarked in it with all his resources. At Ine age 
of 23 or in 1S73, he was the owner and manager of an old- 
style "blind horse" elevator, with a capacity of 6,000 bushels, 
in Sioux City. The next year he secured control of four 



small elevators on the old Dakota & Southern Railroad, and 
began to buy grain for the firet elevator built in Duluth, 
which had just been completed. A little later he brought into 
his business and under his management the elevators on what 
was then known as the Siou.x City & St. Paul Railroad (now 
the "Omaha"), and his operations in grain grew rapidly. 

At this point in his history the Minneapolis flour mills were 
also extending their business rapidly, and in 1875 he began 
business in the Flour City, becoming connected with the Minne- 
apolis Millers' Association, for which he bought grain as long 
as it continued to operate. By 1878 he had control of ele- 
vators at all points on the Chicago, St. Paul. Minneapolis & 
Omaha Railroad in South Dakota, and four years later his 
operations took in the w-hole "Omaha" road southwest of 
Minneapolis. The same j-ear, the Minneapolis Chamber of 
Commerce having been organized and the grain business here 
placed on a firm financial basis, he opened his first offices in 
this city. 

Mr. Peavey, however, continued to maintain his mother's 
home in Sioux City, and to the end of his life he considered 
it very much his own home, although in 1884 he cstaTilished 
one for himself and family in Minneapolis. From that time 
on he took a very prominent part in building up the grain 
market of this city. In 1884 he extended his operations to all 
points on the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad, and thus be- 
came one of the leading operators in the most rapidly ex- 
panding grain trade in the world. In fact, at the time of 
his death, through his large system of elevators, he owned and 
operated the most extensive grain business known in human 
history. 

In 1889, the arms of this great business genius, like those 
of fabled Briareus, were reaching out far and wide. He built 
a gi"eat elevator at Portland, Oregon, and added to it some 
thirty subsidiary houses in the rural districts along the lines 
of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company in Oregon and 
Washington. This was the first large terminal elevator on 
the Pacific Coast. During the next year he built the Union 
Pacific elevator in Kansas City, extended his operations to the 
lines of the Union Pacific and leased a terminal elevator at 
Omaha. In 1893 he took in points on the Northern Pacific. 
The next year he built the Republic at Minneapolis, and in 
1897 acquired the Belt Line elevator at West Superior, Wis- 
consin. In 1898 the Peavey elevators at South Chicago were 
built, and in 1899 the Peavey Terminal house at Duluth and 
the big elevator at Council Bluffs were erected. Within the 
same year Mr. Peavey's operations were extended to a part 
of the Great Northern Railway system. 

Mr. Peavey was a very careful and exhaustive student of 
his work and omitted no effort necessary on his part to guard 
his interests. When he contemplated erecting the Duluth 
Terminal elevator he sent a special representative to Europe 
to investigate the concrete storage system in vogue on that 
continent, and as a result determined to adapt the sj'^tem to 
the needs of grain handling in this country. An experimental 
concrete bin was built at one of the elevators in Jfinneapolis, 
and after being tested several months, was found to be en- 
tirely satisfactory. The concrete system was then adopted in 
the construction of the Duluth Terminal, and it became the 
first great concrete grain elevator built in this country. 

In 1900 the Peavey Steamship Company was organized and 
four large grain carriers were built to operate on the Great 
Lakes. This was Mr. Peavey's last new enterprise. 

He died suddenly December 30, 1901. He had been in the 




67^.^^ ^V\/z 




HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



215 



Northwest thirty-six years, but in that period he built up the 
enormous grain trade herein briefly detailed, established the 
highest credit for himself and his enterprises, and acquired 
a large fortune. His operations centered at Minneapolis, 
touched the Great Lakes at Chicago and Duluth, extended far 
into the Southwest beyond Kansas City and Omaha, and 
reached to the Pacific Northwest. 

After Mr. Peavey's death the business built up bj' him was 
continued under the management of his son, George W. Peavey 
(now deceased), and his sons-in-law, Frank T. Heffelfinger and 
Frederick B. Wells, who were associated with him before his 
death. 

Although engrossed with his personal affairs Mr. Peavey 
never neglected the interests of his community. He was in- 
terested in the cause of public education and served on the City 
School Board in 1895, but never held any other public office. 
In his political relations he was cordially attached to the Re- 
publican party; but he was always independent in political 
thought and action, and was liberal in his views in all things. 
In religious belief he was a Universalist and he made his faith 
practical in good work for his own and all other denominations. 
In the language of the old Latin poet, Terence, "He was a 
man and nothing that was human was foreign to him." By 
his radiant example and through the expression of his real 
feelings he taught men everywhere that fellowship and con- 
fidence were a heritage for all alike, and that by working 
together good would come to all. 

September 19, 1872, Mr. Peavey was married to Miss Mary 
nibble Wright. His substance had been wasted by fire the 
year before and his business was at a standstill, but this 
discouraging circumstance did not delay the marriage, nor 
cause either the husband or wife to doubt the future. To 
their union, which was always congenial and felicitous, were 
born three children, their daughters, Mrs. Frank T. Heffel- 
finger and :Mrs. Frederick B. Wells, and their son, George W. 
Pcavev. 



LAMONT J. BARDWELL. 



Vice president and secretary of the Bardwell-Robinson 
Company, an extensive sash, door and hardwood interior finish 
manufactory, began this business upon leaving school and, 
giving it clo.se attention, has mastered its every detail, having 
a high standing among the city's enterprising manufacturers. 
He was born in Minneapolis, Sept. 6, 1873, and the son of 
Charles S. and Annette (Jenks) Bardwell. The father was 
horn at Goshen, Massachusetts, and was there reared and 
educated. In early life he located at Excelsior Lake Minne- 
tonka. In 1872 he formed a partnership with L. C. Bisbie, 
as Bardwell & Bisbie, and started to make sash, doors and 
hardwood interior finish on the East Side. Their capital was 
limited but the business soon demanded greater accommoda- 
tions, and in 1874 a much larger plant was secured. In 
1876 S. C. Robinson bought Mr. Bisbie's interest, the firm 
becoming Bardwell, Robinson & Company, and in 1891, was 
incorporated as the Bardwell-Robinson company. Mr. Bard- 
well died in 1892. In 18S5 a new brick factory, covering about 
ten acres of floor space, was erected at Twenty-fourth avenue 
and Second street south. This is modern in style, of ample 
size, conveniently arranged and equipped with every facility. 
The expansion of the business has kept pace with general 



growth of the city now emjiloying regularly about 400 men, 
the most of whom are skilled mechanics. Lamont J. Bard- 
well passed the grade and high schools, at once joining his 
father, and in 1894 he was elected vice president and secre- 
tary. This company or its predecessors furnished all the 
finishings for the West Hotel, the New York Life building, 
the Lumber Exchange, the Masonic Temple, the Chamber of 
Commerce, the Milwaukee depot, the Andrus building, the 
Minikahda and Commercial club buildings, and numerous other 
important structures both in and out of the city. Mr. Bard- 
well has taken an interest in the advancement and improve- 
ment of the city, the increase and expansion of its industries, 
the proper administration of its civil affairs, the liberal sup- 
port and wise regulation of its educational forces and the 
promotion of every good agency. In 1894 Mr. Bardwell mar- 
ried Miss Susan Baxter. They have four children: Adele, 
Margaret, Annette, and Robert. The parents are members 
of Plymouth Congregational church, and the family residence 
is at 3321 Second avenue south. 



GUSTAVE A. BINGENHEIMER. 

Gustave A. Bingenheimer, President and Treasurer of the 
Diamond Iron Works, makes no claim to distinction in the 
way of greatness or heroic action, .but on the contrary, is 
modest about his achievements, although his business career 
is one of distinction. At the age of eighteen he was con- 
ducting an extensive and profitable business of his own, and 
now, when he is barely forty-six, he has founded and con- 
trolled large business enterprises and directed others, and his 
rise in the business world has been due to no influential 
connections or adventitious circumstances, but wholly to his 
own ability, foresight and grasp of opportunities. 

Mr. Bingenheimer is a native of Minneapolis, born March 
15, 1867, and the son of Jacob Bingenheimer, who came to 
this city in 1858, and started one of the first flour mills, his 
plant being located at Shingle Creek. He was successful and 
held high rank among the business men of the time. His 
business expanded and with it he kept pace with industrial 
and commercial growth, ujitil death ended his labors Augiist 
37, 1873. 

Gustave A. Bingenheimer olitained his education in the 
public schools, and after leaving the high school started to 
work in the drug store of the present mayor, Wallace G. Nye. 
Soon afterward he entered the employ of E. P. Sweet, a well- 
known druggist, soon becoming a member of the firm. The 
partnership lasted about three years, when Mr. Bingenheimer 
decided to start a similar business of his own. He opened 
a drug store at Plymouth avenue and Sixth street north, 
where he was located ten years. Following this he had drug 
stores at Fourth avenue and Franklin avenue south, Wash- 
ington and Plymouth avenues north, Lyndale and Sixth ave- 
nues north and Humboldt and Sixth avenues north, and one 
at Melrose, Minnesota. 

In 1905 he became connected with the Diamond Iron Works 
and was elected vice president and secretary of the company. 
When H. H. Smith, the president, died in 1910, Mr. Bingen- 
heimer was made president and treasurer. He is also presi- 
dent and treasurer of the Diamond Iron Mining company, 
operating in the iron range, and vice president of the Bingen- 
heimer Mercantile company at Mandan, North Dakota. 



216 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



It is not to be supposed, however, that he has been wholly 
absorbed in his industrial and mercantile operations. He has 
taken an earnest interest and a serviceable part in local 
public affairs, giving his helpful support to every undertaking 
for its advancement or improvement, but never seeking or 
desiring tlie prominence of oflicial station. He is a member 
of the Athletic, Rotary, Interlaclien and Automobile clubs. 

January 16, 1895, Mr. Bingenheimer was united in marriage 
with Miss Genevra Smith of Jlinni'apolis. Tlu-y have two 
children, Philip H. and Marion .1. 



CHARLES W. BIBB. 



Charles W. Bibb, president of the Minneapolis Cereal com- 
pany, is a native of the Old Dominion, or rather in that part 
of the state now called West Virginia, born July 30, 1857. 
His parents were Rev. Martin Thomas and Sarah M. Bibb, 
both descended from old Southern families. The father was 
a native of Lynchburg, Virginia, and a minister of the 
Baptist church. 

Charles W. obtained his early education in Missouri, where 
his parents went in his boyhood, and began his business 
career as a bookkeeper in the Union Stockyards in St. Louis. 
He came to Minneapolis in 1884 and started handling broom 
corn and manufacturing and jobbing the material for the 
manufacturing of brooms, beginning operations at 725 Second 
street north, removing a few years later to 406 Third avenue 
north, where he continued for 10 years. 

About 1905 he sold liis establishment and became president 
of the Minneapolis Cereal company. The company manufac- 
tures Cream of Rye, Toasted Rye Flakes and other farinaceous 
products which have won a high world-wide reputation. Mr. 
Bibb is a member of the Civic and Commerce Association and 
the Municipal Commission. He also has devoted considerable 
time to literary subjects, he being the author of a number 
of books. He was married Aug. 13, 1879, to Miss Julia T. 
Sharp, and they are members of Trinity Baptist church. 
They have three children: Harry T., Frank L. and Kugene 
S. Harry is a resident of Gulf Port, Mississippi. Frank is a 
teacher in the New York University of New York, and Eugene 
is practicing law, being located at 314 McKnight Building. 



WILLIAM WALLACE EASTMAN. 

A pioneer in seveml lines of industry in Minneapolis and 
a promoter of improvements in other localities, the late Wil- 
liam Wallace Eastman, who died in this city on the 26th of 
July, 1906, on the verge of eighty years of age, made his mark 
deep and enduring in the industrial and commercial life of 
several places, and is remembered in all of them with high 
esteem for the exalted worth of his character, his great busi- 
ness capacity, his broad and intelligent public spirit and his 
unceasing enterprise in developing natural resources and mak- 
ing them serviceable to mankind. 

Mr. Eastman was born on February 6, 1827, at Conway, a 
popular resort for artists and tourists, in the White Mountains 
of New Hampshire. The interesting little city of his birth lies 
on the upper waters of the Saco river, in sight of Mount 
Kearsage and Mount Washington, and surrounded by many 



other peaks of scenic and historic renown, in a region so 
grandly and picturesquely beautiful that the sojourner in it 
can almost feel the celestial soul that lights the smile on 
Nature's lips there. It was in this region that the future 
founder of much that was great and architect of much that 
was imposing grew to manhood, obtained his education, learned 
crafts of useful industry and began his shining business ca- 
reer. Tiavel from the outside world brought him into contact 
with liighly cultivated minds, and Nature was ever breathing 
into his being breadth of view and self-reliance, broadening his 
spirit for great undertakings and building up his physical na- 
ture to make him equal to their requirements. 

This scion of old English ancestry and families long domes- 
ticated in New England was a son of William K. and Rhoda 
(Messer) Eastman. The father was a merchant, farmer and 
paper manufacturer. He was prominent in the public affairs 
of his home county, and served it for a time in the important 
office of sheriff. The greater part of his life was passed 
among his native hills, but in his declining years he moved 
to Minneapolis, where he died at the age of ninety-three. 

William W. Eastman worked in his father's paper mill, drove 
a stage coach and engaged in other occupations during his 
minority. From his boyhood the West wore a winning smile 
for him, and soon after attaining his majority lie made a trip 
to California. But he did not linger long in that land of golden 
pnimise. In 1854' he came to St. Anthony, where his brother 
•John and his sister, Mre. D. A. Secombe, were living. About 
this time John Eastman, Capfain Rollins and R. P. Upton were 
building a Hour mill on Hennepin Island. William Eastman 
joined them in the enterprise, and the result of their joint 
efforts was the erection and operation of the first flour mill 
in St. Anthony, except the "Old Government Mill," which was 
put up in the wilderness in 1821 for the use of the troops on 
the military reservation, which is now Fort Snelling, but was, 
until 1824, F'ort St. Anthony. 

As soon as the St. Anthony mill dam was completed and 
power was assured Mr. Eastman, in company with Paris Gib- 
son, built a fine stone mill with five run of burrs-, which is 
still standing and is known as the "Cataract ilill." In this 
mill was made the second flour' that was shipped east from 
the Falls of St. Anthony. The same gentlemen soon afterward 
built a woolen factory, in which they used the first power 
tunnel put in service in this locality. Here they produced 
blankets that always won wherever they were put in competi- 
tion with the best of foreign or domestic make, and also manu- 
factured cloth and flannels. The same premises were later 
occupied by the North Star Woolen mills, long one of the lead- 
ing industrial plants in this city. 

In 1S60 Mr. Eastman, retuniing to tlie occupation of liis boy- 
hood, put up the first paper mill in this region, and also built 
the Anchor flour mill with twelve run of burrs in company 
with Paris Gibson and George H. Eastman, the largest and 
most imjiosing of its day. but long since dwarfed by the other 
structures in the flour milling industry that have risen around 
it. The Pillsbury Flour Mills company now owns and operates 
it as one of that company's large aggregation of mills, but it 
still holds its distinction as a pioneer in the business, and if 
not hoary with age is nevertheless conspicuous in importance 
and the interest of its history. 

Lumbering having become the common occiipation of enter- 
prising men in this locality, so broad, alert and comprehen- 
sive a mind as Mr. Eastman's was, could be in no danger of 
overlooking its importance and the opportunities it offered for 




.^^^^^^^r^^jis^ 



HISTORY OF illNNEAPOLIS AND IIENXEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



217 



large ami |)rolitabk' operations. He embarked in it with ardor, 
in partnersliip with Chas. A. Bovej', and for many years the 
firm of Eastman, Bovey & Company was one of the leaders 
in tiif lumber industry in this part of the country. 

A short tinu' afterward Mr. Eastman and several associates 
with him bought Xicollet Island as a seat for new industries. 
The purchasers ofl'ered the upper part of the island to the 
city for a park, asking a moderate price for it, but the offer 
was not accepted, and the negligence of the city authorities 
in this matter has been a source of deep regret to the whole 
people of the municipality ever since. As a means of making 
his new site as valuable and productive as possible, Mr. East- 
man originated a plan for developing and directing the water 
l)ower available from the river in such a way that the full 
force of the Falls could be utilized. This was the erection of 
an apron from bank to bank, and was adopted by the govern- 
ment engineers at Mr. Eastman's suggestion. It has overcome 
ditheulties encountered in other plans previously tried, and 
permanently preserved the Falls from disaster and their great 
power from waste. 

After Mr. Eastman and his associates bought the island they 
opened stone quarries and built many shops, residences and 
tenement houses on it, Mr. Eastman alone putting up sixty- 
two structures, including his own residence, in which so many 
years of his life were passed, and which is still standing, an 
impressive monument to his energy, enterprise and foresight. 
He was also the moving spirit in organizing a company and 
erecting the famous Syndicate block on Nicollet avenue, and 
he personally had built the Eastman block on the same thor- 
oughfare. 

Biit this promoter of comprehensive and varied powers did 
not confine his operations to Minneapolis or the construction 
of mills, dwellings and business blocks. He erected "The East- 
man," a famous hotel at Hot Springs, Arkansas, which is one 
of the prominent resort houses of entertainment in the United 
States. He was also active in the building of the first section 
of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and was connected in a lead- 
ing way with many other enterprises of magnitude, among 
them the Minneapolis Brewing company, of which he was 
president at the time of his death and had been for six years 
prior to that event. Previous to his taking this position he 
was for a time president of the Dunham & Eastman whole- 
sale grocery company, although Mr. Dunham was the active 
manager of the business. 

Mr. Eastman was married in 1855 to Miss Susan R. Lovejoy, 
who was born at Conway, New Hampshire, in 18.32, and who 
died in Jlinneapolis on April 10, 1912. She was one of the 
most admired and esteemed ladies Minneapolis has ever know'n, 
richly endowed with all the graces of charming womanhood 
and all the most ennobling traits of her sex. Her natural gifts 
and acquired culture ripened with advancing age and made 
her, in her later years, an inspiration to all who came in con- 
tact with her. 

The only daughter of the h(msehold to reach maturity was 
Ida May, who became the wife of A. C. Loring, a prominent 
business man of Minneapolis. She died young, leaving her 
brother, Fred \V. Eastman, the only living representative of 
this generation of tlie familf'. He married Miss .Jeannette 
Hale, who also died some years ago, leaving an only son, Wil- 
liam W. Eastman, who is now a dealer in Stocks and bonds 
in this city. The present wife of Fred W. Eastman was Mrs. 
Emma (Spalding) Baker before her marriage to him. They 
have one child, their son Frederick William. Mr. and Mrs. 



Fred W. Eastman occupy the old family home on Nicollet 
Island. (The founder of the house was active in public affairs 
as a citizen and promoter of the community's welfare, an ar- 
dent and serviceable supporter of all undertakings involving 
its progress and improvement, earnest in his aid to the leading 
clubs and other social, educational and moral agencies at work 
in the city, and in many ways one of its most useful, helpful 
and representative residents.) 



WARREN F. BARR. 



Having served two years in the city council as alderman 
from the Twelfth ward with great acceptability and advan- 
tage to the city, Warren F. Barr was well known to the 
people of Minneapolis when he sought the nomination for the 
office of mayor in 1912. He did not secure the nomination, 
but so highly esteemed were his services in the council, and 
in such cordial regard was he held as a business man and 
citizen, that he was fourth in the order of preference of the 
thirteen candidates who were voted for at the primaries. 

Mr. Barr was born on a farm near Clarence, Shelby county, 
Missouri, on August 19, 1875, and is a scion of old and prom- 
inent families in that county. His mother's father was for 
many years county clerk there, and during the Civil war was 
forced to enlist in the Confederate army for the effect the 
influence of his example would have on other men in the 
locality. His grandson Warren was reared on the parental 
farm and completed his academic education at the Macon 
District high school, in his native state, from which he was 
graduated in 1892. He then studied law at the Northern 
Indiana University at Valparaiso, Indiana, and afterward 
taught school ten years in Missouri, Montana and Minnesota, 
his last service in this useful line being at Forestville, in this 
state, in 1905 and 1906. 

In the year last named Mr. Barr located in Minneapolis, 
and from then until 1912 was employed as storekeeper for 
the Minneapolis Steel and Machinery company. Just four 
years after taking up his residence in this city he was elected 
alderman from the Twelfth ward, being the first Independent 
candidate elected in this city in eighteen years. In the city 
council he has ably championed legislation for progress and 
the benefit and protection of the working classes. By great 
effort he succeeded, in a fight lasting three years, in having 
the new Third avenue bridge constructed of concrete instead 
of steel, as was at first intended, his purpose being to make 
the structure add to rather than detract from the beauty 
of the river. He iilso brought about the purchase by the city 
of machinery for doing grading in connection with the im- 
provement of streets. Before this purchase was made the 
city was obliged to pay forty cents a cubic yard to remove 
earth, but with the machinery now used the cost is only 
fifteen cents a yard. Four wards are supplied with a 40-horse 
power engine and grader. The dirt is loaded directly into 
wagons, each' grader requiring the use of fourteen teams. 

Mr. Barr is a Democrat in political faith and an active 
party worker in all campaigns. He is an effective public 
speaker, and a gentleman of pleasing address, frank and 
candid manner. He has hosts of friends, as was shown in his 
campaign for the mayoralty nomination, which has been 
alluded to. He was married in 1902. at Great Falls, Montana, 
to Misa Marie E. Shanahan, of Preston, Minnesota. They 



218 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



have four children, James Warren, Mildred Elizabeth, Ruth 
Marie and Deloris Belle. Mrs. Barr is a member of the 
Catholic church, but her husband was reared in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church South. He belongs to the ilasonic Order, 
the Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pytliias and the 
Oi"der of Camels. His principal recreation is fishing. 



JOHN T. BAXTER. 



President of the Northwestern National Life Insurance 
Company, w^as born at Berlin, Wisconsin, October 15, 1862, 
his' parents being Thomas and Susannah (Lewis) Baxter. 
After attending the local high school, he entered Ripon Col- 
lege, and, during a three years' course, won scholastic dis- 
tinction as one of that school's best orators. Matriculating 
in Williams College, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree 
with the class of 1887, and being the choice of the student 
body and faculty, was awarded the Van Vechtem prize as the 
best extemporaneous speaker. 

In 1887 he came to Minneapolis and in furtherance of 
cherished desires, began reading law, and upon admission to 
the bar in 1889, at once embarked upon a successful practice. 

Upon the re-organization of the Northwestern National 
Life Insurance Company in 1905, he was chosen as its counsel, 
thenceforth devoting such attention to its affairs and that of 
Life Insurance in general, that he, in 1912, was the logical 
choice for president. This company, which stands in a 
peculiarly important relationship to Minnesota, has grown 
from modest beginnings, being organized in 1885, with a 
nucleus of some 500 members taken over from an Iowa organ- 
ization. W. S. Sparks was its first president, and the present 
cfty attorney, Daniel Fish, its legal representative. Its ex- 
perience has been varied, but its financial resources steadily 
strengthened, even during the period of greatest depression; 
its death benefits have ever been met with promptness, and it 
now stands as a monument of local protection ; one of Minne- 
apolis' stanchest financial institutions — a credit alike to its 
promoters, the city and the state. 

In 1891, Mr. Baxter married Miss Gertrude Hooker of 
Minneapolis. They have three children, Beth, Helen and John. 
Both Mr. and Mrs. Baxter have taken prominent parts in 
social and civic life, he being a member of the Minneapolis 
Club, the University Club, of which he has served as presi- 
dent, the Minikahda Club, and the Six O'clock Club. He 
is also a member of the American Bar Association and of the 
Minneapolis Bar Association, of which he was long secretary. 



RANDALL S. BURHYTE. 



Randall S. Burhyto, one of the esteemed citizens of Minne- 
apolis, is living retired at 428 Groveland avenue. Mr. Burhyte 
was born at Remsen, Oneida county. New Yorl^, February 2, 
1836, and received an academic education. At sixteen he went 
to L'tica to clerk in a store, where capacity and fidelity to 
duty made him the head of a leading department liofore he 
was twenty-one. 

In 1857 he moved to Hudson, Wisconsin, where he bought 
a stock of goods and opened a store. Hudson was then a 
city of some 3,500 inhabitants, and one of the best business 



towns in the Northwest. Mr. Burhyte was quick to see and 
seize the chance it offered, and in addition to the general 
merchandising was also engaged in the handling of grain. 
He remained at Hudson until 1871, removing to River Falls, 
where he operated a store and lumber yard in association 
with his brother, and did an extensive business. He became 
president of a bank in River Falls, and so continued until 
1879 and retired after a successful business career. Mr. 
Burhyte came to this city to live in 1886, and for a time 
conducted a loan business. In political faith he is a Demo- 
crat, but has never been a hide-bound or aggressive partisan. 
In fraternal relations he has been a Freemason for forty 
years. 

September 7, 1863, in Hudson, Wisconsin, Mr. Burhyte 
was united in marriage with Miss Anna Fulton, a native of 
Liberty, Sullivan county, New York, and brought to Wis- 
consin by her parents as a child. Their only daughter, .Jennie 
is the wife of .John G. McHugh, secretary of the Chamber of 
Commerce. Mrs. McHugh's parents have their home with 
her and enjoy the companionship of their two granddaughters, 
Jliriam and Jean McHugh. 

In three states and in several lines of trade Mr. Burhyte 
has dignified and adorned business life and exemplified the 
best traits of elevated American citizenship. He has met 
every requirement of duty, being highly esteemed for his 
genuine manhood and uprightness, his business ability, public 
spirit and practical enterprise. 



GEORGE A. BRACKETT. 



For a continuous period of almost sixty years, with only 
one interruption of about ten years, the record of ambitious 
undertakings, valuable achievements and distinguished service 
to the community in business and public life made by George 
A. Brackett, has run like a veritable threat! of gold through 
the texture of Minneapolis history, along all lines of whole- 
some progress and development and connected with every im- 
portant event that has occurred and eveiy important accom- 
plishment that has been wrought out among this people. 

Mr. Brackett was born at Calais. Maine, on September 16, 
1836, the second son of a large family of children born to Henry 
H. and Mary (Godfry) Brackett. The father was a mechanic, 
and although descended from prominent English ancestors, his 
circumstances were moderate, and his son George was obliged 
to earn his own living from an early age. and was thus de- 
prived of the advantages of schooling which he was very 
desirous of having. But he had large gifts of industry, cour- 
age, perseverance and self-reliance from his boyhood, and has 
been able to meet the requirements of every situation in which 
he has found himself in a masterly way. 

Mr. Brackett came to Minneapolis in 1857. at the same time 
tliat his boyhood acquaintance, Hon. W. D. Washburn, came, 
and secured employment for a time in a butcher shop, after- 
ward working on the construction of the new dam. The next 
spring he opened a meat store of his own, and his experience in 
is proved to be very valuable ft him a few years later, when 
he secured contracts for supplying the troops with meat in 
the Iniiian outbreak and the Civil war. After the w-ar he 
engaged in flour milling in a leading way until 1S69, when 
new and broader fields of operation required his attention. 

In the year last named he took charge of the Northern Pa- 





a. 




HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



219 



cific Railroad Reconnaissance conducted by Governor J. Greg- 
ory Smith, president of the road. Was appointed purchasing 
agent for tlie road by Governor Smith. The expedition was 
fitted out in Minneapolis and traveled West over the plains 
to the Big Bend of the Missouri river. Mr. Brackett's report 
showed the countiy inspected to be So satisfactory for the pur- 
pose that the construction of the road was immediately be- 
gun, and he and others secured a contract to build the first 
240 miles, extending from Duluth to the Red river. In this 
work he had associated with him Hon. W. D. Washburn, Col. 
W. S. King, W. W. Eastman, Dorilus Morrison, and other 
prominent men in this community. 

Mr. Brackett was engaged in railroad construction work 
ten years, but during this period, as in all the later years of 
his life, other interests also occupied his attention and his 
large endowments for development. He was a member of the 
village council in the sixties and for years thereafter was 
connected with the municipal government as an alderman and 
in other capacities. He was one of the leading promoters of 
the city water works, the sewerage system, the fire depart- 
ment, of which he was chief for years, and the park system, 
being a member of the park board for a long time. In fact, 
he has always been at the forefront of whatever has been 
of greatest importance and interest. He was prominent in the 
festivities which welcomed home the returning soldiers after 
the Civil war; a member of the first board of directors of the 
Minneapolis Exposition of 1885; one of the most potential 
factors in the Harvest Festival of 1891, and has always been 
one of the chief spokesmen and entertainers when dis- 
tinguished personages have visited the city. 

In 1873 Mr. Brackett was elected mayor of Minneapolis and 
he gave the city a model business administration. As a mem- 
ber of the park board he succeeded in raising $100,000 for 
the purchase of Minnehaha Park at a critical time, when the 
chance of doing anything in that direction seemed lost. He 
also helped to organize the Associated Charities and was presi- 
dent of the organization for years. He is still one of its vice- 
presidents and was for a long time a member of the State 
Board of Charities and Corrections. 

The panic of 1893 shattered Mr. Brackett's fortune, and 
soon afterward he went to Alaska to rebuild it. Wliile in 
that country he aided in the construction of a wagon road 
over the mountains from Skagway. The work presented enor- 
mous difficulties and obstructions, including financial and po- 
litical trickery in large measure, and there was bitter opposi- 
tion to it. But the indomitable will and genius of Mr. Brackett 
triumphed over all obstacles, and his acliievement demonstrated 
the feasibilitj- and practical value of a railroad through the 
same country, which has since been built. 

Mr. Brackett also took a prominent part in bringing about 
the settlement of the Alaska boundary dispute and he was 
largely instrumental in retaining for the United States the 
disputed territory claimed by Canada. He returned to Minne- 
apolis in 1905, and since then has lived in his home at Orono 
on Lake Minnetonka, which he purchased many years ago. He 
belongs to Plymouth Congregational church, and has been one 
of the trustees of the Lakewood Cemetery association from 
its organization. In 1858 he was united in marriage with 
Miss Anna M. Hoit. who died in 1891. Of the ten children 
boni of their union six sons and one daughter are living. Mr. 
Brackett is now (1914) seventy-eight years old, and, as a 
prominent citizen of Minneapolis has remarked, "is dear to the 
hearts of the people for what he has been and for what he is." 



WILLIAM JOSEPH BYRNES, M. D. 

Eminent in his profession, both as a practitioner and in 
scholastic attainments connected therewith. Dr. William J. 
Byrnes is deservedly one of the most prominent and popular 
men in Minneapolis and one of the most successful and useful 
in his calling. 

Dr. Byrnes was born in Minneapolis, January 3, 1859. He 
is not only the son of pioneers but himself a product of the 
pioneer period of the city's history, and his career among its 
people is on this account all the more gratifying to them. 
His parents were William and Katharine (Campbell) Byrnes, 
whose life story is briefly told in another sketch to be found 
elsewhere in this volume. As is therein stated, they were 
born and reared in Ireland, came to Minneapolis in 1851, and 
preempted land which is all now within the city limits. 
During the Civil war the father served in the Union army as 
first -lieutenant of Company K, Tenth Minnesota, and in 1866 
was elected sheriff of Hennepin county. But he died in 
November, 1867, in the midst of his term as sheritt', his un- 
timely death being directly due to the ravages made on his 
health and strength by his hard service in the army. 

Dr. William J. Byrnes obtained his academic education in 
the public schools of Minneapolis and at St. John's College; 
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and the college of the same name 
at CoUegeville, Minnesota. He was graduated from the 
Medical Department of the University of Michigan in 1882, 
and was at once made assistant house surgeon of the Univer- 
sity Hospital in Ann Arbor. The next year he returned to 
Minneapolis and began practicing in partnership with Dr. 
Edwin Phillips, with whom he was associated in professional 
work for eleven years. 

Within one year after locating in this city he was made 
demonstrator of anatomy in the Minneapolis College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons. In 1886 he became professor of anatomy, 
in 1895 professor of surgical anatomy and clinics in diseases 
of women, and in 1900 professor of the principles of surgery 
in the same institution. In 1885 he visited Europe and studied 
in some of the leading medical institutions on that continent. 
He has long been a member of the County and State Medical 
Societies and of the American Medical Association, serving as 
president of the Hennepin County Medical Society in 1889. 
In 1887 and 1888 he was county physician, and from 1890 to 
1892 county coroner and city physician of Minneapolis. 

The doctor is a Democrat in his political faith and a true 
and lojal member of his party. He also takes an active part 
in the fraternal life of his community, is a member of the 
Order of Elks, and pays tribute to his father's military 
service in the Civil war by active membership in the Military 
Order of the Loyal Legion. The progress and enduring wel- 
fare of his city and county and their residents have always 
been primary objects of importance with him, and he has 
been zealous, continuous and effective in their promotion and 
in his support of all worthy undertakings involved therein. 

Februarj' 4, 1887, Dr. Byrnes married Miss Josephine Arm- 
strong, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. They have four children, 
Lyie, William, Martica, and Josephine, all of whom, like 
their parents, are cordially esteemed wherever they are known. 

Dr. Byrnes was called at a very early period in his pro- 
fessional life to the elevated and elevating work of imparting 
to others what he had learned and was still learning from 
the sages and students in his department of science, and he 



220 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



has been very Muccessful and serviceable in this important 
work. 



JOSEPH M. BALTUFF. 



Starting in business a few years ago as a builder and 
contractor on a small scale, Joseph M. Baltuff, by enterprise, 
fine business capacity, good management and reliance mainly 
on himself for the accomplishment of results has expanded 
his operations and won an envied name and reputation. 

Mr. Baltuff was born at Charles City, Iowa, June 19, 1870, 
and in October, 1886, came to Minneapolis with his parents, 
Valentine and Mary Elizabeth (McCall) Baltuff, the former a 
native of the city of New York and the latter also born and 
reared in the East. The father was a printer and newspaper 
publisher, and during his residence in Charles City, Iowa, was 
editor and publisher of the Floyd County Advocate. In Min- 
neapolis he conducted a job printing office in association with 
his son, Harry A. Baltuff', as the Reporter Printing company. 
He was so connected until his death, but during the last five 
or six years lived mainly in retirement. He died August 29, 
1913, aged seventy-nine years. He was a Freemason in 
fraternal relations and a Republican in politics, and to the 
last kept up his interest in public affairs. 

Mrs. Baltuff is still living, devoted to her home and family. 
She and her husband were the parents of seven children, six 
of whom are living, five in Minneapolis. Joseph M., the 
youngest, has been a resident of this city twenty-seven years. 
He obtained a high school and business college education. 
He was connected with the grain trade until 1903, when he 
founded his present business. This is building houses for 
others, for which he is paid in monthly installments, about 
equal in amount to what a fair rental for the properties 
would be. He puts up about forty such houses a year, and 
has erected some 250 of them in all. They are moderate- 
priced homes, modern in style and equipment, and built for 
persons of limited means, but in good locations. 

Mr. Baltuff does his own contracting, and also builds for 
others on contract. He operates in both Minneapolis and 
St. Paul on the same plan. He is a member of the Mew 
Athletic club and the Real Estate board, and in fraternal re- 
lations is connected with the Royal Arcanum. He finds 
recreation in fishing and travel, and has visited nearly all 
parts of the United States and some of their insular posses- 
sions, including the Hawaiian Islands, especially the city of 
Honolulu. 

January 4, 1899, he was united in marriage with Miss 
Eleanor M. Brown, of Minneapolis, a daughter of George H. 
Brown, a retired builder. They have one child, Margaret M., 
a student at Stanley Hall. The family residence is at 3233 
Harriet avenue, and Mr. Baltuff has his office in the Security 
Bank building. 



JAMES P. BROWN. 



Reared on a farm and himself a farmer almost to the close 
of life, even though engaged a great deal of his time in otiier 
pursuits, having turned his attention to banking and making 
as great a success in that. The late James P. Brown, who 



died in Pasadena, California, September 2, 1905, was an 
impressive illustration of the versatility of alert and capable 
American manhood. But a few days past sixty-eight years 
of age, he had been a resident of Minneapolis twenty-two 
years, although portions of each for a long period were passed 
in North Dakota, and the last four years were almost wholly 
in California. 

Mr. Brown was born in Putnam, a suburb of Zanesville, 
Ohio, September 18, 1837, and was a son of Dr. James Cyril 
and Ann (Day) Brown, the former a native of Vermont and 
tlie latter of Massachusetts. When the son was ten years 
old the family moved to La Salle, Illinois, where the father 
practiced his profession until death. A man of prominence 
and influence in La Salle, he was regarded as a worthy and 
creditable citizen. 

At the age of seventeen James P. Brown entered the employ 
of the Illinois Central Railroad, a few years later becoming 
its station agent at La Salle and so continued to serve the 
road for seventeen years, when he engaged in banking there, 
buying an interest in an old established bank. In 1881, he 
went to North Dakota and in 1886 opened a bank at Hope 
and which is still doing business, being conducted by his son, 
James D. Brown. Mr. Brown subsequently started others at 
different nearby towns, continuing to direct their affairs until 
health failed, when he turned tlie management over to his son. 

He became a resident of Minneapolis in 1883, but retained 
interests in North Dakota until death, there passing a con- 
siderable portion of time. He owned and operated a large 
farm near Hope and became an extensive dealer in North 
Dakota lands. He ever took an active part in public affairs, 
being always interested in behalf of friends, but not caring 
personally for political prominence or public office. He was a 
loyal Republican in political faith. 

Mr. Brown was regarded as a prudent adviser and was 
esteemed for his enterprise, progressiveness and public spirit. 
He supported with ardor and intelligence all undertakings 
involving the advancement of the community, with a constant 
desire to promote the general welfare. He took a warm and 
helpful interest in young men, not merely in giving them 
advice, but in assisting them financially when found worthy. 
In religious affiliation he was a Congregationalist. 

Xovember 3, 1863. Mr. Brown was married in La Salle, 
Illinois, to Miss Charlotte A. McVean, a daughter of Duncan 
and Elizabeth McVean. Her father was born in the Highlands 
and came to America when ten years old. His wife was a 
native of Vermont, although they were married in Montreal. 
They became residents of Minneapolis about 1870, the father 
keeping a store on Third street for some twenty years. One 
of their daughters is living in La Salle, Illinois, where they 
both died. Another is also a resident of Illinois, and another 
of North Dakota. Mrs. Brown is the only member of the 
family now living in Minneapolis, except her son, James 
Duncan Brown, of 1811 Emerson avenue, and who maintains 
his interest in and supervision over the five banks with which 
he is connected in North Dakota. 

Mrs. Brown has two daughters: Charlotte E., the wife of 
Harold Johnson, of Excelsior, and Elsie B., wife of D. L. 
Whittle, of Dallas, Texas, with whom the mother spends the 
winters. Mrs. Brown has a delightful home at 1808 Dnpont 
avenue south. She is fond of collecting family relics, one 
that slie values highly being a flax .spinning wheel which was 
brought from Scotland by ancestors more tlian one hundred 
years ago. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND ITENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



221 



DR. SAMUEL HEWES CHUTE. 

With the whole country available to him for choice of a 
place of residence and field of operation, and having seen 
much of it and had practical experience in several other 
localities, the late Dr. Samuel H. Chute, as a young man of 
twenty-seven, with all the aspirations of life strong and 
energetic within him, selected St. Anthony, now Minneapolis, 
as his permanent home, and cast his lot with the then 
straggling and uncanny but very promising municipal bantam 
which had but recently been spoken into being at one of the 
most picturesque spots on the banks of the great "Father of 
Waters." He passed all his subsequent years here and 
devoted his energies vigorously and wisely to building up the 
city in its industrial, commercial, educational, social and 
moral elements of power, until his death Oct. 12, 1913. He had 
retired from business, resting securely on the universal esteem 
of the residents of his home city, who admired his elevated 
manhood, were grateful for his contributions to the progress 
of the community, and teordially revered him as a patriarch 
among them. 

Dr. Chute was born in Columbus, Ohio, on December 6, 
1830, the son of Rev. James and Martha Hewes (Clapp) 
Chute. The father taught a private school in Cincinnati for 
a number of years, then entered the ministry of the Presby- 
terian church, and in 1831, when his son, the doctor, was one 
year old, moved his family to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where 
he died in 1835, two years after the death of the mother. 
Their death left their orphaned children largely to the care 
of Richard Chute, their oldest son, then only fifteen years 
old, but already some three years advanced in his business 
career. 

Samuel H. Chute passed his boyhood and youth in Fort 
Wayne, Indiana, and there began his academic education, 
which he completed at Wabash College in Crawfordsville in 
the same state. In November. 1849, he liegan the study of 
medicine \mder the direction of Doctors C. E. Sturgis and 
J. H. Thompson of Fort Wayne, soon afterward matriculating 
at the Medical College of Ohio in Cincinnati, from which he 
was graduated in February, 1851. with the degree of M. D. 
Within one month after his graduation the young doctor 
became physician to a party of his friends who crossed the 
plains on horseback to Oregon, consuming seven months in 
the trip. 

On his arrival in Oregon Dr. Chute took up liis residence 
in Portland, where he practiced his profession until the spring 
of 1853. He then again mounted his saddle and journeyed to 
Yreka, California. There he mined for gold for six months, 
tlien resumed his profession, and was gjven charge of the 
hospital as the only physician in the locality with a diploma. 
He continued practicing at Yreka four years, and in 1857 
returned to the "States" by way of San Francisco, Panama 
and New York. From his far distant and far different home 
on the Pacific slope the East had grown in attractiveness for 
him, and at length he yielded to the longing to be in it again. 

But he soon realized that the glamor of the old regions 
had faded for him, and also that the spirit of daring and 
adventure was still wide-awake and insistent within him. 
Accordingly, he determined to make another jaunt into the 
wilds, and in 1857 came through Lake Pepin, in this state, 
the ice leaving the lake May Ist and proceeded on up the 
river to St. Anthony, where he again began the practice of 
liis profession. He came up the river by steamboat from 



Prairie du Chien to Lake Pepin, and traveled by carriage 
from St. Paul to St. Anthony. The little settlement needed 
him in his professional capacity, and he cheerfully yielded to 
its requirements in this respect. The first house he lived in 
was one built by John North in 1849, one of the earliest in 
the village. The next year he bought this house and the 
whole block it stood on. 

This purchase started the doctor in the real estate business, 
and soon afterward he joined his brother Richard in it as a 
member of the original lirm of Chute Brothers. When Rich- 
ard Chute died in 1893 the business was incorporated as the 
Chute Bros. Company, and of this the doctor was president 
as long as he continued his activity in business operations. 
The original firm was agent for the St. Anthony Falls Water 
company from 1868 to 1880, when the property was sold to 
James J. Hill of St. Paul and some other persons. Dr. Chute 
was a director of the Water company before the agency 
began, and he continued to act as its agent for one year 
after the sale of the property. 

When the great improvements were made for the preserva- 
tion of the Falls of St. Anthony. Dr. Chute, as executive 
oflicer of the board of construction, was in charge of the 
work and J. H. Stevens was the engineer. Dr. Chute con- 
tinued in this rela,tion to the enterprise and the operations 
of the improving forces until Colonel Farquhar was sent out 
by the federal government to superintend the building of tlie 
dj'ke along the river bank and other permanent improve- 
ments required to save and utilize the full force of the 
Falls for industrial purposes. At one time the stock of the 
Water company was all owned by the Chute Brothers. 

Dr. Chute was also connected for many years with the 
Rum River Boom company, first as one of its directors and 
its vice president, and from 1879 to 1886 as its president. 
His principal activity was, however, in the real estate busi- 
ness, and numerous additions to the city have been platted 
and developed by the company of which he was the head. 
In this branch of his business the doctor was one of the 
most astute and far-seeing real estate men in the city. His 
judgment of the value and possibilities of property was 
always good, and he at all times knew where to employ his 
energies in the trade to make them most effective for the 
city's welfare as well as his own advantage. 

During his long residence in the city Dr. Chute held and 
filled with ability many municipal offices, both elective and 
appointive. As early as 1858 he was supervisor of the poor, 
and since then he served several times as a member of the 
city council. For some years he was city treasurer of St. 
Anthony, and was then one of the most energetic and judicious 
among the founders of the public school system. From 1861 
to 1864 he was a member of tlie board of education and 
during the greater part of the time its president. He was 
again on the board in 1878, and then the separate educational 
boards of the east and west divisions of the city were united, 
as the two cities of St. Anthony and Minneapolis were in 
1873; and from March, 1883, to April. 1885. he was a member 
of the park commission. 

On May 5, 1858. Dr. Chute was united in marriage with 
Miss Helen E. A. Day, who was born on September 15, 1835, 
at Mount Pleasant in the province of Ontario, Canada, the 
daughter of Henry Holbrook and Rachel (Dodge) Day. Her 
parents died when she was four years old, and she was 
reared by her uncle, George E. H. Day. Her education was 
obtained in private schools in Painesville. Ohio, and Mil- 



222 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



waukee. Wisconsin, and at Lawrence University in Appleton, 
Wisconsin. She arrived in St. Anthony in July, 1855, by 
carriage from St. Paul, having come up the river from Galena, 
Illinois, by steamboat. 

Six children were born of this union, five of whom are 
living: Mary Jeannette, Agnes, Elizabeth, Louis Prince and 
Frederick Butterfield. A sketch of the lives of Louis P. and 
Frederick B. will be found elsewhere in this volume. The 
first born child of the household, Charlotte Rachel, has been 
dead for a number of years. The father was a member of 
the Presbyterian church and the mother ia a Catholic. The 
lineage of the Chute family is ancient and honorable. On his 
father's side of the house the doctor could trace it back to 
Alexander Chute, a resident of Taunton, England, in 1268, 
whose ancestors were among the followers of William the 
Conqueror, who subdued England at the battle of Hastings 
in 1066. On the mother's side the forbears were Revolutionary 
soldiers and men of prominence in New England in Colonial 
days (one of them being Captain Roger Clapp, who in 1664 
commanded the "Castle," now Fort Independence, in Boston 
harbor). Dr. Chute lived up to the high example.-* bequeathed 
by his forefathers, and gave luster to the family name in 
the pursuits of peaceful and productive industry, as many 
of them did where "Red Battle stamped his foot and nations 
felt the shock." 



THOMAS HENRY SHEVLIN. 

Until within a period of about thirty or forty years men 
were accustomed to look for large business enterprise and 
undertakings of magnitude in this country (mly in the big com- 
mercial centers of the East. But something less than half a 
century ago men of large mold began to demonstrate that 
gigantic operations, involving great stretches of territory, mil- 
lions of money and thousands of workmen, could be carried 
on with radiant and impressive success in the very wilils of 
the great Northwest, here in Minnesota and even in the far- 
away and sparsely peopled states of the Rocky JMiHiiitain 
region. 

One of the leaders and most extensive operators in this 
demonstration was the late Thomas H. Shevlin of Minneapolis, 
whose untimely death on January 15, 1912, at the age of sixty 
years and twelve days, cast a gloom over the whole of Minne- 
sota and many other sections of the country. For he was 
well and favorably known from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
and from Northern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, not only 
for his colossal business interests and achievements, but also 
for his genial and obliging nature, high character and deep 
and helpful devotion to the welfare of his country. 

Mr. Shevlin was the son of John and Matilda (Leonard) 
Shevlin, both of Irish ancestry, and was born in Albany, New 
York, on January 3, 1852. He obtained only a common school 
education, for his ambition was to be at work for himself as 
early as possible. At the age of fifteen he began his active 
career as an employe of .lohn McGraw & Co., lumber dealers 
in his native city. With this company he remained ten years 
and in time was given charge of its lumber interests in Albany 
and Tonawanda, New Y'ork, and Bay City, Michigan. In 1879 
he left the employ of this tompany. and <luring the next year 
was at Muskegon, Michigan, working in important capacities 
for T. W. Harvey, an extensive lumber operator of Chicago. 



Mr. Shevlin was now twenty -eight years of age, and filled 
with aspirations to a loftier business career than he had yet 
begun, although his rise to prominence as a lumberman of 
great ability and fine business acumen had been rapid and his 
rank as one of the most sagacious men in the trade was fixed. 
He therefore, in 1880, formed a business association with 
Stephen C. Hall of Muskegon and. in 1882, organized the 
Stephen C. Hall Lumber company, of which he became treas- 
urer and general manager. During the first two years of his 
association with Mr. Hall they were engaged principally in 
the purchase of logs, timber and timber lands, and incidentally 
as manufacturers of lumber. After the organization of the 
company their operations as manufacturers became more ex- 
tensive, and in two years grew to such proportions that they 
were obliged to organize a branch company in Minneapolis, 
which they did in 1884, calling it the North Star Lumber 
company. 

In 1886 Mr. Shevlin changed his residence to Jlinneapolis 
and assisted in organizing the Hall & Ducey Lumber company, 
the firm being composed of Mr. Shevlin, P, A, Ducey, S, C. Hall 
and H. C. Clarke. In 1887, owing to failing health, Mr. Ducey 
was forced to retire from active business and sold his interests 
in the company to his partners, and the firm name than be- 
came Hall & Shevlin Lumber company. Mr. Hall died in 
1889, and in 1893 Elbert L. Carpenter, a sketch of whom will 
be found in this volume, bought interests in the various lum 
ber enterprises with which Mr, Shevlin had become connected, 
and a new company, called the Shevlin-Carpenter company, 
was formed. 

When the Stephen C, Hall Lumber company was formed 
Mr. .Slievlin began to look beyond the timber supply of Michi- 
gan for resources on which to draw for his later activities. 
He at once began making investments in the white pine woods 
of Minnesota, and gave proof of excellent judgment and keen 
discrimination in this line. His genius for organizing, his 
accurate measurement of property values, his alertness in 
seeing and seizing opportunities and his superior judgment 
of men and their capacities remained with him through life 
and made possible the inception and successful operation of 
the wide and varied activities in which he was engaged and 
the development of the mighty industrj^ of which he was the 
directing Spirit. 

No amount of work and no successful achievement could 
satisfy this gentleman of vast business enterprise and mental 
power. In 1895, in association with ■!, Neils of Sauk Rapids, 
Minnesota, he organized the .1, Neils Lumber company. Its 
mill at Sauk Rapids then had a capacity of 15,000,000 feet 
of lumber annually, and in 1900 the company built a band 
and band re-saw ipill at Cass Lake, Minnesota, This has 
since l)e('ii enlarged by the addition of gang saw, increasing the 
output of the two mills to 50,000,000 feet annually, as they 
always run at full capacity. 

Impressed with the advantage of manufacturing near the 
stump as well as near the consuming territory, and reaching 
for greater and grander results, Mr, Shevlin started a new 
enterprise in 1896. In that year, in company with Frank P, 
Hixon of La Crosse, Wisconsin, he l)Ought a large amount of 
timber on the Red Lake Indian reservation, tributary to Clear- 
water river, and organized the St. Hilaire Lumber company, 
which b\iilt a sawmill with a capacity of 40,000,000 feet a 
year. One year later the St. Hilaire company bought the I 

sawmill and logs of the Red River Lumber company at I 

Crookston, Minnesota, and all its tributary timber holdings. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



223 



The Crookston Lumber company was then foiined with Mf. 
Shevlin as president and an annual productive capacitj' of 40,- 
000,000 feet of lumber. 

In the winter of 1902-.'! the Crookston Lumber company, 
formed by the consolidation of the St. Hilaire and the old 
Crookston companies, built a large mill at Bemidji containing 
two band saws and a gang saw and 'capable of turning out 
70,000,000 feet a year. To supply this mill with logs a logging 
spur twelve miles long was built, penetrating to the east of 
Red Lake and connecting with the Minnesota and International 
Railway at Hovey .Junction. By this move the company 
secured direct transportation by rail from the timber to the 
mill and made available a large body of timber which had 
before been difficult of access. The Crookston Lumber com- 
pany owned, at the time of Mr. Shevlin's death, tributary to 
its various plants, approximately 400,000,000 feet of stumpage, 
which insures its operation for many years. In January, 1904, 
the general offices of the company were moved from Crookston 
to Bemidji, where they have since been maintained. 

In connection with the manufacturing plants mentioned a 
number of retail yards have been operated under the name 
of the St. Hilaire Retail Lumber company, additional yards 
being established from time to time to complete and keep 
up the chain of lumber handled from the tree to the company 
and the con'sumer. While this arrangement has added largely 
to the profits of the companies establishing it, it has also 
been of great value to the purchasing public in making it 
easy and convenient for customers to get lumber near at hand, 
promptly delivered, and at reasonable coat. 

A thorough investigation of the timber and lumber condi- 
tions in the South led the Crookston Lumber company to pur- 
chase a large interest in the Winn Parish Lumber company, 
which owns approximately 1,000.000.000 feet of virgin pine in 
Louisiana and is engaged in the manufacture of lumber as 
Pyburn in that state. A similar examination of the Pacific 
Coast territory led Mr. Shevlin to purchase personally large 
holdings of timber land in British Columbia, the future possi- 
bilities of which, under enterprising and 'skillful development 
are almost incalculable. 

In the fall of 1903, as if there was no limit to their enter- 
prise and sweep of vision. Mr. Shevlin and his associates or- 
ganized the Shevlin-Clarke company, limited, in the province of 
Ontario, and bought timber berths from the Canadian govern- 
ment aggregating 22.5.000.000 feet of pine stumpage. In the 
same year the Rainy River Lumber company, limited, was 
formed by Mr. Shevlin and E. L. Carpenter of the Shevlin- 
Carpenter company and E. W. Backus and W. F. Brooks of 
the Backus-Brooks company as principal stockholders. This 
company bought a large amount of timber from the Canadian 
government, and in the winter of 190.3-4 erected at Rainy 
River, Ontarie. one of the most complete sawmill plants in 
the world, with an annual capacity of 70,000,000 feet. This 
mill is very much like the Minneapolis mill, built by Mr. Shev- 
lin earlier in his career, which was at the time of its erection 
the largest and most complete ever put up. Summing up the 
whole story, the various lumber companies in wliich Mr. Shev- 
lin was interested when he died, have an annual output of 
more than 300,000,000 feet. He was the originator and the 
controlling spirit of all this vast wonderwork of industrial 
operations, and the mere recital of the figures its transactions 
involve and the values they embody serves to suggest in an 
impressive manner the enormous sweep of his vision, the firm- 



ness of his grasp and the magnitude and comprehensiveneas 
of his business ability. 

But this man of imperial range in industrial and mercan- 
tile affairs was a genuis of many parts, and did not confine his 
activities to only one line of endeavor. Enormous as were his 
business enterprises, with all of which he kept in close touch, 
Mr. Shevlin still found time and energy to take a keen interest 
in public affairs and the duties of citizenship. He was a Re- 
publican in politics, strong in his convictions and zealously 
loyal to his party. In its service his energy never slackened 
and his feelings never grew cold or even lukewarm. He was 
the Minnesota member of the Republican national committee 
from 1900 to 1904, and in this position proved himself to be 
a great power of strength and usefulness to the organization 
he Served, the extent and value of his services being especially 
notable in the campaign of 1900. But he never accepted or 
sought a political office, either by election or appointment, ex- 
cept as stated above, although frequently urged to allow the 
use of his name as a candidate. The only political or quasi- 
political position he ever held besides that of national commit- 
teeman and delegate to the Republican national convention 
of 1900, was that of delegate to the Reciprocity convention 
which met in Washington city. The.se were honorary posts 
to which no salary was attached. 

Because no special mention has been made of Mr. Shevlin's 
activity in behalf of public improvements and welfare work 
for this city and state it is not to be inferred that he was 
indifferent to them. On the contrary, he was always one of 
the most energetic and helpful supporters of worthy under- 
takings for the good of the people and the general advance of 
his locality, and he always brought to their aid judgement 
broadened and seasoned by comprehensive intelligence and 
studious reflection, as well as liberal assistance of a material 
kind. He was also earnestly and servieeably active in the club 
life of his own and other communities, belonging to the Min- 
nesota, the Minneapolis, the Commercial, the Minnetonka 
Yacht, the Automobile, and other clubs at home, and the Union 
League clubs of New York and Chicago, the Manitoba club 
of Winnipeg, and many more in different parts of the country. 
It should be noted that he was also a heavy stockholder and 
a director in the Security National Bank of Minneapolis, pres- 
ident of the Iron Range Electric Telephone company, and in- 
terested in many other important business enterprises. In 
addition, he was warmly interested in the cause of education, 
and made this manifest by donating to the LTniversity of Min- 
nesota the Alice Shevlin hall and five .$10,000 scholarships. 

On Februai-y 8, 1882, Mr. Shevlin was united in marriage 
with Miss Alice A. Hall. Three children were born of the 
union : Thomas Leonard, who has taken his father's place in 
the business the latter conducted; Florence, who 'is now the 
wife of D. D. Tenney. and Helen, who is the wife of George C. 
Beckwith. Mr. Shevlin died at Pasadena. California, his demise 
occurring on .January 15, 1913, as has been stated above. 

The imagination teannot but revel in the mammoth under- 
takings and achievements of this man. And yet he was mod- 
est and unostentatious in his demeanor, genial and companion- 
able in his disposition and easily approachable and courteous in 
his treatment of all comers. He was frank and candid always, 
both with those whom he favored and those whom he opposed. 
He was a fine public speaker, eloquent and jjorsuasive, and 
very effective in his appeals to reason. A man of great gifts 
and great wisdom in the uSe of them: broad-minded and pub- 
lic-spirited in large measure; devoted to his country and loyal 



224 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



to his friends; true to every attribute of elevated manliood — 
America reveres him as one of her higliest types of citizenship 
and Minnesota as one of her brainiest, brightest and most up- 
right and useful men. 



JOHN TRUE BLAliSDELL. 



The life story of the late John True Blaisdell, who died 
August 25, 1896, with those of his parents, brothers and sisters 
and other early residents with whom he was associated, 
embraces much of the history of the city itself in its forma- 
'tive period. 

He was born at Montville, Waldo county, Maine, April 25, 
1826, a son of Robert and Mary (Chandler) Blaisdell, the 
former born at Peacham, Vermont, December 14, 1802, and 
the latter in Massachusetts, November 23, 1801. The parents 
were married at Montville, January 1, 1825, moved to Wiscon- 
sin in 1847 and to Minneapolis in 1852, accompanied by their 
sons, Robert, Jr., William and Isaac, and their daughters 
Caroline C, Hannah E. and Rachel E. The latter is the only 
member of this family still living. She is the widow of the 
late Hiram Van Nest, and resides with her son Charles in 
Minneapolis. In 1849, three years before the arrival of his 
parents and family, John T. Blaisdell came to St. Anthony, 
boarding for a time in the family of Deacon Harmon. He 
had been a lumberman in Maine, following the same occupation 
here for two years. He then took up a claim between Nicollet 
and Lyndale avenues and Franklin avenue and Twenty-sixth 
street, as they now exist, and built his home on Nicollet 
avenue between what are now Twenty-fourth and Twenty- 
fifth streets, and thereafter devoted his energies principally to 
the cultivation and improvement of his farm. 

His father took up a claim on Thirty-eighth street with 
Twenty-fourth avenue as its eastern boundary, and there 
he died April 27, 1887, and the mother September 8. 1888. 
Robert's claim adjoined John's, extending south to Lake street. 
William's farm was near Powder Horn lake and probably 
included it. Robert married Miss Elmira Taunt, of Wisconsin, 
May 1, 1855, and John T. Miss Isabell L. Gates, of Albany, 
Vermont, July 1 of the same year. Their wives came with 
them as brides, and both couples, as also the husbands' sister 
Caroline and her husband, David Langley, and two children, 
all lived with the parents until each family had a child born 
within a few weeks of each other. William, Isaac, Hannah 
and Rachel were also still living at home. 

Within a few years the expansion of the town led Mr. 
Blaisdell to plat his farm into an addition, following it later 
with the .John T. Blaisdell revised addition. This was a mile 
long and a half a mile wide, extending from Franklin avenue 
to Lake street and west from Nicollet, and included his brother 
Robert's farm. He also platted three additions in the Bryn 
Mawr section of the city and the John T. Blaisdell addition 
in North Minneapolis. In addition to his property in the 
city he owned large tracts of land in Traverse and Sherburne 
counties and large farms in Wright and Hennepin counties. 

In association with R. P. Russell he was largely instru- 
mental in building up South Minneapolis and securing the 
Blaisdell school, which was named for him. He was active 
in politics as a Republican, and was a regular attendant of 
the First Unitarian church, whose pastor. Rev. H. M. Simmons, 
lived in the old Blaisdell home for many years. He was 



also a charter member of the Minneapolis Grange and deeply 
interested in the fair. He warmly supported the movement 
to preserve the Agricultural College lands for the use of the 
farmers, and was proud of the college in the later years of 
his life. He lived twenty-nine years in his old home, then 
built a modern brick residence at 3244 Nicollet avenue, where 
his last years were passed with the companionship of his 
daughter Mary. 

Mrs. Blaisdell, died Feb. 28, 1891. She was the daughter 
of William B. and Mariam J. (Goodrich) Gates, natives of 
New Hampshire, who came to Minneapolis about 1857, and 
died at their home, 608 Fourth street north, the father Jan- 
uary 17, 1866, and the mother April 7, 1883. This old home 
is still in the family. He operated a blacksmith shop, the 
second in Minneapolis, and is often now spoken of as "the 
old village blacksmith." His family consisted of three daugh- 
ters and one son, Mrs. Sarah G. Baird, of Edina Mills, being 
the sole survivor. 

Mr. and Mrs. Blaisdell had five children. Mary A., was 
born April 6, 1856, in her grandfather's house. For some 
years she carried on a millinery business, and during the 
closing period of her father's life was his main dependence 
in the management of his affairs. She is a Christian Scientist 
and attends the Sixth church of that faith. Ada M. is the 
wife of Leslie Beach of Minneapolis. George L. died Sep- 
tember 19, 1907. Sarah E., who was the wife of William 
Anderson, died June 23, 1908, and Robert A. died January 21, 
1888, aged seventeen years. 



SLTklNER BOOKWALTER. 



The late Sumner Bookwalter, whose useful life ended in 
Minneapolis on February 14, 1913, passed through several 
occupations before he finally settled down to the one he 
deemed himself best fitted for. 

Sumner Bookwalter was born at Hallsville, Ohio, on April 
25, 1858, the sixth of seven children and the last born of four 
sons of Rev. Isaac L. and Phebe (Johnston) Bookwalter, then 
living in that town. The father was a minister of the 
United Brethren church, and, after long service in his sacred 
calling, was induced to come to Minnesota in 1864 for the 
benefit of his health, which was then failing. He visited 
Minneapolis, but considered the soil too sandy in this neigh- 
borhood for successful farming. So he went by stage from 
St. Paul to Mankato, and not far from that city he bought 600 
acres of Blue Earth county land, which he at once began to 
transform into a productive farm, continuing his efforts in 
this direction until 1870. The family improved the farm 
residing on it six years. 

Isaac L. Bookwalter was bom at Colerain, Ross county, 
Ohio, in 1820, February 6, and was a son of Joseph and 
Elizabeth Bookwalter, who had moved from Berks county, 
Pennsylvania, to that portion of Ohio four years before. He 
grew to manhood and was educated in Ross, and after leaving 
school worked at different occupations for a number of years, 
but at fanning mainly. In 1852 he was licensed to preach, 
and in the course of time became the presiding elder of the 
Western district of the church, which included the extreme 
frontier of Minnesota. He preached in this territory in school 
houses, dugouts and sod shanties, as well as often in the 
open air. 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



225 



In 1870, his health having been in a measure restored 
by his outdoor life, he accepted an appointment as pastor of 
the church of his sect at Western College in Linn county, 
Iowa. He had also in view good opportunities for the educa- 
tion of his children in agreeing to take this appointment. 
The college then located in the town named has since been 
removed to Toledo, Iowa, and is now the Leander Clark 
college, but it is still under the patronage of the United 
Brethren church. Rev. Mr. Bookwalter was a strong anti- 
slavery man, an abolition advocate, an opponent of secret 
societies and fraternities, and radical in all his views. As a 
young man he helped to work the Underground Railroad for 
the escape of fugitive slaves, and throughout his life he was 
zealous in defense of any position he took on any subject of 
public interest. In 1869 he was vice president of the National 
Christian Association, and in 1907 he died at Lisbon, Iowa, 
at the advanced age of eighty-seven years, forty of which 
were passed in active work in the Christian ministry. His 
widow is still living in Chicago, and is now ninety-three, and 
one of the sons is pastor of a Congregational church in 
Kansas City, Kansas. 

When he was twelve years old Sumner Bookwalter entered 
Western College, and after matriculating in that institution, 
while he was yet very young, he engaged in teaching school, 
attending college part of the time. One of the young ladies 
studying at the college was Miss Maria Louise Kelley of 
Wilton, Iowa. At the first sight of her young Bookwalter 
determined to win her affection and make her his wife if 
he could. He was successful in his suit, and they were 
married on December 29, 1881. She reached the age of twenty 
on December 20, and the marriage occurred nine days later. 

After his marriage Mr. Bookwalter became the manager of 
a boot and shoe store in Marion, Iowa. His father-in-law, 
S. G. Kelley, was the pioneer in the creamery business at 
that time in that section of the country, having started it 
first in Scott county, and having creameries at his home farm, 
Muscatine county, Wilton, West Liberty, Lone Tree and other 
places. He put Mr. Bookwalter in charge of the creamery 
at West Liberty, and he remained there three years. At the 
end of that period he went with Mr. Kelley to Chicago for 
the purpose of starting a wholesale produce store in that 
city through which he could dispose of the products of the 
creameries to advantage. Mr. Bookwalter had charge of this 
store for three years, then, in 1888, came to Minneapolis to 
live and engage in business. 

At this time his brother -Joseph had an office in St. Paul 
as the land commissioner for the Great Northern Railroad, 
having previously served for some years as collector of customs 
at Pembina, North Dakota. With the purpose of starting a 
bank, he sent Sumner to Pembina to learn the business in a 
bank in th.at city. But fate had other lines of endeavor for 
both of them. Joseph was sent out to develop the new born 
town of Great Falls in Montana for the Great Northern Rail- 
road, and Sumner was soon afterward appointed to a position 
in the service of tlie state of Minnesota. 

The office to which he was appointed was that of state 
registrar of the railroad and warehouse commission, and he 
received it at the hands of Governor McGill. He held this 
office until he was appointed by the board of directors to 
organize the office of registrar of the Minneapolis Chamber of 
Commerce. He was kept in this office until it was abolished 
about the year 1906. His mind was ever active and inquiring, 
and while serving as state registrar he attended the night 



course in the law department of the State University, from 
which he was graduated in 1892, but he never practiced the 
profession. His knowledge of Chamber of Commercu. matters 
was very extensive and exact. He kept in touch with all the 
grain elevators operated in the state and knew accurately 
all about them. He also owned two memberships in the 
board of trade, and gave its doings close attention. 

In 1906 Mr. Bookwalter started an enterprise in the produce 
trade in Minneapolis. His wife's brother was employed as 
manager in the Hanford butter factory at Sioux City, Iowa, 
and Jlr. Bookwalter began to handle its butter on November 3, 
of the year mentioned. His son, who was a student but worked 
evenings and Saturdays, introduced this butter by showing 
small samples to grocers. The demand for it grew so rapidly 
that Mr. Bookwalter saw great possibilities in the trade, and 
these were soon realized in large measure. The sales of his 
establishment in the year 1913 covered 763,000 pounds of this 
butter, and the house is now engaged in the wholesale trade 
and is the exclusive distributor of the celebrated Hanford 
products in this locality. Since the death of lue proprietor 
the business has been conducted by his widow and his daugnter 
Hazel. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bookwalter became the parents of four 
children: Their son Joseph S. and their daughter Hazel. Lucile, 
and Louis S. Joseph is a graduate of the architectural 
department of Columbia University in New York city and 
is practicing his profession in that city. Hazel obtained a 
fine musical education at the University musical department, 
and under Professor Cross, and she now teaches piario playing 
of a high order to the others at home. All the members of the 
family belong to Westminster Presbyterian church, as did 
Mr. Bookwalter during his life. He was a great worker in hia 
church. 



CHARLES CRANSTON BOVEY. 

Charles Cranston Bovey, one of the leading business men 
of Minneapolis, has been a resident of this city since 1870. 
He is a native of St. John, New Brunswick, where his life 
began on October 25, 1864, and where he passed the first six 
years of it. He began his education in the public schools of 
Minneapolis, which he attended until 1883. He then passed 
three years at the Phillips-Andover Academy, at Andover, 
Massachusetts, from which he was graduated in 1886. Enter- 
ing the academic department of Yale University the next 
year, he pursued its full course of study until 1890, when he 
was graduated with the degree of A. B. Immediately after 
his graduation from Yale he accepted a position with Shepard, 
Henry & Company, railroad contractors in St. Paul, who were 
extending the Great Northern Railroad from Seattle north to 
a junction with the Canadian Pacific. 

In February, 1891, Mr. Bovey entered the employ of the 
Washburn-Crosby company, with which he has been connected 
ever since. He is now one of the directors of this company, 
a director of the Minnesota Loan and Trust company and 
one of the executors of the estate of the late William H. 
Dunwoody. In religious affiliation he is connected with 
Plymouth Congregational church, and during the last seven 
years he has been one of the directors of the Young Men's 
Christian Association, He is also president of the board of 
trustees of Blake School. On June 14, 1898, he was married 



226 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



to Miss Kate Estelle Koon, daughter of M. B. Koon. They 
have three children, Martin Koon, Ruth Alden and Charles 
Argalis. Mr. Bovey is modest and unassuming as to his own 
merit, but he is universally esteemed throughout Minneapolis 
as a citizen of genuine worth and gieat practical usefulness, 
and as a gentleman of high character, lofty ideals and superior 
business capacity. 



CHARLES JAmUS MARTIN. 

Was an ornament to the business world, — he was looked 
up to wherever he was known as a high-minded, honorable, 
genial, generous and cultivated American gentleman, and no 
higher tribute can be paid to any man in any condition in 
life. 

Mr. Martin was not a native of Minnesota, but he passed 
thirty-six years, more than half his life, in Minneapolis, and 
in that time became thoroughly attached to the state, deeply 
interested in its welfare and that of its residents, and known 
as one of the wisest and most active promoters of every 
enterprise that involved its and their advancement and 
improvement. He was born on a farm in Orleans county. 
New York, on April 2, 1842, and was a son of Dan and Dorcas 
(Putnam) Martin, his mother having been a kinsman of Gen- 
eral Israel Putnam, the rough and ready, but daring, skillful 
and able hero of the Revolutionary war. 

The early life of Mr. Martin was passed on his father's 
farm, and his scholastic training was begun in the public 
school in the neighborhood of his home. After completing 
its course of study he attended Brockport (New York) 
Collegiate Institute, from which he was graduated after 
passing through the regular literary course of study. As he 
approached manhood he found the great, undeveloped West 
had a winning smile for him, and he moved to Columbus, 
Ohio, where he became associated with his uncle J. T. Lewis, 
afterward governor of Wisconsin, and worked in his store. In 
1862 he followed Mr. Lewis to the latter state, of which he 
was then the chief executive, and became a clerk in his 
office. 

In 1864 the devotion to the Union, which was one of this 
gentleman's salient characteristics throughout his life from 
boyhood, impelled him to enlist in the Fortieth Wisconsin 
Infantry as a private soldier. His regiment was assigned to 
the Army of the Tennessee, and the division commanded by 
Major General Cadwallader C. Washburn. His military service 
was short, and part of the term of his enlistment was passed 
in a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and from there he was 
discharged from the army at the close of the war. He had, 
however, become well acquainted with General Washburn, and 
when that gentleman was elected governor of Wisconsin in 
1872, Mr. Martin was appointed his secretary and aide. 

When General Washburn retired from the office of Governor 
his secretary and aide accompanied him to Minneapolis by 
his request, and he at once became connected with the gov- 
ernor's extensive flour milling interests here, and also with 
the Washburn Memorial Orphan Asylum in this city. The 
work of looking after the details of the erection of the 
Orphans' Home devolved mainly on him, as did the greater 
part of the management of the Home after it was ready for 
occupancy. But he never severed his connection with the 
mills, and at the time of his death, and for many years 



prior to that event, he was secretary and treasurer of the 
Washburn-Crosby company, one of its members and a leading 
force in its management and the control of its business. 

Mr. Martin's long and intimate association with Governor 
Washburn, his deep, abiding and serviceable interest in every- 
thing that the governor was concerned in, his warm attach- 
ment to the Orphans' home, his ability and enterprise in 
business affairs, and his unwavering fidelity to every duty, 
gave the governor great satisfaction and was of vast 
advantage to him. So great was his confidence in Mr. Martin 
and his regard for him, that he named him as one of the 
executors in his will, Charles Payson, the governor's son-in- 
law, and General Van Steenwick of La Crosse, Wisconsin, one 
of Mr. Washburn's closest friends, being the other two. They 
were actively employed for eight years in settling up the 
estate. 

At one time Mr. Martin was vice president of the old 
Bank of Commerce, and for several years he was treasurer of 
the Millers' National Association. He was also made the 
custodian of many trusts, all of which were executed with 
conscientiousness and the utmost fidelity. Although he was 
deeply and sincerely interested in benevolent work, his large 
and important part in charitable undertakings was conducted 
with the extreme of modesty and self-obliteration. He was 
liberal to all undertakings for the public good; made large 
donations to the parks of his home city; aided the public 
library with money, counsel and earnest work; took a cordial 
and helpful interest in all civic improvements; was one of 
the guarantors of the fund to be raised to Support the 
orchestra, and a life member of the Art Society. 

His great devotion to art and history led Mr. Martin to 
take many trips to Europe in order that he might enjoy the 
art galleries in that county, visit historic places and generally 
revel in the scenes, associations and productions on which the 
voice of time has placed the seal of universal interest and 
everlasting renown. He also visited many parts of this 
country, going where History has held her splendid course, 
and examining both natural and artificial wonders and 
beauties wherever he could find them. And he rejoiced ever 
in the greatness, wealth, power, fine institutions and lofty 
ideals of our country, for he was in all respects thoroughly 
American, and unstinted in his devotion to the land of his 
birth. 

In 1876 Mr. Martin was united in marriage with Miss Ella 
F. Sage, a daughter of Hon. E. C. and Elizabeth M. (Lour) 
Sage. Her father was an early New York banker and miller 
at New Lisbon, Wisconsin, where the marriage occurred, and 
a relative of the great New York broker, Russell Sage. He 
was a prominent man in Wisconsin and represented his county 
in the state legislature at times. His later years were passed 
in Minneapolis at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Martin. 

Mrs. Martin has been free to take a very active interest in 
various institutions and organizations of a public or semi- 
public character. For many years she has v<erved as one of 
the directors of the Old Ladies and Children's Home, and 
also as a director of the Art Society. 

Charles J. Martin was an honor to the milling industry, a 
credit to the great array of American business men. one 
of the finest types of uprightness and sincerity in every phase 
of his life. Such men as he are rare, very rare, and the 
world needs them. It is much to the credit of Minneapolis 
that its people knew how to appreciate him at his true worth 
and esteem him accordingly. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



227 



RENE L. BAILLIF. 

Rene L. Baillif, one of the leading citizens of Bloomington 
township, was born in the old DeNoyer neighborhood, tliree 
miles from St. Anthony and six miles from St. Paul. December 
9, 1847, and is a representative of a family that settled in 
that neighborhood late in the thirties. He is a son of John P. 
and V'ictorine (LaVocat) Baillif, the former from the North 
of Normandy, France. 

The father was a sailor, going to sea as a cabin boy at 
the age of twelve, advancing gradually till he became first 
mate. The captaincy of a vessel was offered him but he 
declined, preferring to become a citizen of the United States. 
He remained in New York until 1836, when he came to 
Minnesota and located at Mendota. There he formed the 
acquaintance of his wife, they being afterward married in 
St. Paul. She had come to the Northwest with her parents 
in 1844. 

Mr. Bailif bought forty acres of land and later took 
up a claim of 160 acres, the tract being now embraced in 
the State University grounds. He sold his right to this tract 
for $300, and in 1854 took a pre-emption claim on Nine Mile 
creek, nine miles from Fort Snelling. and on the Shakopee 
stage line, where the Baillif Bros." Bloomington store now 
stands. There he kept tavern which became a regular station 
on the stage line from Shakopee to St. Paul. It is four miles 
East of Bloomington Ferry and was kept as a public house 
to the end of his life. No man had a wider acquaintance with 
the public in this region. All travelers stopped with him, his 
house being on the main stage line into the interior of the 
state. An old time-table of the coming and going of the 
stages in 1857 is still kept in the family. The stages would 
leave Glencoe one morning, and Shakopee for St. Paul the next, 
two days being also consumed in the return trip. The elder 
Mr. Baillif died about 1873, aged fifty-two years, his wife 
surviving him nearly thirty years, dying in 1901. He served 
as township treasurer for a number of years, and was such 
at death. He was succeeded by his son Rene, who held it for 
seventeen years continuously. 

The family consisted of eight children. Victor, who was a 
carpenter, was killed at the age of thirty by a fall during 
the construction of the stone arch bridge in Minneapolis. 
Ernest is a resident of Bloomington township and was for- 
merly a school teacher. Julius lives at Bloomington, as do 
Alfred and Charles. Mary is the wife of E. S. St. Martin, 
and also has her home in Bloomington. Albert lives in Seattle. 
Wa.shington. Alfred and Charles have kept a store at the 
old home in Bloomington for the last thirty years. 

Rene L. Baillif remained at home until he reached the age 
of twenty-two. He helped to grub out the farm, and also 
worked at the hotel, doing stable work, often cooking the 
meals, and performing numerous other duties. In company 
with J. P. Bachelor he bought 380 acres of land, without 
making any cash payment, but paying ten per cent interest 
until the debt was discharged. His main crop was hay, for 
which a ready market was found in the winter in St. Paul, 
sixteen miles distant. At the end of eight years his partner- 
ship with Mr. Bachelor was dissolved, and the land was 
divided. Mr. Bachelor sold his to C. E. Wales, but Mr. Baillif 
still owns his tract. Fifteen years ago he turned the farm 
over to his sons and became secretary of the Farmers Mutual 
Fire Insurance company, of which he was a charter member 



and director when it was organized in the spring of 1884. 
He is still the secretary. 

Mr. Baillif was married in 1880 to Miss Jeannette McCloud, 
a daughter of Martin McCloud, one of the first settlers. His 
farm lies where Lyndale avenue reaches the Minnesota river, 
and went out of the family only six years ago. Mrs. Baillif 
was born at Lac qui Parle, Minnesota. They have had four 
sons, three of whom are living, one having died at the age of 
seven years. The three living are Martin J., Victor C. and 
Arthur A. They operate the farm, the two younger being 
partners, and raise principally potatoes and onions. They had 
four carloads of potatoes and seven of onions in 1913, amount- 
ing to 4,500 bushels in all. 

Politically Mr. Baillif is a Democrat, but in local elections 
casts his vote to the candidate he deems best qualified for the 
ofKce sought and most likely to render good service to the 
public. Mrs. Baillif's sister Mary is living with her, and 
they are the only members of this McCloud family left in 
Hennepin county. Their brother, Walter S. McCloud. who 
owned the old farm and lived on it six years ago, is now 
living near Northfield, a sister Isabel keeping house for him, 
neither having mari'ied. 



WILLIAM W. BARTLETT. 



With an abiding faith in Minneapolis as a future city of a 
million inhabitants, with all the industrial, commercial, polit- 
ical, social and moral power involved in such an aggregate 
equipped with the almost boundless natural resources avail- 
able, William W. Bartlett, one of the prominent lawyers, real 
estate owner and investor, and versatile citizens, is doing his 
share to hasten this prophecy to fulfillment. 

Mr. Bartlett was born in Vassar, Tuscola county, Michigan, 
September 33, 1860. and in 1866 was taken to Omaha, Ne- 
braska, by his parents. During the next sixteen years he 
alternated between Nebraska and his native state, attending 
schools in both, finally studying law in Michigan and then, 
in 1880, being admitted to the bar in Omaha. In the mean- 
time he had acquired a thorough knowledge of the printers' 
trade, working at the case and in the pressroom, and perform- 
ing duties of the reporter and the editor. 

In April, 1883, he came to Minneapolis. His purpose was to 
open a law office, but Colonel G. D. Rogers and others having 
.started "The Times," he became court reporter for that pub- 
lication, later doing editorial w-ork. He is one of the able 
and successful lawyers, devoting especial attention to real 
estate and commercial law. 

For some years Mr. Bartlett took a very lively interest 
and active part in public alia Irs. He is a Republican in 
political alignment, being formerly a zealous partisan and 
delegate to various conventions, is a warm advocate of all 
improvements, such as opening streets, providing playgrounds 
and bathing facilities for the children and all other better- 
ments that will help to make Minneapolis a more desireable 
place to live in, and thinks such evidences of public spirit 
should continue in progress at all times and with all the 
force the city can command. For some years he was active 
in the Minnetonka Yacht club taking a leading part in the 
lake races. He sailed the ''Magic Slipper" on Minnetonka 
waters, winning numerous pennants and other trophies prized 
by yachtmen. 



228 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



He was also fond of hunting. It should be recalled to his 
credit that when the Minnetonka Yacht club took a stand 
against lowering the level of the lake he was a zealous cham- 
pion and was of assistance in arousing public sentiment in be- 
half of maintaining the old level, and was one of the committee 
that drafted a communication to the legislature which opened 
the way for the erection of the dam at the head of the 
lake. This restored the old level and has been of substantial 
advantage to the lake. But the fight was a hard one extending 
over four or five years, many really wanting the water 
lowered two feet and persisting in their efforts. He has been 
the organist of several churches at different periods, and for 
some time was a vestryman of St. Luke's although not a 
member of the congregation. He was also for years a member 
of the Philharmonic Society and sang in its chorus, and still 
endeavors to keep up his violin practice. 

In 1895, Mr. Bartlett was married to Miss Nellie M. Wills, 
who was born in Colorado, completed her education at the 
Mankato Normal School, and taught for three years in Min- 
nesota. They have four children. Walter, Marshall, Edith 
Belle and Martha, tliree of whom are students in the liigh 
school. 



In the campaign of 1912 Mr. Bardwell was close to the other 
leaders of the Republican party in the generalship of the 
campaign, although he had come to look with more favor 
upon the legal side as opposed to the administrative or the 
legislative phases of government. It was through Governor 
Eberhart's becoming acquainted witli the trend of Mr. Bard- 
well's mind and his ideals for good citizenship that he offered 
him appointment as judge of the municipal court, to fill a 
vacancy caused by the elevation of another judge to the 
district bench. 

His qualities of councillor brought about his advancement 
to prominence, also in the several fraternal and social clubs 
of which he is a member. Thus he held important committee- 
ships in the Commercial club, was secretary and member of 
the executive committee of the Hennepin County Bar Associa- 
tion, and is the present exalted ruler of Minneapolis Lodge No. 
44. B. P. 0. E. He is also a member of the Masonic order, 
and of the Royal Arcanum. 

Judge Bardwell married Edith May Champlin in 1892. They 
have three children, Mildred I.. Charles Cliamplin, and Marion 
A. The family's church affiliations are with the Congregational 
sect. 



WINFIELD W. BARDWELL. 



LEVI M. STEWART. 



Winfield W. Bardwell was born in Excelsior, Hennepin 
County, July IS. 1867, the son of the pioneers William F. and 
Araminta (Hamblet) Bardwell. Theirs was one of the leading 
families of the County in the formative period when citizen- 
ship, though less complex, was sturdier than at present. It 
was to this quality of interestedness in all that goes to make 
the community better that .Judge Bardwell owes one of his 
strongest characteristics. He attended the common schools at 
Excelsior, and later an academy which for a few years held 
high rank among educational institutions of the West. From 
there he entered the office of Harlan P. Roberts, as stenogra- 
pher and clerk. But it was not as a clerk that he continued 
there, but as one with an ambition to win laurels in a pro- 
fession. Mr. Bardwell soon entered the law school of the 
University and there took a course culminating in the degree 
of LL. B.. which was supplemented after post-graduate study. 
by the degree of LL. M. 

Beginning in 1891. Mr. Bardwell engaged in the practice at 
first in partnership with .James M. Burlingame, later with 
C. Louis Weeks. During the last five years he has been 
associated with Samuel Levy, as Bardwell and Levy. Mr. 
Bardwell attained a reputation as a successful criminal lawyer, 
appearing as counsel in several of the most important cases 
ever tried in the local courts. 

Politics attracting his attention, he was elected to the 
legislature in 1902, and became one of the strong factors in 
legislation in the session of 1903. That his services were 
appreciated was indicated by the fact that he was re-elected 
for the sessions of 1905 and 1907. In the session of 1907 he 
was chairman of the Hennepin delegation, an important mem- 
ber of committees, being chairman of the committee on 
insurance. His retirement from the field in 1909 was volun- 
tary, choosing to give closer attention to his profession. He 
continued his interest in desirable legislation, his counsel 
being sought by the thinking men who desired to press the 
enactment of important legislation. 



In none of the residents of the city from its foundation 
to the present time (1914) has Minneapolis had a more striking 
illustration of self-reliance and self-containment, strong and 
unyielding individuality, strict and exacting integrity and 
remarkable force of character, all combined with high mental 
endowments and stern regard for the rights of others, than 
was furnished in the person and career of the late Levi M. 
Stewart, long one of the leading lawyers of the city and for 
many years one of its most substantial capitalists and property 
owners. A complete analysis of his character and a full 
account of his life are alike impossible, for his inflexible 
secretiveness prevented all attempts to acquire a knowledge 
of his true inwardness, except as it was revealed slightly in 
his daily walk and actions or to his most intimate friends; 
and the latter were few and for the most part have departed 
this life with the story untold. And yet, Mr. Stewart was 
not a man of mystery. He simply lived within himself, and 
to a large extent kept the world outside. 

Mr. Stewart was born in the town of Corinna, Penobscot 
county, Maine, on December 10, 1827, and died in Minneapolis 
on May 3, 1910, in the eighty-third year of his age. He 
came of a family noted for longevity and his sister Elizabeth 
and brother David D. are still living, the latter in the town 
of St. Albans, Maine, and both are now far advanced in 
age. The father and grandfather of the family were Baptist 
clergymen, and when the subject of this review was born he 
was named Levi and dedicated to the ministry to keep up 
the succession. But circumstances acting on his sturdy nature, 
which was better adapted to combat than persuasion, decreed 
another destiny for him. 

Mr. Stewart was a son of David and Elizabeth (Merrick) 
Stewart, and they were zealous in efforts to prepare him for 
the work they had marked out for him. He obtained his ele- 
mentary education in the common schools, and was fitted for 
college at academies in Hartland and Corinth, Maine. He then 
passed one year at the college in Waterville of the same state 




^fn Ml (^Cinoit 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



229 



and thife at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. 
He was graduated from the latter institution in 1853, and at 
once began the study of law in the office of his older brother, 
David D. Stewart, of St. Albans, Maine, with whom he re- 
mained two years. He then attended the law department of 
Harvard University, from which he was graduated in Janu- 
ary, 1S56, and he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court 
of Maine in the same month. 

Returning to the office of his brother in St. Albans, Mr. 
Stewart remained in that town until October, 1856, when he 
concluded to come West, and did so, locating in Minneapolis, 
where he always afterward resided. Before this, however, he 
wrought out something of a career in his native state. While 
attending one of the academies he studied in, he secured em- 
ployment in a sawmill in Corinna in order to do something 
toward providing for himself. The work was very hard, and 
he soon gave it up. At the age of fifteen, when he "looked 
well over twenty," as he said himself long afterward, he taught 
school and made his mark in the work. 

The next year he was told by one of his school companions 
that there was money in working on a fishing boat, and to- 
gether they planned to go to the seaboard from their little 
inland town, which offered but few and slender opportunities 
for advancement. They visited Bangor and Portland, and fin- 
ally got employment on a mackerel schooner at $7 a week and 
their "keep." Mr. Stewart determined to keep on with his 
education, and arranged with the captain of the schooner to 
be allowed to alternate fishing with study. 

In his youth and young manhood Mr. Stewart was very 
tall and slender, and had a great reputation as a wrestler and 
was something of an all-round athlete. While he was at col- 
lege, and still insistent on supporting himself as far as possible, 
he secured a position as teacher in Nicholas Academy at Sears- 
port. The call was for a "young, healthy male teacher." 
There were 120 pupils in the school, including a few girls, 
and fifty-five of the male students were captains or mates of 
coastwise or sea-going vessels, who took advantage of the 
opportunity afforded by the winter season, when their boats 
were tied up, to "get a little schooling." Mr. Stewart had to 
teach these rough men the elementary branches, in which they 
were sadly deficient, and also induct them into the mysteries 
of "Bowdit'ch's Navigation," then a renowned text-book on 
the subject. Some of his pupils thought they knew more about 
navigation than Bowditch did, and sometimes tried to enforce 
their belief with physical arguments. But Mr. Stewart mas- 
tered them and won their respect during the two seasons in 
which he taught the school. 

When Elder Stewart, as he was always called, at home and 
in this city, because he had been destined for the ministry, 
reached Minneapolis in the fall of 1856, he went at once to the 
Bushnell House, which is still standing at the corner of Fourth 
street and Sixth avenue south. Later he boarded with a 
family that lived near Fourth avenue on the block now cov- 
ered by the city hall and courthouse. There he rescued two 
small children from the house while it was burning. He could 
never afterward be induced to speak of this event, and resented 
every inquiry made of him about it. 

The young lawyer had his first office in this city in the 
Woodman building, which is now the St. James Hotel, at 
Washington and Second avenues south. In 1857 this was one 
of the pretentious office buildings of the city, and housed 
some of its most important stores on the street floor. In 
1860 the Harrison block, which is also still standing on its 



original site, was put up at the corner of Nicollet and Wash- 
ington avenues, and as it was more centrally located and more 
imposing than the Woodman building, Mr. Stewart moved his 
office to it, and remained there twenty-eight years. He took 
one room on the second floor, where Thomas Lowry had two, 
and several other lawyers, prominent then or later, also had 
offices in the same building. 

About the same time Mr. Stewart bought a half block of 
ground on Hennepin avenue between Fourth and Fifth streets. 
On part of this he had his residence. It was a source of special 
pride to him, and he continued to own and occupy it until his 
death. In 1880 the Kasota block was built on the corner of 
Hennepin avenue and Fourth street, directly opposite his 
dwelling, and in 1890 he moved his office into that structure. 
It is a handsome stone building, seven stories high, and when 
it was erected was the finest edifice in Minneapolis. Mr. 
Stewart took a suite of five rooms in it and installed his 
library in them. He was located on the second floor, and 
there he passed mucli of his time during the later years with 
his books. 

In the practice of his profession Mr, Stewart was very suc- 
cessful. In his earlier years it gave him particular delight to 
take a case against men older than himself, and when he won 
such a case he was greatly pleased. He would never have a 
partner or occupy an oflice with another man. In his youth 
he determined to go it alone, and he held to this determination 
to the end of his life. He would, however, frequently give 
advice to men he thought worthy who were unable to pay fees. 
And it was said by persons who knew him best that he had 
many admirable traits of which the general public knew 
nothing. He was very charitable in his own way, but his 
benefactions were known only to himself and the beneficiaries 
of them. 

Besides practicing law Mr, Stewart dealt extensively in real 
estate for many years. But in the latter line of effort he 
marked the opening of his career in Minneapolis by a losing 
venture. His brother placed $1,500 with him to invest here. 
He invested it, and he lost it. He put it into property in North 
Minneapolis, the title to which was uncertain, but he paid 
the money back to his brother to the last dollar, although 
the brother was not insistent and his own income was meager 
and required frugal living on his part. 

The $1,500 were not wholly lost. The transaction brought 
him an experience that was highly educational. He used to 
say he had learned by it $1,500 worth of what he did not 
know about real estate. From that time his thought was 
given to the study of conditions that were fundamental in 
determining realty values, and he became in later years the 
most conspicuous holder of strategically located property in 
the city. He also saw early what many shrewd men did 
not so clearly see, until twenty years later, that the geography 
of the Northwest was such as to make Minneapolis in time not 
only a large city but a great industrial and commercial me- 
tropolis, 

Mr, Stewart donated the ground on which the Northwestern 
Hospital stands, which was worth about $10,000 when he 
gave it. He also contributed to the Bethel Home, which is 
now the Pillsbury Home. These were public benefactions and 
necessarily became matters of general knowledge. But his pri- 
vate charities were never mentioned by him. It was his cus- 
tom for years to send coal to poor families he knew of who 
needed fuel for the winter, and the dealers would fill his orders 
of this kind without asking questions or making comments. 



230 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



and he never allowed any in his presence on his generosity 
of this kind. One dealer once remarked to him, in a casual 
way, that he was sending out a good many loads of toal to 
other persons, and Mr. Stewart never gave that dealer another 
order. 

In his business transactions Mr. Stewart was exacting to 
the limit both for himself and for others. He required that all 
business with him must be done absolutely according to agree- 
ment to the minute of delivery, the fraction of a pound and 
the decimal part of a cent in the price charged. But he was 
as strict in the performance of his part of a deal. All who 
did business with him came in time to understand his peculiari- 
ties. They knew that he had ample means to pay a thousand 
times over for whatever he bought, and was always willing to 
pay good prices for good articles. They knew also that if 
there was a mistake of a single cent in a bill he would not 
pay it until it was corrected. No merchant who understood 
this and acted accordingly ever lost his trade. 

This excellent specimen of New England firmness of fiber, 
flexibility of function, strictness of integrity and self-reliance, 
came to Minneapolis when he was a young man and the city 
was also young and small. He took an active part in its 
life and striving, until he reached an advanced age, and it 
grew to metropolitan magnitude and importance ; and he helped 
materially to make it what it is. His natural reticence and 
secretiveness, his disposition to live to and within himself, 
and his other peculiarities kept him from securing the full 
measure of public appreciation and esteem he was entitled to, 
but even as it was, the people of the city thought well of him 
and respected him highly, and he was altogether worthy of 
their regard because of the genuine manhood which underlay 
his rugged manner and made him seem often and in consider- 
able degree what he was not. 



MELBOURNE C. BURR. 



Melbourne C. Burr, manufacturer and' inventor, is a native 
of Louisiana, born near the Mississippi river March 4, 1838. 
When he was eight years of age his family removed to Rising 
Sun, Indiana, where his boyhood was spent. He manifested 
marked mechanical genius and early in life began the study 
of various lines of mechanical productions. Through his 
interest and natural ability he soon acquired a thorough 
training, devoting especial attention to wood work. He went 
to Owatonna, Minnesota, in 1856, where he applied his skill 
to the making of furniture, continuing in this enterprise for 
a number of years. In 1865 he came to Minneapolis which 
with its great water power, off'ered attractions to manufactur- 
ing industries. Here he also engaged in the manufacture of 
furniture, forming a partnership with T. L. Curtis. J. S. 
Treat and D. M. Gilmore were also associated with liim in 
this enterprise at various times until 1878. Mr. Burr has 
made it possible that many important and useful articles 
should become of common use, his inventive mind and skilled 
craftsmanship having perfected and adapted numerous crude 
suggestions and ideas. One of the most noted of these 
perhaps, is the sectional book case now manufactured by 
the Globe-Wcrnecke company. Mr. Burr developed the idea 



and patented it and was the first to place it on the 
market then selling his rights to the Wernecke company. 
He has since devoted his efforts largely to the designing and 
construction of wood specialties, establishing the M. C. Burr 
Manufacturing company with a capital of $10,000. The plant 
is located in the power building on Nicollet island and is 
completely equipped with the most modern and improved 
machinery much of which has been built for this factory to 
be used for some special and unique productions. Fifty 
workmen are employed in the manufacture of various articles, 
constructed from wood, a large number being the inventions 
of Mr. Burr or the result of his expert knowledge applied 
to some incomplete working model. Among the articles con- 
structed are hand looms for school industrial work, exhibition 
coops for poultry dealers, display cases for seed houses, the 
company having supplied Northrop King & Company with over 
11,000 of the latter. It also manufactures all varieties of 
automatic wood turnings and tlie plant is fully equipped to 
supply any article made of wood. Mr. Burr has made this 
work his life interest and devoted every efi'ort to the develop- 
ment of his mechanical talent, finding ample satisfaction in 
achievement and success, believing with Goethe that "the 
spirit that strives for higher things can become satisfied with 
the ideas springing up in its own breast," and he has no 
desire to enter other fields of endeavor or public service. He 
has made a continual study of mechanical and scientific sub- 
jects and of every phase of their advancement possessing an 
extensive library on these subjects. He was married in 
Owatonna, January 1, 1865, to Miss Carrie Donaldson, daugh- 
ter of Judge N. M. Donaldson. She died in 1881 leaving two 
children, Jessie N. wlio married Mr. McFarland of Winthrop, 
Iowa, and Dr. George D. Burr, of Wenache, Washington. His 
second marriage was with Miss Alice Cain of Washington, 
D. C, and they have four children, Ida, who is Mrs. Spencer 
of Willmar, Minnesota; Frances E.; Richard M., who is 
rapidly making a reputation as a tennis player; Alice C, a 
student in the art school. Mr. Burr is a deacon of the Park 
avenue Congregational church and takes an active interest in 
the work of the Sunday school. He is a stanch Republican 
but not tied to party lines in local matters. 



JACOB K. SIDLE. 



The most eminent name in connection with the banking 
business in Minneapolis up to the time of his death, was that 
of Jacob K. Sidle, who came to this city in 1857 and died 
here on January 25, 1888, after a few days of painful ill- 
ness from acute intestinal inflammation. During the whole 
of his residence of about thirty-one years in Minneapolis 
banking was his chief pursuit and absorbed all the force of his 
ambition. Moreover, through his thorough mastery of the 
business and his skill, vigor and success in the management 
of it he gave to the banking interests of the city in the early 
days a reputation for enterprise and soundness and a stand- 
ing in public confidence they would not otherwise have had for 
many years. 

ilr. Sidle was a native of the sturdy and sterling old city 
of York, Pennsylvania, where his life began on March 31, 1821, 
and the son of Henry and Susan (Kootz) Sidle, also natives 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



231 



of that state, but of Orman ancestry. Jacob's grandfather 
was a soldier in the army of Washington during the Revolu- 
tionary War, and his son Henry, the father of Jacob, was first 
a blacksmith and afterward a merchant. His two sons, Jacob 
K. and Henry G., were associated with him in his merchandis- 
ing enterprise until advancing age induced him to retire from 
active pursuits and turn the business over to his sons, after 
which they conducted it together for seventeen years. 

In the spring of 1857 .lacob K. Sidle made a tour of tlie 
West. At Minneapolis he found the conditions and prospects 
that suited him, and here he decided to locate. He had with 
him Peter Wolford, a wealthy man of York County. Pennsyl- 
vania, and together they opened a private banking house un- 
der the firm name of Sidle, Wolford & Company. As soon as 
the Nicollet House Block was completed the firm took an office 
on the ground floor of the new building, and there it grew and 
flourished, steadily extending its operations to the profit of 
its members and the great advantage of a large part of the 
population and the community in general. 

In 1865 his partner, Mr. Wolford, left the firm and turned 
his attention to other business. About the same time Mr. 
Sidle organized the Minneapolis Bank under a state charter. 
Before the end of the year this institution was converted into 
the First National Bank, it being the second bank northwest 
of CTiicago to come under the new National Banking Law. 

Jacob K. Sidle was the president of the First National 
Bank from its organization until his death. He had behind 
him and working with him a substantial board of directors — 
men who represented the best business sense and greatest suc- 
cess in the city. 

The First National began business with a capital of $50,000, 
the same as that of its predecessor, the Minneapolis State 
Bank. This was increased to $100,000, $400,000, $600,000, as 
the business grew, until, in 1879, a larger increase than usual 
was found necessary, and the capital was then raised to 
$1,000,000. The acorn from which this gigantic oak of fiscal 
vigor and utility has grown was wisely planted and skillfully 
tended in its sprouting period and years of youth by .Jacob K. 
Sidle, and its development in its present stature and spread 
shows how well he understood and how carefully he attended 
to the business of the Bank. Tlie present condition of the 
bank also demonstrates the wisdom of the policy he inaugu- 
rated in conducting its affairs. For that has never been 
changed, and the bank has never ceased to grow. 

The directors' room of the First National Bank was so closely 
associated with the financing of so many of the early big 
enterprises of the city that could a history of it be written it 
would almost be a history of the early finances of Minneapolis. 
In these meetings Jacob K. Sidle was ever foremost, his con- 
servative judgment being invaluable to his associates. In the 
early days there was no Cliamber of Commerce, and the pre- 
liminary meetings for the organizing of such big enterprises 
as the "Soo" Railroad, the Minneapolis Railway, Minnesota 
Linseed Oil Works, etc.. were held in the directors' room of the 
First National Bank. This shows the position the bank has 
held since its foundation. 

Mr. Sidle with Mr. Washburn, made several trips East in 
order to secure Eastern capital for the building of these en- 
terprises. This was in the days when Wall Street had less 
faith in the growth of the West, and was more shy of West- 
em investments. 

Mr. Sidle was earnestly interested In the public affairs of 
his community at all times, but he never could be induced 



to accept a public office of any kind. He followed the prin- 
ciples of the Democratic party in his political faith, but never 
became an active partisan. He was a prominent supporter of 
Westminster Presbyterian Church and a liberal contributor 
to its mission work and numerous charitable enterprises. In 
September, 1846, he was married in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 
to Miss Margaret De Hull, of that city. Four daughters of the 
union are living: Mrs. S. C. Sidle, Mrs. .James W. Lawrence, 
ilrs. C. C. Elfelt and Mrs. Kate Sidle Regan, the second 
xlaughter, Mrs. C. A. Bliss, having died March 23. 1906. 



CHRISTOPHER ADAM BOEHME. 

The combined science and art in architecture is one of the 
most pleasing pursuits known among men. It is work of the 
highest intellectual requirements, its creations engaging the 
rapt attention of him who brings them forth, and holding 
the regard and admiration of thousands afterward. 

Christopher A. Boehme, one of the leading architects of the 
Northwest, measures up to the highest standard. Mr. Boehme 
has the additional claim on the regard of the residents of 
this city of having been born, reared and educated in their 
midst, and employing all his ability in their service. His life 
began in Minneapolis on January 16, 1865, and he is a son 
of Gottfried J. and Eva (Trump) Boehme. The father wag 
born in Germany and came to St. Anthony in the early fifties. 
He was a builder and contractor, and died in this city in 
1908, after long years of usefulness. 

Obtaining his academic education in the public school, 
Christopher A. Boehme attended the University, taking a 
special course in architecture. During vacations he worked 
with his father, and upon leaving the University entered the 
office of Architect W. B. Dunnell, as student and assistant. 
He remained with Mr. Dunnell sixteen years, aiding in pre- 
paring the plans and superintending fche work in the erection 
of the Soldiers' Home, the State Training School at Red Wing, 
the State Hospital for the Insane at Fergus Falls, and many 
other structures of magnitude and importance. 

He then became manager of the Fergus Falls Manufacturing 
company, later returning to the office of Mr. Dunnell, but 
soon afterward opened an office of his own. From 1902 to 
1911 he was in partnership with Victor Cordelia. Many 
monuments to the enterprise, superior skill and ability of 
Boehme & Cordelia are standing in Minneapolis and other 
places in the Northwest, including the residence of Swan J. 
Turnblad on Park avenue; the residence of Charles Gluek on 
Mount Curve avenue; the residence of R. A. Jacobson; the 
operating wing of St. Mary's Hospital at Rochester; St. 
Francis' Hospital at Brcckenridge, and a number of churches 
in St. Paul and other cities in the state, the firm attaining 
a wide reputation for excellent work. 

Mr. Boehme is a member and a Vice President of the North 
Side Commercial club, and an enthusiastic member of the 
St. Anthony Turn Verein. Fraternally he is connected with 
the Knights of Pythias and the Royal Arcanum. He wa« 
married May 21, 1891, to Miss Martha Oeschger of La Crosse, 
Wisconsin. They have three children, Merceline, Sidonia and 
Lubue, and reside at 2215 Lyndale avenue north. 

Since 1911 Mr. Boehme has prepared many important plana, 
the claims on his professional skill constantly increasing. He 
has taken part in everything designed to promote the welfare 



232 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



of his home city, and in all public affairs within the purview 
of good citizenship. He has never been an active partisan in 
local matters of government, and has never sought or desired 
a political office. 



JOHN CROSBY. 



Men like nations build their monuments of different mate- 
rials and in various forms, according to their bent and the 
conditions of their environment. Literature in all its forms — • 
history, poetry, fiction, criticism, scientific elucidations, and all 
the rest — has its votaries; art in all its phases of expression 
commands its devotees and rhapsodists; military and naval 
glory — scenes of blood and battle — win many and present to 
them always a persuasive smile; political eminence, the power 
"the applause of listening senates to command," is all there is 
of life to some. The late John Crosby of Minneapolis would 
have none of these. His inclination and his opportunities led 
him into the field of peaceful and productive industry, and he 
passed his life in that. His acliievenient's in it remain in the 
piiblic mind, and their outward expression in the public view 
as his monument, and every inscription on it, is true to his 
worth and usefulness. 

Mr. Crosby was born at Hampden, Penobscot county, Maine, 
on November 1, 1829. He died in Minneapolis on December 29, 
1888, at the untimely age of fifty-nine years, at the full ma- 
turity of his powers, the height of his usefulness, and when 
it was to be supposed he had many years of activity yet in 
|)rospect. But he had so well developed his plans and built up 
his industry that the removal of even his strong hand had no 
I'ffect to stop or stay the productive machinery he had set in 
Tiuition. At tlie time of his death lie had been a resident of 
Xlinneapolis eleven years. 

Mr. Crosby's father and grandfather bore the name of John, 
also, and his son, the John Crosby of the present day, is there- 
f(irc the fourth member of the family in direct descent to dig- 
nify and adorn it. The first of the name here alluded to, the 
groat-grandfather of the prominent resident of Minneapolis 
who now bears it, represented a family that had lived on the 
coast of New Hampshire from early Colonial times. He 
moved from there to Hampden, Maine, then a remote settle- 
ment in a new country, but full of promise. His ancestry was 
Scotch, and he had the salient chai'acteristics of the frugal, 
self-reliant and resourceful Scotch people. He made them 
tell to his advantage in his new field of endeavor, and they 
liave distinguished the members of the family ever since. 

His son .lohn was a manufacturer of paper and had interests 
in several mills devoted to that industry. He had a family 
(if ten children, of whoin .John, the immediate subject of this 
sketch, was the second in the order of birth. The latter ob- 
tained a preparatory academic education in his native town, 
and was about to enter college for more advanced instruction. 
Milt the business instinct within him was too strong for him 
to combat, and he abandoned his purpose and began his busi- 
ness career in connection with the management of his father's 
])uper mills. Some time afterward he became connected with 
an iron foundry and machine shop at Bangor, He secured a 
Ikiiiic ill tliat city and thereafter made it and Hampden alter- 
iiiiti- places of lesideiu-i'. In Bangor he was united in marriage 



with Miss Olive Muzzy, a daughter of Hon, Franklin Muzzy, 
an extensive manufacturer in that city, and by this marriage 
became the fatlier of three children, John, Caroline M, and 
Franklin M., all of whom are now residents of Minneapolis. 
Their mother died before the family left her native state of 
Maine, 

Mr, Crosby came to Minneapolis to live in 1877, He was 
tlien forty-eight years of age and had been engaged in manu- 
facturing for almost a generation of human life. He tlierefore 
brought with him ripe experience in industrial enterprise, and 
here he found a fruitful field for its use. Soon after his- 
arrival he purchased an interest in the business of the Wash- 
burn B flouring mill and assumed its management. Later he 
became interested in all the mills built by Governor Wash- 
burn, the style of the firm becoming Washburn, Crosby & 
Company. It was while Mr, Crosby was principally in charge- 
of the interests of the firm that the chief improvements which 
liave revolutionized the process of making flour were evolved 
and adopted by the mills under his control, and he showed his 
breadth of view and progressiveness in the prom])tness with 
which he accepted and the completeness with which he installed 
them in his operations. 

What the Washburn-Crosby mills have become since is 
largelj' the result of evolution on the broad basis laid for 
their progress by this far-seeing and enterprising man. He 
met all the requirements of his day in his industry in a mas- 
terly manner. But he also built for the future with a keen 
and clear apprehension of its needs, making his the largest 
manufactory of flour in the world, unless that of the Pillsbury 
company exceeded it, and that seems to be an open question. 
At any rate, Mr. Crosby's plant was easily the second, if it 
was not the first, in magnitude and importance. 

In 1879 Mr. Crosby was married to Miss Emma Gilson of 
ilinueapolis, a daughter of the late V. A. Gilson, As a temple 
lor his domestic shrine he erected a fine brick mansion on Tenth 
street, and in a short time this became a center of refined and 
generous hospitality and a popular resort for the friends of 
the family, who were numbered in hosts. There the head of 
the house passed the remainder of his days, high in the regard 
of the community as one of its most useful and representative 
citizens and enjoying, in a marked degree, an almost world- 
wide reputation as a manufacturer and business man of great 
sweep of vision, far-reaching enterprise and the strictest in- 
tegrity in every particular. 

Mr. Crosby devoted himself wholly to his business. While 
he was intelligent beyond most men in reference to public 
att'airs, and highly qualilied in other respects for public life 
and official station, the contentions of politics never had any 
attraction for him, and he never entered them in his own 
behalf. He saw far and he saw clearly in matters of govern- 
ment, and his convictions on public questions, which were 
positive, were based on intimate knowledge of them of the 
most practical kind. But he always preferred to serve the 
state from the honorable post of private life, enforcing his 
opinions as far as he could in his own way, but leaving to 
(itlicrs the administration of affairs. In his intercourse witli 
111(11 he was very infiuential, for his personality was strong, 
but his manner was always courteous, and in the circle of his 
iiitiiiiate friendships he was genial and companionable in an 
iimisual degree. No man in Minneapolis ever stood higher in 
•_'(iicial esteem, and none ever deserved to stand higher. 



I 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



233 



DAN C. BROWN. 

Dan C. Brown was born at St. Anthony March 12, 1861, 
and was one of the first students to enter the Central High 
School, from which he was graduated in the class of 1881. 
His parents, Charles D. and Henrietta S. (Murphie) Brown, 
who are still living, are natives of Maine, the former of Edge- 
comb, Lincoln count}', and the latter of Aroostook county. 
They both came to St. Antliony in 1857. the mother accom- 
panying her parents, Edward D. W. Murphie and wife. Her 
father was an e.xpert timber scaler, and died highly esteemed 
at an advanced age. 

Mr. and Mrs. Brown were married in St. Anthony in 1860. 
He was a fine mechanic and conducted a carriage factory, 
blacksmith and paint shops, on Main St. S. E. and employed 
twenty-five to thirty-five men. 

He is now seventy-eight years old, and he and wife in the 
summer of 1913, celebrated the fifty-third anniversary of 
their marriage. Mr. Brown responded to the first call for 
volunteers serving nine months and took part in the battle of 
Shiloh. He is a member of Downs Post Grand Army of the 
Republic, and is an uncompromising Republican of the old 
school, adhering to the Taft wing of the party with unyielding 
tenacity. He and his wife became the parents of four children. 
One son died in 1880, aged seventeen years. Dan C. ; Alice, 
the wife of Walter Scott of Minneapolis, and Irwin M., a 
farmer. 

Dan C. Brown began to learn the woodworking part of 
carriage making in his father's factory, but in a few months, 
in March, 1882, entered the employ of the city as a clerk in 
the water department. He was cashier in the water depart- 
ment fourteen years, then for two and one-half years deputy 
County Auditor under Hugh R. Scott. In 1903, City Comp- 
troller Joshua Rogers appointed him to a clerkship in his 
office, and in 1905 he became comptroller, Mr. Rogers declining 
to be his own successor. 

A new system of accounts, checks and balances had been 
adopted by the city, and for one year, while assistant comp- 
troller, Mr. Brown worked under the experts who were install- 
ing this system. Mr. Rogers urged him to become a candidate 
for comptroller, as he was really the only man in the city 
capable of conducting the new system in its inchoate stage. 
Some friction between the different branches of the city 
government necessarily arose before the new plan was fully 
understood. But it was adhered to, and now all see its 
advantages. All the business is carried on systematically, the 
records of each department being kept in strict conformity 
and tallying exactly with those of the comptroller. There are 
fifteen employes in the office and its accounts cover millions 
of dollars annually, the sum in 1913 exceeding twenty-two 
millions. 

Mr. Brown was married August 1, 1889, to Miss Grace N. 
Newland of New York. Their only daughter. Gladys N.. was 
graduated from the East High School in 1909, and died forty 
days after graduation, from an attack of pneumonia. She 
was an accomplished and popular young lady, of high attain- 
ments and hosts of friends. Her talent and education in music 
were of a high order, and she was selected as organist of St, 
Matthew's Episcopal church. During the exercises of lier 
graduation she presided at the piano, which was the last 
service she rendered her class. Mr. Brown is a vestryman of 
St. Matthew's church. He was made a Freemason in Cataract 
Lodge. He is Past W. M. of Arcana lodge, is also Past Eminent 



Commander of Darius Commandery, a Noble of the 
Mystic Shrine, and a member of the Athletic club. He and 
his wife stand high socially, and he is widely and well 
esteemed for the uprightness, progressiveness and serviceable 
character of his citizenship, and his cordial practical interest 
in everything that embodies the substantial and enduring wel- 
fare of his community. 



WILLIAM BUTTERS. 



Mr. Butters lived an honorable and useful life in Minneapolia 
for 36 years. The men and women who knew him in life 
esteemed him highly for his genuine worth and manhood, and 
his memory is still cherished by them. He was born in 
Boston, Massachusetts, December 21, 1850, the son of Isaac 
Hill and Angeline S. (Mott) Butters, who were also natives 
of New England and pioneers in Minneapolis. The father's 
life began in New Hampshire, in 1825, but during his 
childhood he moved with his parents to Boston, and there he 
grew to manhood. In 1849 he married Miss Angeline S. Mott, 
of that city, and the next year their only child, William 
Butters, the principal subject hereof, was born. The father 
was engaged in business in Boston until 1860, when he moved 
to Chicago and entered into partnership with his brother, 
William A. Butters. After a few years of business activity 
in Chicago, he came to Minnesota in 1865, hoping to improve 
his health and located first at St. Paul. One year was passed ' 
in the Capital Cit}', and the next the Butters family came to 
Minneapolis. 

He purchased a home at the corner of Seventh Street and 
Ninth Avenue South, the latter being then called Rice Street. 
With the exception of a few years passed on a small farm 
at what is now the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Twenty- 
second Street, he lived in his Seventh Street home until his 
death, in January, 1886, and his widow continued to occupy 
it until her death, in 1898; it is still in the possession of 
the family. By 1867 his health had improved so that he 
was able to enter the oliice of Dorilus Morrison as bookkeeper, 
a position which he retained until his death in spite of con- 
tinued precarious health and frequently recurring illnesses. 
When they first located in Minneapolis he and his wife joined 
the Universalist Church of the Redeemer, and they weri' 
always zealous for its welfare. 

William Butters began his business career in 1871 as an 
employe in the lumber office of Dorilus Morrison, under the 
immediate supervision of his father, and he remained in the 
employ of the Morrison family, father and sons, almost without 
a break or an interruption until his death, serving for many 
years of his later life as private secretary to Clinton Morrison. 
At the same time, however, he carried on a real estate busi- 
ness on his own account, and took part in a number of profit 
able enterprises. He was interested in the North American 
Telegraph Company and the Northwestern Knitting Work>. 
and was for many years a director of the National Bank of 
Commerce. He was a Republican in politics, but not an 
aggressive partisan. In fact, he withdrew from the Cnion 
League in 1898, after having long been a member, because he 
found its prevailing political opinions too radical for him. 

In religious affiliation Mr. Butters was a Universalist and a 
member of the Church of the Redeemer. He was a regular 
attendant at the services in tliis chnrcli. and for ni'iiv \('nrs. 



234 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



before his death served as its treasurer. He was married in 
1874 to Miss Ella S. King, a daughter of Edward King, of 
Dorchester, Massachusetts. They had two sons, one of whom 
died in infancy. The other, Frederick K. Butters, is now an 
assistant professor in the University of Minnesota. Mr. 
Butters died suddenly September 15, 1902. His widow and 
son are still living in the family residence, at 815 South 
Seventh Street, on the lot adjoining the home purchased by 
Isaac H. Butters, in 1867. 



GEORGE K. BELDEN. 



Among the younger business men of Minneapolis, none 
enjoy a wider acquaintance in business and social circles, than 
George K. Belden. 

Mr. Belden was born at Lyndon, Vermont, in 1870 and is 
a son of Judge Henry C. Belden, one of the pioneer attorneys 
of Minneapolis. Mr. Belden received his early education in 
the schools of his native state, attending school at St. Johns- 
bury. 

In 1884 the family removed to Minneapolis and soon after 
he entered the State University from which he received the 
degrees of bachelor of science in 1893; and also graduated 
from the law department in 1897. 

He was at once admitted to practice before the courts of 
the State, and for a number of years was associated with 
Thomas F. Wallace, in the bonding and liability business, under 
the firm name of Belden, Wallace & Co. 

Later he became interested in electrical contracting as a 
member of the firm of W. I. Gray Company with whom he 
is still associated. Mr. Belden is cordial and democratic in 
his social inclinations and holds memberships in several 
organization of the city, including the Minneapolis, Mini- 
kahda, University Minnetonka Yacht and Minneapolis Ath- 
letic clubs; and, for a number of years he was captain of 
Company M, Fourth Regiment of Minnesota National Guards. 
He also served as Sergeant Major and first lieutenant of Bat- 
tery B. In politics he has always been an active worker in 
the Republican party, particularly so in the early days of the 
Roosevelt club. 

Mr. Belden was married in January, 1906, to Miss Edith 
Knight of this city. 



JAMES STROUn BELL. 



Heredity and the environment of his boyhood combined 
with the natural industry of a lifetime to make a great miller 
of James Stroud Bell. For he grew up in the flour business, 
and he entered it at the bottom of the ladder. That he is 
at the top of the longest ladder of its kind in the world is 
due to the fact that, while being the son of his father may 
have started him on the lowest rung, natural aptitude sent 
him upward. And he is today president of the largest Hour 
mills corporation in the world, in point of output and fame. 

James S. Bell is not one of the milling pioneers of Min- 
neapolis. The foundations of Minneapolis' supremacy as the 
flour capital of the world were laid many years before Mr. 
Bell became directly identified with the city's chief interests. 
But the connection of the Bell family with the flour market 



began before there was a flour mill in Minneapolis, or even a 
Minneapolis. And it is from this family of flour merchants 
that there arose forceful elements which have figured prom- 
inently in the growth of one of the largest and most complex 
enterprises in the world of barter and sale. 

As early as the 1830's the name of Bell figured in the Hour 
markets of the East. Samuel Bell of Philadelphia was a 
miller, and in 1837 he became a flour commission merchant 
as well as a miller. Down through the nineteenth century 
the name endured in the business; indeed, it endures today, 
in the Eastern markets. For awhile there was the firm of 
W. and S. Bell; again it was known as Samuel Bell, and 
later as Samuel Bell and Son. The "Son" was James Stroud 
Bell. Ten years after Samuel Bell had gone into business 
as a commission merchant, a son was born to Samuel and 
Elizabeth (Faust) Bell. That was on June 30, 1847, in Phil- 
adelphia. The family came of Irish stock, and its affiliations 
were with the Quakers who made Philadelphia. And the boy, 
James Stroud Bell, had the advantages of schooling which 
gave Pliiladelphians a leadership in the world of business and 
society. His education was that of the public schools and 
of the Central High school of Philadelphia. And it was 
directly from the high school, after two years of the course, 
that the boy passed, when he was sixteen years old, to the 
office of his father's firm. 

It is tradition in the business world that the men who have 
won their way must have started as office boys. So Mr. Bell 
holds fast to tradition in this particular. He began as office 
boy — and he worked in every place in the business. So that 
when the time came, in 1868, for the father to say to his 
son that the time had come for the two to establish a part- 
nership, James S. Bell had become conversant with the ins 
and outs of the flour market from personal contact. 

For twenty years James S. Bell continued a member of 
the firm of Samuel Bell and Son. The firm was one of the 
foremost in the business; and it happened that it was Penn- 
sylvania sales agent for one of the big milling companies of 
Minneapolis, Washburn, Martin & Company, an outgrowth of 
Gen. C. C. Washburn's connection with the industry. So it 
naturally came about that when that company became the 
firm of Washburn, Crosby and Company, and a reorganization 
was effected following the retirement of some of its members, 
Mr. Bell entered the firm and moved to Minneapolis. That 
was in 1888. 

A year later the firm was incorporated as the Washburn- 
Crosby company, and Mr. Bell was elected its president. He 
has held the same office ever since. And in this capacity he 
has directed the largest flour milling concern in the world, 
for the Washburn-Crosby company has mills in Minneapolis 
alone which have a total daily capacity of about 30,000 
barrels of flour, and in addition the concern owns and operates 
huge mills in Buffalo, N. Y., in Louisville, Ky., and in Great 
Falls and Kalispell, Montana. Men who know the flour 
market say it was due in part to Mr. Bell's insight into 
the peculiar demands of the flour business, its strategy and 
its vantage points of competition that the mills in the East, 
South and West were added to the plants of the Washburn- 
Crosby Company. 

For a quarter of a century James S. Bell, president of 
the company, has been at the helm. That he is a leader as 
a chief executive of the company is shown by the fact that 
he has surrounded himself with experts in the cumplex rami- 
fications of the milling and grain business. For the Washburn- 




\J-Ciy'>^^LJiyd 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



235 



Crosby Company is not only a flour milling concern; it is a 
commanding figure in the grain trade, and points the way of 
big traders in the Chamber of Commerce. In this connection 
it is that Mr. Bell heads not only the milling company but 
its closely allied concerns, the St. Anthony & Dakota Elevator 
Company, and the Frontier Elevator Company. And as he 
has a guiding hand on the affairs of the milling and elevator 
companies, so also he figures in the councils within the com- 
panies, when matters which have to do with utilizing the 
by-products of the business come up. 

A successful miller, in Minneapolis, must likewise be a 
successful financier as well. Business contacts are with men 
big in the banking world, just as business deals in the grain 
and flour markets are of such a nature that it is initiative and 
boldness of operation which rule. So Mr. Bell is perhaps as 
well known as a banker as he is as a miller. For many 
years he has been a director of the Northwestern National 
Bank or predecessors which have become part of that financial 
institution. And he has been looked to for advice, when 
matters affecting the credit of the city were uppermost. Mr. 
Bell is also vice president of the Minneapolis Trust Company. 

Of late years, though Mr. Bell has continued to be a living 
and active proof of the theory that a man is at his best when 
he is past fifty years of age, he has given more of his time 
to social enjoyment than had been his wont in the beginning 
of his business career. He is a member of the leading clubs 
of the city, the Minneapolis, the Minikahda, and the La- 
Fayette, and he is prominent in the affairs of the Presbyterian 
church. In politics he is a stalwart Republican. 

Mr. Bell has been married twice. His first wife was Sallie 
Montgomery Ford, wliom he married in Philadelphia .Jan. 8, 
1873. To them w;is born one son, .James Ford Bell, who is 
associated with his father in business. The first Mrs. Bell 
died on June 19, 1905. 

Mr. Bell was again married .September 28, 1912, his second 
wife being Mabel Sargent. 



LEWIS CASS BARNETT. 



Lewis Cass Barnett was born January 13, 1848, at Greens- 
burg, Kentucky, the seventh of eight sons of William and 
Lucy Reed (Cable) Barnett. The Barnett ancestors were 
Scotch Presbyterians who migrated to this country to secure 
religious freedom, William Barnett. the paternal great-grand- 
father of Lewis C, coming to America in 1750, and, settling 
in South Carolina, his sons espoused the cause of Independence, 
and served with distinction throughout the war. William, 
gnuiilfather of Lewis, choosing Kentucky, "the dark and bloody 
ground," for his future home, there prospered and became the 
owner of a large plantation. 

The third William Barnett's second wife was Lucy Reed 
Cable, another historic Ohio family. Lewis C. Barnett attended 
the public school until the age of fourteen. In 1864 the family 
moved to Rock Island, Illinois, and he became a student in 
Davenport, Iowa, and then took a four years' course in the 
University of Iowa. His first occupation was farming, where 
he learned the possibilities of the grain trade, and soon after- 
ward began operations in the building of grain elevators. 

Mr. Barnett became a elevator building contractor in 1880, 
in 1892 becoming president of the Barnett & Record company. 
F. R. McQueen soon after was made general manager; and in 
1895, when the Canadian Northwest showed signs of great 



grain development the Barnett & McQueen company, limited, 
was organized under the laws of Canada. 

The companies are using, in their operations, numerous 
patents on grain elevators and grain handling devices devised 
by J. L. Record, C. V. Johnson and Mr. McQueen. Some of 
the elevators erected by them are: The Chicago, Burlington 
& Quincy Railroad's fireproof elevator in Kansas City, with 
a capacity of 1,000,000 bushels; the P. V. elevator in Duluth 
of fireproof tile with a capacity of 650,000 bushels; the steel 
elevator at Fort William, Ontario, fireproofed with tile and 
built for the Canadian Pacific Railway, with a capacity of 
1,700,000 bushels, and the Canadian Northern Railroad com- 
pany's elevator at Port Arthur, Ontario, the largest in the 
world, having a storage capacity of 7,000,000 bushels. 

The type of elevator put up by these companies is the 
result of many years' study, observation and experimenting 
to meet the demand for absolutely fireproof construction. 
These companies have designed and built over 1,100 elevators 
of the first class. They have also erected a large number of 
iron ore, coal and dry docks. 

November 16, 1893, Mr. Barnett was united in marriage 
with Miss Laura A. Tombler. They have one child, Lucy 
Cable. He is a member of the Minneapolis club, the Iroquois 
club of Chicago, and the Kitchi Gammi club of Duluth. He 
and wife are presbyterians. He is regarded as one of the far- 
seeing, enterprising, and public-spirited citizens. 



WILLIAM BURNS. 



Mr. Burns was born in Natick, Middlesex county, Massa- 
chusetts, on November 37, 1868, and when he was between 
fifteen and sixteen years old came to Chicago, where he began 
to acquire a thorough practical knowledge of the manufacture 
of ornamental iron work. He started his work in this industry 
as helper to a shipping clerk at a compensation of .$6 a week. 
But he soon made his merit known and was rapidly advanced 
by the firm which employed him, becoming in turn checker, 
keeper of the tool room, purchasing agent, cost clerk and city 
salesman for Chicago. 

His deep interest in his work and his siiperior qualifications 
for it attracted the attention of other firms in the industry, 
and in the course of a few years he was elevated to the post 
of assistant superintendent of the Winslow Brothers company 
in Chicago. A few years later, in company with two other 
men, he organized a small company and began doing business 
on his own account. In 1906 he came to Minneapolis to accept 
the office of vice president' and sales manager which he now 
holds in connection with the Flour City Ornamental Iron 
Works, and in this position the greatest work of his life in 
the ornamental iron industry has been done. 

When Mr. Burns began his connection with this company 
it employed about 160 persons and sought only comparatively 
small contracts, one for $30,000 being the largest it had ever 
secured. 

This contract was carried out completely, promptly and to 
the entire satisfaction of the company, and the success opened 
the eyes of the men with whom Mr. Bums was connected to 
the larger possibilities of their business and their ability to 
meet all the requirements involved therein. 

Repeated extensions of the plant of the company and 
augmentations of its facilities have since been made necessary. 



236 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



At the time of this writing (June, 1914) the company has on 
file contracts aggregating more than one and one-half million 
dollars in value, and additions to the works are in course of 
erection which will practically double their capacity, although 
about 1,000 high-grade workmen, are regularly employed in 
them now, and are kept busy to the full limit of their work- 
ing time. 

Deeply interested in the enduring welfare, wholesome 
progress and artistic adornment of his home city, Mr. Burns 
takes an active part in everything that ministers to its 
betterment. The social amenities of life engage his attention 
and he contributes to them by active membership in the New 
Athletic, the Elks and Rotary clubs and other social organiza- 
tions. In the Civic Commerce association he serves on the 
committee on track elevation, and he is also zealously interested 
in the new Art building. 

Mr. Biirns was married in Chicago in 1893 to Miss Mary 
Kelley. They have one child, their son William V.. who is a 
salesman for the company. 



GEORGK M. BLEECKER. 



George M. Bleecker, Lawyer: 

Mr. Bleecker was born in the village of Whippany, Morris 
county. New Jersey, on November 19th, 1861, and is a 
descendant of one of the early Knickerbocker families of 
New York city. His early education was received at a local 
academy. In 1883, he came to Minneapolis, and during the 
next two years pursued a course of special instruction in the 
University of Minnesota. He then entered the law department 
of the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated 
in 1887, and was admitted to practice in Minnesota in Decem- 
ber following. During the next two years he was employed 
as law clerk with the firm of Smith and Reed, Judge Seagrave 
Smith of that firm being then City Attorney of Minneapolis. 
In December, 1890. he was appointed clerk of the Probate 
court of Hennepin County, and served as such until January, 
1893, and since tliat date he has been in active general 
practice. 

He was a member of the legislature during the years 1893 
and 1894. He is now one of the members of the Minneapolis 
Civil Service Commission. 

Mr. Bleecker also takes an active part in organized social 
life as a member of several clubs and other organizations 
devoted to physical, intellectual and social betterment. 

On October 22nd. 1888, Mr. Bleecker was united in marriage 
with Miss Mary Frances Martin, a native of Illinois. They 
have four children, two sons and two daughters. They attend 
the Episcopal church. 



JOSEPH DEAN. 



Mr. Dean was born on Jamiary 10. 1826. near Enniskillen, 
County Fermanagh. Ireland, where his forefathers lived, 
labored and were laid to rest in the soil that was hallowed by 
their labors for many generations. He died on May 23, 1890, 
at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, in the 'sixty-fifth year of his 
age. leaving a record of initiative and accomplishment that 
would have been creditable to any man in any age or country. 



WTiile he was yet but a lad he was brought to Canada by his 
parents, who located near Sherbrooke, in the province of 
Quebec, but moved to the neighborhood of Belviderc. Boone 
county, Illinois, when he was twelve years old. 

The father of the family died about this time, and the 
mother, who survived him, devoted her energies to complete 
the rearing and education of her children. She passed her last 
years at the home of one of her daughters at Baileyville, 
Illinois. George Dean, the oldest son of the household, re- 
mained in Belvidere, and died there well advanced in years. 

Joseph Dean learned the carpenter trade in Belvidere after 
obtaining a limited common school education, and was married 
there in 1849 to Miss Nancy Harvey Stanley, of near Dunkirk, 
Cliautauqua county. New York, where her girlhood was passed. 
After their marriage they moved to Chicago, and there Mr. 
Dean worked at his trade until 1850, when he brought his 
family to St. Anthony. He did not remain in that village, 
however, but soon after his arrival there pre-empted a claim 
near Bloomington, on the Minnesota river, fifteen miles south- 
west of Minneapolis, where the dwelling house he built is 
still standing. He and Thomas Chambers operated a ferry 
over the river there, and Mr. Dean also engaged in farming 
and was postmaster at the neighboring village of Bloomington. 

About 1856 Mr. Dean moved to Minneapolis and conducted 
the principal building activities of Colonel Franklin Steele, 
who was then the most prominent man in this locality. After 
working for Colonel Steele tliree or four years Mr. Dean, in 
I860, purchased of a Mr. Morey a sash and door factory at the 
Falls, which he sold to J. G. Smith and L. D. Parker after run- 
ning it for a few years. The factory then became the nucleus 
of the large plant of the Smith & Wyman company of the 
present day. 

When he sold his factory Mr. Dean formed a partnership 
with William M.. Thomas A. and Hugh G. Harrison, and they 
engaged in lumbering under the name of .Joseph Dean & Com- 
pany. They manufactured and sold lumber, their principal 
mill, the Pacific, being on the bank of the river above where 
the Union Depot now stands, and their second mill, the At- 
lantic, at the mouth of Bassett's creek. The Atlantic mill was 
destroyed by fire two or three years after they became pos- 
sessed of it. But this disaster did not lessen their business. 
The Harrisons were the strongest men financially in the com- 
munity at the time, and the firm had, therefore, plenty of 
capital and credit, and was able to carry on its business on a 
very extensive scale. 

The Harrisons limited themselves to an advisory capacity in 
the trade and left the management entirely to Mr. Dean. The 
wisdom of this course is shown by the fact that the firm be- 
came the most extensive manufacturer of lumber in Minne- 
apolis, employing regularly in the sawing season 250 to 300 
men and producing about 30.000,000 feet of lumber per annum 
for many years. In 1877 Mr. Dean quit the lumber trade and 
turned liis attention to banking. In .luly of that year he 
consented to take the cashiership of the old State National 
Bank of Minneapolis, of which Thomas A. Harrison was presi- 
lieiit. and which was not doing as well as it could have been 
in a business way. 

This move on the part of Mr. Dean led to the founding of 
the Security National Bank, which was opened for business 
on .Tanuary 1, 1878, with Thomas A. Harrison as president, 
Hugh G. Harrison as vice president and Mr. Dean as cashier. 
The old State Bank was liquidated, its depositors were paid 
off. :iM(l the institution was closed. Alfred J. Dean, the oldest 





Si^i^A-'C^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



237 



living son of Joseph, who liail been employed in the old Inink 
for seven years, was made assistant cashier of the Security 
;ind opened it for business. His father was the lirst cashier 
(if the new bank, and served it in that capacity until 1881, 
when failing health caused him to retire. Then Alfred was 
made cashier. In 1887, the father's health having greatly im- 
proved, he was chosen general manager of the bank, the i)(i.si- 
tion having been especially created for him. and from then 
until his death he continued to hold this relation to the insti- 
tution, and under his management it became the leading bank 
in the city. Thomas A. Harrison was presi<lent until his 
death, when he was succeeded in the office by his brother Hugh. 

Mr. Dean's excellent judgment led him to invest largely in 
centrally located property, such as would be needed in time 
for business purposes. But his faith in the future of the city 
then, and his judgment in relying on it, have been fully justi- 
lied by subsequent events and conditions. He owned the site 
on which the Guaranty Loan building, now the Metropolitan 
Life building, was erected and the site on which the public 
library stands. After the purchase of this site by the city he 
donated the sum of $5,000 to the library building fund. He 
also owned the site on which the Security National Bank was 
built and a large amount of land around the Lake of the Isles. 
He laid out the Dean Addition to Minneapolis at the inter- 
section of Lake street and Hennepin avenue, and owned a 
tract at the corner of Third avenue and Fourth street south. 
His firet home in the city was at Sixth avenue south and 
Washington avenue and later built a home at First avenue 
and Ninth street. When he decided to move in 1878, he sold 
the house on this lot and leased the land. 

For many years Mr. Dean was an active working Freemason 
and a leader in the fraternity. He was a Republican in poli- 
ties, and as such was once elected treasurer of Hennepin 
county. But he was averse to official life and never accepted 
another office. In religious faith he was a Methodist, and for 
years was active in the First Methodist Episcopal church, 
which later became the Centenary church. He was Superin- 
tendent of the Sunday school in the old church on Third avenue 
between Fourth and Fifth streets, and remained in the con- 
gregation until 1874, when he left it to assist in founding the 
Hennepin Avenue Methodist Episcopal church. But after he 
moved to Franklin and Fifth avenues south, he became a 
member of the Franklin Avenue church of the same denomi- 
nation. 

Close and constant attention to business finally broke down 
tliis energetic gentleman's health, and for ten years he was 
almost a nervous wreck. His first wife died in 1874, and two 
years later he married Miss Elizabeth Stevens, of Ogle county, 
Illinois, who is still living. His offspring numbered seven, all 
the children of his first marriage. The first born, Harvey 
Stanley, died in infancy. Alfred .1. is now the secretary and 
treasurer of the Thorpe Brothers company. William E. lives 
in Los Angeles, California. .John Henry died in 1881. and 
Mary E. in 1874. Frederick W. is a prominent and successful 
business man of Minneapolis, a sketch of whom will be found 
in this work. George F. is also a resident of this city. 

ALFRED J. DEAN. The oldest living child of Joseph and 
Nancy Harvey (Stanley) Dean, was born in Minneapolis on 
May 30, 1853, and grew to manhood in this city. He was em- 
ployed for seven years in the old State National Bank of 
Minneapolis, and then became assistant cashier and later 
cashier of the Security National Bank, which he served in the 



capacity last named until 1883. In that year he resigned and 
made a trip to California and a tour of Europe which con- 
sumed a year. In 1888 he again went to California, and he 
remained in that state two years, but returned to Minneapolis 
in 1890 to aid in settling up his father's estate as one of the 
executors of his will, and in 1897 was chosen secretary and 
treasurer of the Thorjie Brothers company, which relation he 
still holds to that enterprising, progressive and resourceful 
business corporation. 

On October 6, 1880, Mr. Dean was married to Miss Carrie 
Chamberlain, a sister of F. A. Chamberlain, president of the 
Security National Bank, and a half-sister of S. S. Thorpe. 
The}' have four children : Agnes L., who was graduated from 
Smith College in 1904; Helen M., who is also a graduate of 
that institution, of the class of 1907, and is now the wife of 
Dr. Fred M. Bogan, a surgeon in the United States navy and 
in charge of the hospital at Portsmouth, New Hampshire; 
Harold F., a graduate of Princeton University, and Carolyn 
E., who is also a graduate of Smith College. 



WILLIAM ARTHUR DURST. 



The Minnesota Loan and Trust Company, one of the colossal 
financial institutions of the country, owes its success largely 
to the enterprising, progressive and prudent men who have 
managed its affairs. Among the gentlemen who compose the 
official staff is William A. Durst, the first vice president, 
who has been connected with the company for a full quarter 
of a century. Mr. Durst was born in Monroe, Green county, 
Wisconsin, in 1870, being a son of Henry and Louisa (Jackson) 
Durst, the former a native of Switzerland and the latter of 
New York. His father was a prosperous merchant in Wis- 
consin, where both he and the mother died. William after 
attendance at the local schools early became interested in 
mercantile life and general business operations. He came to 
Minneapolis in 1887, soon securing employment in the Min- 
nesota Loan Trust company. His early training proved of 
great advantage and manifesting a warm and helpful interest 
in the details of the company, his advance was assured, rising 
from post to post until he attained the official relationship 
he now occupies. Politically Mr. Durst is a Republican, 
fraternally is a Freemason, and in social relations he is an 
active member of the Minneapolis. Minikahda and Interlacken 
clubs. He is affiliated with Plymouth Congregational church. 
He was married in 1893 to Miss Clara J. West, of his own 
native town. They have one child, Burdette H. 



GEORGE W. COOLEY. 



(ieorge W. Cooley, who drove the first survey stake west of 
the Mississippi as assistant engineer for the St. Paul and 
Pacific Railway, now the Great Northern, came to Minneapolis 
in 1864. He was also the first locating and con.sti-uction 
engineer on the eastern end of the Northern Pacific Railway, 
commencing work February 15, 1870. In this work he was 
succeeded by General Rosser while he was given charge of 
the preliminary surveys. 



238 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



For a decade Mr. Cooley haa been state engineer and Secre- 
tary of the Minnesota state highway commission; thus mak- 
ing him the largest factor in the development of "good roads" 
in Minnesota for which he, for years, has been known as a 
most indefatigable promoter. With the rapid increase in the 
use of the automobile his year.s of advocacy of good roads 
began to bear fi-uit, and at the same time problems of road- 
making and maintenance multiplied. His associations with 
the fellowship of engineers through road associations brought 
him recognition as one of the most practical authorities on 
highway construction. For some years the planning of a 
great state system of trunk and lateral highways has largely 
engaged his attention, his suggestions being recognized in 
recent legislation. 

He has long been intimately connected with affairs of city, 
county and state, taking a deep interest in civic life, and when 
elected alderman from the Eighth ward in 1884 he stood for 
betterments and advancing ideas that have since become gen- 
erally adopted. He pointed out the need for establishing 
a system of underground conduits for the wires of the tele- 
gfraph, telephone and electric servite companies, originated the 
plan and secured the passage of the ordinance. He was one 
of the promoters of the patrol limits system, recognized as 
an advanced method in restricting the liquor traffic. He 
worked steadily for measures which meant better streets and 
desirable solutions of engineering problems. 

Mr. Cooley in 1898 was elected county surveyor and under 
his administration the office acquired a well-arranged system 
of records, indeed the only records of importance dating from 
that time. He was re-elected in 1900, 1902 and 1904. When 
he became state highway engineer. 

Mr. Cooley was married in 1872 to a daughter of the late 
R. E. Grimshaw, and they have six children. He is a member 
of the Masonic order and also of various civic, commercial 
and professional organizations. 



FRANK R. CHASE. 



Mr. Chase was born at Concord, Essex county, Vermont, 
about 1868. He resided eight or ten years in Lowell, Massa- 
chusetts, attending school and employed as a salesman of 
dry goods. In 1882 he moved to Georgetown, Colorado, 
whither he was sent as agent of the Boston & Colorado 
Smelting company. He remained in the employ of this com- 
pany as assayer and purchasing agent seven years, then, in 
1889, came to Minneapolis with the Western Guarantee Loan 
company. He attended to the renting of its building and 
looked after its property generally. The company failed and 
the building in which its offices were located passed into the 
hands of Thomas Lowry, but Mr. Chase continued to handle it 
as agent, as he had done from the time it was opened for 
business in 1890. 

In August, 1904, the Metropolitan Life Insurance company 
bought this building, but there was no change then and has 
since been none in the agency. Mr. Chase has been very 
successful in his work of supervision over this building, but 
his energies have by no means been confined to the duties 
involved in that work. He has been in the insurance and 
loan business since 1893 on his own account, and has been 
successful in that too. He is head of the firm of Chase & 
Schaufield, operating in these lines, and also agent of the 
Metropolitan Life Insurance company in its Minneapolis real 



estate transactions. He is one of the directors of the Metro- 
politan Bank and the Minneapolis Savings and Loan Asso- 
ciation, both of which are tenants of the building of which 
he is custodian. 

In religious faith Mr. Chase is a Universalist, holding his 
membership in the Church of the Redeemer of that sect, of 
which he had been treasurer since the death of the late 
William Butters. He was married in Massachusetts in 1886 
to Miss Laura B. Clough. They have three children, Marjorie, 
who is a graduate of the State University, and Stillman and 
Frank R., Jr., who are students in the high school. Mr. Chase 
belongs to the Commercial and Minneapolis clubs, but he is 
not a devotee of club life, has no sporting tendencies, has 
never been active in politics as a partisan, and pays but little 
attention to any of the fraternal orders. His business and 
the ordinary duties of good citizenship absorb his time and 
attention to the exclusion of almost everything else. 



HUGH GALBRAITH HARRISON. 

Many men of unusual ability, large caliber, great force of 
character and far-reaching sweep of vision have written their 
names in bold and enduring phrase in the chronicles of Min- 
neapolis, short as its history is, and have left lasting monu- 
ments of their unusual capacity and great usefulness to the 
community. Among the number none is entitled to higher 
regard, closer study or more admiring remembrance than the 
late Hugh Galbraith Harrison, for many years one of the lead- 
ing lumbermen and afterward, until his death, one of the most 
prominent and influential bankers of the municipality, which 
he found a straggling hamlet when he came to it an aspiring 
young man of thirty-seven, and a mighty mart of industry and 
commerce when he left it on August 12, 1891, in obedience to 
nature's last call, on the verge of the limit of human life as 
suggested by the psalmist. 

Mr. Harrison was a scion of old Scotch-Irish ancestry, and 
in his career he exhibited many of the salient and masterful 
attributes characteristic of his lineage. He was born at Belle- 
ville, Illinois, on April 23. 1822, a son of Rev. Thomas H. and 
Margaret (Galbraith) Harrison, the former a native of Georgia 
and the latter of North Carolina. The father was a lay 
preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church and for many 
years preached twice a week, his voice being literally "one 
crying in the wilderness" after his removal to Illinois in 1803, 
when the southern part of the state was an almost unbroken 
forest. He and his wife were strong in their repugnance to 
the institution of human slavery, especially the mother, and 
they left their native section of the country to escape the 
reproach they suffered for not sharing the views of the people 
there on this subject. 

After their arrival in the distant West, as it was in that 
day, the father became a pioneer farmer and miller in the 
new region in which he had located, but continued his pastoral 
work with fervency and zeal. He farmed only for a number 
of years, then, in 1826, bought a $300 ox mill, and his enter- 
prise in this act proved to be a great boon and benefaction 
to the neighborhood. Meanwhile the family was required to 
undergo all the privations and hardships and risk all the 
perils incident to pioneer life. But the parents were made 
of sterling metal and met their responsibilities and the require- 
ments of their remote location not only with fortitude but 
with commendable cheerfulness also. 




/d.^^ 



* 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



239 



The father prospered in his milling operations and estab- 
lished a reputation for their products that became very exten- 
sive. In 1831 he installed a steam engine in his mill for 
motive power which was the first one so used in the state. 
This enabled him to greatly enlarge his output and get much 
nearer to supplying the vastly extended demands for his 
flour. A writer well informed on the subject has recorded 
that "for manj' years the product of the Harrison mills at 
Belleville, Illinois, wa^ the standard of excellence throughout 
the commercial world. The sales of flour and purchases of 
wheat ran into millions of dollars. Until the introduction of 
a new process of milling by which the superior qualities of 
spring wlieat were developed Belleville flour was the best in 
the country." 

When the mill was ready to begin work the two oldest sons 
of the family quit farming and took charge of the new enter- 
prise. In 1836 a new and larger mill was built, and this was 
destroyed by fire, with 5.000 bushels of wheat and 500 barrels 
of flour, in 1843. As soon as he was sufficiently advanced in 
physical development for the purpose Hugh G. Harrison began 
working on his father's farm and assisting his brothers in 
the mill. He obtained a good education for his time and sur- 
roundings, however, at a private school in Belleville and 
McKendree College at Lebanon, Illinois. But he was asso- 
ciated with his brothers in the milling business at Belleville 
until 1859, when he and his brothers, Thomas A. and William, 
moved to Minneapolis, then growing into notice as a milling 
center of great promise. Each of the brothers built a fine resi- 
dence for that period, Hugh's being at what is now the inter- 
section of Nicollet avenue and Eleventh street, which was 
then far outside of the building section. This became the 
family home, and it is still standing and still much admired. 

For a number of years the brothers made their investments 
and carried on their business in common. But in the course 
of time the abundant opportunities of this region, and perhaps 
some diversity of tastes, led them to separate and pursue 
different lines of endeavor. They were all original stock- 
holders in the First National Bank of St. Paul and largely 
interested in the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad. In 1862 
they built, at the junction of Washington and Nicollet avenues, 
the stone building which is still standing, and was. at the 
time of its erection the most massive and imposing structure 
in the town. It contained a hall which for years furnished the 
audience room for public meetings and entertainments. 

Hugh G. Harrison was one of the directors of the First 
National Bank of St. Paul and the railroad mentioned above 
from the beginning of his connection with them. He studied 
their operations and acquired a familiarity with the banking 
business especially that was of great service to him and the 
community in later years. In 1863 he became associated with 
Joseph Dean in the lumber business under the firm name of 
J. Dean & Company. During the next fifteen years this com- 
pany was the leader in the lumber trade of the city. The com- 
pany purchased richly timbered lands, bought and rebuilt a 
large sawmill at the mouth of Bassett's creek and started a 
number of lumber yards. Subsequently it built the Pacific 
mill on the river bank just above the suspension bridge, which 
was for a long time the largest and best equipped saw mill in 
Minneapolis, if not in the Northwest. 

In 1877 the firm of J. Dean & Company retired from the 
lumber business, and its members, with other enterprising 
men, founded the Security National Bank. The new financial 



institution was organized on a basis commensurate with the 
then exacting needs of the community and its impressive 
promise of fast-coming greatness as an industrial and commer- 
cial center. The bank began business with a larger capital 
than any other in the city at the time, and its affairs were 
placed under the control of men who knew how to manage 
them to advantage. Mr. Harrison was made vice president, 
his brother Thomas president, and Mr. Dean cashier. The 
bank has flourished and grown from the start. Its capital 
has been enlarged as needs have required until it has been 
made $1,000,000, and its deposits are now far beyond 
$35,000,000. When Tlioraas A. Harrison died, on October 
37, 1887, Hugh G. was elected president of the bank, and from 
that time to the end of his life he gave its affairs his most 
careful and constant personal attention. 

Mr. Harrison took a very active and serviceable part in pub- 
lic affairs, particularly in connection with the intellectual and 
moral welfare of the community in which he lived. He was 
a member of the city school board for many years, and it is 
largely due to his far-sighted and progressive policy that the 
city now owns so much valuable school property. He was 
also administrator of the Spencer estate, which became the 
foundation of the public library, and in 1868 was elected 
mayor of Minneapolis. In the administration of this office 
he applied to the business of the city the vigorous and syste- 
matic methods which he used in his own. and gave the people 
excellent service, which is still remembered with high approval 
and cordial admiration and commendation. 

Mr. Harrison's business ability and enterprise led him into 
other lines of trade besides the lumber and banking indus- 
tries. He founded the wholesale grocery house of B. S. Bull 
& Company in the seventies, and later that of Newell & Harri- 
son. He was one of the most liberal subscribers to the Min- 
neapolis Exposition and its first treasurer and a member of 
it first board of directors. At the time of his death he was 
vice president of the Minneapolis trust company, and for many 
years took a hearty practical interest in Hamline University, 
to which he gave large sums of money from time to time. His 
benefactions to churches and benevolent institutions were 
numerous and large, and his private bounty to needy men of 
worth must have been considerable, but he never made men- 
tion of it. He was the first president of the Chamber of 
Commerce. 

It was written of Mr. Harrison, when he died, by one who 
knew him well, that "he was always foremost in every enter- 
prise relating to the growth and well being of Minneapolis, 
and a correct student of political questions, though not a poli- 
tician. Always a student and an omniverous reader of the 
best literature, besides being an extensive traveler in this 
country and abroad, his fund of general information was large 
and serviceable, his views were comprehensive and his convic- 
tions were well settled. There was nothing narrow in either 
his disposition or his attainments. One of the greatest 
sources of enjoyment to him was good music, and all the 
refinements of life were parts of his being by nature and 
culture." 

Mr. Harrison was married twice. His first wife, whose 
maiden name was Irene A. Robinson, died on August 13, 1876, 
leaving five sons: Edwin, George, Lewis, Hugh and Perry. All 
but Hugh are living and engaged in business. The father's 
second marriage took place on October 25, 1877, and united 
him with Mrs, Elizabeth (Wood) Hunt, of AUcntown. Pennsyl- 
vania. She and her daughter, Helen Louise, are also living. 



240 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



AH the members of the family have their homes in Minneap- 
olis, and all are highly esteemed throughout the city. 

In the latter part of July. 1891, Mr. Harrison made a busi- 
ness trip to the East, and on his return seemed in perfect 
health. On Monday, August 13, he was at his desk in the bank, 
but on going home wa-s obliged to go to bed, and on Wednesday 
night following he died of heart failure, which was the result 
of a severe cold. The whole city paid tribute to his elevated 
citizenship, exemplary manhood, great business ability and 
extensive but unostentatious usefulness after his death, and his 
name is still living fragrantly in the memory of all who knew 
him, a watchword to the faithful and a fruitful incentive to 
generous endeavor. "To live in hearts we leave behind is not 
to die." 



he is connected with Minneapolis Lodge No. 19, Ancient. Free 
and Accepted Masons, and has served as its Worshipful Mas- 
ter. He is also a member of a Royal Arch Chapter and a 
Council of Royal and Select Masters in the Masonic frater- 
nity. His religious affiliation is with tlie Fifth Avenue 
Congregational church. 

On April 35, 1875, Mr. Condit was united in marriage with 
Miss Anna L. Pinkham. They have three children: .Tessie 
F., who is the wife of .John Baird, of Eugene, Oregon; Edith, 
who is now Mrs. Charles 0. Ellsworth, of Minneapolis, and 
Irving, who is a physician and surgeon and on the medical 
staff of the Northern Pacific hospital in Missoula, Montana. 



HENRY A. CROW. 



L. A. CONDIT. 

Mr.' Condit is a native of Adrian, Michigan, where his life 
began on March 17, 1849, his father being Benjamin F. Condit. 
After due preparation in public and select schools, the latter 
entered the University of Michigan, and there pursued an 
academic course of instruction for a time. But his inclination 
was to commercial pursuits, and he left the University to 
take a course of special training in the Mayhew Business 
College, where he was a student under the celebrated Pro- 
fessor Ira Mayhew, the author of a popular system of book- 
keeping and the text book in which it was taught. 

On August 31, 1873, Mr. Condit entered the fur manufactory 
of Barnard Bros. & Cope, Minneapolis, as a clerk, and during 
the next two years he rendered that firm excellent and 
appreciated service. In 1877 he was appointed to a clerkshiji 
in the office of the county auditor of Hennepin county. He 
was soon advanced to tlie position of fiist deputy auditor. 
and he remained in that position nine years, serving under 
Auditors C. J. Minor and Hugh R. Scott. In 1887 he was 
elected county auditor, and this office he filled with great 
acceptability until 1890. 

At the end of his term as county auditor Mr. Condit was 
chosen secretary and manager of the Moore Carving Machine 
company, which he served in that capacity until 1898, wlien 
he again became deputy county auditor. In 1905 he was also 
asked to accept the secretaryship of the Municipal Buildinf; 
Commission when a vacancy in that office was created by the 
death of Charles P. Preston. Mr. Condit accepted the ofier 
and his official relation to the commission continued most 
pleasantly until the completion and dedication of the new 
court house and city hall in 1908. His post as secretary was 
one of great labor and responsibility, demanding detailed 
records of every transaction connected with the construction 
of the mammoth building, which involved an expenditure of 
more than three million and a half dollars in an immense 
multitude of accounts. 

When the Municipal Building Commission' was discharged 
Mr. Condit was appointed first assistant city comptroller, 
receiving his appointment to the place from Dan C Brown, 
the present efficient and popular city comptroller. His selec- 
tion for the place met with universal approval in the 
community. 

In his political faith and allegiance Mr. Condit has always 
been an unwavering Republican of the stalwart stripe, but 
he has never been considered a politician. In fraternal life 



Was born at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, August 16, 1852. the 
son of George and Clarinda .Jane (Ellsworth) Crow, the 
former an engineer on the old Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and 
the latter a cousin of the Colonel Ellswortli of the Union 
army who was killed in Alexandria, Virginia, at the beginning 
of the Civil war. In 1856 they came from Ohio to St. Anthony, 
induced to make the change of residence by members of 
Anthony Northrop's family; also relatives of Mrs. Crow, who 
were already here. George Crow secured a farm on Eden 
Prairie, but in 1856 and 1857 the grasshoppers ate all his 
crops, and he then moved to Winnebago Prairie, near St. 
Cloud, where he lived until the outbreak of the Indians just 
after the Civil war began. 

At the time of the Indian u|uising Mr. Crow enlisted in 
the Seventh Minnesota Regiment, and all the families on 
Winnebago Prairie were forced to take refuge in the stockade 
at St. Cloud, or seek some other place of safety. Mr. Crow's 
family moved to St. Anthony, and in the winter of 1862 he 
went South with his regiment, never seeing his wife and 
children again. He died at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Mis- 
souri, December 14, 1864, after two years of active service 
against the Confederacy in the South. 

His widow survived liim twenty years, dying in December. 
1884, at the age of fifty-two. By his death she was left with 
four small children to rear and with veiy slender means for 
the duty. The children were: William Albert, who was a 
fuel dealer in Minneapolis, and died here in June, 1913, in 
the sixty-fifth year of his age; Henry A.; Fred, who kept a 
hotel at Bena, Minnesota, and died .Tuly 5, 1910; and Lo\iisa 
.Jane, who is the wife of John H. Hasty and lives in Miles 
City, Montana. 

Henry A. Crow, as a boy, accompanied George Brackett 
when he was hauling government supplies to Fort Ridgeley, 
Buford and other places. One of his brothers was a cook at 
one of the forts they visited. In this experience he saw a 
great deal of Indian life and sufTerod a great many hard- 
ships in storms and from exposure. Early in his youth he 
was in the employ of Captain Byrnes while the latter was in 
the war. He worked in the woods in winter and at sawmills 
in summer, and did cooking, as did also his two brothers, 
for lumbering camps, he continuing at this work until 1877. 

On October 36, 1873, Mr. Crow was married to Miss Nellie 
Callahan, a daughter of John and Eliza (Smith) Callahan, 
the father a native of Dublin, Ireland, and the mother of the 
Hudson river region in New York. The father was a sailor 
and also worked in iron mills as a young man. and expert- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



241 



enced severe hardships in botli occupations. Early in the 
Civil war he enlisted in the Union army in New York, and 
on his retirement from military service they moved to Minne- 
apolis, a sister of Jlrs. Callahan being already a resident of 
Hennepin county, and persuading them to come to this 
locality. 

Here they lived neighbors to William Eastman, near where 
the big mills now stand. Mr. Callahan worked in the North 
Star Woolen Mills and also pumped water by hand for the 
roundhouse of the Milwaukee railroad in 1866. The round- 
house stood at Eighth and Washington avenues south, and 
from it all the engines on the Minnesota Valley road, about 
half a dozen in all, were supplied with water through Mr. 
Callahan's industry. His wife died in 1875 and he returned 
to Ohio and died at the Soldiers' Home in Dayton, that state, 
four or five years after the demise of his wife. He was a 
veteran from continuous service throughout the war. 

Henry A. Crow was employed for a time in the grocery 
store of Charles Lumbeg. and afterward, in company with one 
of his brothers, opened a similar establishment on the East 
Side. In 1898 he went to Alaska, remaining three years. 
Later he made another trip to that country, but his health 
was broken by his residence there and he secured no satis- 
factory financial returns from it. During his absence his 
wife kept a store at Third street and Twentieth avenue 
south, and after his final return from Alaska he again en- 
gaged in the grocery and meat trade. In later j'ears his 
wife became possessed of several apartment houses on Sixth 
avenue south, from which they now have a liberal income, 
and in one of which they have their home. 

Mr. Crow is an Odd Fellow, holding his membership in 
Flour City Lodge of the order. He also belongs to the Wood- 
men and the Royal Neighbors. Mrs. Crow is a member of the 
Territorial Society, in which she has many old friends, and 
also belongs to the Degree of Honor. They have had four 
children. George Henry was born in 1875 and died at the 
age of twenty-four. Frank Percival was born in 1877 and 
died at the age of fifteen. Grace E. is the wife of E. E. 
Smock, who is in the employ of the Minneapolis & St. Louis 
Railroad. Florence May is employed in the office of the 
Cedar Lake Ice company. 



JOSEPH CHAPMAN. 



Although he has been connected with the banking business 
in this city, and continuously with the same bank since he 
was seventeen years of age, Joseph Cliapman, one of the 
best known and most esteemed business men of Minneapolis, 
and a potential influence in the social life of the community, 
is also a lawyer by careful study and graduation from the 
law department of the University of Minnesota. He has 
never practiced his profession, and really studied law only 
as a means of service in his other business relations and of 
broadening mental culture. But that he took the pains to 
go through a course of professional preparation at the Uni- 
versity, although at the time busily occupied with other 
duties, shows his zeal and determination in striving to make 
the most of his faculties and opportunities, no matter how 
great the personal sacrifice, effort and inconvenience might 
be. It also shows that he has the proper view of what a 
man's education ought to be, especially in this country, where 



the conditions of life are constantly changing, a state of 
aflairs that makes it desirable for every man to be pre- 
pared for whatever may turn up in his course through life. 

Mr. Chapman was born in Dubuque, Iowa, on October 17, 
1871. and is a son of Joseph and Catherine C. (Cassiday) 
Chapman, the former a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., and the 
latter of Baltimore, Md. The father has been for many 
years connected with the railroad service, and at the time 
of his son Joseph's birth was division freight agent of the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, with headquarters 
at Dubuque. He was afterward located at Fairport, Ohio, 
as manager of the terminals of the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- 
road. He died at Painesville, Ohio, August 17, 1912. 

Joseph Chapman began his education in the public schools 
of Dubuque, where the family remained until 1887, when 
its residence was changed to Minneapolis. As soon as the 
household was settled in this city he entered the Central 
high school to complete his preparatory course, and from 
that school he was graduated the following year. Soon after 
his graduation he secured a position in the Northwestern 
National Bank, and he has been connected with that great 
financial institution ever Since. 

He entered the service of the bank in the humble capacity 
of messenger as a youth of seventeen. He is now its vice 
president and has an influential voice in the management 
of its afl'airs. The distance between the two stations was 
covered by him with faithful and devoted service and the 
strict performance of his duty in every way, and at every 
stage of his progress from one to the other he Showed unusual 
capacity for the banking business, the warmest and most 
helpful interest in the affairs of the bank, and a sweep of 
vision and grasp of aflfairs that made him ready for any 
duty that might fall to his lot at any time. In consequen'ce 
of these attributes and his unwavering integrity and high 
character, his promotion was rapid, and there was always a 
landing above him to aspire to until he reached the altitude 
in the work of the institution which he now occupies. On the 
way up he filled the position of cashier for a number of 
years with great acceptability to the authorities and patrons 
of the bank. 

Mr. Chapman was not satisfied, however, to be merely 
a banker. He took a broader view of life and determined 
to prepare himself for a more comprehensive mastery of 
business in a general way. With this object in view he 
attended the niglit school of the law department of the Uni- 
versity until he completed the course and was graduated 
in 1897. He had a special object in this enterprise, too, 
and that was to make his knowledge of law useful as a means 
of mental training and serviceable in his regular business. 

Mr. Chapman has always been deeply interested and intelli- 
gently helpful in the further development and improve- 
ment of Minneapolis and Hennepin county, and has allowed 
no worthy undertaking to go without his active and practical 
aid when the general welfare of the community has been 
involved in it. Whether the project has been social, indus- 
trial, commercial or educational, it has always been able to 
command his earnest supjiort, and in connection with all he 
has at all times borne his full share of the burden of work 
and material assistance required. He is a member of the 
Phi Delta Phi college fraternity, and the Minneapolis, Mini- 
kahda and Six O'clock clubs, and was president of the 
last-named in 1906-7. He is also a valued member of the 
Agricultural. Development and Edu'cational Committee of the 



242 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



state Bankers' Association and its president; one of the 
executive committee of the American Bankers' Association, 
and chairman of its committee on agricultural development; 
a member of the Minnesota Bankers' Association, which he 
served from 1899 to 1906 as secretary, and of which he was 
president in 1908-9. He is also a member of the American 
Institute of Bank Clerks, and was the organizer and Presi- 
dent of its first Chapter. 

In none of these organizations is Mr. Chapman merely one 
of the silent units. He is a clear, inspiring and forceful 
speaker, and is in frequent demand for talks in public on 
topics of finance and business, as well as one of the spokesmen 
for any association of men to which he belongs, and a guide and 
always warmly welcome speaker in the discussions which 
take place in them all. He is always master of his theme, 
and never talks on any subject without illuminating it and 
making it interesting. For he is always earnest in his 
purpose and has some useful end in view, and never talks 
simply for the purpose of hearing himself. 

Was chairman of the Citizens Pure Water Commission 
which established the present filtration plant. 

On December 26, 1896, Mr. Chapman was married at 
Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to Miss Elizabeth G. Mahew. They 
have two children, their daughters Katherine and Elizabeth. 
All the members of the family attend the Hennepin Avenue 
Methodist Episcopal church, and the father is also a member 
of the Masoni'c Order, in which he has climbed the mystic 
ladder to the thirty-second degree in the Ancient and 
Accepted Scottish Rite. He takes an earnest and serviceable 
interest in the affairs of his church, and in those of all 
branches of his fraternity through which he has ascended to 
his present exalted place in it. He hearkens readily and 
responds cheerfully to every claim of citizenship, is ever 
obedient to the call of duty in helping to promote the best 
interests of his community. The residents of Minneapolis of 
all classes and conditions esteem him highly, and from every 
point of view is altogether worthy of the high place he 
holds in public regard. 



HON. EDWIN SMITH JONES. 

"Here 'was a ricli man whom the struggle of making his 
own fortune did not harden, and the possession of wealth did 
not injure. Here was a man of the people who lived the 
common life and knew it all, with its anxieties, sorrows, 
pains, toils and tears, and remained a plain man with his 
heart close to the common heart to tlje end. Here was a 
successful man, to whom no one grudged his success. Here 
was a fortune for which no one clutched. He delighted to 
make all about him happy, while his own personal tastes 
and habits remained the simplest. So long as we have rich 
men like the late Edwin S. Jones, class will not be widely 
separated from class, and anarchism is not much to be 
feared." 

So spoke an admiring and judicious friend of Edwin Smith 
Jones, for thirty-six years a resident, and during a large 
portion of that time one of the leading citizens of Minne- 
apolis, at the time of his death, on January 36, 1890, at the 
age of nearly sixty-two years. The justness of the tribute 
was fully acknowledged at the period when it was uttered, 
.and the cordial and general regard in which the memory of 



the subject of it is still held in all parts of the community 
he did so much to build up and improve, and in other sec- 
tions of the country in which he was well known, show that 
it has stood the test of time and is still considered right 
and true. 

Edwin Smith Jones was born in Chaplin, Windom county, 
Connecticut, on June 3, 1828, the son of David and Percy 
(Russ) Jones. The father owned and cultivated a farm 
among the hills of Eastern Connecticut, and on that farm 
the son grew to manhood, obtaining his academic education 
at the neighboring country school and at Munson Academy. 
His opportunities for mental development and training in 
the schools were meager, but they were well improved, and 
at the age of sixteen he was a school teacher himself in the 
vicinity of his home. It was necessary for him to make the 
most of every opportunity and means he found for advance- 
ment, for when he was but seven years of age his mother 
died, and three years later his father also passed away, 
leaving him' and an older brother to carry on the farm and 
provide for their own maintenance. 

When Mr. Jones was twenty he made a trip to Indiana in 
the interest of a publishing house, and had a number of other 
young men under his supervision in the busines,s. Before the 
dawn of his manhood he decided to study law, and as soon 
as he was able he entered upon the work of preparing for 
his profession. He was first married in 1854, and that year 
came to Minneapolis to live, bringing his young bride with 
him. Before leaving Connecticut he had commenced reading 
law in the office of Hon. J. H. Carpenter, at Willimantic. 
After his arrival in this city he continued his legal studies 
in the office of Judge Isaac Atwater, and in April, 1855, he 
was admitted to the bar, being the first law student to whom 
that distinction was accorded in Hennepin county. 

In 1857 he was elected probate judge of the county, and in 
1858 he was re-elected, serving three years in all in the 
office, and receiving from it the title of judge, which he after- 
ward carried through life. From the beginning of his resi- 
dence in this city he was in touch with all the public move- 
ments of his time, in both business and moral circles, and 
soon became a leader in philanthropic work. During the 
progress of the Civil war he was commissioned commissary 
of subsistence with the rank of captain, and was assigned to 
duty in the Department of the Gulf. His services were so 
efficient in the army that he was brevetted major. 

Before the war Judge Jones gave great attention to the 
organization of the Atheneum Library association, and was 
one of its incorporators and its first president. And while 
in the South with the army, even amid the brutality and in- 
humanity of a great war, his sympathetic heart overflowed 
with sorrow over the impoverished and suffering condition 
of the people of that section of the country. His sympathy 
for them found expression in later years by his establishing 
and conducting at his own expense a school for young ladies 
known as the "Jones Seminary," at All Healing Springs, near 
King's Mountain in North Carolina. The purpose of this 
school was to give education to the white girls of the moun- 
tains in the usual text books and also in the practical and 
serviceable domain of sewing, cooking and domestic economy. 
In addition to this he contributed liberally in both money 
and counsel to a free kindergarten for colored children in 
Atlanta, Georgia, and in consequence of his liberality to it 
this institution was named in his honor "The Jones Kinder- 
garten." 





(^^^y^c^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



243 



After the war the judge returned to Minneapolis, and in 
1866 was elected one of the supervisors of the town and 
president of the board, and in 1873, after the organization 
of the city government, he was elected alderman from the 
Eighth ward. In 1870, in connection with other gentlemen, 
he organized the Hennepin County Savings Bank, and was 
chosen its president, with J. E. Bell as cashier. He remained 
at the head of this institution until his death and gave it a 
large part of his time and attention. It has been one of the 
most successful banking institutions in the city, and was 
during his tenure of its presidency. 

The foundation of Judge Jones' fortune was land which be 
acquired in and near Minneapolis in the early years of his 
residence in the city. The continued increase in the value of 
this land gave him large profits, and he also engaged in 
loaning money on his own account and as the agent of in- 
vestors in the East. He was a good business man, industrious 
and careful in all his undertakings, and frugal in his style 
of living. He acquired a considerable amount of wealth for 
his day, but he left only a moderate estate. For the glory 
and excellence of his character was his benevolence. 

The objects of his public bounty were many and all de- 
signed for large and general usefulness. Among them were 
the Western Minnesota Academy, now Windom Institute, at 
Montevideo, of which he was a trustee; Carleton College at 
Northfleld, to which he bore the same relation; The Chicago 
Theological Seminaiy, of which he was also a trustee, and 
the Ameiican Board of Foreign Missions, of which he was a 
corporate (voting) member. These were all under the patron- 
age of the Congregational church, of which he was long a 
devout and consistent member, attending service at Plymouth 
church. 

Judge Jones also gave the site for the Jones-Harrison 
Home for Aged Women on the shores of Cedar Lake in the 
suburbs of Minneapolis, a beautiful tract of eighty acres, 
and was most liberal in general benefactions and church 
activities. The aggregate of his benevolent and charitable 
gifts was never known to any one but himself, and it is 
doubtful if he could have given more than a guess at it, as 
he kept no account of such expenditures. He was generous 
too with the knowledge he acquired by diligent reading and 
frequent and extensive journeys, both in his own country and 
in Europe, but he was never obtrusive with any form of his 
benefactions. 

The judge was married three times, and by these unions 
became the father of nine children. Only two of these are 
living, Mrs. Frank H. Carleton and Hon. David Percy Jones, 
for several years mayor of Minneapolis, a sketch of whom 
will be found in this volume. Mrs. Susan C. Jones, the last 
wife and companion of her husband's declining years, is still 
a resident of this city. She is the daughter of Captain 
Charles C. Stinson of Gofi'stown, New Hampshire, and was 
married tci .fudge .Jones in May, 1877. 



at the time of the historic mill explosion. Frederick W. 
Currier as a boy entered the employ of Brown & Haywood, 
which was succeeded by the Pittsburg Plate Glass company. 
He was advanced from one position to another, becoming 
thoroughly familiar with all the details of the business. 
During this time he found opportunity to gratify his ambition 
for a more complete equipment and became a student in the 
night classes of the state university, where he completed 
the law course. The business with which he has been identi- 
fied throughout his career was established in 1883 by Captain 
Charles W. Brown and Wm. Haywood and sold by them in 
1900 to the Pittsburg Plate Glass company, becoming one of 
the twenty-eight warehouse points for this company. Captain 
Brown is a native of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and as a 
youth went to sea with his father who was captain of an 
East Indian trading vessel. Here he won rapid advancement 
and at twenty-one became the master of a merchant marine 
trading between New York and Australia. He continued in 
this position until his marriage when he left the sea and 
came to Minneapolis, where he formed a partnership with 
Mr. Haywood, who was a native of Englaml and an artist 
and designer of stained glass for windows and decorative 
purposes. They established their enterprise in a single room 
on the third floor of the building occupied by the Bishop 
Paper company, with a capital of about $4,000. After several 
years of prosperous trade they disposed of the business to 
the Pittsburg company and Captain Brown was retained as 
manager. At the end of two years he went to Pittsburg to 
accept the office of secretary of the company, and later became 
vice president and the most influential factor in the Pittsburg 
Plate Glass company, known among the world's great busi- 
ness organizations as the largest corporation in the glass 
industry. Something of the remarkable growth of this im- 
mense enterprise may be glimpsed, in the comparison of its 
business of twenty years ago with that of today, where the 
transactions of a year are more than doubled in one month. 
During the time of his residency in Minneapolis, Captain 
Brown won the esteem and good will of his fellow citizens, 
which he has continued to hold, with his own interest in the 
city, through the years when his successful career has widened 
the scene of his activities. When his successor to the posi- 
tion of manager of the Minneapolis offices was sought, the 
choice fell naturally on the man who through training and 
natural ability was fitted for positions of trust and respon- 
sibility and Mr. Currier received the position in which he 
has given his able services for the past twelve years. The 
firm occupies the Morrison building on Fifth avenue and 
Third street and employ a force of 180 workmen, si.xty of 
whom are engaged in the manufacture of mirrors and art 
glass. The local trade requires the services of eight sales- 
men and thirteen men cover the northwest territory to the 
coast. 



FREDERICK W. CURRIER. 



Frederick W. Currier, manager of the northwestern terri- 
tory of the Pittsburg Plate Glass company, was boni at 
Dorchester, near Boston, Mass. He came to Minneapolis as 
a lad with his father, Frank .J. Currier, who was employed 
as manager of the cotton textile mills until their destruction 



H. B. CRAMER. 

Harry B. Cramer, business man and member of the Minne- 
apolis Board of Park Commissioners, was born in Troy, New 
York, July 28, 1851. As a youth he apprenticed himself to 
the trade of house decorator and painter and after becoming 
a proficient workman he, in company with three other young 
men of his native city, spent, some time in journeying, work- 



244 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND IIEXXKIMX COl'NTY. MINNESOTA 



ing for a time in Buffalo and Guelph, Ontario. Then he and 
a companion, Mr. Dick Wager, went to Chicago, and in the 
fall of 1871 they reached St. Paul. Here they found no 
demand for workmen of their trade and employed themselves 
in various occupations. The following spring they came to 
Minneapolis, where they found employment and where they 
remained until in 1876. when tliey spent some months in 
Philadelphia and assisted in decorating and painting the 
buildings of the Centennial Exposition. In Minneapolis they 
were first em])loyed by various firms; their earliest employers 
were Qiarles Metzger and John Horton, and then, in partner- 
ship with George and William Blewitt, they established an 
independent business. A few months later Mr. Cramer formed 
a partnership witli Daniel O'Rourke, on Third street; and, 
some time afterwards his former companion and partner of 
many years, Dick Wager, returned to the East. During 
Mr. Cramer's early struggles, he married Miss Marie Jones 
and their home was established at first, in three cheap rooms 
with extremely modest furnishings. He soon was in a posi- 
tion to embark independently and opened a store on the 
present site <jf Browning, King & Company, on Sixth street, 
where he remained until his removal to 215 South Sixth, 
where he was located for about 18 years, and then moved 
to his present attractive quarters, in the Leighton block, on 
Tenth street. Mr. Leighton gave him much valuable assist- 
ance and necessary backing in the days of his early opera- 
tions. His first large contract, the Guaranty Loan building, 
now the Metropolitan Life building, proved a financial loss 
to him. but witli the aid of Mr. Leighton he was able to 
successfully withstand this disaster and rapidly attained a 
prosperous business. He decorated several structures of the 
World's Fair of 1893 at Chicago, including the Minnesota 
and the North Dakota State buildings, the Mechanical and 
Mining building, and the White House Inn. He also finished 
the Park hotel and Hotel Eastman at Hot Springs, Arkansais. 
Mr. Cramer is a Republican and although he has never held 
a purely political office, he has given his fellow citizens valu- 
able service for ten years as a member of the Board of Park 
Commissioners. He has devoted particular attention and 
effort to the development of the child life of the city, the 
establishment and maintenance of playgrounds, etc. 

Mr. Cramer is a member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, and the Elks. He has 
always taken an interest in sports and outdoor recreation, 
and is an enthusiastic fisherman and horseman. Mrs. Cramer 
is popular in the social circles of Minneapolis and the family 
home on Park avenue is well known for its hospitality and 
attractiveness. Mr. and Mrs. Cramer have one daughter. 
Madge, the wife of Mr. H. D. Lyon. 



HERBERT O. COLLINS, M. D. 

Dr. Herbert (). Collins, Superintendent of the City Hospital 
who has attained a reputation as a promoter and builder of 
hospital improvements and in the application of the most 
modern and approved methods in all hospital work. 

Aware of the defects in this department of human endeavor 
he is fertile in resources in suggesting and securing remedies 
and betterments. 

Dr. Collins was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1865. 
and completed his academic education in the Dayton high 



school. He received his professional instruction at the Uni- 
versity Medical College in New York City, graduating in 
188S, and coming to Minneapolis in 1908 to become Superin- 
tendent of the City Hospital, his extensive previous experience 
giving him special fitness for such responsibility. 

He keeps in touch with the living, Mowing currents of 
knowledge and inspiration in the profession through member- 
ship in its organization, such as The Hennepin County 
Medical, The Minnesota Pathological. The Minnesota State 
Medical Societies, The American Hospital, and The American 
Medical Associations. 

Dr. Collins' chief worth has been in connection with hos- 
pitals especially in securing enlarged accommodations and 
improved facilities. The balance of the block where the city 
hospital is located has recently been purchased for the hos- 
pital. The service building has been remodeled. The New 
Hospital for Contagious diseases is well under way and 
Lymanhurst for children has recently been acquired, through \ 

the generosity of the Lyman Brothers, who contributed their 
old homestead comprising half a block. The west wing of 
the City Hospital and the West Wing of the Nurses House 
with greatly increased facilities have been completed. About 
350 employes are now required, the increased facilities de- 
manding about 100 more, then about 900 patients may 
receive accommodation. 

In fraternal and social life Dr. Collins is a member of 
the Knights of Pythias, the New Athletic club and Civic and 
Commerce club. He was married in 1891 to Miss Jessie 
Oram. They have three children, Helen Louise, Herbert 0., 
Jr., and Richard Louis. The family attend Westminster 
Presbyterian church. 



ROBERT BRUCE LANGDON. 

"lie was one of the noblest of God's creation — an honest 
man in every sense. His word was always as good as his 
bond, whether in business, friendship or politics. He was a 
man who delighted in serving his friends, who never lost an 
o]>portunity to reciprocate the slightest favors or courtesies, 
and his loyalty to friendships and business associates was a 
matter of universal comment among all who knew him." 

So spoke a close personal and political friend of many years 
standing of the late Robert Bruce Langdon. This is high 
praise, but Mr. Langdon's lirm i)laee in the regard of many 
persons in many states during his life and the cordiality and 
warmth with which lie is remembered and his name and 
achievements since his death are revered show that he must 
have deserved it all. and that the estimate of his character 
and ])ersonality embodied in the description was based on 
genuine merit and a truly lofty, pleasing and serviceable 
manhood. 

Mr. Langdon was born on a farm near New Haven. Ver- 
mont, on November 24, 1826. His ancestry on both sides of 
the house was English, but the progenitors of the American 
branch of the family were early arrivals in this country, for 
his great-grandfather was captain of a Massachusetts regiment 
during the Revolutionary war. At the close of that mo- 
mentous contest for independence and freedom the captain 
located in Connecticut, but later moved to Vermont, becoming 
one of the pioneers of that state, or at least of the portion of 
it in which he settled, which was the neighborhood of the 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



245 



town of Xew Havpii. in Addison county, where his grandson, 
Seth Langdon, the father of Robert Bruce, was born and 
reared. The mother was a Miss Squires, and a descendant 
also of families loiig resident in this country. 

Mr. Langdon's father was a farmer and he was himself 
reared on the farm and at an early age began to take part in 
the work of cultivating it. He began his academic education 
in the district schools and completed it by a short course in a 
good academy. He was of a constructive nature, however, and 
eager from his youth to be doing something tangible and 
material. On this account his school days were limited, except 
what followed in the rugged but thorough school of experience. 

In 1848 he yielded to his great ambition and began his 
business career as foreman of a construction company engaged 
in building the Rutland & Burlington Railroad in Vermont, 
A short time afterward he left his native state and came West 
in the employ of Selah Chamberlain, a railroad contractor, for 
whom he worked a number of years in Ohio and Wisconsin, 
In the course of time, however, he felt strong enough in the 
business to take a contract on his own account, and secured 
one to fence the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad from Fond 
du Lac. Wisconsin, to Minnesota .Junction. 

Mr. Langdon was successful in this undertaking, carrying 
out his contract in every particular and doing well through it. 
He was now fairly launched on the broad sea of railroad con- 
stiuction work, and followed his first contract with others as 
rapidly as he could. In 1853 he had charge of the construction 
of a section of seventy-five miles of the Illinois Central road 
extending from Kankakee, Illinois, to Urbana. Ohio, and later 
was engaged on contracts for the Milwaukee & La Crosse and 
the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien roads in the order named. 

His work was bringing him to his destined permanent home. 
In 1858 the first ground broken for a railroad in Minnesota 
was turned up under his direction. Soon after this perform- 
ance he went South to build the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, a 
piece of work he was obliged to abandon, after spending two 
years on it, because of the outbreak of the Civil war. But 
this did not stay his hand in this department of productive 
labor or abate his energy. He at once returned to the North 
and began new lines wherever the time was ripe for them. 
During his active career as a railroad contractor he was asso- 
ciated at different times with D. M. Carpenter. D. C. Shepard, 
A, H, Linton and other gentlemen, and in association with 
them built more than 7,000 miles of railroad in the states of 
Vermont. Ohio, Wisconsin. Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ten- 
nessee, Mississippi. Iowa, the Dakotas, Montana, and the 
Northwest Territory in Canada, 

Mr, Langdon was not, however, only a railroad contractor, 
although one of the foremost in the country. He acquired 
interests in some of the roads he built and became a stock- 
holder and director in some of the most important lines in the 
Northwest, He was vice president and a director of the Min- 
neapolis & St, Louis Railroad, and for a number of years a 
vice )>re9ident of the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. 
Marie Railroad. He also turned his attention to other enter- 
prises besides that of railroad building. In 1866 he built the 
canal of the Minneapolis Milling company. He was also presi- 
dent of the company which built the Syndicate Block and the 
Masonic Temple in Minneapolis; a director of the Twin City 
Stock Yards at New Brighton and of the City Bank of Minne- 
apolis; a partner in the wholesale grocery firm of George R. 
Newell & Company, and interested in the Terminal Elevator 



company and the Belt Railway, which connects the stock 
yards with the interurban system of railroads, 

Mr, Langdon was a gentleman whose counsel was eagerly 
sought by various corporations and large institutions, not 
only in Minnesota, but throughout the Northwest, his reputa- 
tion as a financier and a man of fine business Capacity being 
high and widespread. And his sterling traits of character 
made him a strong man in every field of endeavor with which 
he was ever connected. But his numerous and very exacting 
business undertakings did not wean him from the studious 
habits formed in his boyhood and youth, and he possessed a 
vast fund of general information gathered by reading, observa- 
tion and reflection. Few men were equal to him as a con- 
versationalist on so many and such varied topics of human 
interest and discussion. 

No man in his community ever took a more active, intelli- 
gent and serviceable interest in the affairs of his locality than 
did Mr, Langdon, In the molding of the destinies of Minne- 
apolis and the state of Minnesota during the active years of 
his life his influence was widespread and potential. He also 
had an extensive acquaintance with men of national reputa- 
tion and influence throughout the countr}', and this he made 
serviceable to his city and state whenever he could do so. It 
was largely through his persuasive power and country-wide 
acquaintance with the leaders of political thought in his party 
that Minneapolis was selected as the meeting place of the 
Republican national convention in 1892, and he was a member 
of the general committee on arrangements for it and chair- 
man of two of its most important sub-committees, chosen 
because of his great business ability and personal strength in 
his community and elsewhere. 

Politically Mr, Langdon was a Republican all his life after 
the birth of the party of that name, and was prominent in its 
coimcils locally and nationally. In 1872 he was elected to the 
state senate, and his services in that body were so satisfactory 
that he was successively re-elected, serving continuously until 
1878, In 1880 he was again elected to the senate and served 
until 1885, He was also the choice of his party for the same 
honor in 1888, but owing to the Farmers' Alliance landslide 
of that year he was beaten at the election by his Democratit: 
opponent. That he was very strong in his party was shown 
by the fact that he never had an opponent for any nomination 
that he received, always being the unanimous choice of the 
nominating convention, and always without solicitation on his 
part. 

He was many times a delegate to the state conventions of 
his party and was also one of Minnesota's representatives in 
three of its national conventions — the one that met in Cincin- 
nati in 1876; the one that met in Chicago in 1884, and the 
one that met in the same city in 1888, It should be stated 
that he was a member of the state senate at the extra session 
called by Governor Pillsbury to act upon the adjustment of 
the state railroad bonds and remove the stain of repudiation 
from the fair name of the state. During the session he was 
an earnest advocate of the remedial legislation proposed and 
a vigorous supporter of every effort made for the settlement 
of the A-exatious problems involved in the case. 

The pleasing subject of this brief review was a man of large 
frame and robust physique, and possessed a personality that 
was both impressive and magnetic. He was also a genial man 
and had a mitural faculty of making friends of all who came 
in contact with him. He was a remarkably benevolent and 
kind-hearted man, too, rich in his bounty to public charities 



246 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



and generous always to the needy, but always in the most 
unobstrusive and unostentatious way. His sterling qualities 
of head and heart greatly endeared him to men in all walks 
of life, and his death, which occurred on July 24, 1895, in 
Minneapolis, was mourned by a host of sincere and devoted 
friends such as few men leave behind them when they die or 
ever have during life. His memory is enshrined in the hearts 
of the people among whom he so long lived and labored. It is 
also embalmed in the name of two towns, Langdon, North 
Dakota, and Langdon, Minnesota, both of which were given 
this name in honor of him and because of his services in 
bringing them into being. 

Mr. Langdon was married in 1859 to Miss Sarah Smith, a 
daughter of Dr. Horatio A. Smith, of New Haven, Vermont. 
The Langdons took up their residence in Minneapolis in 1866, 
came to Mendota in 1863 and resided in Gen. Sibley's old 
home from 1863 to 1866, and here the head of the household 
passed the remainder of his days. In religious faith he was 
an Episcopalian, and at the time of his death was a vestry- 
man of St. Mark's church, as he had been for many years 
before. His offspring number three, all of whom are married 
and reside in Minneapolis. They are: Cavour S. Langdon, 
Mrs. H. C. Truesdale and Mrs. W. F. Brooks. All of them 
stand high in public esteem and in their daily lives exem- 
plify the sterling virtues of their parents and the lessons- 
given them by precept and example at the family hearthstone. 



WALLACE CAMPBELL. 



Was born at Waverly, Tioga Count}-, New York, Septem- 
ber 8, 1863, and is the son of S. C. and Mary A. (Farwell) 
Campbell, both natives of New York. The father was for 
many years a successful dry goods merchant, late in life 
joining the son in Minneapolis, where he became Vice Presi- 
dent of the People's Bank. Both parents died in this city. 

Wallace graduated from Hamilton College at Clinton, New 
York, in the Classical course, with the class of 1883. While 
a student he became a member of the Chi-Psi Greek Letter 
fraternity, with which he has continued to be affiliated for 
thirty-six years. 

In 1885 he graduated in law from Columbia Law School. 
During 1883-4 he taught Latin, Rhetoric and Elocution in 
Brooklyn Polytechnic. In 1885 he came to Minneapolis for 
six years, being associated with H. 0. Stryker in a very sat- 
isfactory law practice. He then entered the financial field 
as Vice President of Hill Sons & Company Bank and con- 
tinued as active manager for seven years. In 1898 he 
bought the controlling interest in the Peoples Bank, becom- 
ing President. 

In 1907 this was .-^old iind became the nucleus of the 
Scandinavian-American National Bank. Mr. Campbell retir- 
ing from active hanking. While banking occupied his atten- 
tion largely during that sixteen years, he was identified 
prominently with other diversified interests. For some years 
he was Vice President of the Northwestern National Life 
Insurance Company, was also Vice President of the New Eng- 
land Furniture & Carpet Company. He also acquired the 
land grant of 9,000 acres in the Red River Valley of the 
Great Northern Railway, which he disposed of to actual set- 
tlers. He is the owner and President of the Hudson Sana- 
torium Company at Hudson. Wisconsin, which occupies one 



of the natural beauty spots of the St. Croix Valley. He ia 
owner, also, and President of the Widmann Hotel Company 
at Mitchell, South Dakota, and is President of the Almary 
Oil Company at Tulsa. Oklahoma, one of the fine properties 
in that wonderful oil tenitory. He holds membership in the 
Minneapolis club, the Athletic club, the Auto and the Miltona 
clubs, the latter composed of congenial spirits whose enjoy- 
ment is in hunting and fishing. 

In 1886 he married Minnie V. Adams of Chicago, a niece 
of C. H. McCormick, the renowned manufacturer. They have 
two daughters, Mary and Ruth. They live at the Hotel 
Plaza. Ever an ardent Republican, during the Harrison 
and Morton campaign of 1888 Mr. Campbell attained quite 
a reputation as a political worker and speaker, stumping the 
state for the party. Richly endowed with a pleasing per- 
sonality, enhanced by the culture that comes from university 
life, and the personal contact with the world through 
important business relations, few men in Minnesota possess 
a wider or more loyal circle of friends. 



GEORGE H. CHRISTIAN. 



Although a Southerner by birth, and partly educated in the 
South, George H. Christian has lived in the North from the 
time when he was eleven years of age, and in Minneapolis 
for a continuous period of forty-five years. He is therefore 
in full sympathy with the ideas and aspirations of this section, 
and has shown his warm and helpful interest in it by his large 
contributions to its industrial and commercial development. 
No part of its business life, and no phase of its economic 
progress, during his residence among its people, is unknown 
to him, and there is Scarcely any in which he has not taken 
part to its great advantage, even though his own manufactur- 
ing and mercantile activities have been confined to but a few 
lines of production and distribution. 

Mr. Christian was born near Wetumpka, Alabama, on 
January 14, 1839, and remained in the South until 1850, when 
he moved with his parents to Walworth county, Wisconsin, 
where they settled on a farm. Before leaving his Southern 
home, however. Mr. Christian began his academic education 
in a private school at Wilmington, North Carolina. He had 
but limited opportunities for further study in a scholastic 
way, for soon after his arrival in the North he went to 
Albany, New York, and entered the store of an uncle there. 
His next step in business training was as a clerk in the 
office of the Continental Insurance company in New York 
city, and his experience in both places was of great advantage 
to him in giving him knowledge of himself and of others, and 
also in affording him practical acquaintance with business. 

But he was far above being for any great length of time 
a worker for other men, and in a few years after having 
been a clerk for a flour, grain and commission merchant in 
Chicago, he with great foresight and discriminating intelli- 
gence saw the possibilities at the head of navigation on the 
Mississippi and divined the great future of the region around 
it, especially in the production of cereals and their conversion 
into manufactured products of various kinds for consumption 
and still further manufacture, and in 186T Mr. Christian 
became a resident of Minneapolis as a flour buyer. Soon after- 
ward he became associated with Governor Washburn in the 
milling business, introducing French and German processes- 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



247 



for milling Hour, which practically revolutionized the business 
in this section. In 1869 he organized and became the head of 
the firm of Christian, Tomlinson & Co., merchant millers, which 
was changed the next year to that of George H. Christian & 
Co., and continued as such until 1875. 

At that time he was still a young man and the milling 
business was particularly profitable because of the introduc- 
tion of a new process of milling wheat. He had, however, 
formed the singular determination not to acquire riches, believ- 
ing happiness could easier be found by one neither rich nor 
poor, and although his profit on flour per barrel was twenty 
times what is now considered satisfactory, he sold out his 
interest in the business to his brothers without exacting any 
premium. He remained out of active management of any 
business for twenty years, when a certain large milling con- 
cern became financially embarrassed through divided manage- 
ment. He was asked to take over the business, which he did, 
and at the end of four years he was enabled to hand it back 
to the companjf with its financial strength restored and its 
affairs in a prosperous state. 

Subsequently he became the President of the Hardwood 
Manufacturing Company, a position he has ever since filled. 
By his energy and business capacity lie built this company 
and its trade up to large proportions, making it one of the 
leading industrial and mercantile institutions in the city, and 
giving it a name and Standing in the business world of the 
highest rank and a commanding influence in business affairs 
in the locality in which it operates so extensively. 

But it was not to be expected that a man of Mr. Christian's 
activity of mind and business resources could be confined, or 
would confine himself, to one line of endeavor. He is vice 
president of the Minneapolis Paper company and connected 
with other industries and business undertakings of various 
kinds and cumulative value to the community around him, 
which he had helped so materially to build up, develop and 
improve. 

George H. Christian is the son of John and Susan (Weeks) 
Christian, the former a native of County Wicklow, Ireland, 
and the latter of Wilmington, North Carolina. The father 
was born in 1807, and was a son of David Christian, of the 
same nativity as himself, who came to the United States in 
1806 and located in Albany, New York, where he died after 
having been for many years engaged in mercantile life. His 
family consisted of six sons and three daughters. His son 
John, father of George H., died in Minneapolis in 1881. He 
and his wife were members of St. Mark's church. 

Mr. Christian of this sketch was married on April 2.3, 1867, 
in Minneapolis, to Miss Leonora Hall, a native of Wisconsin. 
They have one child living, their son, George C. The parents 
are Episcopalians in religious connection and members of St. 
Mark's church. The father belongs to the Minneapolis and 
Commercial clubs. He and his wife, who still abides with 
him, have long been among the most esteemed residents of 
their home city, and recognized as among its most potent 
factors for good to the community, morally, intellectually, 
socially and materially. 



COLONEL FRANK T. CORRISTON. 

Although now known and listed professionally as an attor- 
ney at law, Colonel Frank T. Corrison has served the com- 



munity well in an important olficial capacity, the State as an 
officer of the National Guard, and the country as a soldier and 
officer in the Spanish-American war. 

Colonel Corriston was born in St. Peter, Minnesota, Febru- 
ary 10, 1868. He removed to Minneapolis in 1883. Later he 
learned shorthand. Began the study of law in the office of 
Wilson & Lawrence, and was admitted to the bar March 14, 
1889. From 1893 to 1896 Colonel Corriston was a partner of 
.James W. Lawrence and Hiram C. Truesdale under the firm 
name of Lawrence, Truesdale & Corriston, the firm being dis- 
solved when Mr. Truesdale was appointed Chief Justice of 
Arizona. In January, 1897 Judge David F. Simpson appointed 
Mr. Corriston official court stenographer of the Hennepin 
County District Court, a position he held until January 7, 
1907, except for eighteen months' sei-vice in the Philippines. 

Colonel Corriston served in the First Regiment, Minnesota ' 
National Guard, from April 14, 1889, to October 23, 1913, com- 
pleting almost twentj'-five years of active connection with 
that organization, vacating his position of Lieutenant Colonel 
to accept an appointment as Colonel on the Governor's Staff. 

As a captain in the Thirteenth Minnesota Volunteers he 
went to Manila, arriving there July 31, 1898. Participated in 
the capture of the city of Manila on August 13. 1898, being 
in command and acting as Major of the Minneapolis battalion 
of the Thirteenth Regiment. Remained in the Philippines 
until the regiment returned September 7, 1899. He was 
mustered out of the federal service October 3, 1899. Resumed 
his connection with the Minnesota National Guard, in which 
he was soon elected Lieutenant Colonel. Was largely instru- 
mental in securing the new National Guard Armory, and was 
a member of the Armory Board for a number of years. 

During his service in the Philippines he was detailed for 
seven months as Judge of the Provost Court of Manila. He 
preferred the charge and was a witness in the trial of the 
first j)erson convicted under American authority in the 
Philippines. 

Mayor James C. Haynes appointed him chief of police of 
Minneapolis January 7, 1907, and when the Mayor was 
re-ele'cted the chief was reappointed, his term expiring the first 
of January, 1911, when he declined reappointment. 

When he assumed charge of the police department the force 
numbered 262 members, and the appropriation was $283,000. 
When he retired, after four years' service, there were 337 
members, and the appropriation was $398,000. The number of 
arrests in the first year was 8,842, and in the last 11,430. Dur- 
ing his term the expense of maintaining the department never 
exceeded the appropriations. During the four years he was 
chief of police the appropriations aggregated $1,310,460, and 
the credit balance at the close of his term was $38.54. 

He introduced the use of automobiles in the department; 
started the TraflSe Squad to regulate street travel at congested 
points; was the author of the present traffic ordinance; inaugu- 
rated a new street signal service, and installed the auto- 
patrol and motorcycle service; established the auto-ambulance 
and police surgeon department, and created the new Sixth 
Precinct station at Lake street and Minnehaha Avenue; the 
Bertillon method of identification was systematized and 
enlarged, and the finger print identification installed; salaries 
of police officers were increased twice during his term of 
office, and promotions were made on civil service lines before 
there was any legislation on the Subject. 

Since leaving the police department he has been engaged 
in a general practice of his profession. He received his degree 



248 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



of LL. B. from the Law Department of the University of 
Minnesota, graduating in the Class of 1890. 

Colonel Corriston is a Democrat. He was Secretary of the 
Democratic Congressional Committee in 1892, and in 1900 
was the candidate for special judge of the Municipal Court. 

Belongs to the Masons, holding membership in Khurum 
Lodge; is Past High Priest of Ark Chapter, belongs to Min- 
neapolis Mounted Commandery and Zuhrah Temple. He is 
also a member of the Elks, the Royal Arcanum, the Native 
Sons of Minnesota, Patterson Post No. 11 Army of the Philip- 
pines, Cuba and Porto Rico, of which he is the iii-st Past Com- 
mander. Also belongs to the Minneapolis Athletic Club and 
the West Side Commercial Club. 

He was married May 1, 1898, to Miss Lela E. Benham, a 
native of Algona, Iowa. They have one daughter, Lucile 
Benham Corriston. 



HENRY TITUS WELLES. 



"The memory of the just is blessed." So it was written by 
King Solomon in hiv* Proverbs of men in general, and so it 
was written of the late Henry Titus Welles of Minneapolis 
especially, in the Minnesota Church Record, when he departed 
this life on March 4, 1898, in the seventy-seventh year of his 
age and after a residence of forty-five years in Minneapolis, 
all of which were crowded with business activity, practical 
and broad-viewed efforts for the progress and improvement of 
the community, zealous and effective work for his church and 
all others, and extensive benevolence in many ways. That the 
encomium was justly bestowed in his case cannot but be seen 
from even the brief outline of his life presented in these pages. 

Mr. Welles was descended from old New England families 
of Puritan stock, and was born at Glastonbury, Connecticut, 
on .^pril 3. 1821. in the house where his father and grand- 
father were born and died, and where his mother and her 
mother, his father's mother, grandmother and great-grand- 
mother died. He was a son of Jonathan and Jerusha (Welles) 
Welles, who were cousins, and were married in Boston on 
December 10. 1818. Governor Thomas Welles, the progenitor 
of the American branch of the family, having been proscribed 
as a recusant in England, his native country, came to America 
and settled in Connecticut in 1636. He was governor of the 
colony in 1656 and 1658, and held other important public 
offices. Henry T. Welles was one of his lineal descendants 
on both his father's and his mother's side of the house. 

.Jonathan Welles, the grandfather of Henry T.. was a grad- 
uate of Yale College, and was a tutor in that institution for 
a number of years after his graduation. He married Catherine 
Saltonstall, grand-daugliter of Gurdon Saltonstall, governor of 
Connecticut from 1707 to 1724. dying in office. The family is 
supposed to be of Norman origin, and has been traced in Nor- 
mandy back to the latter part of the eighth centtiry, from 
which time its members held the highest rank, personally 
and by royal intermarriages. Doubtless some of them were 
prominent in tlir' train of William the Conqueror, when he in- 
vaded Engliuul ill tlic eleventh century and gained dominion 
over that country at the battle of Hastings. 

Henry T. Welles passed his infancy, boyhood and youth on 
his father's farm and in academic studies until he entered 
Trinity College (which was formerly known as Washington 
College) in Hartford, from which he was graduated in 1843. 



He then studied law and in 1845 was admitted to practice at 
the bar of Hartford county. At the age of twenty-nine he 
was elected as the candidate of the Whig party to represent 
liis town in the legislature. He accepted but one term in that 
boily. however, as his active mind was already looking out to 
projects of moment in a locality far distant from his ancestral 
home. 

In 1853 he brought what family he then had to St. Anthony, 
as the town at the Falls was then called, and at once engaged 
in the lumber business, which was the principal, the most 
attractive and almost the only industry of magnitude in this 
region at the time. He had liberal capital for the period, and 
invested a large part of it in operating seven of the eight sets 
of saws then at St. Anthony, working in association with 
Franklin Steele, sutler at Fort Snelling, who owned the mill. 
He encountered many difficulties in his new and hitherto un- 
tried line of endeavor, but his native ability, genius for man- 
agement and adaptability to circumstances made him trium- 
phant over them all, and his venture proved very successful. 

Two years later the rapid growth and great promise of the 
town induced Mr. Welles to invest a considerable sum of 
money in real estate, whereby he acquired, along with other 
properties, a share in the claim of which Col. John H. Stevens 
had entered on the west side of the river, and he moved to 
that side in 1856. Retaining and improving this property, 
using it liberally but with care in furthering the advance and 
extension of the town, Mr. Welles laid through it the founda- 
tion of one of the largest fortunes in Minneapolis. 

In all his activities Mr. Welles displayed great ability, 
breadth of view, quickness of perception and ready resource- 
fulness. The people around him recognized these attributes 
in him early, and repeatedly selected him to present their in- 
terests and claims before the aiithorities at Washington. In 
the winter of 1854-5, in co-operation with Franklin Steele 
and Dr. A. E. Ames, he succeeded in having the size of the 
military reservation reduced and the lands included in it be- 
fore that time on the west side opened to purchase and 
settlement. 

In the winter of 1856-7 he was again called to Washington, 
in company with Richard Chute, to aid Delegate Henry M. 
Rice in procuring the passage of the land grant act of that 
year, which opened the way to speedy and extensive railroad 
expansion. On his return home Mr. Welles was tendered a 
public dinner by the citizens of Minneapolis and St. Anthony 
in recognition of his services in aiding in the passage of this 
bill, and in making the two towns centers in the railroad 
system marked out in it. This compliment, with characteristic 
modesty, he courteously but firmly declined. 

When the city of St. Anthony was incorporated in March, 
1855, Mr. Welles was elected its first mayor. The contest was 
a warm one and his majority over Captain .Tohn Rollins, a 
very worthy man, according to Mr. Welles, was less than ten 
votes. About the same time the parish of Holy Trinity 
I'rotestant Episcopal church was in a measure reorganized and 
Jlr. Welles was chosen one of its wardens. He was elected 
to the same office in Geflisemane church when it was organized 
the following year. His contributions to both churches were 
liberal and very timely. He saw their needs and anticipated 
all requests for aid by his own ofi'ers of help for them. In 
1.S57 a New England Society was organized and lie consented 
to l)f one of its vice presidents. At the first Minneapolis town 
election, held in 1858, this enterprising citizen was called to 




MRS H.T WELLES 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



249 



the presidency of the town council, and before the end of the 
same year to the presidency of the school board. 

There was at this time strong competition between the par- 
tisans of the upper and the lower towns on the west side of 
the river. In 1858 a hotel was built on the corner of Wash- 
ington avenue and Cataract street in the lower town, which it 
was thought would boost that part of the city and give it the 
advantage over upper town. But Mr. Welles and Mr. Steele 
had already, with unusual enterprise, procured the building of 
the suspeni^ion bridge to Nicollet avenue, where their interests 
chiefly lay, and they now set apart a fine lot at the corner of 
KicoUet and Washington avenues for a hotel in their section, 
and, with a bonus raised by themselves and others, they 
brought about the erection of the Nicollet House. At its 
opening in 1858 a banquet and celebration were held, at which 
Mr. Welles made one of the speeches. With grapliic clearness 
he sketched the bright prospects and anticipated the magnifi- 
tent future of the infant city. 

In 1859, while Mr. Welles was president of the school board, 
♦ he salaries of the public school teachers were in arrears and 
all of them resigned. The president of the board, with the aid 
of others, procured funds to pay the back salaries, and the 
schools were reopened. This was only one instance of many 
in which this public-spirited gentleman held the welfare of 
his city and its residents in his hands and gladly gave up his 
own substance to promote it. But in such instances he strictly 
obeyed the injunction of the Scriptures by not letting his left 
hand know what his right did. 

The two towns on the banks of the Mississippi, at its pic- 
turesque Falls, were growing apace, and both looking forward 
with the usual optimism of municipal bantlings to metropoli- 
tan magnitude and importance, and each was visibly jealous 
of the other. A serious effort was made in 1860 to unite them 
in one city corporation, and Mr. Welles was appointed on a 
committee to draw up a charter. But the hour for this move 
was not ripe. Public sentiment was not yet sufficiently ad- 
vanced in education to look over local pride and littleness, and 
the effort failed for the time, as neither burg was willing to 
give up its name or merge its individuality, and the great 
advantages that would accrue to both by the merger were 
but slightly considered by the thoughtless multitude. Happily 
a better state of feeling and broader intelligence have since 
obtained and brought magnificent results. 

Mr. Welles was never an aspirant for public office and de- 
clined it whenever it was practicable for him to do so. But 
in 1863 the Democratic nomination for governor was thrust 
upon him, and, althougii the election of any candidate of that 
party was hopeless, he made the race from a sense of duty. 
Of couree he was defeated, but he reduced tlie majority of his 
opponent, Governor Stephen A. Miller, to an extent that showed 
and emphasized his own popularity and influence in the state. 
He had been a Whig from his youth, but in 1856. when his 
party lost its identity in the newly-organized Republican 
party, he became a Democrat because he looked upon the new 
party as sectional and i evolutionary. 

Probably the activity in the busy life here briefly chronicled 
which contributed in the greatest degree to the prosperity, 
progress and improvement of Minneapolis was the conception 
of and co-operation in building the Minneapolis & Duluth and 
Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroads. In the land grant act the 
railroad system provided for the Minnesota valley had two 
terminal lines, one to end at St. Paul and the other at St. 
Anthony, their divergence being at a point near Shakopee. 



The public lands granted for the system were equally applic- 
able to both branches, but the control of the road fell into 
the hands of the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad company, the 
controlling owners of which were residents of St. Paul. The 
line from St. Paul was built and the St. Anthony branch 
neglected, although lands equitably belonging to it were 
appropriated for the other. 

Mr. Welles deliberately determined that with or without 
public lands the road should be built. He called on the presi- 
dent of the St. Paul & Sioux City road and was informed by 
that gentleman that his company had no intention of building 
the St. Anthony branch and would not do so. Mr. Welles told 
him that under such circumstances the people of Minneapolis 
would build the road themselves, and if not allowed a co- 
operating road would provide a competing one. President 
Drake received this statement with a derisive smile which 
showed how futile he regarded the attempt. 

But President Drake reckoned without his host. The Min- 
neapolis & St. Louis Railroad company was organized. Mr. 
Welles was one of its directors and its first president. The 
construction of the line was begun and it was soon opened 
from White Bear lake to St. Anthony, and from Minneapolis 
to the junction with the St. Paul & Sioux City road. Then 
crossing that line, it was extended south into Iowa and west 
into Dakota. In course of time the line to St. Paul from the 
point of junction was abandoned for through traffic, and the 
derided St. Anthony branch became the main line of the St. 
Paul road. The extensions involved in this construction work 
are now parts of the Minneapolis & St. Louis and the Minne- 
apolis & Duluth Railroads. By the magnificent enterprise 
which spoke them into being the prestige of Minneapolis waS 
preserved, and her lumber and milling industries were facili- 
tated ; and instead of sinking to a subordinate position she 
soon outstripped her rival city in population and business. 

At the organization of the park commission Mr. Welles was 
appointed on the board, but after the act had been submitted 
to and ratified by the people, and the work of park construc- 
tion was safely started on its beneficent way, he resigned. 
He was also for a number of years president of the North- 
western National Bank, and during his tenure of that office 
guided the institution safely through a great difficulty, and 
it is now the strongest bank in the Northwest. He resigned 
the presidency after a service of twelve and a half years, but 
remained one of the bank's directors until failing health 
obliged him to give up that position also. 

Mr. Welles was married on May 3. 1853, in his native town 
to Miss Jerushe H. Lord, a native of Tolland county, Connecti- 
cut, and daughter of Joseph and Chloe (Moulton) Lord, and 
six of the children born of the union lived to mafiirity. Hen- 
rietta died a maiden lady. Catherine is living with her mother. 
Harriet became the wife of Dr. A. M. Eastman, and died in 
middle life. The others are Henry, Caroline and Fiances, the 
last named still living at home and Henry being the third of 
the children who attained their majority and the only son of 
the household in the number. The wife and mother is still 
living and maintains the old home on Hennepin avenue. 



DANA L. CASE. 



Is a native of Greene, Butler county, Iowa, where he was 
born on Dec. 3, 1874. He is a son of Edgar S. and Matilda 



250 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



E. (Hazlett) Case, who were born and reared in Ohio. The 
father was for a number of years engaged in the banking 
business at Wadena, Minnesota. During the Civil war he 
served in the Union army in an Illinois regiment. He died 
in California in 1910. 

His son, Dana L. Case, was brought to Minnesota by his 
parents in his childhood, and has been a resident of Minne- 
apolis for twenty years. He obtained his education in the 
school at Wadena, this state, and began his business career 
as clerk in a bank at Verndale, Minnesota, with which he 
was connected during 1888 and 1889. In 1902 he opened a 
bank at Motley, this state, which was first called the Bank 
of Motley, and was a private institution, but which lias 
since become the First National Bank of Motley. He worked 
in that bank as cashier until 1907, when he came to Minne- 
apolis, seeking better opportunities and larger returns for his 
energies. But he still retains an interest in the bank at 
Motley and is its vice president. 

On May 1, 1907, when Howard Dykman resigned the 
cashiership of the East Side Bank, Mr. Case was appointed 
to succeed him in the position. By his enterprise and busi- 
ness capacity he built the trade of the bank up to a large 
volume, and he also largely increased its popularity through 
his own. In 1913 he resigned as cashier to accept a respon- 
sible position with the Minneapolis Trust company. 

Mr. Case takes a warm interest in the social life of the 
community and shows it by active and serviceable membership 
in the Commercial and Interlachen clubs. Fraternally he is 
connected with the Masonic order, and in this also he is 
deeply and helpfully interested. The public affairs of Min- 
neapolis claim his attention too. and have the benefit of his 
aid in the direction of securing good government and pro- 
moting desirable improvements of every kind, and also with 
a view to enlarging the comfort and conveniences of the 
residents of the city and making it a still more desirable 
place to live in tlian it is at present. On May 23, 1894, he 
was united in marriage with Miss Grace Holden, who was 
born in Connecticut. She also is earnestly interested in the 
progress and welfare of the city of her home, and warmly 
seconds all her husband's elTorts to advance it, and does what 
she can in this behalf on her own account besides. She 
shares with him the high and general regard and good will 
the people have for him. 



CALEB D. DORR. 



If the venerable and highly esteemed patriarch whose life 
story is briefly told in these paragraphs had no other title to 
honorable mention in a compendium of history and biography 
for Minneapolis and Hennepin county, the fact that he was 
one of this locality's earliest pioneers; that he stood by the 
cradle of its civilization and assisted its growth into lusty boy- 
hood; that he helped to speak its great activities into being 
and direct them into fruitful channels for the service of man- 
kind and that he is one of the few remaining links which con- 
nect its present high development and advanced progress with 
its birth as a civic, social and industrial entity, would entitle 
him to an honorable place among its makers and builders in 
any narrative of their aspirations and achievements. 

But Caleb D. Dorr has enough in his own struggles and 
good work; his manly battle with dilTicuIties and his mastery 



over them; his contributions to the growth of all that is now 
among us and around us, and above all, in his high character 
and sterling manhood, to make any account of the city and 
county named incomplete without at least some brief narrative 
of his useful career among this people, which is all that the 
space available here will permit, insufficient and unsatisfactory 
as it must necessarily be. 

Mr. Dorr was born at East Great Works, now Bradley, 
Penobscot county, Maine, on July 9, 1824, and is a son of 
Charles M. and Ann (Morse) Dorr, the former a native of 
Massachusetts and the latter of Western Maine. The father 
was a farmer on a small farm, thrifty and industrious in 
cultivating his land and managing his affairs, but the circum- 
stances of the family were moderate, and tlie life of its 
members under the parental rooftree involved little of incident 
or adventure out of the ordinary experiences of that day 
and locality. Both parents died in Maine after long lives 
of useful labor and upright living, and their remains were 
laid to rest in the soil hallowed by their toil. Three sons 
and two daughters were born in the household, all of whom 
are now deceased except Caleb and one of his brothers. 

Caleb D. Dorr grew to manhood on his father's farm, and 
during his boyhood and early youth attended the village school 
during the winter months. At an early age he began to shift 
in part for himself by working in the lumber mills in his 
neighborhood and rafting logs. The work was hard and 
the life of which it was a part was monotonous and primitive. 
But even as it was, some account of the great possibilities of 
the great West enlivened it and filled the adventurous spirits 
engaged in it with desire to see something of the world 
outside of it and become a part of larger activities. 

In 1847, when Mr. Dorr was about twenty-three years of 
age, he yielded to this longing and came West. He reached 
Buffalo by one of the first railroads then available, from 
Albany, and journeyed from the former city over the Great 
Lakes to Milwaukee. From there to Galena, Illinois, he 
traveled overland, and from Galena to St. Paul on the old 
Argo, a river boat. He was now near his long journey's end, 
but what was he to find in the region of hope and promise 
when he reached it? From St. Paul to the Falls of St. 
Anthony was but a short distance, but was a journey into 
the wilds. 

When Mr. Dorr arrived at the Falls he found but a single 
log house and a mess shanty here, but he saw the great 
possibilities of the locality for carrying on the business to 
which he had been trained, and he at once laid plans to 
engage in it. In 1848 the St. Anthony Waterfalls company 
built a small mill, and he became one of the employes of 
that company. But he did not linger long in the service of 
others. Before the end of the year he started an enterprise 
Ijy organizing the Mississippi, and Rum River Boom company 
which built the first boom across the Mississippi at head of the 
Island, bringing the timbers for the purpose from Crow 
Wing, and putting up the first works of construction of this 
kind ever erected in this locality. He then engaged in cutting 
and rafting timber on the Rum and Mississippi rivers, and 
continued his operations for a period of eight or ten years 
continuously, and in 1866 he became the active manager of 
the Boom Company. In this position he served the company 
faithfully and wisely until 1888, and he is still connected 
with it officially. He also began the manufacture of lumber 
in the fifties and continued to be actively occupied in this 
industry for many years, in company with others, helping 




^oA^ ^,^^ 




-C^C^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



251 



to start it here and, in fact, being its pioneer in this region 
as well as one of its most active early promoters. 

In the meantime a village of great enterprise and promise 
had grown up at the Falls and been named St. Anthony. In 
1855, on April 13, the first city council of this village held 
its first meeting with Henry T. Welles as mayor and Mr. 
Dorr as one of the six aldermen. During the rest of his 
years of activity Mr. Dorr took an active part in the business 
and civic afi'airs of the community, and rendered it great 
service in many ways. He was always broad-minded and 
progressive, and his judgment was largely deferred to by the 
men who were engaged with him in promoting the advancement 
of the town whose birth he had witnessed and which he had 
helped to baptize. 

On March 4, 1849, Mr. Dorr was united in marriage with 
Miss Clestia A. Ricker of Dover, Maine, who died in March, 
1909. They had no children. Mrs. Dorr was a zealous and 
devout member of the Universalist church, to which Mr. Dorr 
has also belonged for a long time, and in whose welfare he has 
taken a very cordial and serviceable interest at all times. 



BEN.JAMIN SETH BULL. 



Among the early settlers of Minneapolis was Benjamin S. 
Bull, born October 19, 1832, in Essex County, New York. His 
ancestors were of English Quaker origin, settling in Vermont. 
His father, Henry Bull, was a man of moderate means, so 
the son's education was necessarily confined to the district 
schools of his neighborhood. 

At the age of twelve years it was necessary that Benjamin 
Bull support himself and as he grew towards manhood he 
developed such energy and capacity that he was soon operat- 
ing for himself in various enterprises. 

At the age of twenty-one years he married Miss Mary 
Stickney of his native village and, following the example of 
others in the neighborhood, journeyed West to Illinois. Be- 
fore very long, the glowing accounts of Minnesota became 
alluring and yielding to the pioneer instinct he made the trip 
with his wife and infant daughter by team, as there were no 
railroads running to Minneapolis af that time. He arrived at 
Minneapolis in 1855 and soon identified himself with the 
active life of the town. 

Three years after arriving in Jlinneapolis Mrs. Bull died 
and two years later Mr. Bull married Miss Beulah Newell, 
who was also a native of Essex County, New York. 

He now entered the grocery business with a store near 
Bridge Square. The project prospered, business increased rap- 
idly and soon a partnership was formed with Mr. Hugh G. 
Harrison, a capitalist who had recently arrived in Minneapolis. 
This partnerehip resulted in the Harrison Block at the corner 
of Washington and Nicollet avenues, which building was in 
those days one of the prides of Minneapolis. After several 
years of success, the company Sold out to Stevens & Morse, 
Mr. Bull and Mr. Harrison continuing their partnership in the 
lumber business with sawmills at the Falls of St. Anthony. 

About this time there was great excitement over Montana 
mining and several leading citizens of Minneapolis, Mr. Bull 
being among them, made a journey of investigation. This 
trip resulted in a mining partnership being formed with Mr. 



Isaac I. Lewis, the enterprise centering in the "Legal Tender" 
mine of the "Silver Bow" district. This was before the days 
of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railroads, and it 
was necessary to make the trip via the Union Pacific to Salt 
Lake City, thence north by stage to Montana. 

The "Legal Tender" was a mine of remarkably rich ore, but 
capricious, as is often the case, and finally, the flour milling 
business at Minneapolis attracting his attention, Mr. Bull dis- 
posed of the Montana mine and erected the "Humboldt Mill," 
the business being conducted under the name of Bull, Newton 
& Co. The original Humboldt Mill went down in the great 
mill explosion of 1878 but was immediately replaced by the 
present structure now operated by the Washburn-Crosby Co. 
Flour from the Humboldt Mill received gold medal and first 
prize at the World's Paris Exposition in 1878. 

Discontinuing the milling business, Mr. Bull took up what 
was then known as bonanza farming. His farms were located 
in various parts of western Minnesota and North Dakota, the 
principal, however, being the "Hancock Farm," comprising 
some 14,000 acres in Stevens and Pope counties, Minnesota. 

In the year 1869 Messrs. Bull, Gilson and others introduced 
the first street railway into Minneapolis, the concern being 
incorporated as the Minneapolis Horse Railway Co. Cars were 
run on a track laid along Second Street, connecting the Mil- 
waukee and Manitoba depots. The project was a little prema- 
ture as a street railway and the tracks were used mainly for 
the purpose of transferring cars between the two systems of 
roads. Soon Mr. Gilson died and It was decided to abandon 
tlie enterprise,, thus ending the first street railway of Min- 
neapolis. 

Mr. Bull was a quiet man, keeping much with his family 
and working with unceasing energy and interest on the 
various business ventures of his life. He was a member of 
the First Baptist Church when that church occupied a loca- 
tion at the corner of Nicollet Avenue and Third Street. 

Benjamin S. Bull died November 31, 1889, and there sur- 
vives him, his widow, two daughters and a son— Mrs. Louis 
F. Menage, Mrs. William G. Crocker and Benjamin S. Bull, 
a sketch of whom is embraced in this book. 



BENJAMIN S. BULL. 



Mr. Bull has the administration of the advertising depart- 
ment of the Washburn-Crosby Co., and, directing the expendi- 
ture of hundreds of thousands of dollars for printing and 
advertising, he is particularly well known in periodical cir- 
cles. In this field he has earned a reputation for being a 
sagacious and discerning judge of publicity. 

Born in Minneapolis on. June 21, 1869, Mr. Bull received hig 
education in the public schools of the city. His first business 
experience was with his father in the real estate business in 
1887 and 1888. From 1S89 to 1895 he was asso'ciated with 
the First National and other Minneapolis banks. 

It was in the latter year that he took employment with 
the Washburn-Crosby Co. Expending large sums of money 
for advertising, the company found it necessary to create a 
department for its systematic and judicious handling, and 
Mr. Bull was made manager of it. His success in this posi- 
sion is attested by the fact of his being made one of the eight 



252 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



new directors elected bj' the company at its annual meeting 
on September 19, 1910. 

Aside from the publicity department, Mr. Bull is in charge 
of the auditing and clerical forces of the company. 



GIBSON ALLAN CHAFFEE. 



The business career of Gibson A. Chaffee, manager of the 
Crane Company of Minneapolis since 1899, has been a con- 
tinuous succession of effort and achievement, of enterprise 
and progress, from the time when he left school at the age of 
nineteen years until the present day. His duties and respon- 
sibilities have steadily increased in volume and importance as 
the years have passed, but every step of his advance has 
been wrought out by himself by faithful performance of 
the duties he has had in hand, and has been based on sub- 
stantial and well demonstrated merit. 

Mr. Chaffee was born at Hastings, Minnesota, on January 31, 
1866. He was educated in the public schools of Mansfield, 
Ohio, which he attended until 1883. In that year he took a 
position in the employ of Wilson & Rogers of St. Paul, and 
during the next fourteen years he was a traveling salesman 
for that firm, the Rogers-Willis company, the Rogers & Ord- 
way company and the Crane & Ordway company, all St. Paul 
business houses of high rank, and carrying on extensive 
operations throughout an extensive territory. 

At the end of the period mentioned he became assistant 
manager for the Crane & Ordway company, a position which 
he filled with great ability and to the entire satisfaction of 
the company for four years. In 1899 he was made manager 
for the Crane company, of Minneapolis, and in this capacity 
he has served that company ever since. On his own account 
he has for some years been an extensive breeder of dairy 
stock on his fine farm at Long Lake, Minnesota. He is a 
member of the Minneapolis Athletic club, the Rotary club, the 
Civic and Commerce association and several fraternal orders, 
and takes an active interest in everything involving the welfare 
of the people of the Twin Cities, His residence is at 1942 
CaiToll avenue, St. Paul. 



WILLIAM SHELDON JUDD. 



In a residence of thirty-seven years in Minneapolis and 
forty-four in Minnesota, the late William Sheldon Judd, a 
leading business man, demonstrated the admirable adapta- 
bility of American manhood to circumstances and require- 
ments. He was an Eastern man and a mountaineer, but he 
fitted in with Western surroundings and life on the Slinne- 
sota prairie-s as if they had always been his portion. He 
passed his boyhood and youth in the hardest kind of farm 
labor; yet he took hold of industrial pursuits in manufactur- 
ing lines with readiness' and easy control. 

Mr. Judd was born at Elizabethtown, Essex county. New 
York, in the Adirondack mountains, March 10, 1823, His 
father David J\idil, like several generations of his forefathers, 
lived and died in that region. He owned a rough, stony farm 
which was hard to work. His son William often said he wore 
his fingers out picking up stones in his boyhood and early 
youth, and he also wore out his fondness for farming such 
soil, if he ever had any. While he was yit a very young man 



Mr. Judd engaged in the manufacture of iron as the head of 
a foundry in which he had scarcely any but French workmen, 
who called him "Beel," their pronunciation of "Bill." He was 
successful and in a few years sought larger opportunities and 
more congenial pursuits. 

In 1858 he moved to Faribault, Minnesota, where he engaged 
in banking in partnership with William Dyke. They loaned 
money on farms and other security and carried on a general 
banking business. Prosperity attended them and Mr. Judd 
was well satisfied with his location and his prospects. But 
Mrs. Judd had visited Minneapolis, admired the attractions 
of the then thriving little city and longed to make it her home. 
In 1865 she induced her husband to move here, and once more 
they found a new home among strangers. 

Mr. Judd formed a partnership with William Eastman, and- 
they became the managers of the Cataract flour mill, which 
Mr. Eastman had previously built. This was the first mill 
from which flour was shipped to the East from St. Anthony 
Falls. Mr. Judd was well acquainted with many leading 
families in St. Paul, and they were serviceable in helping to 
promote his business enterprises. He gave his attention 
earnestly and studiously to the affairs of the mill, but soon 
after becoming connected with it he bought the block bounded 
by Fifth and Sixth Streets and Fifth and Sixth Avenues 
South, and on it erected a large brick dwelling, which was one 
of the leading residences in the city at that period. Some 
years later he bought a home at 639 Eighth Street South, in 
which both he and his wife died. 

In the course of a few years Mr. Judd joined Mr. Eastman 
and George A. Brackett in the erection and operation of a 
woolen mill, of which Mr. Eastman was the originator, as he 
was of the Cataract flour mill. Mr. Judd was also a pioneer 
in one of the local industries that has been remarkably suc- 
cessful and grown to great magnitude. He was one of the 
incorporators of the first street railway, a horse-car line that 
traversed half a dozen blocks along Washington Avenue. After 
some years Mr. .Judd sold his interest in both mills and turned 
his attention to the wholesale lumber trade. He made exten- 
sive sales of lumber in Ivansas and Missouri, but before he 
could make collections for his sales the grasshoppers devas- 
tated those States, his debtors became impoverished, and his 
losses were sufficient to wipe out his fortune. 

He was then past middle life, had suffered some loss of 
health and lowering of vitality and strength, and decided to 
relinquish the greater part of his activity in business. He was 
for some years manager of a large wheat farm near Wah- 
peton. North Dakota, for a Mr. Adams of Chicago. He passed 
a great deal of his time thereafter at Lake Minnetonka, where 
he enjoyed sailboating, fishing and other lake pleasures. He 
was also an enthusiastic horticulturist, and gave this pleasing 
pursuit much attention during his years of leisure. He di< d 
November 25, 1903. 

May 13, 1851, Mr. Judd was married at Moriali. in his 
native county to Miss Mary Almira Bishop who w;is born in 
Vermont, February 16, 1830, and died in Minneapolis, July 3, 
1911. They became the parents of three children, William 
Bishop, Ella, and Frank David. William Pishop Judd lives 
at 3607 Pleasant Avenue, Mimieapolis, Mrs. Ella (Judd) 
Dibble, now deceased, was the widow of the late Russell Dibble 
(of the flouring firm of Darrow & Dibble), who died in 1882, at 
the age of twenty-eight. She had two children. One of these' 
is her daughter Mary, who is the wife of Chapin R. Brackett,. 
the son of George A. Brackett, her grandfather's old partner. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



253 



Mrs. Dibble's son, Eugene Russell Dibble, is prominently con- 
nected with the Dibble Grain and Elevator Company, with an 
office in the Flour Exchange building; he is a member of the 
Chamber of Commerce and a member of several social clubs. 
Frank David Judd, the third child of William S., died at the 
age of sixteen years. 

Mrs. Mary Almira Judd, the wife of William S. Judd, was 
a lady of domestic taste and habits; her home was a social 
center and great resort. She was the confidential friend and 
adviser of almost everybody in her circle of intimates, and 
was always prompt in helping the needy. She retained her 
youthful appearance in her old age, and her beauty of dispo- 
sition and attractiveness of manner grew with her years, 
making her in advanced life one of the most charming old 
ladies Minneapolis has ever known. 

Her daughter, Mrs. Dibble, was a very energetic and enthu- 
siastic social worker. She was active in the work of St. 
Mark's Episcopal Church, the Ladies' Guild, and a number of 
other helpful and uplifting organizations. During the later 
years of her mother's life they passed their winters together 
in Florida. Mrs. Dibble's death occurred October 27. 1913, at 
the Hampshire Arms. 



BARCLAY COOPER. 



Mr. Cooper is a native of that rich, old German locality, 
renowned for the sturdiness and worth of its people and the 
great value and highly improved condition of its farms, 
Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, which about the time of his 
birth, 1842, was probably the richest rural county in the 
United States. His parents, Milton and Zillah (Preston) 
Cooper, were also natives of Pennsylvania, and came to 
Minneapolis to live in 1857, arriving in this city on May ll: 
The fatlier was a contractor and builder, and died here at the 
age of ninety years and six months. 

Barclay Cooper was reared to the age of fifteen in his 
native county, and began his education in the district schools 
there. He finished this with a high school course in Minne- 
apolis, and immediately afterward learned the carpenter 
trade under the instructions of his father, who was a master 
of the craft. Soon after the beginning of the Civil war the 
young man enlisted in the L'nion army and was assigned to 
duty in the quartermaster's department, in which he served 
to the end of the sanguinary contest. 

After leaving the army Mr. Cooper joined his father and 
brother in contracting and building, and was associated with 
them for a number of years. For a long time, however, he 
has been in business alone, and has been very successful in 
his w'ork, having been engaged to put up a large number of 
important business and dwelling houses. Among the struc- 
tures he has erected in this city are the residences of George 
McMullen, on Chestnut avenue; Mr. Harmon, on Hennepin 
avenue; and B. Taylor, at Sixth avenue south and Eighth 
street; the Metropolitan theater; a large store building on 
First avenue north; and four store buildings on Second 
avenue north; the Curtis Court apartment. Tenth and Third 
avenues south; the large Flat building. Eleventh and Haw- 
thorne, besides many other houses on Franklin and irving, 
residences for W. L. Waldron, John Proctors, W. Pauls 
and R. M. Chapmans. He owns a lot at the intersection of 
Third avenue and First street north, 165 by 100 feet in 



dimensions and a number of other parcels of valuable city 
property. 

On Sept. 14, 1869, Mr. Cooper was married to Miss Addie 
Bassett, of Minneapolis, and by this marriage he became the 
father of two children, his son Edgar B. and his daughter, 
Mrs. Edna Fortner. Edgar B. Cooper married Miss Cora 
Joslin, and he also has two children, Priscilla E. and Barclay 
Edgar. Mr. Cooper is a member of the Commercial club, and 
he and his wife belong to the Universalist Church of the 
Redeemer. Their pleasant home is at No. 1100 Hawthorn 
avenue. 



OLIVER PERRY CARTER. 



The mastery of mental power and a strong will over serious 
bodily ailments, and the almost conijilete Subjection of the 
physical nature to the higher attributes were forcibly illus- 
trated in the life of the late Oliver Perry Carter, a former 
leading grain dealer who died Januai-y 28, 1912, at the age 
of sixty-six. Mr. Carter was a victim of locomotor ataxia, 
which rendered him unable to walk for several years. Yet he 
meanwhile devoted great energy and constant attention to the 
management of large business enterprises and even made two 
extensive tours in Europe. 

Oliver P. Carter was born near Glen's Falls, New Y'ork, July 
5, 1846, and during childhood was brought to a farm near 
Delavan, Wisconsin, where he reached the age of seventeen. 
In 1864 he returned to New York to enlist in obedience to 
the last call for volunteers, being discharged with his regi- 
ment. 

On his return he attended Beloit College three years and 
began his business career in the employ of M. J. Near & Com- 
pany, Chicago, manufacturers of bags, his attention to busi- 
ness and the unusual ability displayed soon making him a 
member of the firm. In 1877, yielding to a long-standing 
desire, he came to St. Paul to engage in the wholesale trade 
in vegetable and other .seeds. Entering into a partnership with 
U. S. Hollister and Henry A. Castle and, organizing tlie firm 
of Hollister, Carter & Castle, they bought several hundred 
acres, which was devoted to the growing of seeds. His mar- 
riage January 23, 1878. united him with Alice Wheeler, daugh- 
ter of William and Mary B. (Spalding) Wheeler of this city. 
Mr. and Mrs. AVheeler were natives of New Hampshire, were 
there married and came to Minneapolis in 1866. Mr. Wheeler 
had formerly been a manufacturer of lumber in both Wis- 
consin and Michigan, and had also bought pine lands in thi» 
state, but is generally remembered in connection with the 
grain trade, retiring in 1888. 

After Mr. Carter's marriage he joined Mr. Wheeler in the 
firm of Wheeler & Carter, and when the senior member retired 
his son. Charles F. Wheeler, took his place. 

Mr. Wheeler died December 2, 1897. His widow now resides 
at Minnetonka, but still owns the oM home on Sixth street 
south. She is active in the Women's club iiml a <-li:irtcr mem- 
ber of the Current Literature club. 

Mr. Carter was always energetic in business, and was 
found in his office almost constantly until a short time before 
his death. He traveled extensively, but ever kept his finger 
on the business pulse even when farthest from home. He 
owned a farm and timber lands, but for some years restricted 
his operations to his extensive grain trade, including a line- 
of country elevators in Minnesota and North Dakota. 



254 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Mr. Carter and wife had two daughters, Mary S., the wife 
of Doctor G. B. Frankforter, dean of the College of Chemistry 
of the University of Minnesota, and Alice Ellen, wife of 
Charles J. O'Connell, interested in iron mines of the Cayuna 
Range, at Crosby, Minnesota. 



C. M. E. CARLSON. 



This esteemed citizen who has been a resident for about a 
quarter of a century has exemplified, in a manner worthy of 
admiration the strong traits of character, elevated patriotism 
and cordial interest in the general welfare which are salient 
features of his countrymen. 

Mr. Carlson was born in Jeareda Soken, Kalmarlan, Sweden, 
December 25, 1859, and is a son of Carl Johann and Lovisa 
(Hultgren) Carlson. He was educated in the state schools 
and for his technical training attended a slojd school, with 
special attention to drafting and designing, and was subse- 
quently selected as a teacher in a similar institution at Upsala. 
At the Copenhagen industrial exposition he was awarded first 
prize for a sketch and detail description of a buffet, in com- 
petition with many others. Not satisfied with the prospects 
at home and having former associates in this country, and 
hearing so much of the vast wealth of natural resources and 
opportunity he decided to come where so many of his country- 
men had become successful and distinguished. 

In 1888 he reached Minneapolis. Soon after helping to found 
the Northwestern Mantel company, now the Northwestern 
Marble and Tile company, and was its manager and secretary 
until 1908. From the time of his advent he felt a cordial 
and serviceable interest in public welfare, and has contributed 
largely to advance its interests. 

In 1910 he was chosen county commissioner from the 
second district, which he now represents, and was elected 
chairman. He is interested in mining properties in Alaska, 
and has also other important interests. 

Mr. Carlson was married in 1896, to Miss Matilda Peterson, 
of Otisco, Minnesota. They have four children. He is a 
member of the Odin club, and of the Evangelical Mission 
Tabernacle. 



LESTER R. BROOKS. 



The euthanasia, the easy, painless and peaceful death, least 
foreseen and soonest over, so much desired by the ancients, 
was the kind that closed the honorable and useful life and 
the great and fruitful business record of the late Lester 
Ranney Brooks of Minneapolis on November 11, 1902, when 
he was but fifty-five years old, in the prime of his manhood, 
with all his faculties fully developed and obedient to his 
will, and when he was also one of the main supports of many 
worthy undertakings for the advancement of his home city 
and the enduring welfare of its residents. His final summons 
came suddenly, without warning or premonition, giving the 
city he had so long and so wisely served a great shock and 
enshrouding all its people in deep and oppressive grief and 
gloom. 

^Ir. Brooks was a native of Redfield, Oswego county. New 
York, where his life began on May 19, 1847. He was a son 



of Dr. Sheldon and .Teannette (Ranney) Brooks. Because of 
the uncertain health of the father the family came to Min- 
nesota in 1856 and from then until his death the doctor was 
engaged in the grain business at Minneiska. He built a home 
in the WTiitewater Valley and laid out a town which he called 
Beaver. It still bears that name and has become a flourishing 
and progressive village. Early in his residence in the state 
of Minnesota, which the territory became two years after his 
arrival within its borders as a resident, the doctor attained 
to prominence in public affairs, and until his death he con- 
tinued to be a man of strong influence and local power for 
good. He was a member of the second state legislature, and 
in order to reach St. Paul for the session made a thirty-hour 
journey by stage on the frozen surface of the Mississippi river. 

Lester R. Brooks was but nine years old when he was 
brought by his parents to Minnesota, and here he obtained the 
greater part of his academic education. Early in life he 
showed a decided talent for business and an earnest desire to 
be engaged in it. Accordingly, in 1862, when he was but fif- 
teen years of age, he became associated with his father and 
brothers in the grain trade. In 1873 they formed the firm of 
Brooks Bros., doing business in that line of traflSc. The next 
year Lester moved to Winona, having purchased a large 
amount of the stock of the Second National Bank and served 
as its cashier for a number of years, meanwhile retaining his 
interest in the firm of Brooks Bros, in Minneiska. where he 
had previously served as agent for the Chicago, Milwaukee & 
St. Paul Railroad. 

In 1880 he organized and became president of the Winona 
Milling company, which erected what was then the largest and 
most important steam flour mill in the Northwest, if not in 
the United States. It was one of the first to install the roller 
milling process and probably the first large mill in the coun- 
try to discard burrstones entirely. The mill began operations 
with a capacity of 1,000 barrels a day, and during the five 
years of his presidency of the company this was enlarged to 
2,600 barrels. In this mill Mr. Brooks installed the first 
Edison incandescent light system west of New York city. 

In 1885 the state of his health and the growing importance 
of Minneapolis as a grain market induced Mr. Brooks to move 
to this city and establish here the headquarters of the Brooks 
Elevator company, of which he was president and his brothers, 
Dwight S, and Anson S,, were members. This company 
owned and operated thirty-five elevators in Western Minne- 
sota and Dakota, and terminal elevator stocks, and also had 
extensive interests in the lumber trade and in banking. About 
the year 1908 the company disposed of practically all its 
holdings in the grain business, the lumber department of its 
enterprise having been largely extended by the purchase of 
western timber lands. This change was made at a time when 
the price of lumber was rapidly going up, and proved very 
advantageous to the company. 

Mr. Brooks also founded the Brooks-Griffith company, 
which, with various changes in name, is still one of the lead- 
ing grain companies in Minneapolis. In addition he was presi- 
dent of the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber company, president 
of the Scanlon-Gipson and the Brooks-Robertson Lumber com- 
panies. In the management of all these industrial institutions 
he took an active interest, and to their expansion and suc- 
cessful operation he gave the full force of his highly stimulat- 
ing enterprise and business capacity. His record as a busi- 
ness man is written in large and enduring phrase in the indus- 
durial and commercial chronicles of this city and the monu- 




t/t /=^, 



c<, 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



255 



r 



ments which proclaim his greatness as a manufacturer, mer- 
chant, banker and promoter are the mighty enterprises he 
helped to found and build up to almost colossal magnitude and 
almost world-wide usefulness. 

Soon after his location in Minneapolis he became a member 
of the Chamber of Commerce and immediately prominent in 
the management of its affairs. He served on many important 
committees and in 1897 was elected president. His work in 
this position, which he filled for two years, was universally 
recognized as most efficient, conscientious and productive. He 
saw that the organization was greatly in need of more com- 
modious quarters and forcibly advocated the erection of a 
new building. When his views prevailed he was made chair- 
man of the building committee, a position of weighty respon- 
sibility, the duties of which, however, he performed in a man- 
ner wholly satisfactory to the members of the Chamber. He 
also gave to the grain trade of the city the Chamber of Com- 
merce Clearings association, the need of which he was the 
first to see and which he organized and, as its first president, 
started on its helpful career, directing its activities into proper 
channels, awakening and concentrating all its powers, and 
making it meet all the requirements for whicj; it was created 
and kept in operation. 

The banking business enlisted the interest, gratified the 
taste and extensively engaged the energies of Mr. Brooks from 
an early period in his business career. For many years prior 
to his death he was a director of the Northwestern National 
Bank and the Minnesota Loan and Trust company of this city 
and the Second National Bank of Winona. He was also a 
prominent member of the St. Paul Lumber Exchange, and be- 
longed to other business organizations which have had an 
important bearing on the progress and improvement of the city 
and the expansion of its industrial, commercial and mercantile 
greatness. In its social life he took an active part as a mem- 
ber of the Minneapolis. Minikahda and Lafayette clubs, in the 
last named being a member of the board of governors and the 
chairman of the building committee, and in aJJ a potential 
force for progress in every way. 

Wliile never desirous of holding political ofRce, Mr. Brooks 
was an ardent supporter of the principles and theories of gov- 
ernment of the Republican party. Fraternally he was a Free- 
mason of high degree, being a Knight Templar and a Noble 
of the Mystic Shrine. He was liberal in his contributions to 
all religious and charitable organizations, and to all other 
agencies working for the uplifting of the people in his com- 
munity without reference to their creeds or article^ of faith, 
and with full tolerance toward them. 

Mr. Brooks always took an earnest, practical and helpful 
interest in outdoor life, and clean and healthful manly sports, 
and gave them strong advocacy in speech and substantial 
encouragement and aid in a material way. He was an enthu- 
siastic yachtsman and served for years as commodore of the 
Minnetonka Yacht club. His yacht, the Pinafore, won the 
championship of her class on Lake Minnetonka and also the 
inter-lake pennant on White Bear lake. For many years he 
maintained a summer home on the upper end of Big Island 
in the former lake, his winters being passed in the South or 
in travel. 

Mr. Brooks was married in April, 1873, to Miss Josephine 
Bullene, a native of Wisconsin, and a resident of Minnesota, 
at the time of the marriage. They had one child, their son, 
Philip Ranney Brooks, who is still living and has his home 
in Minneapolis. Mr. Brooks, as has been stated, died suddenly. 



without warning or premonition, on November 11, 1902. his 
demise occurring in his apartments in the West hotel. Rev. 
L. H. Hallock, pastor of the Plymouth Congregational church, 
conducted the funeral services, and in the course of his address 
paid the highest tribute to the genuine worth, strict integrity, 
elevated manhood and useful citizenship of the deceased. He 
said in part: "The greatest of mysteries has transpired before 
our eyes, and we can only stand in awe and sorrow, saying 
with our late lamented President McKinley, 'It is God's way, 
His will be done.' Mr. Brooks respected genuineness and sin- 
cerity. He abhorred meanness and paltry show. The world 
is better for his having lived in it and poorer because of his 
having gone out of it." 

All the institutions and organizations with which the 
deceased was connected adopted resolutions of testimony to 
the high character, excellent citizenship and vast usefulness 
he had exhibited, of sympathy with his surviving family and 
of deep grief over his untimely departure. The Chamber of 
Commerce Clearings Association placed itself on record in the 
following language: 

"The Association has lost one of its most useful members, 
an honest and upright man, whose virtues endeared him to' 
all, and who was always zealous in advancing the interests 
of the association. He served it as president in 1897 and 1898, 
and to his wise guidance it owes much of its present prosperity 
and high standing. During the last two years, as chairman of 
the building committee for the erection of the new Chamber 
of Commerce annex, he devoted much of his valuable time to 
the service of the Chamber, and it was largely through his 
efforts that the elegant structure is now receiving its artistic 
finishing touches." His portrait hangs in the directors' room 
of the Chamber. 

The St. Paul Lumber Exchange resolved: "That in the death 
of L. R. Brooks the State of Minnesota has been deprived of 
a business man of sterling qualities and of a high, honorable 
type, whose wise and conservative counsel will be missed and 
the loss of which will be deplored by all, while his being taken 
from among us will be deeply mourned." 

The directors of the Second National Bank of Winona 
declared: That they could not too strongly express the insti- 
tution's high appreciation of the excellent and valued judg- 
ment of the deceased, who had been a director of the bank 
continuously from 1875, and could not tod deeply regret the 
loss of his future advice. 

For the directors of the Northwestern National Bank of 
Minneapolis E. W. Decker, the cashier at the time, said: "It 
was with a great deal of regret that we were obliged to give 
up Mr. Brooks as one of the directors of this bank, and I 
know that every member of the bcjrd felt the loss very 
keenly." 

The Minnesota Loan and Trust company resolved: "That 
Jlr. Brooks was a square man. He combined the good judg- 
ment, executive ability and strength of a successful business 
man with a gentleness and courtesy and consideration for 
others which endeared him most to those who knew hira best." 

The American Lumberman, published in Chicago, spoke feel- 
ingly of the keenly sensitive integrity of Mr. Brooks as fol- 
lows: "He could not bear to think of the least reflection being 
cast upon the financial honor of any concern in which he was 
interested. He carried this high sense of honor through all 
his business dealings., and demanded it of his associates and 
employes." 

His memory is enshrined in the hearts of all the people as 



256 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



a perpetual fragrance, 
not to die." 



"To live in hearts we leave beliind is 



.JOHN E. BURNS. 



1860. She died in February, 1913, and was buried in tlie habit 
of tlie Third Order of Dominican Sisters. Tlieir children are 
Frances, Mrs. P. M. McDonough; Willis, an attorney in 
Seattle; Ella, private secretary to the president of an insurance 
company; Anna, a teacher in Minneapolis; and .John, super- 
intendent of an iron mine at Everett, Minnesota. 



Tlie story of the growth of an important contracting busi- 
ness in connection witli tlie upbuilding of the Northwest is 
told in the narration of .John E. Bunis. It is a business which, 
like many another, had its beginning in the development of 
tlie lumber and flour mill industry. Mr. Burns is a native of 
New Brunswick, where he was born June 15, 1841, being one 
of seventeen children, and was reared in the lumber woods. 
He continued working in the woods until 1865, when he landed 
in Minneapolis, which was then rapidly becoming the lumber 
capital of the west. For five years he followed lumbering, 
working for Fred Clark and for Washburn, Stickney and 
Company. During the winters he was head chopper in the 
woods; and in the spring would drive logs down the river to 
Minneapolis'. In 1870, Mr. Burns went to work for C. C. 
Washburn, and it was this association that shaped his future, 
for it was then that he became interested in canal, tunnel 
and flour mill construction. He assisted in building the Wash- 
burn "A" mill, and worked in it until the mill was blown up 
in the great mill explosion. At the time of this disaster 
Mr. Burns stood only a few hundred feet from the mill, and 
was knocked down but not hurt by the force of the explosion. 
He was then foreman in charge of cleaning away the debris, 
as well as of the work of rebuilding. 

Mr. Burns' first work on tunnels had been done in 1865, 
when he helped construct the first tunnel to the "B" mill. 
And he has worked on almost every big tunnel since, in the 
river about the mills. At the death of Governor Washburo, 
Mr. Burns turned his attention to contracting, and put in a 
tunnel for the J. B. Bassett sawmills, and in partnership with 
Ami Weeks, he took a contract for constructing the city tunnel 
■under the viaduct to the city waterworks at the foot of 
Sixth avenue south, a distance of five hundred feet. Here he 
devised water wheel power for pumping and hauling otit the 
cars of earth. At this time he came into close relation witli 
William de la Barre, manager of the waterworks, ilr. Buins 
continued to contract for the city on watermain and sewer 
work; he also in 1887 built a big tunnel at Galena, 111., for 
the Great Western railroad. He took contracts for tunnels 
for Winston Brothers, railroad contractors, in various parts 
of tlic country; and also built a long tunnel — in 1900 — for 
the Great Northern railway, from the Missouri river to the 
Teton river, in Montana. In addition to this contracting. 
Mr. Burns has also been superintendent on large works of 
water power and dam construction, a line in which he was 
engaged because of his recognized ability in handling large 
forces of workmen. 

He has built and now owns a large apartment liouse near 
his own home; has been active in municipal and civic aiTairs, 
participating in politics for others, having himself several 
times refused candidacy for public office. Mr. Bums is a 
Republican, although non-partisan in local politics. 

In 1869 Mr. Burns married Mary Collins, a native of Ireland, 
and to them were born two sons and three daughters, ilrs. 
Burns, who was one of the best known women in the Holy 
Rosary church, and for some years treasurer of the Aid society 
of the parish, was born in 1844 and came to Minneapolis in 



GEORGE FRAXK PIPER. 



George Frank Piper was born in Minneapolis on April 11, 
1^56, and is a son of Jefferson and Mary Davis (McDuffee) 
Piper, natives of New England, where they were reared, edu- 
cated and married, and where they lived for a number of 
years after their marriage. The father's health began to fail 
and he moved to this state, locating first in Minneapolis and 
some time afterward changing his residence to a farm near 
Mankato. In the family residence on the farm, amid rural 
associations and pursuits, his son George F. grew to the age 
of seventeen. He began his academic education in the public 
schools, continued it at one of the state normal schools in this 
state and completed it at the State University, which he en- 
tered on his return to Minneapolis in 1873. But he remained 
at the University only one year, being eager to begin making 
his own way forward in the world. 

Mr. Piper began his business career as a manufacturer of 
linseed oil, which he has been ever since. For more than ten 
years he carried on his operations in this business at Mankato, 
and was very successful in them from the start. Tlie larger 
opportunity and greater resources for his business in Jlinne- 
apolis brought him back to this city in 1894, and here he has 
passed all his subsequent years, throughout the whole period 
being prominently connected with the industry in which he 
started and contributing so largely and effectively to its 
growth and development that Minneapolis is now the most 
extensive linseed oil producing point in the United States, 
and the company which he and his associates control do 
about one-fifth of the linseed oil business of the country. 

But Mr. Piper has not confined his energies to the oil busi- 
ness. He holds extensive interests in Canada in the elevator 
and lumber business. The elevator companies in that country 
in which he is one of a number of men who hold a controlling 
interest, handle about one-sixth of the grain in the Dominion. 
In the early development of Canada Mr. Piper and his asso- 
ciates owned large tracts of land amounting in the aggregate 
to over three million acres. They were among the first to 
realize the immense possibilities of the western part of the 
country, and pioneers in starting the development of those 
possibilities. 

Mr. Piper also has extensive interests in ilinneapolis in a 
business way. He has been for many years a director of the 
Clianiber of Commerce, serving as vice president two years 
and president one year. He is in addition a director of the 
Security National Bank and one of the board of governors of 
the Minneapolis and the Minikahda clubs. His political alle- 
giance has always been given with firmness and fidelity to the 
Republican party; but, while he has at all times been deeply 
interested in its success and continued supremacy, he has 
never desired a political office or been willing to accept one, 
although frequently solicited to do so. 

On August 20, 1883, at Mankato, where lie was then living, 
Mr. Piper was married to Miss Grace Brett of that city. They 




Q^ (^ 



^c^^ 




HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



257 



have four sons. Clarence B., the eldest, is a graduate of the 
Lawrenceville, New Jersey, school and of Cornell University. 
He married Miss Isabella Gait and lives in Winnipeg. The 
second son, Louis H., is also a graduate of the Lawrenceville 
school. He married Miss Ruth Hamm, of Chicago, and is now 
connected with the starch factory of Douglas Co. of Cedar 
Kapids, Iowa. Harry C, the third son, is a graduate of Yale 
University and engaged in business with Piper & Co. in 
handling commercial paper. Oeorge F. Piper, Jr., the youngest 
son, is at present a student at Yale. All the members of the 
family are Presbyterians, and those living in Minneapolis 
belong to Westminster church of that sect. 

This is a brief review of a remarkable business career 
wrought out by a gentleman of very unusual mental endow- 
ments and business capacity. While it has been of great profit 
to him, it has also been of great usefulness to the city of his 
residence and all other localities with which it has connected 
him. And he has at all times and in all places been zealous in 
promoting the welfare of others along with his own. This 
has given him a strong hold on the regard and good will of 
all who have business or social relations with him or knowl- 
edge of his broad and helpful manhood. 



THEODORE F. CURTIS. 



Mr. Curtis is the builder and proprietor of the ''Leaming- 
ton" hotel and the "Curtis Court" apartment house, archi- 
tectural creations constructed according to his own ideas and 
plans, and at the time of their erection almost unique in tliis 
country, their most renowned antecedent having been a 
structure of the same kind built by him in Los Angeles, 
California, in 1900. Curtis Court in this city was built in 
1905 and the Leamington hotel in 1911. Like all new de- 
partures in human enterprise, they were at the start objects 
of considerable skepticism and some ridicule, and like others 
of real merit, they have shown their value and turned their 
critics of the past into their warmest commenders of the 
present. 

Mr. Curtis was born in Portland, Maine, on February 7, 
1854, the third of the seven children, three sons and four 
daughters, of Theodore Lincoln and Esther (Moore) Curtis, 
also natives of Maine. The father was a ship-builder and 
learned his trade with his father and older brothers. In 1855 
he brought his family to St. Anthony with the intention of 
engaging in manufacturing here. He first built flat-bottomed 
boats on the west side of the river at the boat landing, about 
where the Washington avenue bridge now stands. These 
were largt scows, 200 feet long and 30 feet wide. They were 
loaded with lumber and other merchandise and floated to 
lower points on the river, forming an important factor in 
the river transportation of the early period of development 
in this region. 

The elder Mr. Curtis was occupied in this work for a 
number of years, but he also built houses and other struc- 
tures, aiding as a sub-contractor in the erection of the first 
part of the Nicollet hotel. He also built himself a house on 
Third avenue north at Fourth street, a locality that was then 
in the woods, and erected numerous other buildings in different 
parts of the city as it was or was to be, many of which are 
still standing. In payment for his work on a barn he built 



for John Green on the Lake of the Isles he was offered 160 
acres of land in that locality. But the land was then of so 
little value that he refused the offer. 

The growth of the city in a few years after his arrival 
here induced Mr. Curtis, the father, to form a partnership 
with Mr. Burr, under the firm name of Curtis & Burr, for 
the manufacture of furniture. Some little time afterward 
he bought a property on Washington avenue between First 
and Second avenues south in which he opened a retail fur- 
niture store, and he had a small mill in connection with this 
enterprise at which much of the furniture he handled was 
made. He continued his operations in this business until his 
death in 1875, passing away in the prime of his life at the 
age of fifty-seven years. 

Mrs. Curtis, the mother of Theodore F., lived until 1893. 
She and her husband were the parents of seven children, 
three sons and four daughters. Norman Eugene, the first 
born, now lives in Los Angeles, California. Edward Lincoln 
died in childhood. Theodore F. was the third in the order of 
birth and the youngest son. Susan H. is the wife of Winslow 
Knowles. Frances F. is the wife of Edward F. Maloney, the 
manager of Curtis Court in this city. Etta is the widow of 
W. J. Bishop, a Minneapolis real estate man who died in 
1908. Emma married Captain William P. Allen, an old asso- 
ciate of T. B. Walker in surveying work, who afterward joined 
the Nelson lumber trade at Cloquet. The father was a deacon 
in the old Baptist church which stood on the site now occupied 
by the Andrus building. Later he was active and prominent 
in the Presbyterian church, which long stood where the Ven- 
dome hotel now flourishes. 

Theodore F. Curtis grew from infancy to manhood in 
Minneapolis and obtained his education in the primary schools 
and the old Central High School which was conducted on the 
lot on which the new municipal building has since been 
erected. Among his early playmates were many boys who 
have since become prominent men in the business, social and 
public life of the city. 

Mr. Curtis was nineteen when his father died. The estate 
owned a block of ground on Third avenue north between 
Fourth and Fifth streets. The construction of the railroad 
into this locality made the property undesirable for residences, 
and Mrs. Curtis, the mother, was offered $10,000 for it. The 
son advised her to ask $20,000, but she sold it for $18,000. 
Within one year afterward it was cut up into small lots and 
sold for over $100,000. This transaction opened Mr. Curtis' 
eyes to the future possibilities of the city, and he set to 
work to learn the real estate business. Under his direction 
the $18,000 was reinvested, and in the course of a few years 
it made up the loss sustained in the sale of the old block. 

During the boom period Mr. Curtis built, at Vine and 
Fourteenth streets, the first apartment or flat houses in the 
city. He also built one at Seventh street and Third avenue 
south. In 1887 he began to build cottages on the installment 
payment plan, putting up small modern houses in different 
parts of the city, and extending his operations to the Lake 
Calhoun district, where he had 180 lots and built cottages 
on most of them. In the meantime he had passed several 
winters in Los Angeles and invested money there. He owned 
an attractive site on which he erected the first apartment house 
in that city, embodying in the structure the ideas which he 
has since expressed more elaborately in Curtis Court and the 
Leamington hotel, these buildings being divided into suites 
embracing a large parlor or living room, a bath room and a 



258 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



kitchenette, small but provided with every convenience for the 
purposes for which it is designed. 

The Leamington hotel contains 860 rooms and has accommo- 
dations for 800 to 1,000 persons. It cost $1,500,000, and was 
built by Mr. Curtis in association with Frank J. Mackey of 
Chicago, who put up the Mackey-Legg block on Fourth street 
and Nicollet avenue. Mr. Curtis worked five years in planning 
the hotel. One of its special attractions is its immense lobby 
• encircled by broad verandas. Similar buildings are being 
built in all the leading cities, and many architects and builders 
have inspected it for plans and suggestions, its fame being 
world-wide. At a recent congress of bishops, composed of 
men who had visited every important city, emphatic approval 
of the plan of the Leamington Was expressed. It is a hotel 
where men and women may have moderately priced homes 
with all conveniences, and the privilege of either home cooking 
or public dining service. Many families now make this house 
their regular home, and it is a great resort for traveling men. 
Mr. Curtis has been urged to build similar stnictures in 
Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago and many other cities. But he 
feels that one is enough for him, and he has sold his apartment 
house in Los Angeles, where he has spent twenty-five winters. 
Mr. Curtis was married on August 19, 1885, to Miss Delia 
F. Brown, a daughter of the late .James G. Brown, of the 
firm of Rand & Brown, operators of an immense farm near 
Grafton, North Dakota. Mr. Brown maintained his residence 
most of the time in Minneapolis, but passed his winters in 
California. He died in 1890, and his daughter, Mrs. Curtis, 
passed away in January, 1911. Mr. Curtis built one of the 
first houses on Clifton avenue for a family residence. But 
for twenty-four years he has lived on the west side of Lake 
Calhoun, although he still owns the Clifton avenue home. 



ASA EMERY JOHNSON. M. D. 

The life story of this man of many parts, who passed away 
in Minneapolis on January 27. 1905, after a residence of al- 
most fifty-two years in this locality, and when he lacked less 
than two months of being eighty-two years of age, contains 
so much that is of interest that it will be difficult to tell it 
all within the limits of space allowable in this work. It is a 
story of personal privation and personal endurance; of inci- 
dent and adventure; of effort and achievement; of trial and 
triumph; of firm faith in the goodness of God and great use- 
fulness to man; of all, in short, that is admirable and com- 
mendable in the best American manhood. 

Notable among the doctor's services to the city of his long 
and last residence on earth was the organization of the Minne- 
sota Academy of Science, an institution now known the world 
over, which was founded in his office in Minneapolis on March 
4, 1873, by a few far-seeing men like himself, whom he had 
interested in the project, and of which he was the first presi- 
dent. Of the little band of Studious and progressive men who 
laid the foundation of this Academy, of which the city of its 
home is justly So proud, Professor N. H. Winchell of the 
University of Minnesota, at the celebration of the fortieth 
anniversary of the institution on March 4, 1913, gave an in- 
teresting account of its history. 

Dr. Asa E. Johnson was born at Bridgewater, Oneida county. 
New York, on March 16, 1825, a scion of New England an- 
cestry. His great-grandfather fought under Washington in 



the Revolutionary war, and his grandfather was a soldier in 
the War of 1812. The progenitors of the American branch of 
the family came to this country from Holland in Colonial 
times and settled in Connecticut. From that state the doctor's 
grandfather journeyed on foot to Oneida county. New York, 
then far into the Western wilderness, and in the new region 
planted his hearthstone and reared his family. At that hearth- 
stone the doctor was born and reared to the age of twenty. 

At that age he left the home, farm on foot as his grand- 
father had come to it, and himself journeying into the wilder- 
ness farther West in search of what fortune might have in 
store for him. He reached the lake shore at Buffalo and from 
there traveled by boat to Detroit. His path was still straight 
westward, and there was no way in which he could follow it 
but on foot. He walked to Y'psilanti, working in the hay 
fields by the way, and so on to New Buffalo on Lake Michigan. 
Another steamer carried him across the lake to Chicago, and 
from there he again walked on, working at haying as he , 
advanced, and so earning a few dollars week by week. 

When he reached Lisbon, Kendall county, Illinois, he visited 
an uncle, and being pleased with the region, he rented forty 
acres of land in that neighborhood and raised a good crop of 
wheat on it. This he hauled tb Chicago, sixty miles distant, 
with ox teams. He also attended Lisbon Academy for more 
advanced instruction than he had previously received, and at 
the completion of his term in that institution returned to 
New York to take up the study of medicine in the homeoi)atHi'c 
branch of the science. He later completed his medical educa- 
tion at Columbia L^niversity, graduating from that college. 
He began his professional studies under the direction of Dr. 
Erastus King at Niagara Falls, and afterward attended the 
University of New York City, from which he was graduated 
on March 16, 1851, with the degree of M. D. 

After his graduation the doctor came West again, stopping 
at Beloit, Wisconsin, where he had been five years before with 
his father. Here he was married on his twenty-eighth birth- 
day to Miss Hannah Russell. Here, also, he was persuaded by 
Dr. A. E. Ames to come to St. Anthony, which he reached on 
May 29, 1853. The population of that village was then about 
800, and eight physicians attended the ailing. Dr. Johnson, 
however, soon gained a good general practice, being recognized 
as particularly capable in the department of surgery. He con- 
tinued practicing actively for nearly forty years before he 
retired. At his death, as for many years before, he was the 
oldest physician in Minneapolis in length of practice. In his 
earlier activity he served a number of years as county physi- 
cian of Hennepin county and as a member of the county board 
of health. 

By taste and inclination Dr. Johnson was a naturalist, and 
he gave a great deal of intelligent attention to natural liis- 
tory. He discovered some rare fossils, a number of which are 
now in the museum at the Smithsonian Institute at Wash- 
ington. He dug into the mounds and secured well preserved 
specimens of their builders. He also made a special study of 
fungi and catalogued over 800 specimens, many of them never 
before observed, and his researches extended into several other 
fields of natural Science. While struggling upward from ob- 
scurity and a very moderate estate in life financially, he cut 
cord wood at 25 cents per cord, sheared sheep at 3 cents per 
head and slept in haystacks; and while attending school he 
lived in a garret and subsisted almost on bread and water. 
In his later life he belonged to the Episcopal church. 

He was married at Belnit, Wisconsin, on March 16, 1853, to 





TV- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



259 



Miss Rosenia Russell, a native of England. She died in August, 
1892, leaving one child, their daughter Rosenia Amelia, who 
is now the wife of Andrew M. Hunter of Minneapolis. Her 
father passed the last years of his life with his daughter, 
Mrs. Hunter, surrounded by his books and specimens. He 
found solace in his pipe and enjoyed the companionship of his 
old friends and neighbors. 

ANDREW M. HUNTER, the son-in-law of Dr. Asa E. John- 
son, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 39, 1864, 
and is a son of Samuel and Rosa (Byrnes) Hunter, who 
came to Minneapolis in 1867. The father was a plumber and 
was engaged in business thirty-six years in this city. He is 
still living, and is now eighty-four years old. He represented 
the Sixth ward of the city in the board of aldermen four 
years and served six as a member of the park board. When 
the Civil war began he enlisted in the Union army and re- 
mained in the service to the close of the memorable conflict. 
He is now prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic in 
this part of the country. He also belongs to the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows and is one of the oldest members 
of the order in this locality, having joined it forty-five years 
ago. He is a Republican in politics and a Presbyterian in 
church fellowship. 

His son, Andrew M. Hunter, is one of the leading real 
estate dealers in Minneapolis, and has his oflice in the Phoenix 
building. He was educated in the public schools of this citj-, 
having come here when he was but three years old, and for 
fifteen years, after leaving school was associated with his 
father in the plumbing industry. His interest in the welfare 
of his community has always been cordial and practical, and 
his aid in promoting it has always been zealous, prompt and 
effective, guided by intelligence and governed by good judg- 
ment. 

In fraternal life Mr. Hunter is a Freemason with member- 
ship in Hennepin Lodge of the order. He also belongs to 
Minneapolis Lodge of Elks. In the doings of both these 
fraternities he takes an earnest interest and an active part. 
On July 5, 1886, he was united in marriage with Miss Rosenia 
A. Johnson, the only child of Dr. Asa E. .Johnson. Mr. Hunter 
is a vestryman of Holy Trinity Episcopal church. 



RICHARD HENRY CHUTE. 



Having been connected with the lumber industry for twenty 
years in Minneapolis, and for almost a generation previously 
in other places, Richard H. Chute, has contributed largely 
and substantially to its development. He is the treasurer and 
active manager of the Mississippi and Rum River Boom com- 
pany, which handles the logs on their way to the mills. 

Mr. Chute was born at Woburn, Massachusetts, March 14, 
1843. His parents were Rev. Ariel P. and Sarah M. W. 
(Chandler) Chute, the former born at Byfield. Massachusetts, 
and the latter at New Gloucester, Maine. The father was a 
widely known Congregational minister throughout New Eng- 
land, and died in Massachusetts in 1887. The paternal grand- 
father, whose name was Richard, was a manufacturer and 
died while on a business trip at St. Louis, Missouri. 

Richard Henry Chute obtained his education in the public 
schools. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company C, Thirty- 
fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, was transferred to 
the Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Veterans, serving to the close 



of the war. He was given repeated promotions being mustered 
out as Captain. 

He participated in the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, 
and Fredericksburg. He was sent with his command to Ken- 
tucky and took part in the siege of Vicksburg, returning to 
Virginia to be with Grant in campaign in the Wilderness, At 
North Anna River he was taken prisoner, and for eight and 
one-half months suffered the horrors of confinement in Libby 
Prison and at Macon and Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston 
and Columbia, South Carolina. In 1865 he went to St. Louis, 
where he was engaged in the lumber trade for seven years, 
moving to Louisiana. Missouri, where he had charge of a large 
lumber yard for three yeare. In 1875 he came to Eau Claire, 
Wisconsin, at the manufacturing end of the same company, 
becoming about 1887 the Manager of the mills. 

In 1893 he became associated with the Mississippi and Rum 
River Boom company, and he has since been connected with 
it in a managerial capacity. 

Mr. Chute is Vice President of the Northland Pine company 
and he was the secretary and treasurer of the St. P.aul Boom 
company which ceased operation in 1914 and is also secretary 
and treasurer of the Northern Boom company. 

Mr. Chute has not been a partisan, but has alwaj-s taken 
an active interest in efforts toward good local government 
and municipal improvement. He is connected with the Grand 
Army of the Republic with Eagle Post Eau Claire. He is a 
regular attendant of Lowry Hill Congregational church. 

November 6, 1867, Mr, Chute was united with Miss Susan 
R. Nelson, of Georgetown, Massachusetts, Three of five children 
are living: Arthur L,, is a surgeon in Boston; Robert W,, 
is teller in the Sccuritj' National Bank; and Rebecca. 



CHARLES BRADLEY CLARK. 

Closing a life of nearlj' sixty-one years of usefulness and 
activity, suddenly and in a highly tragic manner, on Janu- 
ary 12, 1911, while surrounded by friends and just after 
performing a duty of general interest, the late Charles Bradley 
Clark, of Minneapolis, left a record and rounded a career full 
of 'credit to himself and of suggestiveneSs for others. 

Charles Bradley Clark was born on a farm at Pewaukee, 
Wisconsin, March 26, 1850. He was educated in country 
schools and at the State Normal School at Whitewater. At 
sixteen he began to teach, thus ])aying his own way through 
the Normal School. 

In October, 1871, he went to Chicago in search of employ- 
ment, leaving his valise in the office of a friend while he 
hunted a job. That same night the memorable great fire of 
1871 broke out, and his grip, containing everything he had 
in the world but the clothes on his back, was burned. Not 
dismayed, he returned home, and soon afterward went to 
Milwaukee as clerk in an office, and although the paj' was 
less than his necessary expenses, he adhered to his position, 
only quitting to take a better job in a wholesale drug hovise. 
Confinement undermining his health he became a traveling 
salesman, and continued in this occupation throughout the 
remainder of his life. Driving summer and winter he 
encountered all the hardships of the country commercial 
traveler, but health was restored and he enjoyed the freedom 
of the life and the self-reliance and resourcefulness it required. 

For nine years he worked faithfully for one firm, and then 



260 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



embraced a better opportunity for hiiiisi'lf with anotlier cor- 
poration. He came to Jlinncapolis in the interest of the 
wholesale grocery establishment of Griggs, Cooper & Com- 
pany of St. Paul and in the service of this firm made regular 
trips through North Dakota and Montana, though maintaining 
his home in Minneapolis. His last employer was the C J. 
Van Houten Cocoa Comj)anj', for which he traveled seventeen 
years, making thirty-seven j-ears of service on the road. 
He was said to be the oldest commercial salesman in length 
of service in this part of the country. The life was exact- 
ing, its duties requiring continued fortitude and endurance, 
and he was obliged to visit many small towns by team, stage 
coach, or by any other available means of transportation. He 
had to face the rage of the elements, ford streams, live in 
primitive taverns, and put up with all kinds of privation. 
But he never lost interest in his work or cheerfulness of dis- 
position. Wliatever his hand found to do at any time he 
did with all his might. 

He became connected with the United Commercial Travelers' 
Association, always taking an earnest and active part in its 
proceedings. ^ATiile in Xorth Dakota on one of his early trips 
he took up a homestead at Eldridge, near Jamestown, and also 
secured a timber claim. 

A friend in Washington sent him new varieties of seed for 
his tenant to test. ,He introduced alfalfa into Xorth Dakota, 
and he became an enthusiastic advocate of this valuable forage 
as a staple crop for North Dakota. His articles in the 
Breeders' Gazette and other publications, setting forth the 
food and crop value of this product, attracted wide attention to 
it and aided greatly in extending its use in the Northwest. 
So deeply did he impress the public mind on the subject that 
he was often referred to as the "Alfalfa King." He also 
proved by tests the value of several other forage crops and 
small fruits to North Dakota. 

He was reared a Christian and througliout life was a con- 
sistent and sincere exemplar of that worthy character, holding 
membership for many years in Pilgrim Congregational church 
of Minneapolis. He joined the "Gideons," the traveling men's 
Christian organization and distributed Bibles under its aus- 
pices all over the Northwest, particularly in Northern Michi- 
gan. His evenings were devoted to visiting pastors in the 
interest of Christian work, and in the service of the Volun- 
teers of America. He was an excellent singer and speaker, 
and frequently used his talents in these lines in churches and 
meetings of the Volunteers. 

Mr. Clark died in the harness while attending a meeting 
of the State Horticultural Society held in the Minneapolis 
courthouse. He made an impassioned speech, seconding the 
nomination of one of the members for president of the 
society, dying immediately after resuming his seat. 

June 12, 1887, Mr. Clark was united in marriage with Miss 
Caroline Petter, who was born at Golden Valley, Hennepin 
County, a daughter of William and Catherine Petter. natives 
of Germany, who came to Minnesota in 185.3. They lived two 
years in St. Paul, ten at Golden Valley, and the rest of their 
lives in Minneapolis. As a child Mrs. Clark gathered hazel- 
nuts over the locality in which she now lives, at 1513 Bryant 
Avenue North. She and her husband were the parents of two 
children, who are both still with her. They are Harriet O. 
Clark, a graduate of the State University and a teacher of 
German in Sisseton, S. D. High School, and Clarence F. 
Clark, a clerk in the office of the Washburn-Crosby company. 



VICTOR CORDELLA. 

Victor Cordelia, son of the Polish sculptor Marian Cordelia 
chose another line for his creative ability than that of his 
father Avhen he became an architect. His mother, Florence 
Cordelia, was also gifted along artistic lines but it was their 
ambition that their son should be first of all well educated 
along academic lines before he took up any work calculated to 
develop his artistic ability. Victor was born at Krakow, in 
Austrian Poland on January 1, 1872. He was sent to the 
graded schools of Austria and received his preparatory educa- 
tion in the High School. After that he entered the Roj'al 
Art Academy of Krakow. After finishing there he became a 
student of technology under the direction of Professor Jlichael 
Kowalozuk at Lemberg. 

When he came to America he came first to St. Paul and 
began his architectual training in the office of Cass Gilbert. 
This was eighteen years ago. After being associated with 
Mr. Gilbert for some time he won experience and ripened his 
art in the offices of a number of other architects among them, 
W. H. Dennis, W. B. Dunnell and Charles R. Aldrich. 

Mr. Cordelia is at present of the architectural firm of Boehme 
and Cordelia. This association began about ten years ago 
and has been very successful in building up a good business 
in the local field. He has a large business acquaintance and 
is of social and democratic tastes. He was married eleven 
years ago, September 15, 1902, to Miss Ruth Maser of Canton, 
Ohio. 



CAPTAIN JOHN MARTIN. 



Among the founders and makers of Minneapolis Captain 
.John Martin must ever stand in heroic proportions, a type of 
the men of liis day and locality, an embodiment of all their 
aspirations, capacities, natural traits and force of character. 
Yet his origin was humble and his early life uneventful. He 
sprang from the ranks of the plain and Sturdy people of New 
England and passed his boyhood and early youth in obscurity 
and toil. But throughout his life he exemplified everywhere 
and in every situation the sterling virtues of his class, its 
resourcefulness in conception and action, its strong self-reli- 
ance, and the unyielding fiber of its manhood. 

Captain .lohn Martin was born at Peacham, Caledonia 
county. Vermont, on August 18, 1820. His parents were 
Eliphalet and Martha (Hoit) or (Hoyt) Martin, descendants 
of the Pilgrim Fathers of Massachusetts, whose early lives 
were passed in Woodbury, Connecticut, whence they moved to 
A'ermont not long after their marriage. They wex-e farmers 
and well-to-do for their day and locality, and .John was one of 
eight children. His early life differed little from that of the 
sons of other New England farmers, who wrung a scanty 
living from their rugged and not overproductive land. He at- 
tend(><l the district school in the winter months and worked 
on the farm in the summer, performing his tasks faithfully 
and with all the skill he could command, and true to his duty 
in every respect. 

But he had that witiiin liim that gave him intimations of 
the great world beyond his limited horizon and filled him with 
longings to sec it and be a part of it. He felt that he had 
faculties and capabilities for which he found no scopi? at home, 
and at the age of nineteen determined to llnd a field for their 





Ij2fh 



^ULy/\ A 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



261 



employment. At that age he accepted a position as fireman 
on one of the boats I'lving the Connecticut river, tlien the 
leading avenue or highway of internal commerce in that part 
of the country, having first bought the rest of his time as a 
minor of his father. 

After five years of good and faithful service on the steam- 
boat on which he began the battle of life for himself, during 
which he rose to the position of captain, his boat was sold 
South and he was engaged to go with her. During the next 
five years he served as captain of the Wayne and the Johnson 
and navigated the Neuse river in North Carolina, conveying 
tar. turpentine and resin down to the sea and carrying back 
cargoes of varied merchandise. His W'ages were small, but he 
was frugal and saved them. He was also wise and invested 
his savings in farm lands among his native hills, which he 
looked upon as his permanent home. 

At the end of the period mentioned he returned to Peaeham 
B.nd was married. Just then California broke the silence of 
the Far West with the inspiring melody of her golden music, 
and the captain's love of adventure and laudable ambition for 
a more rapid advance in his fortunes, led him to leave his 
young bride and join the hosts of argonauts that was hasten- 
ing to the newly discovered gold fields. He made the trip by 
the Isthmus route, and passed a year in the new eldorado, 
owning and working a placer mine on the American river, 
cleaning up a goodly sum of the precious metal and then sell- 
ing his mine and returning to his Vermont home with his 
accumulations, intending to remain there. 

But the place had lost its charms for him. Its rocks and 
hills no longer held him with their one-time fascination. After 
his thrilling life of years on the deck and in the mining camp, 
every hour of which was replete with stir and excitement, 
existence in the remote and quiet hills of Vermont was in- 
tolerable to him, and his restless energy rebelled against it. 
He endured it with what i)atience he could for two years, 
then broke away from it in an exploration of what was then 
to all the Atlantic slope the far away West. 

In this excursion from the dullness of his native region he 
visited Illinois and Iowa, and saw great rafts of logs floating 
down the Mississippi with the current. 

Captain Martin's eye at once took in the possibilities of the 
lumber business in this region, He at once returned to Ver- 
mont and sold all his possessions in that state. Then, in 
1855, he moved to the village of St. Anthony, in which and 
Minneapolis, as the town became by its later baptism, he 
passe<l the remainder of his active and serviceable life, grow- 
ing in business activity and popular favor with the growth of 
the community, and contributing in many ways to its ad- 
vancement and improvement. 

As soon as he was established in his new home he entered 
in full measure into the enthusiasm of the community, and 
gave every form of its progress the impulse of his hand. On 
January 2.3, 1855, soon after he located in the village, a 
banquet was served at the St. Charles hotel to celebrate the 
completion of the suspension bridge over the Mississippi. The 
street parade, a part of the celebration, was a mile in length, 
according to Colonel Stevens, who took part in it, and was 
led by Dr. J. H. Murphy as marshal and Captain Martin aS 
standard bearer, so soon and so earnestly did he enter into 
the spirit of the place. Tlicrc was music and there were 
cannon in the parade. an<l the lino of march was through the 
towns on both sides of the river. 

Before the end of the same year the residents of these two 



towns organized a steamboat company for the navigation of 
the lower river, and raised a capital stock of $30,000. Captain 
Martin took great interest in the enterjirise, subscribed to a 
considerable block of the stock, and later became the captain 
of the Falls City, one of the company's boats, on which he 
made trips periodically to the lower Mississippi river points. 

But this industry did not occupy him wholly. Soon after 
his advent in the region he engaged in logging in the pineries, 
and from then until his death fifty years later he was con- 
nected in many ways with the lumber trade. He built and 
operated sawmills and opened lumber yards, and incorporated 
his lumber business under the name of the .John Martin Lum- 
ber company. He had yards in Minneapolis and St. Paul and 
a sawmill at Mission creek on the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad, 
and his tireless energy kept them all busy. 

In addition, he took a hand in flour milling, and in a short 
time became a proprietor of the Northwestern Flour Mills in 
Minneapolis and later of the Northwestern Consolidated Mill- 
ing company in the same city. This company, under his man- 
agement, operated five mills w^ith a daily capacity of 2,500 
barrels, and became, next to the Pillsbury-Washburn company, 
the largest manufacturer of fiour in the world. 

He was a director of the First National Bank of Minne- 
apolis from its organization in 1864, and its president from 
1894 to his death, and held the same relation to the Minne- 
apolis & St. Louis Railroad from its completion to its incor- 
poration with the Rock Island system. He contributed liber- 
ally of his capital and business sagacity to the success of these 
institutions, and did the same for the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. 
Marie & Atlantic Railroad, of which he was a director and 
the vice president, as he was of the Minneapolis & Pacific 
Railway, which opened a new and shorter route to the Atlantic 
seaboard and made the milling business of his home city 
independent of hostile railroad combinations. 

Captain Martin was one of eight children, five sons and 
three daughters, born to his parents, all of whom are now 
deceased. The parents died in Vermont, and the captain 
passed away in Minneapolis on May 5, 1905. lacking but three 
months and foiirteen days of being eighty-five years old. He 
was married in 1849, to Miss .lane B. Oilfilhin. like himself, a 
native of Peaeham, Vermont, the daughter of Robert and Janet 
(Bachop) GilfiUan of that city. One child was born of the 
union, the late Mrs. Jean M. Brown, who died in Minneapolis 
on .January 23, 1901. The mother's life ended in 1886. 

Captain Martin was a member of the First Congregational 
church for many yeai"s. and also a Freemason from his early 
manhood. He was liberal in his benefactions to the needy 
and charitable institutions of all kinds. As a memorial tribute 
to the worth of his daughter and his strong aflcction for her, 
he contributed the sum of .$40,000 to the Children's Home 
Society. In politics he was an unwavering Republican, be- 
lieving firmly in the principles of his party as the promise 
and fulfillment of the highest and most enduring good to the 
country. But he never sought or desired any of the honors 
or emoluments usually held out as the reward for political 
service. He rendered the service with loyalty, zeal and efli- 
ciency, but it was principle and strong conviction that impelled 
him, and no personal interest was involved in his work in this 
particular. 

Captain Martin was a Tuan of great forc<' of character, strong 
mental endowment and the strictest uprightness in all the 
relations of life. He has passed into the history of his com- 



262 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



munity as a type of the most elevated and serviceable citizen- 
ship. 



GILMAN CONNOR. 



One of the men who figured prominently in the founding 
of Minneapolis' chief industry was the late Oilman Connor, 
whose trade of millwright was of the greatest importance. 
He also figures in Minnesota history for another reason — he 
was one of the founders of the village of Merrimac, which, 
later renamed, became famous as the home of the "Sage of 
Nininger" — Ignatius Donnelly, statesman, orator and autlior. 

Mr. Connor was born in Farmington, Maine, March 21, 
1810, and died in January, 1883. He learned his trade of 
millwright, and built large mills in Maine and New Hamp- 
shire, including a big plant at Berlin Falls, as well as mills 
in other important places. So that, when he came to St. 
Anthony in 1857, he came as an expert millwright, well 
grounded in his trade and a valuable man for the pioneers 
who were beginning to develop the industry by the Falls. 
That he was more than an ordinary factor in this develop- 
ment is recalled by the fact that twice he sought to break 
away from the trade and become a farmer, but circumstances 
held him to the trade and to St. Anthony. He was regarded 
as an expert on all milling questions, especially in the problem 
of calculating the speed of grain elevation. 

John DeLaitte once consulted him relative to a trouble- 
some elevator. In a few moments he had reckoned the 
proper speed, the suggested change producing the desired 
effect. Mr. DeLaitte insisted on paying him twenty dollars 
for his 'service. He had a fine mathematical mind, and became 
one of the active constructors of the waterpower at the falls. 

In early life Mr. Connor married Nancy R. Young, of 
Orono, Maine, and who was born in Sebec. Maine. She came 
with him to St. Anthony, they then buying the present 
Connor home on University avenue .southeast, their primary 
purpose being to have their children near a good school. 
Mr. Connor had hoped to go to farming, but his wife pre- 
ferred the advantages . and social intercourse of village life 
with convenience to the excellent school which was one of 
the first thoughts of the New Englanders who had founded 
St. Anthony. 

Mr. Connor's earlj' dreams of life in the new West found 
realization for a time in his participation in the founding of 
the village of Merrimac, on the Mississippi river below St. 
Paul. This enterprise was a partnership affair, in which 
William and John Eastman Avere also interested. Their plans 
did not bear fruit, for the hard times of 1857 followed by the 
Civil war produced an insurmountable handicap. The village 
was revived later, as Nininger, but never amounted to more 
than a hamlet. Later Mr. Connor took up a homestead in 
Big Stone County, but St. Anthony still held him, and re- 
mained his home. He owned half a block of tlie choicest 
part of old St. Anthony, and until the railroad passed through 
the property it was a beautiful place, fronting the University 
campus. 

Only two years aftrt- tlie Connors came to the young city 
by the Falls, Mrs. Connor died, at the age of forty-six. She 
left, with her husband, seven daughters and one son. Three 
of these daughters are now living. Anna M. is the widow of 
George Smith, and of whom mention is made elsewhere. 



Addie is the widow of J. A. Chesley of Anoka. Miss Augusta 
Connor remained with her father, and still lives in the old 
home at 1413 University avenue. She was a worker in the 
W. C. T. U. under the late Frances Willard, devoting four- 
teen years to organization work in Minnesota. She knew 
Miss Willard personally and was one of her valued friends 
and aides. She was also a close friend of INIrs. Hobart of 
Red Wing, long one of \he leaders of W. C. T. L". work in the 
Northwest. Miss Connor is recognized as one of the pioneer 
woman SuflFragists of Minnesota, and the first to start the 
work in state university. She was educated in the academy 
at Bethel, Maine, and early engaged in teaching. Besides her 
activity in the cause of women. Miss Connor has lived a life 
of devotion to her family, and is known as a womanly 
woman whose advocacy adds strength to any cause. 

Another daughter, Florence, died unmarried, whose circle 
of friends was an exceptionally notable one. .Still another, 
Marietta, was in the Hennepin County register qf deeds office 
for fourteen years. She married E. L. Spencer and died 
some years ago. Helen Connor married C. C. Cogswell. She 
became a teacher at St. Louis, Missouri, but passed her 
closing years in the old home. The eldest daughter married 
in Maine, and never was a resident of Minneapolis. Charles 
died when he was about thirty years old, leaving a daughter, 
Alma, now a teacher in Oakland, Cal. 

Thus Oilman Connor gave not only his best years as a 
factor in the upbuilding of the city's chief industry, but also 
left a heritage of good throiigh the achievements of his chil- 
dren, all of whom were useful members of society. 



HON. CHARLES H. CLARKE. 

The late Charles H. Clarke, of Richfield township, was born 
at Bath, Steuben County, New York, June 19, 1835. being 
reared principally in the city of Corning, and came to 
Minneapolis in 1S56 with his parents, Charles and Prudence 
(Tucker) Clark, who spelled the name without the final "e." 
The father was born in Bath in 1813, and was there married 
in his twenty-first year. Prudence Clark was born in Weth- 
ersfield, Connecticut, removing to the State of New York 
while young. 

Charles Clark was a carpenter and builder in his native 
State for fully a quarter of a century before coming West. 
He continued in the same line of endeavor, enlarging his 
operations by becoming a contractor of large jobs and under 
taking the erection of important public and private struc- 
tures. His first job of consequence in Minnesota was building 
the first Hennepin County court house, for which the contract 
price was more than $36,000, and wliich served the county 
for two generations. 

Another early contract was for the erection of a dwelling 
for the elder Dr. Ames, at the corner of Eighth avenue and 
Fourth street. This was then one of the most pretentious 
dwelling houses in the town, and was usually spoken of as a 
mansion. It is still standing, and, although dwarfed and 
outclassed by many subseqxient structures, it still shows that 
it was erected with great care and a view to stateliness, 
comfort, and completeness. 

In tlie fall of 1856 Mr. Clark furnished some rooms in the 
uncompleted court house and lived in them for a year. His 
next residence was on a lot which is now occupied by the 






HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



263 



Knights of Labor building, opposite the Dr. Ames residence, 
he having secured the lot as part paj'ment on the Ames 
house. He lived there until the Knights of Labor took over 
the property, some ten or twelve years in all. lie and his 
wife were charter members of the Plymouth Congregational 
Church, and he built the first church edifice for the congrega- 
tion at the corner of Nicollet avenue and Fourth street. He 
continued his membership in that church through life, and 
was regular in his attendance at its services. He was the 
first superintendent of its Sunday school, serving in that 
capacity for a number of years. He was also alderman from 
his ward for some time. During the last ten years of his life 
he was partially paralyzed and took no active part in business 
or public affairs. 

Mr. and Mrs. Clark were the parents of three children, 
Charles H., Joseph H., and Emeline S. .Joseph H. Clarke, 
during his residence in Minneapolis, previous to 1890, was 
engaged in the feed business as a member of the firm of 
Clarke & Linton. Since then his home lias been in Santa 
Monu'a, California. Emeline S. Clarke was married in 1859 
to Jharles M. Cushman, who was engaged in the book trade 
until his death in 190G. 

Charles Clark died in June, 1892, surviving his wife some 
ten or twelve years. Hon. Charles H. Clarke was associated 
for some years with his brother-in-law, Charles Cushman, in 
the book and stationery trade. Later in life he served eight 
years in the House of Representatives, and was also deputy 
collector of internal revenue for eighteen years under 
William Bickel. He became close in friendship and 
business relations with Colonel W. S. ("Bill") King, who 
chose him as secretary of the Minneapolis Fair, conducted 
by him for some years. Previously — first in 1863 and again 
from 1866 for five years, closing in 1871 — he was Secretary 
of the State Agricultural Society. He was also a member 
of the E.xecutive Board of the Society for several terms and 
superintendent of the State Fair on numerous occasions. He 
was greatly interested in the Society and served it as 
Secretary for five years without salary. 

He was school officer for many years and ever active in 
work for the good of the schools. He visited them frequently, 
often talking to the pupils, and would sometimes teach a 
class. Every Christmas for years he would Tiave a Christmas 
tree for them and distribute presents to some sixty boys and 
girls. His last real activity in life was shown in making an 
address to one of the schools in the city. 

In politics he was a Republican and ever an aggressive 
partisan. He died November 31, 1885. In 1856 he was united 
in marriage with Miss Adelaide H. Hoag, the only child of 
Charles and Ann (Emmons) Hoag, who came to St. Anthony 
in 1852. Their former home was in Philadelphia, where 
he was principal of a leading school. The Hoag home was at 
first on the site of the present Church of the Immaculate 
Conception in St. Anthony, where he had secured 160 acres 
by preemption. It was a mansion for that time, an3 its white 
marble mantels were brought from Philadelphia at great cost 
and labor. Mr. Hoag became security for large amounts for 
an old friend, who failed to protect his surety in an emergency, 
and Mr. Hoag's property was largely swept away. He then 
secured a fine tract of land bordering on Diamond Lake, five 
miles south of Bridge Square, and erected a comfortable 
home overlooking the lakes. In addition to serving as County 
School Superintendent and in other similar capacities and 
positions, he devoted himself mainly to his home and planted 



the fine rows of elms that now adorn the grounds. To induce 
his daughter to live near him, he deeded to her nearly 100 
acres of fine land and here the Clarke children were reared. 
As stated elsewhere in this history, Mr. Hoag is the man to 
whom is accorded the distinction of giving Minneapolis its 
poetical and suggestive name. He lived in the city from 
1853 to his death, which occurred Feb. 1, 18S8. His widow 
died Oct. 8, 1873. 

Mrs. Charles Clarke was reared a Quaker, and adhered to 
the faith of her parents, although she never afliliated with the 
Society of Friends. She and her husband were the parents 
of six children who are living. They are Frederick H., a 
resident of Richfield township; William A., of Idaho; Ger- 
trude, wife of Howard S. Clark, of Minneapolis; Antoinette, 
wife of Samuel J. Nicholson; Adelaide H., who is living on a 
part of the old family homestead, and Joseph H., a merchant 
at Bloomington, and who also resides on the old liomestead. 



FRANK H. CASTNER. 



Frank H. Castner, attorney-at-law, was born in Bureau 
County, Illinois, June 13, 1862, the son of Stewart M. and 
Mary (Hildebrandt) Castner. Two brothers and his father 
were Union soldiers during the Civil w'ar, the father serving 
on the border in Missouri and the brothers were with Sher- 
man, all remaining in the service to the end of the war. Early 
in the seventies Fred, the younger of the brothers, located at 
Waseca, Minnesota, where he resided for a number of years. 

Frank H. Castner, his mother dying when he was ten 
years old, was taken to Iowa City, Iowa, by his brother-in- 
law, John T. Marvin, a highly educated man and well known 
teacher for many years. Mr. Marvin came to Minneapolis 
in 1879 to become a professor in Minneapolis Academy, now 
Minnesota College, in which he was one of the principal 
instructors for two years. He afterward was manager of a 
mill at Appleton, Minnesota, finally entering the miiiistrv of 
the Congregational church. 

Mr. Castner obtained a common scliool education in Iowa, 
and came with his brother-in-law fo Jlinneapolis, working in 
sawmills in the summer and at carpenter work in the fall 
and spring. During the winter months he attended the 
Minneapolis Academy, and became a teacher in the St. Croi.x 
Academy at Afton, where his brother-in-law was principal. 
He taught two years at Lake .Johanna, just cast of Min- 
neapolis, in Ramsey county. He bought land in Mound View 
township of Henry Weeber, who still lives thei-e, and engaged 
in farming on a small Scale, finally selling the land at the 
establishment of the New Brighton stock yards. 

When he quit teaching Mr. Castner resumed work in the 
sawmills, attending the scientific department of the State 
University in the winter for two years. Only the main build- 
ing and the chemical building were then erected at the Uni- 
versity; but it was even then a vigorous and influential insti- 
tution. After working in the mills and at the carpenter trade 
for eight or nine years he was graduated from the law depart- 
ment of the Universitj' in June, 1893, having covered in less 
than two years the full three years' course. In the meantime 
he had passed more than a year in New Mexico working at 
his trade and in a store earning the money with which to 
pay his last tuition, and coin]ilet('d the course with a residue 
of $10 in the bank. 



264 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



He was admitted to the bar in 1893, and at once began the 
practice, soon getting business in the line of collections for 
Edwin Cooley, an old merchant, and whose influence brought 
him other clients. His first suit was a case for Mr. Cooley, 
which became locally renowned because of the principle which 
it established, which was that a prior chattel mortgagee cannot 
dispose of mortgaged property without accounting in full to 
a second mortgagee. Judgment was against him in the 
District Court, but was revereed in the Supreme Court. He 
has had a fine general practice, and has taken many cases 
to the Supreme Court, where his contentions have genei-ally 
been sustained. He was also instrumental in having the case 
through which the street car company's franchise was limited 
to 1923, instead of being terminated in 1937, carried to the 
Supreme Court of the United States, which reversed Judge 
Loehron's decision in the U. S. Circuit Court. 

Mr. Castner became interested in Northeast Minneapolis 
Several years ago, erecting a number of residences in that 
section. From 1905 to 1909 he served in the council, and 
was instrumental in having the old and unattractive Maple 
Hill cemetery converted into the present Maple Hill park, 
and "Long John's Pond," an eyesore to the community, made 
over into .Jackson Square park. He is acknowledged to have 
been the father of the principle involved in the ordinance' 
restricting the gas company to a reasonable income on its 
investment. He always took the position that public service 
corporations should be subject to public control and limited 
in their charges to a reasonable return on the physical value 
of their property used in the public service. The Supreme 
Court of the United States had held that a railroad was liable 
for bridges, viaducts or their safety devices where it 'crossed 
a public highway already traveled. In the celebrated Twenty- 
ninth Avenue Northeast case the ground was taken by Mr. 
Castner that it made no difference which was built first, that 
the railroad was liable, and the case being carried to the 
Supreme Court of the United States that principle became 
established, the Supreme Court of Minnesota being affirmed. 

Fraternally, Mr. Castner belongs to the Masonic order, the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Foresters, the Wood- 
men, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In the Order of 
Odd Fellows he has passed the chairs, has been Grand Master 
for Minnesota, and is at present the Grand Scribe of the Grand 
Encampment and representative to the Sovereign Grand 
Lodge. He is a Jlethodist in religious faith, and a member 
of the $t. Anthony Commercial club. He was married in April, 
1883, to Miss Minnie E. Van Valkenberg, a native of Anoka. 
They have five children: Melvin L., a contractor and builder; 
Florence E., the wife of John H. Stater, of Minneapolis; Mary 
I., a student at the St. Cloud Normal School; Thoron S., in 
the State University, class of 1914, and Leah, also a St. 
Cloud Normal School student. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE McNAIR. 

When William W. McNair came to old Saint Anthony in 
18.57 to make his home, he found twin villages whose men and 
women leaders seem almo.^t to have been endowed with the 
gift of prophesy. It was in the formative period of the city 
that was to be. and though Nature had furnished the reason 
for being, it was a time that called for indomitable pur- 
pose, that "seeing eye" which must be the attributes of builders 



for the future. But these were qualities never lacking among 
the men and women of Saint Anthony and Minneapolis. They 
were men and women of high intellectual standards; they were 
pioneers with more than the ordinary pioneer's stamina, for 
they had come out of the cultured, educated homes of the 
East not merely to settle but to develop in keeping with its 
promise the rich and potent West. Among them were Such 
men as John B. Gilfillan, S. H. Chute, William Lochren, C. H. 
Pettit, Eugene M. Wilson, the Sidles, the Harrisons, Charles 
M. Loring, W. D. Washburn, W. W. Eastman, C. E. Vander- 
burgh, George A. Brackett, W. S. King, and a score or more of 
others^a company imbued with public spirit and strong pur- 
pose characteristic of city-builders which they became. 

It was by these men that the financial and manufacturing 
as well as the commercial foundations of the city were laid; 
and it was by them, too, that beginnings were made in the 
finer things of life, which are not measured by material stand- 
ards. It was a community of intelligent progressiveness, and 
Mr. McNair, coming to the 'city to begin the practice of his 
profession of the law, speedily demonstrated his right to fel- 
lowship by taking his place among its leaders. All were men 
who comprehended the city's future, and gave of their best 
selves to realize it. None was more active, none more eager 
to co-operate, than Mr. McNair — and it was that spirit of co- 
operation that while it made a city, likewise made men. 

William Woodbridge McNair was born in Groveland, Living- 
stone county. New York, on January 4, 1836. His father, 
W^illiam W. McNair, was of Scotch-Irish descent; his mother, 
Sarah Pierrepont, was of that Pierrepont family whose mem- 
bers, counting their descent from the time of William the 
Conqueror, numbered among themselves a founder of Yale 
and not a few doers of deeds that stood out in high relief on 
the tablets of American history. Mr. McNair's youth was 
passed in the environments of culture and education which 
marked society in Genesee and Canandaigua. There it was 
natural that he should develop the taste of a student, the 
attributes of a leader. It was the "seeing eye" that pene- 
trated the opportunities which the West held, and it was the 
intellectual tendency that spurred him to take up at the age 
of 19 years, not in the East but in the West, the Study of 
law in the office of Judge .J. P. Doolittlc, of Racine, Wisconsin. 
That was in 1855, and two years later he came to old Saint 
Anthony — then young Saint Anthony, by the falls — to gain 
admission to the bar and begin practice. 

The bar of the young villages on opposite banks of the 
Mississippi was even then a body of brilliant men. Indeed, it 
is doubtful if, in the years that have passed since the found- 
ing of the city there have since been so remarkable a body in 
the bar of the community as in the first fifteen years. 
In the period preceding 1865 there came to Minneapolis, as 
contemporaries and colleagues of Mr. McNair, suth men as 
Cornell, Atwater, Washburn. Stewart, WHson. Vanderburgh, 
Lochren, and E. S. Jones, and they figured among the fore- 
most factcrs in every movement in the community. Because 
it was a pioneer community, the contact of its citizens was 
perhaps more intimate, but regardless of this phase of life it 
is certain that the mental attainments of the members of the 
bar shone with a brilliance which must endure in the history 
of the city and indeed of the state. Among these men 
none was more prominent than William W. McNair. Perhaps 
the most notable fact, however, in connection with this body 
of men is the part they played in the industrial and commer- 
cial as well as the civic advancement of the city. They were 




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HISTORY OF illXXEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



265 



lawyers, and men of large aflaii-s, and for the most 
part laid the. foundations for the great business enter- 
prises of today. Their names loom large in milling, iinan- 
cial institutions, transportation, and what has since be- 
come the wholesale and manufacturing business of the West. 

Less than four yeai's after Mr. McNair arrived in St. 
Anthony, he formed a partnership with the late Eugene M. 
Wilson, under the firm name of Wilson and McNair, which 
continued until Mr. Wilson's election to Congress in 1868. 
Then Mr. McNair and William Lochren became associated, and 
later J. B. Gillillan joined the firm, which was for many years 
recognized as the leading law firm of the city. The associa- 
tion continued in force until 1881, when William Lochren was 
appointed to the district bench. For three years Messrs. 
McNair and GilfiUan were partners, and then Mr. Gilfillan was 
elected to Congress and Mr. McNair retired from active prac- 
tice on account of failing health. His active career in the law 
was thus marked by a noteworthy attitude. Political con- 
siderations entered into his various partnerships, all his part- 
ners becoming at one time or another members of the bench 
or of Congress. Yet Mr. McNair held aloof from public office 
except as he yielded to the importunings of friends and ac- 
cepted a place in the public service at home out of a Sense of 
duty to the community. He was mayor of St. Anthony 
for the last two years of that village's separate identity, in 
1869 to 1872. For fodr years prior to 1863 he was county 
attorney. In 1868 he was one of the school directors of St. 
Anthony. Only once, and then reluctantly, he was on a ticket 
as nominee for higher office than those just named. In 1876 
he received the Democratic nomination for Congress, and his 
hold upon the regard of the community is shown by the fact 
that, in a Republican electorate, his vote greatly reduced the 
Republican majority in the district. A large number of friends 
urged him in 1883 to accept the tender of the Democratic 
nomination for governor, but he firmly declined. 

All these years Mr. McNair was connected with most of the 
important litigation of the times. In addition he had 
become interested in some of the successful enterprises 
of the city. He figured as one of the stockholders in the first 
street railway company, organized to construct traction lines, 
especially a line connecting the flour mills with the lower 
levee. This latter project was abandoned, and onlj' a few of 
the original incorporators remained in the company. In the 
establishment of the Minneapolis Gas Light company Mr. 
McNair was likewise one of the original incorporators. And 
when the Minneapolis and St. Louis railway company was 
formed to construct a railroad to connect Minneapolis and the 
wheatfields of the Northwest with the country to the south, 
Mr. McNair was one of the original incorporators and direc- 
tors. He was also heavily interested in railroad contracting 
and in lumbering. And as he was identified with some of the 
largest business enterprises, so it was natural that he should 
be listed among the leading bankers. He was connected with 
one of the oldest banking institutions in the city, the Security 
of Minnesota, which had been organized out of the old State 
Bank of Minnesota in 1868, and his name is on the rolls 
of directors of the Security National Bank, one of the largest 
institutions of its kind in the Northwest. 

In addition to these interests, Mr. McNair was also one of 
the men who early appreciated the future of the city in the 
way of real estate, and became one of the heaviest holders 
of city properties. 

As Mr. McXair's career in Minneapolis was characterized by 



leadership in professional and business life, in a manner typical 
of earlier times, rather than of the present, so too he waa 
among the foremost of the citizens in a social way. He was 
married August 21, 1862, to Miss Louise Wilson, a sister of 
his law partner at that time, Eugene M. Wilson, and a 
daughter of Edgar C. Wilson, a prominent resident of Vir- 
ginia. To the MeNairs two daughters were born, one of whom, 
Agnes 0., is now the wife of Louis K. Hull, and the other 
Louise P., now the wife of Fi-ancis M. Henry, a well known, 
engineer. The home of the McNairs for many years was 
in a beautiful residence which Mr. McNair built on Linden 
avenue, facing Hawthorn park, and which was long one of 
the show places of the city. It was the scene of social 
affairs, and was one of the chief centers of the brilliant society 
events of the day. 

Mr. McNair died on September 15, 1885. Yet so prominent 
was he in the public life of the city that his name remains 
one of the most frequently mentioned in reference to the 
strength and stability of Minneapolis institutions. 



FRANK HENRY CARLETON. 

There is in Minneapolis a fast narrowing circle of promi- 
nent citizens to whom the expression "the good old days" has- 
a magic significance. Among them is the jurist, journalist, 
scholar and citizen, Frank Henry Carleton. Mention "the 
good old days" to any one of this luminous circle and you 
will call up the time of real friendships, real comradeship, 
of struggle, and of youthful ambition. This youthful ambition 
has carried many of these men a long way, but no one of 
them to the outward observer, has more definitely "arrived" 
than the young man who 'came west forty years ago to 
cast his lot with the pioneers. 

When Mr. Carleton turned his eyes westward the great 
city on the Mississippi was a vision which only the most 
optimistic eyes could behold. He came with the idea of growth 
and advancement; he stayed to achieve all that his ambition 
craved, and by doing so helped to build for the betterment 
of city and state. 

Minneapolis has been good to Mr. Carleton. but he has 
always given as much as he has received, for few j-oung men 
bring to a new country such abundant equipment for success 
as did this young man from Newport, N. H. 

Perhaps it is not exact justice to give a man credit for 
his ancestry, but it is interesting to know that Mr. Carleton 
traces his line back to some of the best blood in England. 
On his father's side he is descended from Sir Guy Carleton, 
while from his mother there comes to him the loyal blood 
of that splendid old Englishman, Joseph French, who as a 
settler and leading citizen of Salisbury, Mass., was a stanch 
American a generation before the Revolutionary War. 

Mr. Carleton's father, Henry Guy Carleton, was president 
of a bank in Newport for many years, and for forty years 
was one of the leading democratic editors of New Hampshire. 
He was a man of wide acquaintance and influence, a member 
of the State Legislature and was the personal friend of such 
men as John P. Hale, Franklin Pierce and William Butter- 
field. It is easy to see why the son of so able an editor 
should have felt the lure of ncwspa]ierdora when he came to 
Minneapolis after graduation at Uartnu)uth College. He pre- 
pared for college at Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden, 



266 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



N. H., graduating in 1868 and completed his college course 
at Dartmouth in 1872. 

Just at this period of his career he first showed his literary 
ability, for he took the fii-st prize for English composition and 
wrote the class ode in his senior year in college. Like many 
other of the young men of New England he partly earned 
his way through college by teaching, and had a varied experi- 
ence in different parts of the country. This work took him 
in 1870 into Mississippi during the "reconstruction" and 
"carpet-bag" days, where he was principal of an academy for 
white pupils, and where he had great success in his work. 

That the fascination of the newspaper held him even from 
boyhood is shown from the fact that as soon as he graduated 
from Dartmouth he became city editor of the Manchester 
(N. H.) Daily Union and continued in that work for some 
time prior to his coming to Minneapolis. In this first experi- 
ence he showed the ability which has characterized his literary 
career throughout, and called from his associates prophecies 
of achievement which have been abundantly fulfilled. 

Mr. C'arleton's first newspaper experience in the west was 
with George K. Shaw who was then editor of the Minneapolis 
News. Later he was associated with Mr. Joseph A. Wheelock 
as city editor of the St. Paul Daily Press, with "Mart" Wil- 
liams as a colleague, and "Aleck" Johnson of the Pioneer as a 
rival. This editorial work continued successfully for over a 
year, during which time he developed remarkably in his knowl- 
edge of human nature and in literary taste. The stamp of this 
newspaper experience has shown in Mr. Carleton's later life 
for he is noted for the excellence of his literary judgment 
among his friends. Newspaper men, with whom he has a wide 
acquaintance, like to consult him on matters pertaining to the 
early histoiy of Minnesota. The "newspaper instinct" has 
never deserted him, and when "short of copy" many a news- 
paper correspondent has made him "give down" data for an 
interesting "write up." He is as alert today as when he and 
Frank A. Carle of the Tribune were associated. 

The real ambition of his life was to become a lawyer, and 
he entered the law office of Cushman K. Davis and C. D. 
O'Brien at St. Paul, and commenced his studies in that direc- 
tion. After five years of close application to his legal work, 
during which time he was clerk of the Municipal Court at St. 
Paul, his health failed and, with his cousin, Charles A. Pills- 
bury, the flour miller, he took an extended trip to Europe, 
returning fully recovered. Upon his return from Europe he 
became the confidential and private secretary to Gov. John S. 
Pillsbury. In this connection he rendei'ed most valuable serv- 
ices in the preparation of papers and documents relating to the 
adjustment of the repudiated Minnesota Territorial railroad 
bonds. Even now he did not give up entirely his newspaper 
work, for he acted as Minnesota coiTespondent for the New 
York Times and the Chicago Inter-Ocean for several years. 

In 1882 Mr. Carleton formed a law partnership with .Judge 
Heniy G. Hicks and Capt. Judson N. Cross. Cross, Hicks & 
Carleton was the firm name until Norton M. Cross, Capt. 
Cross' son, was taken into the firm. In 1883 Mr. Carleton 
was made assistant city attorney, and served until 1887. 
This was a period of importance in the history of the city, 
as it brought into active operation the new principle of the 
"patrol limits" in the regulation of the liquor tralfic. Mr. 
Carleton had charge of all this litigation, succeeded in estab- 
lishing in all the courts of this state the validity and legality 
of the "patrol limit" principle. Mr. Carleton's practice and 
that of his firm has always been one to call out a high order 



of judgment and ability, and is far reaching and varied. Real 
estate, probate law, 'corporations and financial adjustments are 
the branches of the profession wliich brought the firm into 
the most prominence. Since the death of Capt. Cross and 
Judge Hicks, Mr. Carleton's partners have been his sons, Henry 
Guy Carleton and George A. Carleton. 

Republicanism and all that it stands for is Mr. Carleton's 
politics, but he has never taken an active part in party 
scrambles. Scientific research, reading and literary pureuits 
have always taken precedent over political studies or aspira- 
tions. He has always been a collector of books and has a large 
private library in his city and country homes. He is now and 
for many years has been a member of the Library Board of the 
city of Minneapolis, and is the Chairman of the General Com- 
mittee of the Library Board. 

The name of Frank H. Carleton is prominent in the history 
of the Park Avenue Congregational Church, of which he is a 
member, and in which he has always been a deacon or a 
trustee. He was for many years one of the directors of the 
Minnesota Home Missionary Society. For many years Mr. 
Carleton has taken an active part in Masonry. He is a Knight 
Templar, the 33d degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Shriner, and 
has been the treasurer of the Minnesota Masonic Home since 
its incorporation. 

Frank Henry Carleton was born in Newport, N. H., October 
8, 1849, and Ellen Jones, daughter of the late Judge Edwin 
S. Jones, and a sister of ex-Mayor David P. Jones, of Minne- 
apolis, became his wife in 1881. They have six children: 
Edwin Jones, Henry Guy, George Alfred Pillsbury (Charles 
Pillsbury, who died in infancy), Frank H., Jr., Fred Pillsbury 
and Margaret S. Carleton. 

It is in the cultivation of flowers and in fly fishing that he 
finds the greatest recreation. His love of nature is back of 
both of these inclinations. Flowers bring the beauties of 
nature into his own garden, and angling takes hira into tke 
picturesque northern fishing ground. At River Falls, Wiscon- 
sin, in the beautiful valley of the Kinnickinnic, where trout 
abound, he has a large farm, where fruits and flowers are 
cultivated in abundance, and blooded stock is raised. His 
favorite cattle are Holstein-F'riesians, whi'ch he breeds. He is 
a member of the Holstein-Friesian Association of America. 
He is also a breeder of Berkshire swine. He knows a good 
horse and owns some, but he can't drive. 

With the true American blood flowing in his veins, with 
the best of New England's ideals and traditions as the basis 
of his character development, and with the hustle and struggle 
of the then new west to develop that character, Frank Henry 
Carleton has been an example and an inspiration to hundreds 
of the younger men of Minneapolis, a generous, whole-souled 
and loyal citizen and stands today as a living monument 
of the best that New England and Minnesota can produce. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON CROCKER. 

Sagacity, perseverance and ability, together with the deter- 
mination to do what was really best, and not just what he 
wanted to think was best, brought' about the conspicuous 
success in the life of George Washington Crocker. Left on 
his own resources in early youth, he forged his way onward 
and upward. The biography of this Nestor of the millers 
would be the veritable history of the flour industry in Min- 




y 



^^/ri 



^-^. //r^xD-T^r^^^c 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



267 



neapolis. He was one of the first men to engage in the milling 
business here and he passed through all the stages, from 
practical working miller to proprietor. For nearly fifty years 
Mr. Crocker was continuously in the milling business in this 
City, commencing with the first grist mill that ever turned 
a wheel in the State, and managing the first mill of any 
kind on the west bank of the river. 

Mr. Crocker was born in the State of Maine, in the Town of 
Hermon, Penobscot County, in 1832. He was the son of Asa 
and Matilda Crocker. His father kept a small inn on the 
road to Bangor and had a farm as well. His mother was in 
poor health, so when the boy was only seven years old he 
went to live with a neighbor's family. He stayed here for 
ten years, his mother dying soon after he left home and 
shortly afterwards he lost his father. He had to work his 
way, even from his seventh year, and only went to school 
when there was nothing particular for him to do on the 
farm. In this way he acquired a fairly good education, for 
he was ambitious and made every moment of his school time 
count. When he was but seventeen years old he went out 
into the world to earn his way by his own exertions, in theory 
as well as in fact. He went to Providence, Rhode Island, 
and found employment in the Butler Hospital there. In the 
summer of 1852, when he was but twenty years of age, he 
started out with his brother to go to the gold fields of 
California. The route taken was the only practical one at the 
time, across the Isthmus of Panama, they crossing the Isthmus 
on foot. He did some placer mining there with very satis- 
factory returns and soon went into the mercantile business 
for himself. This was in Merced, California. He was suc- 
cessful and soon returned to New York, via the Isthmus route, 
with a comfortable accumulation of money for so young a 
man. From there he and his brother came directly to Min- 
neapolis in 1855, and it was with the money brought from 
California that he bought an interest in the City Mill. 

This was the old government mill at the west end of the 
falls which had been built by the garrison at Fort Snelling 
in 1823 and used for sawing lumber and later for grinding 
grain. This had fallen into disuse and was in a forlorn and 
dilapidated condition. Thomas H. Perkins, from western 
New York, arrived in Minneapolis in 1854 and secured the 
property and fitted it up as a grist mill. He took in Smith 
Ferrand, as partner, and soon after Mr. Crocker purchased 
the hitter's interest. This was the beginning of Mr. Crocker's 
milling career at St. Anthony Falls. Toll was taken for the 
service of the mill and everything was arranged on the most 
primitive plan. When it is said that Mr. Crocker was a 
practical miller it means that he put on the dusty garments 
of the trade and did everything that there was to do about 
the mill. He was not a miller when he went in with Mr. 
Perkins. But time soon made him so, for he worked to master 
all that there was to learn. What he did in the early days, 
with the poor equipment, he did throughout his experience. 
He worked through all the years, of new methods and improved 
equipment, to know all the details of everything pertaining to 
the business, whether mechanical or otherwise. What he did 
not know about milling, no one knew. In 1865 he sold the 
City Mill and built a stone mill on the Mill Company Canal 
with a capacity of 300 barrels a day. In this he was associated 
with a Mr. Rowlandson. It was known as the "Arctic Mill." 
Mr. Crocker sold his interest in this in 1870 and bought an 
interest in the "Minneapolis Mill." This mill was destroyed 
by fire twice while Mr. Crocker owned it and each time it 



was rebuilt, its capacity was increased, and its equipment 
was improved. The flour from this Mill was branded 
"CROCKER'S BEST" and was known all over the country. 
It has been on the market continuously ever since. Besides 
the milling concerns before mentioned Mr. Crocker was identi- 
fied with many of the big firms of the City, as manager and 
senior partner; among them being Perkins, Crocker & Tom- 
linson; Crocker, Tomlinson & Company; Gardner, Pillsbury & 
Crocker; Pillsbury, Crocker & Fisk; and Crocker, Fisk & 
Company. In 1893 the "Minneapolis Mill" was leased and 
finally sold to the Washburn-Crosby Company. 

Mr. Crocker was married to Sarah Perkins Moore on Christ- 
mas Day in 1862. There were two children born to tliem, 
William G. and George Albert. The latter died in 1902 and 
Mrs. Crocker in 1908. William G. Crocker was associated 
with his father in the milling business and for the past twenty 
years has been with the Washburn-Crosby Company, now 
being a director. 

George W. Crocker was in every- sense a self-made man. 
He was always widely respected for his uprightness of purpose, 
his honesty and reliability. He knew the milling business 
as one knows his A. B. Cs, and was always a ready and 
wise counselor to younger men in all lines, but especially in 
the milling industry. 



ELBERT L. CARPENTER. 



ilr. Carpenter is a native of Rochelle, Illinois, where he was 
born on March 6, 1862, and is tlie son of Judson E. and 
Olivia (Detwiler) Carpenter, the former a native of the state 
of New York and the latter of Maryland. The father was a 
lumberman first in Iowa and later in Minneapolis, where he 
located in 1904. He now resides in Pasadena, California. 
Samuel J. Carpenter, the grandfather of Elbert L., was bom 
and reared in Rhode Island, and for a nuralier of years after 
reaching man's estate was engaged in farming in that State. 
Later in life he moved to the state of New York, where he 
passed the remainder of his days. 

Elbert L. Carpenter began his education in the common 
schools, continued it at the high school in Clinton, Iowa, and 
completed it at an excellent academy at Lake Forest, Illinois, 
which bore the same name as the city in which it was located. 
He began his business career in 'company with his father, who 
was then president of the Curtis Bros. Lumber company of 
Clinton, Iowa, which had also extensive holdings in Wis- 
consin. In 1887 he came to Minneapolis as the manager of 
the branch house of this company in this city, which was 
then known as the Adams-Hoar company, later as the Car- 
penter-Lamb Company, and still later as the Carpenter-Yale 
company, the name which it Still bears. 

In 1892, he purchased the interests of Mrs. Hall in the 
Stephen C. Hall Lumber company, and consolidated them and 
his own with those of Mr. Thomas H. Shevlin, a sketch of 
whom will be foimd in this volume, and the Shevlin-Carpentcr 
company was formed of the consolidation. From this time to 
the present Mr. Carpenter's interests and activities have been 
identical with those of the Shevlin-Carpenter company. 

Mr. Carpenter is one of the directors of the First National 
Bank of Minneapolis, of the Minneapolis Trust company and 
of the Northwestern National Life Insurance company. He 
has been for years president of the Orchestral Association of 



268 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Minneapolis, wliicli was organized in 1903. and wliieli, under 
the leadership uf Mr. OberhoU'er, lias reached a place in the 
first rank among Ihe orchestras of the world. It is supported 
by cordial public commendation and liberal private subscrip- 
tion, and returns in high value full measure of worth, excel- 
lence mud leputation all it receives in approval, admiration and 
material a,ssistance. 

On June 4, 1890, Mr. Carpenter was united in marriage with 
Miss Isabella Welles, the daughter of Kdwin P. Welles, a 
prominent lumberman of Clinton. Iowa, now deceased. Two 
sons have been born of the union: Lawrence W., who is now 
a student at Yale University, and Leonard, who is still at 
home. The father has long been an interested and valued 
member of the Minneapolis. Commercial, Jlinikahda, Lafayette 
and Interlachen clul)s of his home city. In church affiliation 
he is a Presbyterian, holding his membership in Westminster 
ehurcli, of which lie is a trustee. 



HOX. JOHX BACHOP GILITLLAN. 

Kminent in his profession and higlily successful in the prac- 
tice of it; for many years one of the leaders of thought and 
action in connection with public affairs, local and national, 
resident in this part of the country; always earnestly inter- 
ested in the cause of general education, both in the lower 
walks of the great domain of effort covered by the term to 
which the common schools are devoted, and the higher avenues 
of its almost boundless expanse which lead to and from the 
classic shades of university teaching; and always, in every 
station and condition, a high-minded, broad-viewed, elevated, 
progressive and stimulating representative of the best Ameri- 
can citizenship. Hon. John B. (iilfillan of Minneapolis has won 
the universal esteem and regard of the people of the North- 
west by the sterling qualities of his genuine manhood and a 
long succession of valuable public services that would com- 
mand admiration among any people. 

Mr. Gilfillan was born in the town of Barnet, Caledonia 
county, \'erniont, on February 11, 1835. He is of Scotch 
ancestry on both sides of his house, the parents of his father, 
Robert (lilfiUan, having come from the land of Scott and Burns 
to this country in 1794, and those of his mother, whose maiden 
name was Janet Bachop, in 1795, the former from Balfron, 
County Stirling, and the latter from (Jla.sgow, the great indus- 
trial center of the country, in the adjoining County of Lanark. 
They located on farms in the then newly settled county of 
Caledonia, Vermont, which, as its name indicates, was at first 
largely occupie<l by Scotchmen. 

The rugged life of a New England farm seventy years ago 
was full of usefulness in its teachings, and the interesting 
subject of this brief reveiw took full advantage of those it fur- 
nished him. He grew to manhood on the farm on which his 
parents lived, taking part in its labors and acquiring self- 
reliance, independence and powers of rellection and analysis 
with his stature and his strength. He attended the district 
school of the neighborhood during the winter months until he 
reached the age of twelve, when the family moved to the 
town of Peacham in the same county. There his educational 
opportunities were enlarged. Being the youngest child of the 
household he was allowed the privilege of attending the Cale- 
donia county grammar school, which was located In that town, 
and made excellent use of his advantage. 



So studious and capal^le was he that at the age of seven- 
teen he began teaching school as a means of preparing him- 
self for Dartmoutli College. But he was designed for another 
course in life. His brother-in-law, Captain John JIartin, had 
settled at St. Anthony, and in October. 1855, Mr. Gilfillan came 
here to visit his sister and her family, hoping also to secure a 
school to add to his accumulations for his college course. But 
he never went to Dartmouth. He .secured the desired school 
and taught it wisely and faithfully, but the West loomed 
upon his fancy with increasing magnetism, and he turned his 
mind from academic to professional studies, occupying his 
leisure time in reading law books until tlie end of the school 
term. 

When that came he entered the law office of Xourse & Win- 
throp and afterward that of Lawrence & Lochren as a clerk 
and student of law. In 1860 he was admitted to the bar of 
Hennepin county, and the same year to the supreme court of 
the state and United States, and at once formed a partner- 
ship for the practice of his profession with James R. Lawrence. 
This partnership lasted until the Civil war took his partner 
into the military service in defense of the Union, and from 
that time Mr. Gilfillan practiced alone until 1871, when he 
became a member of the firm of Lochren & McXair, the name 
of the firm being changed to Lochren, McNair & Gilfillan, and 
its new- member changing his residence to west side of the 
river. 

This linn remained unchanged until the elevation of ilr. 
Lochren to the bench, after which Mr. Gilfillan continued liis 
association with Mr. McNair until the death of the latter. In 
the meantime, however, the force of character, persistent 
industry and fine legal ability of Mr. Gilfillan was suitably 
recognized by the people, who first elected him city attorney 
of St. Anthony soon after his admission to the bar and kept 
him in the office four years. He was then elected county 
attorney of Hennepin county and filled that office with great 
acceptability for three terms — from 1863 to 1864. from 1869 
to 1871, and from 1873 to 1875. 

The practice of the firms with which Mr. Gilfillan was con- 
nected was general and very large. They stood high in all 
branches of the practice, especially the firm of Lochren, 
McNair & Gilfillan, and in some this firm was at the very 
head for many years. Its reputation as to the laws govern- 
ing real estate was pre-eminent. In its probate and equity 
practice it had some cases so notable that they settled the law 
in this department, and in each of these the position taken by 
Mr. Gilfillan was sustained by the courts. The members of 
the firm were also attorneys, in their partnership capacitv. of 
the Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Chicago & Omaha, and the 
Jlinneapolis Eastern Hallways, and as such transacted a vast 
amount of important and laborious business, the largest part 
of which was conilucted by Mr. Gilfillan, and with almost 
invariable success. His practice was frequently interrupted 
by official and other engagements, but it was his main pursuit 
and resumed after every interruption as soon as the oppor- 
tunity came. 

Air. GilfiUairs interest in the cause of education led him into 
intimate connection with and valuable service for the public 
.schools and the University of Minnesota, this part of his 
career beginning in 1859. In that year he organized a Mechan- 
ics' Institute in St. Anthony for literary culture, and served 
as one of its officers. About the same time he drafted a bill 
for the organization of a school board in St. Anthony, under 
wliich a system of graded schools was established, which was 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



269 



the basis of the present excellent school system of Minne- 
apolis. He was chosen a member of the first school board 
under the new arrangement, and continued to serve as such 
for nearly ten years. Tlie \ahiable work he did in this 
connection resulted in his appointment as one of the regents 
of the University by Governor Pillsbury in 1880. and in that 
position he also served eight years. 

From the dawn of his manhood Mr. (iilfillan has taken a 
very earnest interest and an active part in public atlairs. His 
l)olitical faith and allegiance have always been given to tlie 
Kepublican party, and during the active years of his life he 
was influential in its councils. In 1875 he was elected a 
member of the state senate, and by repeated re-elections his 
tenure of oflice in that body covered ten years. His services 
there were so entirely satisfactory to the people that in the 
fall of 1884 he was elected to the house of representatives of 
the Forty-ninth congress. At the expiration of his term in 
that body he passed two years and a half in Europe with his 
family, visiting almost every part of it and extending his trips 
to Egypt and the Holy Land. During his sojourn abroad he 
saw many spectacles of unusual interest. At the Queen's 
jubilee in 1887 he occupied a seat in Westminster Abbey, and 
he also witnessed the funeral of the German emperor 
William I., in Berlin in 1888. 

Mr. Gilfillan's career as a member of the state senate was 
too important in service to the people of all parts of the 
state, and too impressive in the ability it displayed on his 
part, to be passed up with the mere mention that he was a 
member of that body. He employed in the discharge of his 
duties there the same sterling qualities that had won him his 
professional success, and it was a forum in which tliey were 
of especial value. He soon became an influential senator and 
a leader in shaping policies and masures and in carrying them 
into effect. In the earlier years of his senatorial service he 
was chairman of the committee on tax laws and taxes, and 
be compiled these laws into a code which is even yet the basis 
of the revenue system of the state. He was from the first 
a member of the judiciary committee and during the last five 
years of his tenure its chairman. He was also chairman of 
the finance committee for a time and at the head of tlie com- 
mittee on the University and university lands. In the legis- 
lation whereby the adjustment of the troubles over the state 
railroad bonds was brought about he was one of the leading 
and most influential forces in the senate. In congress he had 
but little opportunity to display his ability. He was there 
but one term, and during that the house of representatives 
was in the control of the Democratic party and there was 
a Democratic president in the White House. He gave his 
constituents good service, however, in looking zealously after 
their local interests, and they appreciated highly his zeal in 
their behalf. 

Mr. Gilfillan was married .lanuary 20. 1870, to Miss Rebecca 
C. Olephant, who was born near Morgantown, Fayette county, 
Pennsylvania, and who died on March 25, 1884. They had 
five children, four of whom are living, three sons and one 
daughter. He was again married on June 28, ISO,"!, to Miss 
Lavinia Cappock, a native of Ohio. Mr. Gilfillan was presi- 
dent of the First National Bank two years and is now (1914) 
chairman of its board of directors. The Northwest has known 
no higher type of man than Hon. John B. Gilfillan, and has 
held none in higher or more general esteem. 



MASON H. CRITTENDEN. 

Mason H. Crittenilen was known to Twin City business 
circles for more than forty years. He was one of the pioneer 
manufacturers of the Northwest, having begun the manu- 
facture of composition roofing in St. Paul in 1869. Entering 
the business world at an early age he followed one line of 
endeavor from the beginning to the end and always with 
uniform success. Whatever he undertook he pursued with 
such energy, persistence and good judgment that, unaided 
by fortune or friends, through the sheer force of his indomi- 
table will and character, he come to be at the head of a 
great concern. 

Mr. Crittenden was one of those quietly ciiicient men, who 
by foresight and elaborate preparation for an undertaking 
set the machinery of business in operation and achieved 
results as much through his belief and confidence in others 
as in reliance upon his own ability. He was a careful manager 
and from the first, his business prospered. 

Almost to the very end of his life Mr. Crittenden was 
a man of robust health and buoyant spirits. Being extremely 
democratic with his associates he was popular with all classes. 
With the profits from his enterprises he was generous in 
the promotion of public interests and the channel of his 
beneficiences was wide. He was particularly interested in 
Plymouth Congregational Church, of which he was a member 
and a constant attendant. He was very liberal in the support 
of all the work of the church. Carlton College, Northfield, 
Minnesota, was another institution which received his support 
and co-operation. 

Mason H. Crittenden was born in Washtenaw county, Michi- 
gan, on February 15, 1836. His parents were of English 
decent who settled in New York in the early days and later 
came to Michigan to live. When he was but twenty-four he 
was mairied to Sabra A. Murray, also a native of Michigan. 
She was two years his junior and soon after the marriage they 
came to Minnesota and settled on a farm near Winona. Nine 
years later they moved to St. Paul and Mr. Crittenden engaged 
in the manufacturing business by opening a factory of the 
construction of composition roofing. This was the first factory 
of the sort west of Chicago. Soon after this he added to 
this fine undertaking the manufactory of architectural sheet 
metal work. This was on the site now occupied by Noyes 
Bros, and Cutler, of St. Paul. It was not long before he 
was employing from 25 to 50 men and doing a thriving 
business. As another angle of the business Mr. Crittenden 
was also engaged as a contractor and handled some of the 
largest contracts for the time in the city. 

It was after fourteen years as a St. Paul business man that 
he came to Minneapolis, in 1883. For a number of years 
previous to this he had had as a partner a Mr. Scribner and 
the firm was known as Crittenden and Scribner. When he 
left St. Paul he sold out his business to Mr. Scribner and 
Mr. Libby and the firm became known as the Scribner-Libby 
Company. When he first came to Minneapolis he formed the 
M. H. Crittenden company and engaged in the manufacture 
of roofing. Later, in 1905 or 1906, the company was incor- 
porated, and was known as the Crittenden Roofing and 
Manufacturing Company and located at 704-6 5th street 
south. Here large factories were erected. The business grew 
so rapidly that it was necessary in 1908 to move to larger 
quarters. At this time the company moved to a large factory 
on Tenth Avenue South and 4th street. Two years later 



270 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



the business outgrew this place and a new building was 
erected at 1121 and 1123 south 7th street at a cost of 
$15,000. With this new building the company enlarged its 
scope of endeavor. Xot only sheet metal and composition 
roofing Wfre manufactured but cornices and fireproof doors 
and windows. The company patented and manufactured one 
of the first fireproof windows in the country. The output 
of the company now grew from $75,000 to $125,000 a year. 
Mr. Crittenden still continued to be actively engaged in the 
business of contracting and remained actively as president 
and at the head of the firm until his death which occurred 
in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Jan. 6, 1912. For a number 
of years he had been spending the coldest months of the 
year either in Southern California or Florida. 

Mr. Crittenden may well be called one of Minneapolis' 
most energetic and representative citizens. His widow survives 
him and is his successor as president of the Crittenden Roofing 
and Manufacturing Company. A. M. Crittenden, the only 
surviving child of the union is the secretary and treasurer 
of the company. This son was born at Rochester, Minnesota, 
July 31, 1863. He received a common school education and 
practically grew up in the company of which hi's father was 
the dominant spirit. For many years he had complete charge 
of all the outside construction work. His wife, who was 
Madge Wright before her marriage, is the daughter of R. R. 
Wright, lately retired from the O. A. Pray Manufacturing 
Company. She was born in New York City and was educated 
in the Minneapolis Academy. They have one daughter, Ruth, 
who is the wife of Wyckofl' C. Clark of Minneapolis. 



RICHARD CHUTE. 



Richard Chute, late distinguished citizen and pioneer of 
Minneapolis, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 23, 1820, 
the son of James and Martha (Hewes) Chute. James Cliute 
traces his ancestry back to an old Norman family through one 
Alexander Chute who lived at Taunton, England, in 1268 and 
his wife was a descendant of Captain Roger Clapp who in 
1664 was commandant of the "Castle" now known as Fol-t 
Independence in the historic Boston Harbor. Like his hardy 
Norman forefathers, Richard Chute was notably possessed 
of those qualities which mark the pioneer and empire builder 
and his career was characterized by a remarkable executive 
ability and forceful personality. His father was a teacher 
and minister and in 1831 located with his family at Ft. Wayne. 
Indiana, where his death and that of his wife occurred a few 
years later, leaving Richard, a lad of fifteen. When twelve 
years of age he had entered the employ of the firm of S. & H. 
Hanna who were traders with the Indians, dealing in furs, 
and for a number of years continued to be connected with 
the fur trade and became prominently associated with 
the affairs of the middle west territory and its various tribes 
of Indians. In 1844 he was sent to build a post on the 
Minnesota river, at Good Roads, a village eight miles above 
Fort Snelling and at this time he visited St. Anthony Falls, 
in the history of the development and conservation of which 
he later played such a prominent part. He was quick to 
grasp the possibilities of the place and predicted the founding 
and growth of a city in this location. The following year he 
returned to Ft. Wayne and became a partner in the firm of 
Ewing, Chute & company, fur dealers and at a later period 



engaged in the same industry as a member of the firm of 
P. Chateau, Jr., & company. During this time he was a 
witness of many of the historic treaties between the govern- 
ment and the native tribes, at the treaty of Orange City, 
Iowa, in 1842 with the tribes of Sac and Fox, in 1846 in 
Washington when the Winnebagoes sold the "neutral ground" 
of Iowa and in 1851 was present at Traverse des Sioux and 
Mendota when the Sioux concluded their treaties which opened 
the lands of Minnesota for settlement. He inaugurated the 
system of individual ownership with a dissolution of tribal 
relations among the Indians with the result that the Ottawag 
and Chippewas of Michigan exchanged tribal lands west of 
the Mississippi for lands in severalty in Michigan, becoming 
citizens of that commonwealth. In 1854 he came to St. 
Anthony Falls and engaged in the real estate business. In 
partnership with .John S. Prince he purchased an interest in 
the property which controlled the water power and for the 
next twenty-five years, during the most active period of 
his career, his efi'orts were identified with the development 
of this enterprise which was the nucleus for the growth of a 
great city. The company was incorporated in 1856 as the 
St. Anthony Falls Water Power company and Mr. Chute 
becanie agent and manager, serving in this capacity until 1866 
when lie became its president, a position he continued to 
hold until the property was sold to James .J. Hill and others 
in 1880. During this time he superintended the building 
of a dam and the erection of many mills, factories and saw 
mills. In 1856 $7,600 was raised by the citizens and entrusted 
to Richard Chute, R. P. Upton and Edward Murphy to be 
used in clearing the channel to Fort Snelling and the follow- 
ing year witnessed the arrival of fifty-two steam boats at 
the Falls as the result of the opening of navigation. The 
partnership between Richard Chute and his brother, Dr. Samuel 
Chute, which continued until the death of the former, was 
formed in this same year. In November, 1856, Mr. Chute 
went to Washington at the request of Mr. Henry M. Rice, 
the delegate to congress from Minnesota, to give his assistance 
in the securing of a railroad land grant. With the coopera- 
tion of Mr. H. T. Welles a sufficient grant was obtained 
the last day of the session for the construction of 1,400 miles 
of railroad in the territory of Minnesota. Mr. Chute was 
made a charter director in several of the railroad companies 
and was especially identified with the promotion of the road 
now known as the Great Northern. At the time that the 
water power of the city was threatened by the receding of 
the falls he gave valuable service in securing their preserva- 
tion. After the expenditure of large sums of money it became 
necessary to ask the assistance of the government and Mr. 
Chute was sent to Washington for that purpose. In 1870 
after several years of effort he obtained the appropriation and 
the services of a government engineer and insured the per- 
manent conservation of the great water power. He has left 
many memorials of his public services to the city, having 
introduced the system of boulevarding the streets and the 
plan for numerical streets and residences and also in the 
3,000 shade trees which he placed along the thoroughfares 
of the city in 1858. In 1863 he was appointed by Governor 
Ramsey special quartermaster of the troops sent to Fort Ripley 
and later became assistant quartermaster of the state with the 
rank of lieutenant colonel. From 1SG3 to the close of the 
war he served as United States provost marshal for Hennepin 
county. He was made a regent of the state university in 
1876 and for several years was treasurer of that institution, 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



271 



resigning in 1882. An oUl line Whig, he was one of twenty 
men to organize the Republican party in Minneapolis in 
1855 at a meeting held in the Methodist church and presided 
over by Governor William R. Marshall. He was an elder and 
one of the six original members of the Andrew Presbyterian 
churcli. Mr. Chute was a man of large mental attainments 
and unbounded energy and enthusiasm which won him a 
notable intluence in public affairs where he built for the 
future and devoted every eflort to the promotion of any 
project for the welfare and development of the northwest. 
He possessed a commanding presence and was an attractive 
and distinguished figure among the men of his time. He was 
married in 1S50 to Miss May Eliza Young and they had 
five children, Charles Richard, Minnie Olive, Mary Welcome, 
William Young and Grace Fairchild. Charles R. Chute was 
for many years associated with the Chute Brothers Company 
but since 1894 has resided in New Y'ork city. William Y. 
Chute was born in Minneapolis September 13, 1863. He 
attended the state university and later matriculated at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is prominently 
identified with the real estate interests of the city and has 
served as president of the Minneapolis Real Estate board. 
He is a member of the Commercial club, the Minneapolis club, 
and tile Auto club, and has been president of the Minneapolis 
Society of Fine Arts. He was married in 1906 to Miss Edith 
Mary Pickburn of London, England. Three children have 
been born to this union, Mary Grace, Marchette Gaylord and 
Beatrice. Mr. Chute is a member of the Christian Science 
church. 



DE WITT CLINTON CONKEY. 

For almost forty years the late De Witt Clinton Conkey 
was a resident of Minneapolis connected in an important 
capacity with one of its largest and most active industries. 
He came to this city in the fall of 1867 and here died March 
6, 1907, in his eighty-third year. 

He was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, July 10, 
1824, and was there reared and educated and there started 
his business career. He was married in 1857, to Miss 
Antoinette Kingsley, who was born August 11, 1829, 
near Plattsburg, on the shore of Lake Champlain. Mrs. 
Conkey was five years younger than her husband and sur- 
vived him six years, dying in April, 1913, in her eighty- 
fourth year. 

Directly after marriage the young couple set their faces 
toward the bountiful opportunities of the then almost un- 
developed West, and came to Burlington, Racine county, Wis- 
consin. In that city and Milwaukee they lived during the 
next sixteen years. Here they were busily employed in 
useful labor and active in the promotion of every enterprise 
and agency conducive to the advancement and improvement 
of the community. 

Mr. Conkey entered the employ of the North Star Woolen 
Mill as a purchaser of wool throughout the Western country. 
He was later given charge of the sales department, devoting 
his energies wholly to its requirements. He continued in 
this relation until he retired because of the growing weight 
of years. 

In his religious affiliation Mr. Conkey was a Universalist, 
attending the Church of the Redeemer. He and his pastor. 



Dr. Tuttle, were near neighbors on Chicago avenue and be- 
came intimate friends, and when he died the last service of 
love was rendered by this old associate. He was a staunch 
adherent of the Republican party, being an energetic worker 
for it, but he never sought or desired a political office. In 
the later years he leaned strongly to the Democratic party, 
considering it more friendly than the other to the general 
interests. Both he and wife were domestic in their tastes 
and habits, their greatest interest being the welfare of their 
family. She became a Christian Scientist and late in her 
life joined the Second church of that denomination. 

They were parents of four children. Charles C, was an 
employe of the Tribune and died in 1878, aged twenty-four, 
his widow, Mary L. Case, surviving. Maud is the wife of 
S. A. Stockwell, of. the Penn Mutual Life Insurance com- 
pany. Mabel is the wife of Eugene H. Day, an account of 
whom appears elsewhere; and Lucius J., of Seattle, is engaged 
in railroad construction work in British Columbia. 



FRANK .J. VENIE. 



President of the Harriet State Bank, though a recent comer 
to Minneapolis, has already impressed its citizens as one of 
the live and progressive men, whose enterprise accomplishes 
results. 

Although the newest bank in the city, the Harriet State 
Bank has started with most satisfa'ctory auspices, its board 
of directors containing, beSide the president, such well known 
names as L. L. Vroman, M. F. Strauser, W. J. Smith, J. J. 
Venie, John Devney, Sr., and George H. Venie. The bank was 
opened for business in its own building on Saturday, May 16, 
1914, with a capital of $25,000 and a surplus of $5,000 and 
is prepared to extend much needed accommodations to the 
Lake district. Its officers are F. J. Venie, president ; L. L. 
Vroman, vice-president; W. F. Strauser, cashier; with W. J. 
Smith, assistant. 

Frank J. Venie is a native of Missouri, his birth occurring 
at Chillicothe of French parentage, his father being J. J. 
Venie, who for several years has resided in Minneapolis and 
who has extensive real estate holdings. The boyhood years 
of Frank were passed on a farm in Wisconsin, and he was 
graduated from the high school at Beaver Dam and then took 
a course in a business college at Milwaukee. 

For three years he was in the commission business in Chi- 
cago, then becoming deputy register of deeds of Dodge County, 
Wisconsin, for four years, and was deputy county clerk for 
two years, when he was elected county surveyor for two 
years, since when he has been engaged in the banking busi- 
ness. In 1893 he organized the State Bank at Reeseville, 
Wis., becoming its cashier, though three years later he was 
made the president, so continuing until June 1, 1913. Real- 
izing the excellent opportunity offered for a first-clasS insti- 
tution at Lake Harriet, he was not slow to take the necessary 
.steps to organize the present bank. 

Jlr. Venie is classed as a Democrat, and since attaining 
manhood has taken an active part in all public questions, the 
advantages for social and general benefits of the various 



272 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



clubs being recogniztd and in several of wliich he holds mem- 
bership. 

In 1896 he was married to Margaret Devney, daughter of 
John Devney, formerly of Dodge County, Wisconsin. 

They have three children, Pearl, Irvin and Arthur. 



CHARLES M. LORING. 



Pioneer merchant, early Hour miller, public-spirited citizen 
and energetic promoter of the improvement and beautifying 
of Minneapolis, Charles M. Loring has shown himself to be 
one of the most useful and progressive residents of this city, 
and one of the foremost men in Minnesota in the sweep of hi:; 
vision and his prompt and effective action in carrying out 
the wise designs it has revealed to him. Where the foresight 
of others has been too short his has always reached to the end, 
and where their energy and courage have failed his have 
always worked with full power. 

Mr. Loring was born in Portland, Maine, on November 13, 
1833, and is a son of Captain Horace and Sarah (Wiley) 
Loring. The father was a sea captain, and took the son, while 
the latter was still a boy, on several voyages, having destined 
him to be a sailor also. He was attentive to the work on 
the ship, and at an early age rose to the position of first mate 
on one of his father's vessels. But nature had designed him 
for a different career, and he never found life at sea entirely 
agreeable to him. In 1856 he determined to build his career 
on land and came W^est to Chicago. There he engaged in 
wholesale merchandising in connection with P. B. Hutchinson 
for a few years. 

The climate of Chicago proved unfavorable to the health of 
Mr. Loring, and he determined to seek one more congenial to 
his nature. In 1860 he moved to Minneapolis, and a few 
months after his arrival in this city he associated with Loren 
Fletcher in general merchandising in the firm of L. Fletcher 
& Company, now the oldest mercantile firm in Minneapolis. 
In 1868 he entered the flour milling business in company with 
W. L. Cahill and Jlr. Fletcher, and by his success in business 
and his fine business capacity he acquired extensive real estate 
holdings as the years passed. 

Mr. Loring has been connected with other business enter- 
prises in a leading way and has made them successful. Since 
1894, when he quit the milling business, he is president of the 
Morgan Machine company of Rochester, New York,. He was 
also one of the organizers of the North American Telegraph 
company and served as its president from 1885 until 1897, 
when he resigned. He was president of the Minneapolis Board 
of Trade in 1875, and of the Chamber of Commerce from 1886 
to 1890. He served in the city council from 1870 to 1873, and 
was president of the first improvement association which 
operated here and promoted the first Flower Show held in Min- 
neapolis. He was a member of the Court House Commission, 
president of the State Board of Commissioners for securing 
Minnehaha Park, and president of the Minneapolis Board of 
Park Commissioners from its organization in 1883 to the time 
of his resignation in 1893. 

Neither Mr. Loring's fame nor his activity in the mutter 
of business expansion and public improvements has been con- 
fined to Minneapolis, however. For several years he was one 
of the vice presidents of the National Board of Trade, and has 



recently been president of the American Park and Outdoor 
Art Association and the Minnesota State Forestry Association. 
He is now a life member of the Minnesota State Horticultural 
Society, the State Historical Society and of the American Civic 
Association. Besides all this, Mr. Loring was treasurer of 
Lakewood Cemetery Association and for a long time one of 
the trustees of the Washburn Memorial Orphan Asylum, a 
position he resigned in 1905. 

It is in his efforts toward the improvement and embellish- 
ment of Minneapolis through its park system, however, that 
Mr. Loring's greatest service to the community has been ren- 
dered. His efforts in this behalf began soon after his arrival 
in the city and have been continued for almost half a century. 
They are well aprpeciated in Minneapolis, the people having 
put their seal of approval on them forever by changing the 
name of what was once Central Park to Loring Park in his 
honor. His interest in this form of civic welfare has been 
intense and his work in it has been constant. He has not only 
made great improvement in the park system of the city, but 
has molded public sentiment in accordance with his advanced 
views. On this account he is familiarly called the "Father 
of the Parks," as his enterprise in connection with them has 
made them one of the main attractions of Minneapolis. 

Mr. Loring has great aptitude for this kind of work. He 
has a natural taste for it and this has been cultivated by 
extensive travel, studious observation and intercouse with 
kindred minds both in many parts of this country, and in 
foreign lands. His services have been sought in many other 
cities, too, to which he has been urgently invited for the 
instruction of the people, and he has delivered many addresses 
full of information and suggestions designed to educate the 
people to whom he was talking how to make their cities more 
beautiful and attractive. 

Mr. Loring was first married in early life at Portland, 
Maine, to Miss Emily Crosman. They had one child, their son, 
A. C. Loring, who is now a prominent miller in Minneai)olis. 
Mrs. Loring died in 1894, and a second marriage was con- 
tracted in 1896 with Miss Florence Barton, a daughter of A. B. 
Barton, of this city. In political relations Mr. Loring has 
always been a Republican, but never other than a liberal 
partisan, always looking to the good of the public rather 
than the success of his party. He is a Tiiember of the Minne- 
apolis Athletic club and other organizations of a public 
and social character, but he finds his chief recreation in study- 
ing public grounds and promoting parks and parkways. He 
has a very pleasant home in this city, but passes his winters 
in California. 



EDGAR F. COMSTOCK. 



Another of the sturdy sons of Maine, who brought honor 
with him to the West and lived to accumulate not only more 
honor but also wealth and a name as a statesman, was Edgar 
F. Comstock. He came to Minneapolis in 1870 while the town 
site on the river was only a village, and helped to Iniild the 
great city. He was twenty-five when he arrived here and 
lived the best years of his life as an active citizen of Minne- 
apolis. 

Mr. Comstock was born in Passadumkeag, Maine, March 4, 
1S45. Wliili' he was still attending school, there came a call 
that meant war. He left school to go to the front, enlisting 



HISTORY OF MIXNEAPOLIS AND IIENXEPIN COITNTY, MINNESOTA 



273 



when but seventeen, in Company A. of the First Maine Cavalry 
in 1861. During liis service he participated in several battles. 
In 1865 he re-enlisted in the Seventeenth Maine Infantry and 
served until the close of the war; and all of this before he 
was of age. These were the honors he brought with liira 
when he 'came to Minneapolis. While the honors that came 
later may have brought him more satisfaction, there was 
probably no other four years of his life which brought him 
such development and experience that makes for character 
growth, as those years of war that ripened him from a boy 
into a man, the years of hardship and struggle which so 
many boys knew throughout the Civil War, 

When Mr, Comstock first came to Minneapolis he engaged 
in the lumber business. For nearly half a century of residence 
in the Flour City he divided his time between the lumber 
business and railroad contracting. During his long residence 
here he had the spirit of good citizenship always as his guide 
and was always generous with the time he devoted to public 
affairs and with his services to the municipality and to the 
state. He served in many capacities. He was the first repub- 
li'can ever elected to the city council from the First Ward 
of Minneapolis. In his responsibility as alderman he was 
always zealous and served on a number of important com- 
mittees. He was at different times chairman of the com- 
mittee on roads and bridges, and ex-olFieio member of the 
park board. Through his efforts the patrol limits were estab- 
lished and he was influential in placing Minneapolis under high 
license. 

Mr. Comstock was placed upon the Minneapolis Court Hotise 
and City Hall commission in 1889 and was chairman of the 
construction committee until the building was completed in 
1909, June 16. In 1886 he began a long service to the state. 
It was in this year that he was first elected to the legislature. 
He served for three terms in the lower house and in 1903 he 
was elected state senator, in which capacity he served four 
years. 

The people of Northeast Minneapolis looked to Edgar F. 
Comstock as the source of all the good things that coula 
come to them as a community. He was the father of Logan 
Park and was instrumental in getting sewers, good roads and 
everything that made for. the good of that section of the city. 

Mr. Comstock's father was a Maine lumberman. He. like his 
son. served his city and his state, as town officer and in the 
state legislature. He was .lames Madison Comstock and his 
mother was Louisa M. (Gillman) Comstock. Mr. Comstock 
married on January 28, 1867, Miss Mary Hacking, a native of 
England, who came to this country as a 'child to live in 
Greenbush, Maine. Three sons were born to them, Robert M., 
Edger F.. .Jr., and James M. They all live in Minneajjolis. He 
was a member of Chase Post, G. A. R.. of the Masons, and of 
the St. Anthony Commercial Club. 

Mr. Comstock died December 15, 1912. He is survived by his 
wife and three sons, the wife Still residing at the old home- 
stead. No. 750 Madison St., N. E. Minneapolis. 



L. H. DAPPRICH. 



went to California where he worked in large granite quarries. 
In 1904 he accepted a position as Chicago representative of 
large Eastern marble company and during this period visited 
Minneapolis and the northwest. In January, 1910, he removed 
to Minneapolis and since that time has been identified with 
Northwestern Marble & Tile company where liis able services 
as manager have contributed to the marked success and rapid 
extension of the trade of that industry. Within the last two 
years the plant has been more than doubled in size in order to 
properly execute their contracts thereby making the North- 
western Marble & Tile company the largest manufacturers 
of interior marble work west of New York, estimating their 
annual output at $600,000. They originally engaged in the 
construction of wood mantels and contracting in floor and wall 
tiling but these lines were gradually supei-seded by the marble 
work and they now handle some of the largest contracts in 
United States and Canada for interior marble, etc., ninety 
percent of their business being outside of Minneapolis. Among 
their more important contracts are the Wisconsin state capitol 
building at Madison, Wisconsin, and the union station at 
Detroit, Michigan, each of these contracts approximating one- 
()uarter million dollars. The manufacturing plant and yards 
are located at Twenty-seventh avenue and Twenty-seventh 
street south on the C. M. & St. P. main line. Branch oflices 
are operated at Chicago and Winnipeg but the headquarters for 
the entire sales force is maintained at the Minneapolis office. 
All details of the management and business transactions are 
under the direct supervision and administration of Mr. Dap- 
jirich. The company is incorporated with a cajdtal of $300,000 
with Mr. Eugene Tetzlaff, president, Mr. L. H. Dapprich, vice 
president and general manager, Mr. E. D. Spencer, secretary, 
and Mr. Charles N. Gramling, treasurer. Mr. Dapprich is a 
member of the New Athletic club and the Rotary club and in 
Masonic circles has attained the rank of Master Mason. He 
was married at Pontiac, Illinois, to Miss Cliarlotte Boman. 
MR. CHARLES N. GRAMLING, treasurer of the North- 
western Marble & Tile company and assistant treasurer of the 
Flour City Ornamental Iron Works, was born in Minneapolis, 
July 31, 1885, the son of Elias H. and Mary (Dittman) Gram- 
ling. He attended the city schools, graduating from the high 
school in 1900 and then completing a commcreial course of 
study. Since that time he has won a prominent position 
among the younger business men of his native city and is 
identified with the interests of important industries in Minne- 
apolis. He has held the position of assistant treasurer of the 
Flour City Ornamental Iron Works for ten years and two 
years ago became treasurer of the Northwestern Marble & 
Tile company. He was married January 3, 1912, to Miss 
Marie Catharene Brombach. 



WILLIAM P. CLEATOR. 



L. H. Dapprich, vice president and general manager of the 
Northwestern Marble & Tile company, was born in Belleville. 
Illinois, Sept. 6, 1876. In 1894 he entered the marble business 
in Baltimore and after eight years of practical training there 



A native of Minneapolis, where he was reared and educated 
and connected with its business life from youth, and one of 
the founders and incorporators of the Sawyer-Cleator Lumber 
company, of 1400 Washington avenue north, William P, 
Cleator has been a factor of importance and usefulness. 

Mr. Cleator was born on Fourth avenue north May 22, 1860, 
and is the only child of William and .Ivilia (Stanley) Cleator, 
the former a native of the Isle of Man. and the latter of 
New York, she being a sister of Mrs. Joseph Dean. The 



274 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



father came to New York in 1854, two years later joining 
the colony of hopeful and daring pioneers in St. Anthony, 
and soon formed a partnership with Anton Knobloch in the 
boot and shoe trade. Mr. Cleator later operated a similar 
store on the site of the old Pence Opera House, which he 
conducted for a number of years. 

In 1865 he moved to Owatonna, conducting a grocery store 
for four years. On his return in 1869 he again went into 
business, and continued active for many years, although he is 
now retired, aged 88. The mother died nine years ago, well 
advanced in age and with a long record of usefulness, upright 
living and fidelity to duty. 

William P. Cleator obtained a high school education and, 
at eighteen, began his business career as a clerk in a grocery 
store. He then put in two years as bookkeeper in the old 
CSty Bank, and three in the German-American Bank, of 
which he Is now a director. He next became a member of 
the firm of Dean Brothers & Co., handling commercial paper, 
stocks, bonds and similar securities until 1906, when he united 
in founding the Sawyer-Cleator Lumber company with C. W. 
Sawyer, who has been connected with the lumber business 
in Minneapolis in various capacities since 1880, and for several 
years was the manager and part owner of the Park Rapids 
Lumber company. 

The motto of the Sawyer-Cleator Lumber company is "A 
square deal for everybody," and by strict adherence to this 
rule it has built up a large and active trade and risen to 
the front rank in the lumber industry. The men at the 
head of it know their business thoroughly, and exert their 
knowledge in service for the benefit of their customers. The 
consequence is that they are highly esteemed in business 
circles and have a large body of personal admirers and 
friends. 

In politics Mr. Cleator in a Republican, but he is never 
an active partisan. His religious affiliation is with the Fourth 
Baptist church. In October, 1865, he was united in marriage 
with Miss Jennie V. Weld, a daughter of James 0. Weld, 
for many years a foreman in sawmills and manager of 
lumber yards, and who is now living retired at Lake Minne- 
tonka; afterward organized with his brother the firm of 
Weld Brothers in the grocery business. Mr. and Mrs. Cleator 
have three sons: Fred W., who is a department superintendent 
in the United States Forestry service at Republic, Wash- 
ington; Horace A., at home; and Ralph A., who is employed 
in a Minneapolis bank. 



HON. HENRY POEHLER. 



For fifty-nine years the late Hon. Henry Poehler was active 
in the mercantile life of Minnesota, and for nearly half of 
that period in that department of activity and usefulness in 
Minneapolis. During his residence in this state of over a 
half century he was always a very busy man, and for a large 
portion of it one of the leaders in every line of effort to which 
he pave his attention. Although not a native of this country, 
he dignified and adorned American citizenship in many ways, 
and when he died left a record of achievements of which any 
man might well and justly be proud. 

Mr. Poeliler was born at the village of Hiddcscn near Det- 
mold in the province of Lippe, Germany, on August 22, 1833. 
The place of his nativity was not far from the Teuteburger 



Wald, a mountain on the verge of the Black Forest, on the 
top of which stands the celebrated monument to Hermann, or 
Arminius, the deliverer of the Germans from the galling yoke 
of Rome in the year 9 A. D. The interesting subject of this 
brief review therefore grew to manhood amid scenes of his- 
toric interest, and they made a deep impression on him. He 
was the son of Frederick and Wilhelmina (Keiser) Poehler, 
who were of the same nativity as himself. The mother passed 
the whole of her life in her native region, and died there. The 
father, w-ho was, during the boyhood and youth of his son 
Henry, principal of the school at Hidesen, came to this coun- 
try late in life, and died at Henderson, Minnesota, at an 
advanced age in 1876. 

His son Henry was educated in the state schools of his 
native land, and in spring of 1848, when he was fourteen years 
of age, came to the United States with one of his uncles. 
They landed at New Orleans, and moved up the river to Bur- 
lington, Iowa, where Henry lived several years. He was mar- 
ried at Bridgeton, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, to Miss Eliza- 
beth Frankenfield on September 14, 1861. Slie is Still living, 
as are four of their six children: Alvin H., and Walter 
C, who are residents of this state; and Irene and 
Augusta, who reside in Los Angeles, California, where their 
father had his winter home for a number of years prior to 
his death. 

Mr. Poehler was one of the pioneers of Minnesota. He 
came to St. Paul from Burlington, Iowa, in 1853, and from 
St. Paul proceeded up the valley of the Minnesota river to 
Henderson. During the first year of his residence in this 
state he and his older brother Frederick built two of tlie first 
log 'cabins near where Mankato now stands, intending to take 
up claims in that locality. He changed his mind, however, 
when by chance he entered the employ of Major Joseph R. 
Brown to assist in the transportation of goods from Hender- 
son to Fort Ridgeley, all transportation up and down the 
Minnesota valley being then by boats and teams. 

Ill 1855 Mr. Poehler bought the mercantile commission 
and freight transportation business of Major Brown at Hen- 
derson, founding the firm of H. Poehler &, Bro., and during the 
next seven years he lived the life of a quiet merchant in a 
small town. But when the Indians rose and took the war 
path in 1S62, he was among the state's defenders against the 
fury of the savages, and he rendered valuable service in help- 
ing to quell the outbreak and reduce the wild men to subjec- 
tion. In his store at Henderson he handled machinery and' 
grain along with other general merchandise, and thereby be- 
came enamored with the grain trade especially, and to such an 
extent that in 1881 he organized the Pacific Elevator company 
for the purpose of engaging in it on a larger scale. 

In 1887 this enterprising merchant, accompanied by his son 
Alvin H.. moved to Minneapolis, where he became a member 
of the Chamber of Commerce and continued the firm of H. 
Poehler Company, which engaged extensively in the grain- 
trade and which has ever since kept its business growing in 
volume and value. The company was incorporated in 1893 
with Mr. Poehler as president and George A. Duvigneaud as 
vice president. Mr. Pochler's other sons were taken into- 
business with him at the time of their respective graduations 
from college. Charles from the Shattuck School at Faribault, 
and Walter C. from the University of Minnesota. This com- 
pany has been in continuous existence since it was founded. 
And on May 1, 1905, its founder. Mr. Poehler, celebrated th& 
golden anniversary or semi-centennial of his Connection ■n'itln 




^^^^2^^/^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



275 



the grain trade. He remained at the head of the company 
which bears his name until his death on July 18, 1912, which 
removed the last of the male generation of the family, his 
three brothers who also came to this country, having passed 
away previous to his own demise, which was deeply lamented 
although he was on the verge of eighty years of age at the 
time. 

Mr. Poehler was as prominent in politics in Minnesota as 
he was in business. He was a firm and loyal member of the 
Democratic party and for many 3'ears very active in its 
service. His force as a party worker was recognized locally 
and at Washington, and both the national administration and 
the people of the state were always eager to show their ap- 
preciation of him in this respect. He was postmaster of 
Henderson from 1855 to 1861; a member of the last terri- 
torial legislature in 1857 and of the first state legislature in 
1857 and 1858; a member of the legislature again in 1865; 
state senator in 1872-3 and again in 1876-7; and in the fall 
of 1879 was elected to the United States House of Representa- 
tives from the Second of the three congressional districts in 
the state at that time, being the first Democratic congress- 
man from this state after 1859 except Hon. Eugene M. Wilson. 
After his retirement from congress in 1881, he abated his 
activity in politics to a considerable extent, but his interest 
in the welfare of the state induced him to serve on several 
state boards, including the commission which located the State 
reformatory at St. Cloud and the board of directors which 
governed it afterward, on the latter of which he was asso- 
ciated with Governor Pillsbury. 

For many years Mr. Poehler was a member of the Chicago 
Board of Trade as well as the Minneapolis Chamber of Com- 
merce. In religious affiliation he was connected with the 
German Reformed church and in fraternal life with the 
Masonic order, in the latter having risen to the Royal Arch 
degree. He always took a warm interest in his church and 
his lodge, and made his membership highly valuable to both. 
He was also, at all times, earnestly, intelligently and prac- 
tically interested in the welfare of his home community, and 
made his interest manifest in cordial support of all deserving 
agencies at work for its welfare and all undertakings for 
public improvements, never withholding his aid from any 
worthy effort for advancement and being among the first and 
most potent in promoting many. His attention to the duties 
of citizenship was always zealous and straightforward, and 
he never considered the time given to them as a sacrifice. 
His devotion to American institutions was genuine, heartfelt 
and effective in good work for the benefit of the people, locally 
and generally. He was everywhere esteemed as one of Minne- 
sota's most useful and representative 'citizens while he lived, 
and he is universally regarded as such since his death. The 
business he started and built up to such large proportions 
stands as a visible proof of his enterprise and capacity, and 
his record as a true and upright man is enshrined in the mem- 
ory of the people among and for whom he lived and labored 
as a perpetual benefaction and an unfading example of genuine 
worth. 



THOMAS EDWARD COOTEY. 

Mr. Cootey was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on August 6, 
1861, and died on April 19, 1911. He was taken to Chicago 



in his childhood by his parents, and in that city grew to 
manhood. His opportunities for obtaining an education were 
meager, as the circumstances of his family forced him to 
begin the battle of life for himself at a very early age. Even 
in his boyhood he became a messenger and errand boy in 
his father's store, and was kept employed there at various 
lines of work until he left the parental fireside to make his 
own way in the world. Before this, however, he embraced an 
opportunity to pursue a course of special training for business 
in a commercial school, which he attended as regularly as 
his circumstances would allow. 

In the course of a short time he rose to the position of 
manager of the lithographic department of the old Culver, 
Page & Hoyne Publishing company's establishment in Chicago, 
and from there came to St. Paul to start and manage a 
lithographic department in the establishment of the Brown- 
Treacy company, now the Brown-Treacy-Sperry company, of 
that city. The general management of the retail department 
in books and stationery of this progressive company was 
assigned to him and he made a great success of it, meanwhile 
working up the lithographic line of the business with com- 
mendable enterprise and gratifying progress, attended by 
ever-widening popular approval. 

About 1894 Mr. Cootey moved to Minneapolis to engage in 
the printing and lithographing business on his own account. 
He bought out an old establishment in the business and 
transferred it and its work to the Northwestern Lithograph 
and Printing company which he organized; and when the 
plant was located in the Flour Exchange building the name 
was changed to the Cootey Lithographing company. Mr. 
Cootey was president, general manager and controlling spirit 
in the company, and gave it the full benefit of his great energy, 
fine talents and superior business capacity. 

The company specialized in high grade lithographic work 
and catered to the most refined and exacting taste. Its 
efforts were directed particularly to securing orders from 
banks and other large business institutions for their work of 
the first class, and it made preparations, or rather, kept itself 
always in a state of readiness to meet all demands of this 
kind. Mr. Cootey was an artist of rare attainments, as has 
been noted, and was able to produce the most attractive and 
striking designs for this grade of work, and he had the 
practical faculty of security the reproduction of his most 
impressive features and most delicate shades of thought in 
the products his company turned out. His judgment was 
critical and nothing short of the best results would satisfy him 
at any time. The company is still in business and continues 
to bear the name he gave it. 

Mr. Cootey took an active part in the civic, social and 
artistic life of his community. He was often solicited to 
allow the use of his name as a candidate for public office, 
but steadfastly refused all such overtures. But he was a 
zealous member of the Minneapolis, Commercial and Lafayette 
clubs, and his influence in the management of their affairs 
was stimulating, healthful and uplifting. His religious 
affiliation was with the Catholic church of the Immaculate 
Conception in this city, and he was attentive and faithful in 
the performance of his duties as one of its members, always 
willing and ready to aid in promoting any undertaking for 
its benefit, and helping sedulously to keep up its discipline and 
progress by both his example of upright living and his influence 
on others. 

Mr. Cootey was married in Chicago on September 19, 1886, 



276 



HISTORY OF MINx\EAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



to Mis8 Cora M. Hamen of that city, wlio is still living in 
the elegant home her husband built before his death, and 
whirh he had only half furnished when that sad event occurred. 
They had no children. The head of the house was very atten- 
tive to his business, and spared no etlort to give it the highest 
rank in its line. Even when he sought pleasure and relief in 
travel, which was his principal recreation, his mind was ever 
alert for new suggestions in his art, and so his mind was a 
living and freely flowing stream of active and fruitful useful- 
ness. Minneapolis mourns him as one of the best, most 
inspiring and most representative of her departed citizens. 
He was a member of the National Association of Employ- 
ing Lithographers of the United States, and a beautifully 
engraved booklet issued at the time of his death in his 
memory was presented the widow. 



GEORGE H. DOW. 



Is a son of John Wesley and Elizabeth (Chandler) Dow, 
who were important factors in the early life of this part 
of the city. 

John Wesley Dow was born at \'ienna, Kennebec county, 
Maine, in 1823, and there learned his trade as a sawyer of 
timber. He came to Minnesota a single man, reaching Still- 
water in May, 1849, and St. Anthony one month later. Here 
he secured employment from the federal government and 
was sent to Fort Ripley, on Lake Mille Lac, to saw the 
lumber to be used in the erection of the fort. He was the 
head sawyer in the ten-horse mill used in sawing this lumber, 
horses being the only motive power tlien available in that 
region for the purpose. He operated the mill two years, 
until the fort was completed, living in tents in tlie summe: 
until quarters were built for the soldiers. He also had and 
operated a shingle machine, which was probably the first one 
ever used in Minnesota. 

At the end of the two years mentioned Mr. Dow returned 
to St. Anthony. In the meantime, in 1851, his father and 
mother, John Ware Dow and wife, had come to St. Anthony. 
The father, who was a retired Methodist Episcopal minister, 
took a claim on Nicollet avenue that later became the John 
Blaisdell claim. He s'ettlcd. however, on the north side of 
Forty-fourth avenue north, between what are now Humlioldt 
and Penn avenues, and there he continued to reside for a 
number of years. The place finally became the home of his 
son, Jiistin Dow, who moved to California in 1875. .John 
Ware Dow died at Delano. Minnesota, in 1876. 

When John Wesley Dow returned to St. Anthony in July, 
1852, by paying .$100 for a squatter's right he secured the 
present home of his son George H., and on this farm he 
lived until his death on .June 10, 1902, lacking but twenty-five 
days of fifty years' occupancy of the land. The farm embraced 
160 acres and lies between Fortieth and Forty-fourth avenues 
north and extends from Penn avenue north to the city limits. 
The southeast forty acres of it have been platted and are 
now included in tlic William Penn Addition. 

In October, 1854, he married Elizabetli (handler, who lived 
with her parents, Timothy Cliandler and wife, on the claim 
adjoining his on the south. He bnnight his bride to a log 
shanty, sixteen b}- fo\irtcen feet in size, near the present 
dwelling house on the farm, and in this shanty his son George 
H. was born on March 16, 1857. George's mother died in 



1860, but before this tlie father had built a better house 
for his family, and this house is still standing. 

The father was lame and his health was uncertain. When 
his wife died he was left with two small children to care 
for. But he stuck to his farm and made it productive and 
valuable. His deed for it was made in 1855 and came in 
the form of a patent from the government signed by the 
President at that time, Franklin Pierce. For thirty years 
the elder Mr. Dow was clerk of the school district, and, under 
the instruction of Colonel Stevens, then county auditor, he 
organized what was said to be the largest school district in 
the state. It included all the land west of the Mississippi 
river and north of what is now Twenty-sixth avenue north 
He was a lifelong member of the Methodist Episcopal church 
and an original member of the first church class meeting in 
Northern Minneapolis, which was started by his father in the 
old log cabin on the farm and is now a vigorous means of 
grace in the North Minneapolis church at Washington and 
Forty-fourth avenues north. 

John Wesley Dow had two children by his first marriage, 
his sons George H. and Ware S. The latter is now living in 
Alaska. His second wife, who was Mrs. Mary A. Wales, of 
Indiana, survived him but fifteen days, dying on .June 25, 
1902. They had no children, but she had two daughters and 
one son by her former marriage, all of whom were reared 
in tlie Dow family. Nancj' died at the age of twenty. Mary 
A. is a widow, and is living near the old home. Perry Wales, 
tlie son. is a farmer near Brooklyn Center. 

George H. Dow has passed the whole of his life to this 
time (1914) on the old homestead, of which he inherited 
twenty-five acres, including the family residence. He is 
extensively and successfully engaged in market gardening. 
In October, 1880, he was married to Miss Ella Smith, a daugh- 
ter of C. A. Smith, a florist on Portland avenue. She died in 
August, 1887, leaving no children. In March, 1901, Mr. Dow 
married as his second wife Miss Emma B. Mills of Jlinneapolis, 
a native of Southern Minnesota. They have two children, 
Irene, aged eleven, and Wesley, aged seven. The father is a 
steward in the North Minneapolis Methodist Episcopal church, 
in which he has been an active worker since he was seventeen 
years old. He has been a Sunday school teacher and superin- 
tendent and the leader of the Bible class. In politics he is 
a Prohibitionist, but in local elections votes independently, 
always sup])orting the men he believes best qualified for the 
offices sought and most likely to render the best service to the 
public. 



DR. FREDERICK ALANSOX DUNSMOOR. 

So much splendid material for professional eminence as well 
as good citizenship has come from good old Maine ancestry, 
and been developed by the hardship and struggle of pioneer 
dnys in Minnesota that, colonial patriot, revolutionary hero, 
Maine settler, Minnesota jiioneer. eminent citizen, seems almost 
like a stamlaiil foniiula for the successful Minneapolis man. 
Dr. Frederick Alaiisiin Diinsiiiiiur belongs to this large and 
])roiiiinent circle of honoii'd Miiineapolitans. He, more than 
many others, iliiineapolis may claim as her own, for he was 
born in the little settlement of Harmony, Richfield township, 
which is now within the city limiti!. His father. James A. 
Dunsmoor, came to St. Anthony in 1852, from Farmington, 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



277 



Maine. He was in very feeble health when he niaile the 
change and settled on a farm, that he niiglit have every oppor- 
tunity to grow strong and well again. He had been a fone 
in his old JIaine home and he lost none of his executive 
ability when he came to Minnesota. He was a man of unusual 
enterprise and high standing in the community so long as he 
nuide Minneapolis his home. In lST:i he went to California 
again in search of liealth, but he died there soon afterward. 
The mother of Dr. Dunsmoor was Almira Moslier, of Temple, 
Maine, and she was the mother of eight children, si.x sons 
growing to manhood. She was a woman of splendid talents 
and mental equipment. Frederick Alanson was the youngest 
but one of her children. He was born on May 28, 1853, and 
received his earlj- education in the schools of Richfield and 
Minneapolis, and later in the University of Minnesota. When 
he was but sixteen years of age he showed the bent of his 
inclination, for he went into the ofSce of Drs. Goodrich and 
Kimball to study medicine. He then went to New York, 
where he took a full course in the Bellevue Hospital iledical 
College. While in New York he was a private student of 
Fred H. Hamilton and privileged to come under the instruction 
of such eminent specialists as Alfred G. Loomis, Austin 
Flint. Sr., E. G. Janeway and R. Ogden Doremus. After he 
graduated from medical college and received his degree he went 
to California to visit his parents, and every inducement was 
offered him to remain and practice there. However, he pre- 
ferred his boyhood home, and So came back to Minneapolis 
and went into partnership with Dr. H. H. Kimball. This part- 
nership was dissolved in 1877 and Dr. Dunsmoor established 
himself independently. About this time he accepted a position 
as professor of surgery in the St. Paul Medical College and 
taught there until 1879. For the year 1879 he was county 
physician for Hennepin county. Dr. Dunsmoor then accepted 
the chair of surgery in the medical department of Hamlin 
University, but resigned two years later to devote himself 
to the organization of the Minnesota College Hospital. This 
he organized as a demonstration of his theory of the impor- 
tance of giving prominence of clinical over didactic instruction. 
He bought fhe old Winslow house, which had been occupied by 
Macalester College, and with the co-operation of others the 
Minnesota College Hospital was organized. Associated with 
him in this work was Thomas Lowry, who was made presi- 
dent of the board of directors; Dr. Geoi-ge F. French, Dr. A. 
W. Abbott and Dr. C. H. Hunter. Dr. Dunsmoor was made 
vice president of the board of directors and dean of the 
college. For years he gave the best of his enthusiasm and 
energy to this institution, serving as dean, vice president. 
Professor of Surgery, and surgeon to the dispensary, as well 
as attending physician. This he did until the Minnesota 
College Hospital was merged into the State Univei'Sity when 
he transferred his enthusiasm and energetic spirit as an 
organizer to the new organization. Even then, however, he 
felt the need of a fully equipped hos|)ital for clinical purposes, 
and he threw himself heart and soul into plans and arrange- 
ments for Asbury Methodist Hospital. For a time this 
organization occupied the building of the old Minnesota College 
Hospital. Dr. Dunsmoor held the chair of clinical and opera- 
tive surgery in the medical dejiartment of the University of 
Minnesota, resigning in 1913. 

Other hospitals to which Dr. Dunsmoor has lent his skill 
and ability at dilTerent times are St. Mary's Hospital and St. 
Barnabas Hospital. In lIiKi .St. Baniabas Hospital eipiipped 
a suite of riKinis especially for the use of Dr. Dunsmoor in 



surgical operations, the only pliysician having such in the City 
Hospital and the Asbury Free Dispensary. He has also been 
the surgeon for a number of different railroad lines, including 
the Cliicago. St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha, the Minneapolis, 
St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie, the Northern Pacific, the Kansas 
City, the St. Paul and Duluth, and the Chicago, Burlington 
and Northern. 

Like nearly all of the modern physicians. Dr. Dunsmoor has 
devoted himself to specialties. He has made an especial and 
extensive study of gynecology and surgery. Nearly every 
year he spends a short vacation from his practice in study in 
the great hospitals, colleges and scientific centers, in both this 
country and the old world. His fame has gone abroad and he 
is hailed as a leader in all the scientific centers of the world. 
He kee|)S his library well stocked with all the latest and 
best books, not only on the subjects dearest to his heart, but 
along all scientific lines. This much for his scientific side — 
but he is many sided, for he finds time to indulge his love 
of music and art. He is an active worker in a number of 
musical organizations and his collection of etchings and art 
treasures is the fad which gives him the most pleasure. 

Socially he is a warm-hearted, companionable man, very 
democratic in his tastes and ever mindful of the need of those 
who are less fortunate than he. He is a member of the 
Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church, where he has served in 
an official capacity for a great manj' years. He is a Mason, 
a Druid, and a Good Templar. He is also a member of nearly 
all the principal clubs of the city, being a charter member of 
both the Minneapolis and Commercial clubs. He is a member 
of the International Medical Congress, the National Association 
of Railway Surgeons, the American Medical Association, the 
Minnesota Academy of Medicine, the Western Surgical and 
Gynecological Association, the Tri-State Medical Association, 
the Crow River Medical Association, the Society of Physicians 
and Surgeons of Minneapolis, and the county and state 
medical societies, 

Dr, Dunsmoor is also a writer of note, his name being seen 
frequently in the pages of many of the leading medical 
journals, his articles on the subjects of his specialties always 
carrying authority. As a musician he ranks very high in the 
city and also as an art critic. 

On September 5, 1876, Miss Elizabeth Kmma Billings Turner 
became the wife of Dr. Dunsmoor. She is the daughter of Sur- 
geon George F. Turner, who was stationed at Fort Snelling 
in 1846. and was the contemporary and familiar friend of such 
pioneers as Gov. H. H. Siblej^, Gen, R, W, .Johnson, Franklin 
Steele, Father Geer, Rev, Dr, Williamson and others, Mrs, 
Dunsmooi-'s lineage is traced directly from Miles Standish, 
Seven children were born to them and three lived to come of 
age, Dr, and Mrs, Dunsmoor have been saddened in the past 
year by the death of their only son, Frederick Laton Duns- 
moor. Their daughter Marjorie became the w-ife of Fred 
McCartney and lives in Colorado; the other daughter, Eliza- 
beth, nuirried Homer Clark, of St. Paul, and lives in that city. 

Dr. Dunsmoor built a beautiful home on Tenth Street in 
the eighties, and it was the show place of the cit.v for a 
great many years, but w'ith the encroachment of the business 
district upon the one-time beautiful residence street Dr, 
Dunsmoor sold this home and has since then mnde his perma- 
nent home at Lake Minnetonka, 

Time has dealt lightly with Dr, Dunsmoor, and although 
he is sixty years old he is still in his |)rime and as active 
and enthusiastic as ever. His social instincts are still active 



278 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



and notliing pleases him more than to gatlier about him a 
group of congenial friends in his charming home. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN NELSON. 

The lumber industry early became and has ever since re- 
mained one of the leading lines of business in Minnesota, 
and the reasons for this are strong and manifest. The 
bounty of nature in providing the material for the industry 
was almost unlimited, and the quality of that material was 
superior in some respects to that of what was to be found 
in many other heavily timbered regions. The men who 
started the industry were men of broad views, fine business 
capacity, resolute spirit and all-daring courage; and those 
who have followed them have shown the utmost capability 
for developing the industry to its full limit and handling it 
with the utmost wisdom and success. Here was raw material 
in lavish bounty ready and waiting for the commanding 
might of mind to come and convert it into marketable form 
for the service of mankind. The lord of the heritage came, 
and his presence has ever since been manifest in the magni- 
tude, value and far-reaching results of his work. 

As a representative of both the earlier and the present-day 
magnates in that industry in this section of the country, 
Benjamin F. Nelson of Minneapolis stands in the front rank. 
His operations have been and are still very extensive. His 
foresight and sweep of vision are great. His knowledge of 
the business has from the first been comprehensive and 
accurate; and his daring and business acumen are of the 
first class. Whether measured by the scope and extent of 
his undertakings, or the skill with which they have been 
managed, he is easily one of the forfmost men in the industry 
in this country. 

Mr. Nelson was born in Greenup county, Kentucky, on 
May 4, 1843, and is a son of William and Emeline (Benson) 
Nelson, who were natives of Maryland and emigrated to 
Kentucky in early life. The family was in moderate circum- 
stances, and the opportunities of the children for schooling 
were limited. Benjamin attended public schools in Greenup 
and Lewis counties for brief periods at intervals, and, when 
his father's health failed while he was still a youth, he 
assisted his brothers in taking care of the household. At the 
age of seventeen he began cutting logs and rafting them down 
the Ohio. This gave liim his first experience in the lumber 
trade, and the fiber and activity of his mind was such that 
he made it tell greatly to his advantage then and subse- 
quently. 

But he was not allowed to pursue this industry long un- 
disturbed. The mighty war cloud that had been hovering 
over the country for some years burst at length in a deluge 
of death and disaster, and he felt called by duty to take 
part in the sectional conflict in defense of the political views 
and theories of government to which he had been educated. 
In 1863, when he was but nineteen years of age, he enlisted 
in the Second Kentucky Cavalry, Confederate army, and dur- 
ing the progress of the war served successively under Generals 
Morgan, Forrest and Wheeler of the Southern forces. Al- 
though the commands in which he served were engaged in 
the most hazardous duties and were always performing them, 
he escaped without disaster, except that he was taken pris- 



oner, and at the close of the momentous struggle was in 
confinement at Camp Douglas near Chicago. 

When Mr. Nelson was released he returned to Kentucky. 
But the trail of the war was still on the state, and after 
remaining in it for a few months he determined to seek his 
fortune in what was, at that time a more promising region. 
In September, 1865, he came to Minnesota and located in 
Minneapolis, at that period called St. Anthony. His experi- 
ence in lumbering secured immediate employment for him in 
that business, and he has been connected with it ever since. 

Mr. Nelson passed his first year in Minnesota as a laborer 
in the woods and mills and on the river. But such a post in 
the great industry in which he was intensely interested did 
not satisfy his ambition or meet the requirements of his 
faculties, although he manfully accepted it as a stepping- 
stone to the realization of his high hopes, and faithfully and 
laboriously performed its duties. In his second winter here 
he secured a contract to haul logs, and some little time after- 
ward another to manufacture shingles. Even this advance 
he looked upon as but a means, for he had his vision fixed 
on loftier heights. 

In 1872 our aspiring lumberman formed a partnership with 
others in the planing mill business, and this led directly to 
the manufacture of lumber. In 1881 the firm of Nelson, 
Tenney & Co., consisting of Mr. Nelson and W. M. Tenney, 
bought a sawmill. Mr. Nelson was now in a position entirely 
suited to his taste and his abilities. He gave his whole 
attention to the business of the firm, and as the city and 
the country around it advanced in development and improve- 
ment, the firm's trade rapidly expanded, and before the 
expiration of ten years it became one of the heaviest opera- 
tors in Minneapolis. Later W. F. Brooks held an interest in 
the firm for a number of years. 

For over forty years Mr. Nelson was engaged directly, and 
most of the time very extensively, in manufacturing lumber. 
But his energies in this work were not confined to the com- 
pany of which he was the head, nor were they wholly 
absorbed in this line of effort. He acquired interests in 
many other companies in the trade and affiliated with it, and 
also took part in additional kinds of manufacturing and in 
the financial and public affairs of the city and county of his 
residence, in which he is still deeply and helpfully interested. 

He is president of the Leech Lake Lumber Co., the Henne- 
pin Paper Co., the B. P. Nelson Manufacturing Co., B. F. 
Nelson & Sons Co., and the Leech Lake Land Co. He is also 
one of the directors of the Northwestern National Bank of 
Minneapolis and others in Minnesota. Director Northwestern 
National Life Insurance Co. In addition he has extensive 
holdings in mineral lands in Northern Minnesota. 

This is a record of long continued, extensive, very exacting 
and highly successful business operations, but it shows only 
a part of Mr. Nelson's activity and achievements. He has 
been as zealous in philanthropic, educational and religious 
work as he has been in business, and for years took a prom- 
inent part in public affairs in his home city. He served in 
the city council from 1879 to 1885, and was made chairman 
of the ways and means and railroad committees, at which 
time he made the acquaintance of Mr. J. J. Hill, as he fully 
believed that Minneapolis, just getting out of her swaddling 
clothes as a city, could afford to be liberal with railroads 
and on account of such views was able to assist railroads 
in getting such rights as was necessary to operate economically 
and at that time a close friendship was made with Mr. Hill, 



HISTORY OF MINIvEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



279 



which has existed to the present time. Mr. Nelson was a 
member of the first board of park commissioners, rendering 
wise and appreciated service in laying the foundation of the 
Minneapolis park system. He was also for manj- years a 
member of the old Board of Trade, and its president in 
1890 and 1891, and one of the directors and the treasurer of 
the Business Men's Union in 1890. 

From 1884 to 1891 he was a member of the school board. 
During this period the increase in the school population of 
the community was phenomenal and the necessity of pro- 
viding for it taxed the ability of those in charge of them to 
the utmost. 'In this pressing time Mr. Nelson's special 
fitness for the position he held was amply demonstrated, and 
he won high credit for his resourcefulness, readiness and 
adaptability to requirements in the discharge of his duties 
as a member of the board. The experience in educational 
matters he gained in this position, and his recognized business 
capacity led to his appointment as a member of the Board 
of Regents of the University of Minnesota in 1905, and is 
now (1914) President of the board, and since then he has 
rendered the state service of the highest character and most 
productive kind in this department of its interests, showing 
both breadth of view and facility of resources in meeting 
requirements, and always a keen insight into the future and 
wisdom in providing for its needs. For thirty years Mr. 
Nelson has been a member of the Board of Trustees of 
Hamline University. 

The material interests of the state have also had Mr. Nel- 
son's intelligent and fruitful attention. He was chosen a 
member of the board of directors of the State Agricultural 
Society in 1902, and after several years of valued service on 
the board, was made its president in 1907 and again in 1908. 
Mr. Nelson was a member of the board of managers of the 
State Prison and was its president for several years. 

Another line of local enterprise which engaged his attention 
actively and helpfully was that which is in charge of the 
Commercial Club. In 1904 he became one of the directors of 
the club and chairman of its public affairs committee. During 
the next two years he worked out conspicuous commercial 
development under the auspices of the club, and wrote his 
name in large and enduring phrases on the pages of its his- 
tory. In 1907 he was elected president of the club, and this 
office he held until 1909. He is also a valued member of the 
Minnesota State Historical Society, and in the social and 
fraternal life of the community is connected with the Minne- 
apolis Club, Commercial Club. Lafayette and Minikahda, 
Minnesota and Automobile Clubs, and is prominent in the 
Masonic order, holding the rank of Knight Templar in the York 
rite and that of a thirty-second degree Mason in the Scottish 
rite. In this fraternity he is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. 

Mr. Nelson was married in 1869 to Miss Martha Ross, who 
died in 1874. leaving two sons, William Edwin and Guy H., 
who are now associated with their father in business. In 
1875 he contracted a second marriage which united him with 
Miss Mary Fredenberg of Northfield, Minnesota. They have 
one child, their daughter Bessie E. 

From the dawn of his manhood Mr. Nelson has given his 
political allegiance and services to the Democratic party, but 
he has never sought an office or been chosen to one by a 
partisan election. Those he has held have been either by 
non-partisan or conferred upon him by appointment and in 
recognition of his special fitness for them rather than on 
account of political services or party considerations. In addi- 



tion, he has frequently been urged to become a candidate for 
high elective offices, but has always steadfastly refused. 

How like a thread of gold the splendid record of this 
excellent business man and superior citizen runs through the 
history of Minneapolis! and what a credit it is, not only to 
the community in which he has expended his activities, but 
to the whole range of American citizenship. 



HON. WILLIAM STANLEY DWINNELL. 

Tracing his ancestry back in direct lines to early Colonial 
times in New England, yet himself born, reared and educated 
in the West, Hon. William S. Dwinnell, state senator from 
the Fortieth senatorial district, combines in his make-up the 
resourcefulness of the New Englander and the enterprise, 
broad vision and hustling progressiveness of the Westener. 
These characteristics have been made manifest in his business 
and political career, and have won him the admiration of all 
classes of the people and the cordial regard of those who 
know him intimately. 

Senator Dwinnell was born at Lodi, Wisconsin, on Christmas 
day, 1863, and is a son of John Bliss and Maria C. (Stanley) 
Dwinnell. The progenitors of the American branch of his 
family came to this country from England and settled at 
Topsfield, Massachusetts, in 1660. His mother's side of the 
house includes many distinguished people of Connecticut, in- 
cluding the first Governor of Connecticut colony, and the Day 
and Dwight families both of whom liave furnished presidents 
of Y'ale College. 

The senator's father was a merchant in his early man- 
hood, but later turned his attention to farming, and passed 
the remaining years of his life in that occupation. The son 
grew to manhood in his native place and began his academic 
education in its public schools. Afterward he pursued the 
undergraduate course in the academic department of the 
University of Wisconsin, and later entered the law department 
of that institution, from which he was graduated in 1886. 
After his graduation he took up the work of preparing opinions 
of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, for publication, having 
been appointed to this position by Governor Jeremiah M. Rusk 
who for many years was his warm friend and adviser. 

In 1888 and 1889 Mr. Dwinnell served as district attorney 
of Jackson county, Wisconsin, and at the close of his term 
in that otiice came to Minneapolis, under contract, as attorney 
for a large building and loan association. There proved to 
be a radical difference in opijiion as to policy between Mr. 
Dwinnell and his associates, and he resigned from the service 
of the association and began the practice of law, devoting his 
efforts in the main to matters affecting corporations. 

By the year 1900 he found that close confinement and con- 
stant business activity were telling on his health, and he 
then determined to give more attention to outside affairs. He 
began dealing in real estate in Minneapolis and St. Paul and 
the Canadian Northwest and soon enlarged his operations to 
include timber lands in California, Oregon, and British Colum- 
bia. He organized and became president of the Eraser River 
Tannery, located in the Eraser river region of British Columbia 
and an institution of magnitude and great activity. He also 
beeamo treasurer of the Urlian Investment company of St. 
Paul, and interested in a number of other enterprises of import- 
ance and usefulness to the communities in which they operate. 

For years his business engagements have been numerous 



280 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



ami exacting, but they have never been allowed to obscure the 
public welfare in his mind, and he has taken an earnest 
interest and an active part in public afl'airs from the dawn of 
his manhood. The interest he manifested in the well being 
of Wisconsin while residing in tliat state has been duplicated 
in liis fidelity to the substantial good of Minnesota since he 
began to live here. No line of advancement for the city in 
which he has his home or the state of which it is the 
metropolis has been overlooked or neglected by him, and his 
support of all undertakings to promote it has always been 
zealous and energetic, but has been guided by intelligence 
and good judgment. 

Senator Dwinnell has been especially cordial and active in 
his interest in good government and his ell'orts to aid in 
securing it. He exerted himself with animation and force in 
behalf of the direct primary law of 1899, and also in behalf 
of the anti-trust law enacted the same year. His wisdom and 
zeal in connection with civic affairs so impressed the people 
of his neighborhood that in the fall of 1910 he was elected to 
the state senate from his district, the Fortieth, and in the 
three sessions of the legislature which have been held since 
his election he has fully justified the public confidence expressed 
in his election and rendered his district and the whole state 
good service by the broad view he has taken of public 
questions and the enterpri.se and intelligence with which he 
has striven to make the legislation of the sessions progressive 
and ministrant to the welfare of all classes of citizens and 
all public agencies for good. 

Prior to his election to the senate, however, he served the 
Commercial club for a number of years as a member of its 
committee on public affairs, of which he was vice chairman 
in 1906. He belongs also to the Minneapolis, Minikahda, 
La Fayette and Six O'clock clubs, the American and Minnesota 
State Bar associations, and the American Economic associa- 
tion. On April 34, 1889, he was married to Miss Virginia 
Ingman. They have four children, and all the members of 
the family attend St. Mark's Episcopal church, of which the 
senator is one of the vestrymen, and in the work of which he 
is active. 



EDWARD WILLIAMS DECKER. 

Edward W. Decker, pi'esident of the Northwestern National 
Bank of Minneapolis, furnishes in his career a striking illus- 
tration. He inherited strong and useful traits of character 
from his ancestors, but he has been strong in himself inde- 
pendent of those traits, and his environment has had no other 
efl'ect on his course than to give him the opportunity to show 
his native powers and make his surroundings subservient to 
them. His scholastic education never went beyond a high 
school course, and that. has had only a general bearing on 
his business career. The forces that have made that career 
possible and wrought it out were of him and witliin liim. 
and no outside influence is entitled to credit for them. 

Mr. Decker is a native son of Minnesota, and has never 
wandered far from his native heath. He was born at Austin, 
this state, on August 24, 1869, a son of .lacob S. and JIary 
Ann H. (Smith) Decker, both of sturdy Holland Dutch ancestry. 
The progenitors of the American branch of the family came 
to this country early in its colonial history and located on the 
Hudson river in New York where the picturesque village of 



Esopus now stands. About 1720 the representatives of the 
house living at that time moved to the New Jersey side of 
the Delaware, and at Flatbrookville on that historic river 
Edward W. Decker's parents were born, and there they grew 
to maturity and were married. 

Soon after their marriage they came to Miimesota and took 
up their residence on a farm near Austin in Jlower county. 
On this farm their son Edward passed his boyhood and youth, 
attending the district school in the winter and working on 
the farm in the summer. Later he entered the high scliool at 
Austin, from which he was graduated in 1887. Directly after 
leaving the high school he sought the largfr opportunities 
offered for his talents in Minneapolis, and began his business 
career as messenger in the Northwestern National Bank of 
this city. 

He showed such unusual ajititude for the banking business, 
that lie was rapidly promoted to higher positions of trust and 
responsibility, and on September 13, 1895, was elected assistant 
cashier of the Metropolitan Bank, and the next year waa 
chosen its cashier. He was still demonstrating his ability, 
and on December 8, 1900, was called back to the Northwestern 
National Bank to serve it as cashier. 

While his position after the change was in the same class 
as before, it was nevertheless a promotion, for the North- 
western was a larger institution than the Metropolitan, and 
its cashiership carried weightier duties and responsibilities 
than the same position in the latter. On .luly 1, 1903, he 
was elected vice president and general manager of the North- 
western National Bank, one of the most responsible banking 
positions in the city, and also rendered the bank excellent 
service as one of its directors. 

Besides giving close and careful attention to his duties in 
the Northwestern National Bank, as he has always done in 
every line of endeavor and every business connection, he was 
prudent in the management of his private affairs, and soon 
acquired interests in other institutions. On May 10. 1910, 
he was elected president of the Minnesota Loan and Trust 
company of Minneapolis, an offshoot of the Northwestern 
National Bank, and on January 1, 1912, was made president 
of the bank, a position he has filled with marked ability and 
general approval ever since. 

Mr. Decker is also vice president of the ilinnoapolis Clear- 
ing House Association, and a director of the Northwestern 
National Life Insurance company of Minneapolis, and has 
long been a leading member of the Minneapolis Chamber of 
Commerce, a director of tlie Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion and a member of the Twin City Bankers' Club, of which 
he was president for a time. And is also a director of the 
Twin City Rapid Transit Co. 

For a number of years Mr. Decker has held valued and 
serviceable membership in the Minneapolis club, the Com- 
mercial club and the Minikahda club of his home city, and 
through them has contributed directly and materially to en- 
larging and enlivening the social life of his community. He 
has been warmly ami helpfully interested in fraternal aetiv'- 
ities too as a Freemason of the Thirty-second degree, Ancient 
and Accepted Scottish Rite, and has taken an active part in 
the doings of the order in all its branches and organizations 
from the foot of the mystic ladder to the great height to 
which he has ascended in it. 

In these lines of association with his fellow men he has 
also found pleasure and profit in active membership in the 
Automobile club of Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Society of 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



281 



Fine Arts, tlic Miiinesuta Society of New York, tlie Cliicago, 
Heron Lake Lodge and Six O'clock clubs, the National Geo- 
graphical Society and .John A. Rawlins Post, Grand Army of 
the Republic, in the last of which he is on the Citizens StaflT. 
In fact, no phase of usefulness in the life of his home com- 
munity has been without his active aid and inspiring encour- 
agement, and in matters of ]niblic improvement and general 
welfare he has always been zealous, energetic and of great 
service. 

On February 24, 1892, Jlr. Decker was united in marriage 
with Miss Susie May Spaulding, a daughter of \V. A, Spauld- 
ing, one of the old settlers of Minneapolis, a prominent member 
of the Grand Army of the Rep\iblic and distinguished for his 
military service in the Second Battalion, Light Artillery. 
Five children have been born of the union, all of whom are 
living. They are: Edward Spaulding, Margaret, Katharine, 
Susan and Elizabeth. The parents are Congregationalists and 
enrolled in the Plymouth Church congregation of that sect. 



.1. \V. DREGER. 



.Tolin \\"iIlLam Dreger is one of the most solid of the citizens 
of Minneapolis who mark with pride their descent from 
ancestors of good old German birth. Possessing all this 
loyalty to family traditions, Mr. Dreger is distinguished by 
that other characteristic of the Teutonic stock — love of 
country and interest in the duties of citizenship, and there- 
fore has been among the foremost residents of the city in 
seeking realization of high ideals. 

Bergholtz, Niagara County, New York, was the birthplace 
of ,T. W. Dreger. He was born March 23, 1846. the son of 
.John W. and Louisa Dregev. His father was a farmer who 
had come, with the good wife, from Pasewald, near Stettin, 
I'omerania, Germany, in 1843. I€ was in a settlement of men 
and women of his c^vn nationality that the migrating farmer 
in seai'ch of the better things a free country oflfered made his 
home. 

And it was in the German Lutheran schools wliicli the 
neighborhood established that the son obtained the foundation 
for his education. Until he was fourteen years old young 
Dreger divided his time between the school and the farm 
life which was part of the education of all farmers' sons in 
those earlier days. Then for thi-ee years the boy, given the 
best that the ambitious father could provide for him, and 
which lie himself could gain, had the good fortune to be 
enrolled as a Student in Martin Luther College, in Buflalo, 
New York. In 1863 young Dreger taught a (Jerman school 
in Walmore, in the county of his birth, aiul some of his 
most interesting reminiscences are of his life as a teacher. 

From the School Jlr. Dreger went into commercial pursuits. 
His first experience was as a salesman in a retail lumlier 
yard in Buffalo, work to which he turned when the school 
year ended. And there he continued in the work of a lumber 
salesman until the late sixties, when, like many another young 
man in tlie East, he began to look toward the West. Finally 
he came to Minnesota and became at once a resident of 
Minneapolis. 

In this city lumber then vied with flour milling as one of 
the chief industries. And Mr. Dreger's experience in the 
lumber business in Buffalo stood him in good stead. For two 



years, 1S6S-9, he was a lumber salesman and surveyor in 
Minneapolis lumber yards. 

F'rom 1S87 to 1902 Mr. Dreger was a member of the iirni 
of E. Eichhorn and Sons. And he was as one of the sons, 
for he married a daughter of Mr. Eichhorn on May 4, 1887. 

All this time Mr. Dreger was taking part, as a citizen, in 
the civic and political allairs of the city. He held member- 
ship in many civic organizations, and he took a deep interest 
in the cause of good government. In 1900 and 1901 he served 
as president of the Board of Arbitration and Conciliation and 
made a line record. 

Thus it came about tliat in tlie spring of I'.lOli. wlien a 
sheriff of Hennepin 'county was to be appointed to till a 
vacancy caused by a resignation, and when the affairs of 
the office were in critical condition, the people of Minneapolis 
who were taking the most interest in the matter of good 
government selected Mr. Dreger as the man who in their 
opinion was best fitted, by reason of his integrity and honesty 
of purpose, to carry on that important ollicc. And so he was 
appointed on March 10, 1902. So when the election came that 
fall and people had come to know their trust had been justified, 
Mr. Dreger was nominated and elected sheriff of the county. 
He was re-elected in 1904 and again in 1906, and there is 
little doubt that he might have continued in the office had 
he so desired. 

An important change in the conduct of the office was made 
in 1902 when Mr. Dreger was appointed to the office. The old ' 
and iniquitous fee system was abolished and the office was 
placed firmly on a salary basis. This fixed salary system made 
many changes necessary under the law, and upon iSIr. Dreger 
fell the duty of making the changes. That he carried them 
out satisfactorily is shown in his re-election to the office. 

It was in 1908 that Mr. Dreger began to long for the more 
peaceful ways of private life, undisturbed by any of the stren- 
uous demands of the sheriff's office. And he finally retired 
from office, against the pleadings of a great number of friends 
who had come to value highl.y his services and his unquestioned 
probity. He resumed his interest in the firm of Eichhorn, and 
gave over his whole attention to business matters. He found 
time, shortly, however, to journey to the land of his father's 
birth in 1908 and again in 1912. and to visit many Scenes made 
familiar to him in fancy by the tales of his mother and father 
in his childhood. 

Mr. Dreger is a man of essentially sociable tastes. In 
response to such calls he is a member of a large number of 
organizations which have varied purposes, along with their 
social phases. Among these are the Liedeikrantz Singing 
Society, Apollo Club, the Gymnastic I'ninn, the 'I'eutonia 
Kegel Club, the German Society of Minneapolis and the Ameri- 
can Branch of St. Paul, the (ierman Home School Society and 
other similar organizations. In addition, he is a nuMuher 
of the Masonic order. 

Mr. Dreger's wife, who was Miss Ottilie .1. Eichhorn before 
her marriage, and wlu) was a devoted heljinuite to him in the 
social and civic life in wliicli he participated and was a member 
of the German Deutsch, Damen \'erein Charitable Society and 
other charitable associations, died in .June, 190."). 

Mr. Dregen took a Special interest in the criminal work 
while serving as sheritF of Hennepin county. He was a mem- 
ber of the National Prison Association during tlie incumbency 
of his office six years and was at the head of the State, the 
Interstate and National Sheriffs' Associations, serving as 
fVesident in each of the named associations. 



282 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Since his retirement from office the ex-sheriff lias been 
honored by the appointment to the place of vice president 
for the State of Minnesota each year, and is known among 
the sheriffs in the United States and Canada as the Father 
of the Association, for it was through his consistent and 
energetic work that the formerly Interstate Sheriffs' Associa- 
tion, comprising only twelve of the Xorthwestern States in 
the year 1902 took in each state in the Union and the Domin- 
ion of Canada, and was proclaimed in 1912 as the International 
Sheriffs' Association. Mr. Dreger attends the conventions 
regularly each year and enjoys meeting sheriffs, ex-sheriffs 
and friends. 



OLIVER CROMWELL WYJIAX. 

Oliver C. Wyman, who has been one of the leading business 
men of Minneapolis during all of the last forty years, was 
born at Anderson, Indiana, in January, 1837. His parents 
were Henry and Prudence (Berry) Wyman, the former a native 
of New York state who located at Anderson when Indiana 
was but sparsely settled. The mother also belonged to a 
family of pioneers in that region. She died only a few months 
after her son Oliver was born. 

When the son was but seven years old he was taken by his 
maternal grandmother to what was then the territory of 
Iowa. There he was sent to a country school and from that 
obtained such an education as it could give him. He did not 
seek advanced scholastic training, for he had the mercantile 
Spirit strong within him at an early age, and manifested an 
ardent desire to begin a business career. This he was allowed 
to do at Marion. Iowa, where he remained in business until 
1874. That year he disposed of his interests there and came 
to Minneapolis. 

Immediately after his arrival in this city Mr. Wyman 
formed a partnership with Z. T. Mullin, now a resident of 
Washington, D. C, with whom he had previously been associ- 
ated in business, and under the firm name of Wyman & Mullin 
they founded a wholesale dry goods house with which Mr. Wy- 
man has ever since been connected. Mr. Mullin left the firm in 
1890, and at that time George H. Partridge, who had been in 
charge of the credit department of the establishment, was 
taken in as a member and Samuel D. Coykendall as a special 
partner, the firm name being changed to Wyman, Partridge 
& Company. When the present corporation was formed some 
years afterward Mr. Wyman was made president of the new 
organization and Mr. Partridge at first secretary, and later 
vice president. These offices the gentlemen named are still 
holding. The firm has its principal business location, which it 
owns, at the corner of Fourth street and First avenue north. 
In addition to its commodious and splendidly appointed build- 
ing at that location, which it uses for salesrooms, it occupies 
another for warehouse purposes, and also operates a large 
manufacturing plant. The business is very active and exten- 
sive, its sales territory reaching from the Great Lakes to the 
Pacific coast. 

In 1880 W. J. Van Dyke was admitted to partnership in the 
first named firm, wliich then became Wyman. Mullin & Van 
Dyke; and when Mr. Coykendall became interested in the 
house the name was changed to Wyman, Mullin & Company, 
Mr. Van Dyke retiring. But through all the changes in its 
name Mr. Wyman has been at the head of the firm, and his 



has been the directing and controlling spirit in it. He is also 
interested in the Minnesota Loan and Trust company, a 
director of the Northwestern National Bank and a trustee and 
the vice president of the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank. 

While deeply interested in the welfare of his home city and 
state, Mr. WVman has never taken an active part in political 
contentions. He gives his allegiance to the Democratic party, 
but has never desired to hold a public office. He has, however, 
been active to some extent in the social life of the city as a 
member of the Athletic, ilinneapolis, Minikahda and 
Lafayette clubs. He also belongs to the Minneapolis Society 
of Fine Arts, and takes an active and helpful interest in it. 

Sir. Wyman's first marriage was with Jliss Charlotte E. 
Mullin and took place at Lowden, Iowa, in 1858. Four chil- 
dren were born of this union, two of whom are living: Sarah 
A., who is the wife of George H. Partridge, and Prudence M., 
who is the wife of C. C. Ladd. Their mother died in 1880, and 
eight years later Mr. Wyman was married at Cedar Rapids, 
Iowa, to Miss Bella M. Ristine. They have one child, their 
daughter, Katherine R. The only son of the household, Henry 
M. Wyman, died in Spokane, Washington, in 1901. He was a 
physician and surgeon, a gi'aduate of the University of Mich- 
igan, Detroit College of Medicine and the University of Ber- 
lin, Germany. For some years he was engaged in hospital 
work in London, England, and held a high rank in his pro- 
fession there, as he did in all other places in which he was 
engaged in- practice. 

The progenitors of the American branch of the Wyman 
family emigrated from England to this country in 1636. Mr. 
Wyman's grandparents on his mother's side were John and 
Sarah Berry. His mother's father. Captain John Berry, served 
under General William Henry Harrison in his brilliant cam- 
paigns in what was then the Northwest Territory of this 
country, taking part in the battle of Tippecanoe and other de- 
cisive engagements won by General Harrison's army. Captain 
Berry made an excellent record in his military service, and 
other members of the Berry and Wyman families have, in 
various parts of the country, dignified and adorned many 
elevated waUcs of life and shown high and serviceable attri- 
butes of patriotic American citizenship of the most admirable 
quality. 



JOHN F. DAHL. 



Was l)orn in Bergen. Nomay, .January 22, 1870, and was 
brought by his parents to Minneapolis when he was a child 
in arms. His father was Andrew Dahl and his mother Wil- 
helmina (Cedergren) Dahl. They are of the intellectual type 
of Norwegians who were dissatisfied with the opportunities 
in their native land, and had the courage and aggressive 
spirit which has brought So many valuable citizens to Minne- 
apolis. The boy caught from the spirit and pi-ogress of the 
fast growing city, the impulse for Self development, and In 
the i)ublic schools his mind received its first impetus to effi- 
cient attainment. The only outside credit which must be 
given for his all-round development is to Gustavus Adolphua 
College at St. Peter, where he took a full fcourse and graduated 
with honors. 

He then entered the University and taking the academic 
and, later, the law course, graduated in 1892. He immediately 
began the practice of his profession and developing a taste 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPI.N COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



283 



for polities his forensic ability became conspicuous. He has 
always been an ardent Republican, local politics first engaging 
his attention and stirring his activities. He was elected to 
the legislature in 1894, and although the youngest member in 
the House, his gift of eloquence soon made him a prominent 
figure. In 1896 he was re-elected, being a colleague of such 
men as Judge Henry G. Hicks, Judge Willard R. Uray and 
Hans Simonson. 

In 1905, when Al J. Smith was first elected County Attorney, 
Mr. Dahl was appointed assistant, being his own successor in 
1907. As assistant attorney he has displayed sterling quali- 
ties and unswerving fidelity to tlie public interest. He has 
conducted many important prosecutions, among them being 
the proceedings against the officers of the Northwestern 
National Life Insurance Company. He has ever been capable, 
efficient and trustworthy and has won for himself an enviable 
reputation. 

Mr. Dahl is of a congenial temperament and those who are 
closest to him are tlie most enthusiastic in attesting to the 
splendid qualities of his personality. He is a member of a 
number of the principal clubs including the Odin and the 
Apollo. His musical talents find outlet in the last named 
club, and besides this he is director of music in St. Anthony 
of Padua Catholic Church. Miss Sophia Skjerdingstad became 
the wife of Mr. Dahl and they have one child, Theodore. 



CHARLES ALBERT DAVIS. 



Mr. Davi.i was bom m the state oi New York on March 
24, 1853. and was rearea ana eaucated in that state. After 
attaining manhood he was employed for a number of years 
by the New York State Forest commission in looking after 
the Adirondack park region. In 1888 he came to Northfield, 
Minnesota, to visit an uncle from Holland Patent, New Y'ork. 
In the fall of the year mentioned he located in Minneapolis 
and here he secured employment as a bookkeeper and col- 
lector for J. W. Day. He remained in the employ of Mr. Day 
until the latter wished to retire from business, and then 
bought the entire outfit, including a plant at 212 Fourth street 
northeast, one at Tenth and Como avenues southeast and a 
third at 25 Jackson street, all of which were operated under 
the name of the East Side Ice company, and were doing a 
large and active business. 

Mr. Davis devoted all his time and attention to this busi- 
ness for five years, then sold it to the Cedar Lake Ice company, 
which now owns it and carries it on. 

After disposing of his ice business Mr. Davis became 
interested in zinc and lead mines at Webb City, Missouri. 
He acquired the ownership of producing mines there, and, while 
returning from thera to Minneapolis on a Rock Island train 
running over the track of the Great Western road, was so 
seriously injured in a railroad accident at Green Mountain, 
near Marshalltown. Iowa, that he died two days later in a 
hospital in Marshalltown, March 23, 1910. 

During his attendance as a student at Whitesboro Academy, 
where he prepared for Hamilton College, he made a high and 
widespread reputation for his oratorical ability. As a zealous 
and energetic working Democrat, however, he did make 
numerous political addresses both in New Y'ork and this 
state, and at one time was the nominee of his party for the 
office of county commissioner of Hennepin county, as he was in 



1908 for that of representative from his district in tlie state 
legislature. The adverse majority was heavy and he was 
defeated in both campaigns, but he made an excellent impres- 
sion by his effective and captivating oratory in each. 

Mr. Davis was reared a I're-sbyterian and remained loyal to 
that chui'ch through life. He belonged to all branches of the 
Masonic fraternity, but was never an active working member 
of any. He took a cordial interest in the welfare of the 
fraternity and did what he could in a quiet way to promote 
its advancement, but he never became an enthusiast in refer- 
ence to it. He was married at Northfield. Minnesota, on 
.January 16. 1891, to Miss Elizabeth Lockerby, a native of that 
city. Two children were born of the union, Gennette C. and 
Charles H. Both are still living with their mother at 410 
Univereity avenue southeast, and both are high school grad- 
uates. The daughter is now a junior at Carleton College and 
the son is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota. 



FREDERICK A. DICKEY. 



Born and reared in Minneapolis, and whose parents were 
pioneers, Frederick A. Dickey, state manager of the Security 
Mutual Life Insurance company of Bingliamton, New Y'ork, 
has an intense interest in the progress, expansion, improve- 
ment and general welfare, and has helped to augment its 
industrial and commercial importance. 

Mr. Dickey was born in iiast Minneapolis October 8, 1872, 
his parents being Benjamin T. and Margaret A. (Creelman) 
Dickey, the former a native of Maine and the latter of Nova 
Scotia. July 4, 1850, the father accompanied by his sister 
Hannah and her husband, Luther Munson, reached St. An- 
thony from Maine, after a varied trip overland and over 
the Great Lakes. One of the incidents of the voyage was 
that their vessel towed to shore near Cleveland, Ohio, the 
burning ship "OriflSth," whose fate was one of the historic 
disasters of the Lakes, and in which some 300 persons lost 
their lives. 

Mrs. Munson is Still living in East Minneapolis, and recalls 
many interesting facts and incidents of the early days, having 
a scrap book which furnished many valuable incidents of 
pioneer history. Benjamin T. Dickey went to work in a saw- 
.mill at St. Anthony in 1857. and in which line of effort he 
engaged, either as employe or operator, for many years. 
He soon formed a partnership with .James McMuUen, which 
lasted until their mill was destroyed by fire in 1878. 

Mr. Dickey then operated a Hour mill at Redwood, which 
was also burned, incurring heavy loss. He was afterwards 
connected with a number of enterprises. He died as the 
result of a fall March 19, 1913. He was early made a Mason 
in Cataract Lodge, and was therefore one of the oldest men 
in the fraternity in this state. A short time after becoming 
established here he returned to the East, was married and 
then brought his young bride, who survives, to his Western 
home. They have two sons living, Frederick A. and Dr. Robert 
Dickey, of South Minneapolis. Minnie, their only daughter, 
married Charles H. Cross, and died in Chicago in 1910, aged 
thirty-six. 

Frederick A. Dickey was educated at Bishop Whipple Col- 
lege in Moorhead, began as a solicitor of life insurance, repre- 
senting the National Life Insurance company at St. Louis, 
Mo. June 1, 1908, he returned to Minneapolis as state man- 



284 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



ager for the Security Mutual Life of Binghamton, New York, 
his success being such that his company now carries risks 
in Minnesota amounting to over three million dollars. He 
has organized an efficient corps of agents, and the business 
done from year to year furnishes an increasing evidence of 
intelligent administration. 

Mr. Dickey became a Mason in Missouri, having now received 
the thirty-second degree, arid is also a Noble of the Mystic 
Shrine. He was married August 15, 1894, to Miss Elizabeth 
Grorham, a daughter of David and Marion Gorham. Her father 
came to St. Anthony in 1847 in company with the venerable 
Caleb D. Dorr, and died in Minneapolis some twenty-two years 
ago. Mr. and Mrs. Dickey have one child, Margaret A., a 
student at St. Margaret's convent. 



HENRY HILL. 



Henry Hill was born in Devonshire, England, on May 19, 
1828, and when he was but four years old was brought to the 
United States by his father, Jolm Hill, who was an architect 
and master mechanic. On his arrival in this country the 
father first located at Philadelphia; from there he went to 
St. Louis and later to a farm near Warsaw, 111. 

The elder Mr. Hill took up his residence on a farm near 
Warsaw, Illinois, and later built a large saw mill there. 
His son, Henry, managed the farm work, and the father 
operated the mill. When he was fifteen Henry also took part 
in running the mill, and the next year he was placed in 
charge of the machinery in the flour mill, the saw mill 
having been converted into a flour mill. In 1846 he started 
to learn the blacksmith trade under the direction of J. H. 
Wood, a mechanic of extensive local renown, but soon after- 
ward joined two of his brothers on the "Prairie Bird," a pas- 
senger steamboat built on the Illinois river. 

About this time Henry Hill was united in marriage with 
Miss Ann Eliza Smith, a daughter of Dr. William Smith 
of Laharpe. 111. He continued to operate saw and flour mills 
from 1850 to 1856 in Illinois, but in 1862 visited St. Anthony's 
Falls in company with Judge Orendorf of Baltimore, Mary- 
land, and in 1854 united with his brothers and some other 
persons in organizing the Northern Line Packet company and 
putting on the Mississippi a number of boats to ply between 
St. Louis and St. Paul. One of his brothers was a captain 
on one of the boats. 

In 1855 or 1856 Mr. Hill, as a member of the firm of Hill, 
Knox & Company, started a distillery at Warsaw. 111. This 
met with disaster in the financial panic of 1857, but through 
his personal efforts and well known probity, the company 
secured indulgences, and in the end was able to meet all its 
financial obligations in full. It continued in operation steadily 
and built up a very large and profitable business, its internal 
revenue tax paid to the government during the Civil war 
amounting to an average of some $96,000 a month. Many 
of its employes, however, enlisted in the service of the 
Union, thereby crippling its force, and in 1864 the plant was 
destroyed and a large woolen mill was erected in its place. 

In 1866 Mr. Hill turned his attention to railroad building 
as president, of the construction company for the Toledo, 
Peoria & Western road, and after the line was completed he 
was made president of the railroad company. Afterward he 
was superintendent of construction on a railroad from the 



Mississippi to the Missouri across Northern Missouri and 
Southern Iowa, and still later vice president of that road. 
About this time, or a little later, he was also the prin- 
cipal factor in building the Midland Pacific Railroad in Ne- 
braska and other parts of its route. 

By 1878 the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad required 
a readjustment of its affairs, and that year Mr. Hill was 
one of a committee of three selected by the bondlioldcrs to 
sell and reorganize it. While the transactions were in prog- 
ress he became intimately acquainted with Colonel Robert 
G. IngersoU. attorney for the bondholders, then at the height 
af his fame, and a very cordial and mutually appreciative 
friendship grew up between them. 

Mr. Hill was associated in building railroads with General 
Drake of Centerville, Iowa, and other enterprising men, and 
he continued his operations in this line, principally in Iowa, 
until 1881, when the Wabash system secured the properties 
in which he was interested. He then transferred his activities 
to Minneapolis and gave his attention to other business. For 
thirty years he was a partner in the banking firm of Hill, 
Dodge & Company at Warsaw, Illinois, and for some years was 
one of the directors of the Flour City Bank of Minneapolis. 
In 1891 he and his sons, with Wallace Campbell, founded the 
bank of Hill Sons &, Company in this city, and of this insti- 
tution he was president until liis death, on April 2, 1902. His 
widow survived him eleven years, passing away on February 
5, 1913. 

Through life Mr. Hill was a man of very unusual business 
capacity and enterprise. He had great breadth of view, a 
strong will, decisive promptness in action and remarkable 
executive ability. He was also a very 'genial, obliging and 
courtly gentleman, who always looked for the best traits of 
the men he had dealings with and treated them on that basis, 
while he undoubtedly possessed the noblest attributes of 
manhood himself. His wife was a companion meet for him 
and of a spirit and demeanor kindred with his own. 



HON. FORTIUS C. DEMING. 

Fortius Calvin Deming was born in Milton. Chittenden 
county. Vermont, on December 12, 1854, and in 1S82 became 
a resident of Jlinneapolis. wliere he has since been busily 
and successfully engaged in the real estate, loan and insurance 
business. He began his education in the country schools, and 
entered Essex Classical Institute, a college in his native 
state. But his father died while the son was yet in his 
boyhood. He started learning the printing trade, but his 
health was delicate and he found the work and Surroundings 
at the trade hurtful to him. He was also employed in Ver- 
mont as a bookkeeper and salesman after leaving school by 
one of the large printing companies of that state until his 
removal to Minneapolis. Since his location in this city he has 
been almo.st continuously connected with his present business, 
his dealings in real estate being the largest part of his work, 
and the most important branch of it. He has been a poten- 
tial factor in the development and improvement of Northeast 
Minneapolis, but has also borne ft heavy hand in the advance- 
ment of other parts of the city, having served as a member 
of the city park board for many years and been very diligent 
in his work as such. 

In 1899, 1901 and 1903 Mr. Deming represented tin- Tliirty- 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



285 



ninth legislative district in the state house of representatives. 
In his iirst session he was a member of the committee on 
appropriations and served on some of its most important 
subcommittees. In that session also he began to take a very 
deep and practical interest in Itasca State Park. At that 
time eighteen years had passed since the government had 
given the state one-half of the land in the park, and no appro- 
priation had been made for the purchase of the private lands 
within its limits. Mr. Deraing secured an appropriation for 
the purchase of some of these lands on which a valuation had 
been placed, and he has continued to work for a permanent 
arrangement with a large Standing appropriation, by which 
all the land desired in the park could be bought. By his 
personal efforts on the floor of the house he secured an appro- 
priation of $20,000 in 1899, and in 1901 there was a standing 
appropriation of .$5,000 annually created for purchase of 
timber land, which remained in force tintil 1913, when all were 
abolished. In 1903 he was chairman of the Hennepin county 
delegation in the house and of the committee on public lands. 
In that session he secured, as a member of the subcommittee 
on finance, an appropriation of $20,000 in the omnibus bill 
for the Same purpose. 

Returning to his work in the matter with renewed 
energy in 1911, but not as a member^ Mr. Deming 
had a bill proposed appropriating $20,000 a year until 
all the pine land in the park should be bought and 
paid for. While this failed of passage it resulted in the 
legislature adding $1,000 to the regular allowance of $5,000 
a year, making it $6,000. Early in the session of 1913 he 
asked the state forester to back up, with his influence and 
aid, a similar bill for $25,000 a year. He urged the passage 
of his bill before the house committee on public lands, which 
favored it. But a successful movement to abolish all stand- 
ing appropriations limited the provision made to two years, 
but it resulted in the passage of the bill which provided for 
a tax levy and issuance of certificates of indebtedness to the 
amount of $250,000, which is ample for all its needs. 

Mr. Deming succeeded in interesting the leading papers of 
Minneapolis and St. Paul in a campaign of education which 
resulted in making each member and the people in general 
familiar with the great results to be obtained by the passage 
of the bill. 

In the great work which he has undertaken and pushed 
with such relentless industry, Mr. Deming has been assisted 
by many public men of great weight and influence. Among 
the number was Hon. J. V. Brower and Senator Knute Nelson, 
who wrote on one occasion : "Itacka Park and its preservation 
are sacred and dear to every American heart. The lake and 
its beautiful environment should, as far as possible, be kept 
intact in their primitive and normal condition." The efforts 
made for such preservation are well placed, although there 
has been some dispute as to the real source of the Mississippi. 
In 1889 J. V. Brower, also deeply interested in this subject 
and well posted on it, claimed that Glazier lake was the 
source. But his claim has been disproved. At his instance 
the State Historical Society made a careful survey, which 
established Lake Itacka as the real source of the renowned 
river. Mr. Brower was the father of the park movement and 
a tireless worker for its success until his death in 1905. 

Mr. Deming was a member of the Minneapolis park board 
from 1894 until he resigned in 1899. when he was elected 
to the legislature. In 1909 he was again elected a member 
of tlie board to fill a vacancy. The term expired January 1, 



1913, but at the election in November, 1912, he was chosen 
for another full term of six years. He is a member of the 
committee on improvements and chairman of the committee 
on forestry. 

In the last four years a great deal has been done in the 
extension of boulevards, the establishment of small play- 
grounds and parks in various neighborhoods and the connec- 
tion of the lakes near the city by canals. In 1909, 1911 and 
1913 he assisted in securing allowances of nearly two millions 
of dollars for park improvements by his efforts before the 
legislature and elsewhere. 

Mr. Deming also takes an interest and an active part in 
the business life of his community as a member of the St. 
Anthony and New Boston Commercial clubs, also the Com- 
mercial club of Minneapolis. He is also a member of the 
State Historical Society and the Minneapolis Real Estate 
Board. His interest in Northeast Minneapolis began in 1888, 
when he arrived in the city and opened a real estate office. 
He handled much of the property in that part of the city that 
was platted that year, and several additions Since made have 
borne his name. 

In fraternal relations Mr. Deming is connected with the 
Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the 
Royal Arcanum. He was first married early in life to Miss 
Mary Crown of Milton, Vermont, who died in Minneapolis, 
leaving four children: Helen Venorma, who is a teather in 
the Minneapolis schools; Harriet Mary, the wife of Mr, A. 
Schermerhorn, of Seattle, Washington; Portia D., the wife of 
Dr. Dunbar F. Lippitt, of Duluth, and Calvin, who is a Student 
at St. Thomas College, Midway. On August 8, 1911, Mr. 
Deming was married a second time, uniting himself with Miss 
Jeanette Geiser, of Monticello, Minnesota. They have one 
child, their daughter, Dorothy .Jeanette. 



JOHN WESLEY DAY. 



The oldest son of Leonard Day, a leading business man and 
citizen in the early history of Minneapolis, and himself the 
head of large business enterprises, the late John Wesley Day, 
was a man of importance in the progress and development of 
the city during a continuous period of fifty-six years. 

He was born in Wesley, Washington county, Maine, October 
23, 1831, and died at Riverside, California, .July 26, 1910. He 
came to the northwest on a prospecting tour for his father 
in 1854, and his report of the resources, possibilities and 
prospects was so favorable that it induced his father to make 
it the future home. The family were four sons and two 
daughters, John W., Lorenzo Dow, William Henry Harrison 
and Augustin A., and Emeline and Lois. Emeline married 
Baldwin Brown and died in Minneapolis a number of years 
ago. Lois married Caleb Philbrick, and survives him. 

The father began flour milling and operating in lumber, 
soon afterward organizing the lumber manufacturing firm of 
Leonard Day & Sons, which lasted until his death in 1886. 
The business was thus reorganized as J. W. Day & Company. 
The first firm included the father and all the sons except 
Augustin. The second was composed of John W., Lorenzo and 
William Henry Day, Leonard D. Day, a son of Lorenzo, and 
David Willard, a son-in-law of John W. 

John W. Day early became noted in driving logs on the 
river, being yet spoken of as a superior river man and is said 



286 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



to have received the highest wages paid for that class of 
work. The latter firm conducted a large mill at Twenty-fourth 
avenue north and the river until 1897, cutting regularly 35 to 
50 million feet of lumber a year from its own lands, employing 
300 to 400 men in the logging operations and as many more 
in the yards and other departments of the business. John 
W. personally located and purchased these lands and conducted 
the logging activities. 

In 1897 the mill was destroyed by fire, when the lumber 
on hand was sold to the Nelson-Tenney company and the 
timber lands to a Dubuque concern. Toward the end of 
life John W. removed to Riverside. California, but retained 
large interests in this city where his influence continued to 
be felt. 

Mr. Day was married in Minneapolis November 3, 1854, to 
Miss Lavinia Gray, who was born in Wesley, Maine, May 22, 
1831, and came to Minneapolis with the Leonard Day family, 
her sister being the wife of Lorenzo Day. Her parents, Ben- 
jamin and Mary (Lovejoy) Gray, came to this state one year 
later and located on a farm near Otsego, Wright county, 
where they lived several years dying in St. Cloud, each having 
attained the age of seventy-seven years. 

John W. and Lorenzo took up a pre-emption on Diamond 
Lake operating it for six years, until they joined their father 
as indicated. The farm still belongs to the widows, and lies 
on Portland avenue fronting on Diamond lake. During the 
last fourteen years Mrs. Day has passed her winters at 
Riverside, California. She is a prominent member of the 
Minneapolis Library club, is an advocate of woman suffrage 
and warmly interested in all local activities. She is an 
energetic, working member of the Methodist E|)iscopal church. 
Lorenzo Dow Day died in California while on a visit to 
that state. His son, Leonard A. Day, is a resident of Boston, 
Massachusetts. William H. H. Day married a Miss Hanscon 
and died in Minneapolis. The other brother, Augustin A. Day, 
located on a farm at Rosemont. He also went to California 
and died in that state. 

Mr. and Mrs. John W. Day became the parents of three 
children. Cora married David Willard, and resides in Duluth. 
Florence married Frank J. Mackey and died in May, 1912. 
Kugene H. Day was born May 2fi. 1867, in the old family 
home at Eleventh avenue and Third street south. He has 
lived in Minneapolis all his life. 

Until very recently he was engaged in the retail lumber 
business. He took over the retail lumber yards of the J. W. 
Day company wlien it was dissolved, and afterward organized 
the E. H. Day Lumber company, which owned three yards 
until all were sold in 1913. Mr. Day is now handling city 
real estate and farm lands in Northern Minnesota. He also 
builds apartment houses for rental purposes. He is a member 
of the Commercial club and the Civic and Commerce asso- 
ciation. 

Mr. Day was united in marriage with Miss Mabel Conkey. 
a daughter of the late De Witt Clinton Conkey, a sketch 
of whom appears in this volume. He died in 1907 after many 
years of valuable service as salesman for the North Star 
W'oolen Mills. Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Day have three children, 
Eugenia, Kingsley and .John C. The father owns a large orange 
grove in California. The family residence is at 2729 Portland 
avenue, and is a center of refined and gracious hospitality and 
a popular resort for the hosts of admiring friends. 



GODFREY DEZIEL, M. D. 

Godfrey Deziel, M. D., a well known practitioner of Minne- 
apolis, was born at Ontonagon, Michigan, the son of Godfrey 
and Anastasia (Lalonde) Deziel, who were natives of Canada, 
the former having been bom near Quebec and his wife at 
Montreal. They came to Minnesota in 1865, and settled on a 
farm near Hamel in Hennepin county, where Godfrey Deziel 
died in 1874. His wife survived him a number of years, making 
her home with Dr. Deziel in Minneapolis until her death in 
1908 at the age of ninety-three years. Godfrey Deziel remained 
on his father's farm until 1876 when he became a student in 
a commercial school in Minneapolis, having previously 
attended the high school. He spent one year at this time as 
clerk in the postottice, which was then located in the old city 
hall. In preparation for his chosen profession he began his 
studies in the St. Paul Medical College, which later was incor- 
porated in the State University, and supplemented his college 
course with further medical research under the direction of 
Dr. Lamb and Dr. Edward H. Stockton, with whom he later 
formed a partnership. He graduated in 1886 and began the 
practice of medicine in Minneapolis, where his ability and 
success have won him the confidence and esteem of his fellow 
citizens. His partnership with Dr. Stockton continued until 
the death of the latter. Dr. Deziel is a thorough student in 
his profession and an active member of various medical 
societies of the county, state and nation. His ability had 
been recognized by a number of appointments to public 
service. He served for four years as medical inspector under 
Dr. Hall, as health officer, also as deputy coroner, and is the 
medical agent for the St. Anthony Aerie Order of Eagles. Dr. 
Deziel is a member of Minneapolis Athletic Club, a director of 
the St. Anthony Commercial Club and his political affiliations 
are with the Republican party. In fraternal associations 
he is a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Elks 
Lodge. He was married in 1892 to Miss Charlotte Louise 
Lalonde of Michigan, and they have one daughter, Delphine. 
Dr. Deziel is a member of the Notre Dame Catholic church. 



ORIC O. WHITED. 



Oric O. Whited, teacher, lawyer, banker and land dealer, 
and in all respects a most estimable citizen, was a resident 
of Minneapolis for twenty-two years, and they were the last 
and most useful years of his life. He tried his hand in sev- 
eral different lines of business in turn, and won a gratifying 
success in each. But he was neither imsteady nor an experi- 
menter. He was a man of quick and keen vision and prompt 
to act when an opportunity presented itself. He also had 
the ability to make the most of each chance as it came, and 
use it as a stepping stone to something better. His life was 
productive for himself, and at the same time very useful 
to the community, and the tragical nature of his deatli. at 
the early age of fifty-eight, gave the people of the whole 
city a great shock and was universally lamented. 

Mr. Whited was born in Kitchville, Huron county. Ohio, 
on January 20, 1854, a son of John and Clarissa (Crane) 
Whited. They were early pioneers of Minnesota, and on 
tlu'ir arrival in this state from their old home in Ohio, 
via Prairie Schooner and yoke of o.ven, located in Olmstead 
county, where the father was a prosperous farmer, as he had 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



287 



been at his former residence. The son's assistance was 
needed in working the farm, and he therefore had but little 
opportunity to go to scliool in early life. But his educa- 
tion was not neglected. The elementary part of it was ac- 
quired at home through his own efforts, and he afterward 
learned German while working in the fields behind a yoke 
of oxen. 

When he reached manhood he put himself through the 
Speneerian Business College in Milwaukee, from which he 
received the usual certificate of graduation at the completion 
of his course. He then attended the Minnesota State Nor- 
mal School at Winona, and from that institution he was 
graduated in 1872. His purpose in going to the Normal 
School was to prepare himself for teaching, and for some 
years after his graduation he engaged in that occupation 
in Olmstead county, and with such success and credit that 
he was chosen county superintendent of the public schools 
in Olmstead County, Minnesota. 

When Mr. Whited finished teaching school he became con- 
nected with a bank at Fisher's Landing in this state, and for 
some years he also ran a bank of his own in Cando, North 
Dakota. He owned and operated this bank until 1890, when he 
sold it and moved to Minneapolis. In the meantime he had 
studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1884. He did 
not become a regular practitioner of his profession, however, 
but only took cases which especially interested him. In 
these he was so successful that the late F. H. Peavey re- 
tained him as his confidential counsel and adviser, and for 
six years he occupied a controlling position in connection 
with the extensive operations of that eminent business 
man of large afTairs. 

On coming to Minneapolis Mr. Whited turned his atten- 
tion mainly to dealing in land in Minnesota and Wisconsin, 
and this was the principal business which occupied him from 
then to the end of his life. But he did not wholly abandon 
the law, even after he ceased acting as Mr. Peavey's 'counsel. 
In 1898 he pursued a course of instruction at the Kent 
Law College in Chicago, and there received the degree of 
Bachelor of Laws. This he followed with a post graduate 
course at the University of Chicago, from which he obtained 
the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. But the practice of 
law was always secondary to his operations in land after 
he began them, and in these he was very successful, building 
up an extensive business in that line of trade; and he also 
won universal commendation by his public spirit and deep 
and abiding interest in the welfare and progress of his home 
community, and widespread popularity by his genial nature, 
kindness of heart and genuine manhood. 

On September 4, 1875, Mr. Whited was united in marriage 
with Miss Clara A. Stevens, who was also a native of Ohio, 
and who died on July 25, 1904. The marriage took place 
at Pleasant Grove, Minnesota, and three sons were born 
of the union. Bernard B., the first born, died at the age 
of fourteen. Oric O., Jr., is now (1914) thirty years of age, 
and Giro N., the other living son, is now twenty-one. The 
father was an enthusiastic Freemason and had ascended the 
mystic ladder of the fraternity to the very top. the thirty- 
third degree in the Scottish rite and that of Knight Tem- 
plar in the York rite. He was also a Noble of the Mystic 
Shrine, holding his membership in Zurah Temple, Minne- 
apolis. 

Mr. Whited's death was one of the saddest and most tragic 
that has ever occurred in this city. It was due to hydro- 



phobia and came after a heroic fight for life lasting forty- 
eight hours. On Tuesday, July 6, 1912, while at his summei; 
home on Eagle Island, Lake Minnetonka, he was bitten in 
the face by a pet coach dog, which a few days later devel- 
oped rabies. Mr. Whited, however, showed no fear, but 
began treatment at the Pasteur Institute, using the short 
course of three weeks. But the disease develop in him so 
rapidly that the serum did not have time to work out its 
full effect and develop the immunity it usually confers. 
The patient was given the best attention known to science, 
but nothing could arrest the progress of his malady, which 
led to delirium, semi -consciousness and finally to a much 
lamented death. 

Mr. Whited's life can be summed up by the words "High 
Ambitions" — and "Time is precious." 

He was sincerely sorry when his time was not occupied 
as it should have been. 

Teacher. Lawyer, Banker, Land dealer and student will best 
express his occupations with a heavy inclination toward the 
student end. 

He used to repeat the verse "Lost somewhere between day- 
light and dark — 2 golden hours — each set with 60 diamond 
minutes. No reward is offered for they are lost and gone 
forever," when his day was not long enough. 

He was a real man, the best of husbands, a better father 
could not be found — and his ambition was to so live and act 
that his sons would have a bright and Shining example for 
them to follow. 



WM. de la BARRE. 



William de la Barre, engineer agent and treasurer of the 
St. Anthony Falls Water Power company and the Minneapolis 
Mill company, is known as an eminent engineer, both in this 
country and abroad. He has been prominently associated 
with important engineering projects of the milling interests 
of Minneapolis during the greater part of his career. He was 
born in Vienna, Austria. April 15, 1849, and received the 
excellent educational advantages of his native city. In 1865 
accompanied his parents to the United States. Thej- returned 
to Austria in a .short time leaving their son in Philadelphia, 
a student at the Polytechnic Institute of that city. He com- 
pleted his course at the age of twenty-three and secured a 
position as engineer and draughtsman with the Pascal Iron 
Works, of Philadelphia. 

In 1878, after the well remembered mill explosion in Minne- 
apolis, caused by sparks from the millstones igniting the 
dust, Governor C. C. Washburn sent for Mr. de la Barre to 
come to Minneapolis as the representative of a German inven- 
tion for the prevention of similar disasters. He spent the 
following year installing the appliance in the Washburn plants 
and other large mills in the city and then became superin- 
tendent and engineer in the Washburn mills. He served in 
this capacity for eleven years, remodeling during this period 
a number of the mills and erected in 1880 the first mill to 
contain the new roller process, the Washburn "A" mill. 

When the Minneapolis Mill company and the St. Anthony 
Falls company, whose charters as water power companies were 
granted in 1856, were consolidated and became the property 
of the Pillsbury-Washburn Floiir company, Mr. de la Barre 
was made engineer, agent and treasurer of the organization. 



288 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



During thirty-one years he has bad full charge o£ the recon- 
struction work and the developing of the water power, erecting 
'in 1896 the lower dam and in 1908 the 12,000-hoi^e-power 
electric power station on Hennepin Island. He has been super- 
vising architect for several grain elevators and he is regarded 
as an authority in all matters relating to steam or water- 
power equipment for mills. In 1888 he prepared the plans for 
the Sioux City Street Railway. 

Mr. de la Bane holds membership in several foreign engineer- 
ing societies and is well known throughout the engineering 
world. He was married in Philadelphia to Miss Louise Merian 
and they have two children, William, who is a practicing 
physician in Minneapolis, and Louise, who is a graduate of the 
University of Minnesota. Mr. de la Barre is a member of 
the Athletic Club. 



KARL DE LAITTRE. 



Karl De Laittre was born in Minneapolis on Jime 23, 1874, 
and is a son of .John and Clara T. (Eastman) De Laittre, an 
account of whose useful lives will be found in this work. 
The son began his education in the public schools of his 
native city, passing through both the lower grades and the 
high school course, and completed it at Harvard University, 
from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts in 1897. Immediately after leaving the University he 
began his business career, and this he has been extending and 
making broader and more commendable ever since. Both 
the lumber trade and the grocery business have engaged his 
attention, and he has risen to prominence in each, being now 
vice president of the Bovey De Laittre Lumber company and 
secretary of the Green & De Laittre company, wholesale 
importers and grocers, each of which has an extensive and 
expanding trade. 

In his politic.Tl faith and affiliation Mr. De Laittre is a 
pronounced Republican, and as such he has taken a very 
active and serviceable part in the public affairs of his home 
city and state. In the general election held on November 8, 
1904, he was chosen to represent the Thirty-eighth legislative 
district in the State House of Representatives. The district 
then embraced the First and part of the Third and Tenth 
wards of the city, and Mr. De Laittre led his portion of 
the ticket. In 1908 his energetic and effective interest in the 
progress, improvement and general welfare of the city led to 
his election as alderman from the 4th ward to fill an unexpired 
term, and in 1909 he was re-elected without opposition. His 
services during his first term were so satisfactory and his 
ability was so manifest tliat during his second term he was 
chosen president of the council, a position he is still filling 
with great credit to himself and satisfaction to the people 
of his ward and the whole city. He is alert in looking after 
every public interest and diligent in promoting all, having at 
all times the good of the whole community in sight as his 
incentive and impelling force, and allowing no other considera- 
tion, political or personal, to influence him. 

Mr. De Laittre has also taken a warm interest and a 
helpful part in the organized social life of the city as an 
active and zealous member of the Commercial, Minneapolis 
and Roosevelt clubs, and his public spirit and progressiveness 
have made him a cordial and intelligent supporter of every 
commendable undertaking designed to promote its advance- 



ment. In fact, every duty of citizenship has been faithfully 
performed by him from the dawn of his manhood, and his 
attention to each has not been forced or merely perfunctory, 
but earnest, warm-hearted and productive. He is universally 
esteemed throughout the city as one of its capable, far-seeing 
and successful merchants and one of its creditable and repre- 
sentative citizens, a man ready and fruitful in service at 
present and full of promise for the future, with many avenues 
of advancement open to him, if he will consent to let the 
people around him have their way. 



WILLIAM H. DA VIES. 



For thirty-two years William H. Davies has been an 
esteemed resident of Minneapolis, and is recognized as a 
funeral director of superior capacity and skill. 

Mr. Davies was born July 3, 1857, in Castine, Maine, on the 
banks of the Penobscot, where it widens into the great bay 
of the same name. He is a son of Edward F. and Caroline 
W. (Eaton) Davies, both families having been in New England 
for several generations. The father, a furniture dealer and 
undertaker, was a captain during the Civil war and took part 
in a number of historic battles. 

William H. graduated from the high school. Learning the 
business which he has followed since in his father's estab- 
lishment. In 1881 came to Minneapolis, and the next year 
established the present business now located at No. 19 South 
Eighth street. 

His thorough knowledge of the business and close and care- 
ful attention made him successful and won for him a high 
reputation. He has also universal admiration and regard for 
dignified bearing and decorum, possessing in a high degree 
those necessary qualifications for a successful conduct of 
obsequies. 

He is a member of the Masonic order in both the York 
Rite and Scottish Rite, as well as being a Noble of the 
Mystic Shrine, and is a member of Minneapolis Lodge of Elks 
No. 44. In honor of his father's services he is actively 
enrolled in the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. 

He is no politician and has taken part in public affairs only 
as a good teitizen. On September 20, 1886, he was united in 
marriage with Miss Mary E. Ransier. Their two children are 
Edward Charles and Florence E. Members of the family 
attend the Baptist church. 



HON. FRANCIS BROWN BAILEY. 

One of the valued contributions of New England, and one 
of the moat valued from any section or source, was the late 
Francis B. Bailey, for more than ten years a judge of the 
municipal court of Minneapolis, and before and after hia 
service in that position one of the leading and most suc- 
cessful lawyers in the city. On the bench his administration 
was dignified, firm, discriminating, and in proper cases 
merciful. At the bar he was able, tactful, forcible and learned, 
but always square and straightforward. His professional 
brothers regarded him highly as a lawyer and as a man, and 
the people of Minneapolis generally esteemed him warmly in 
all relations. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



289 



Judge Bailey was born in the city of Portland. Maine, on 
June 22, 1839, and was a son of Libbias and Marietta Monroe 
(Clapp) Bailey, both of Puritan ancestry and connected by 
close kinship with some of the most highly respected and dis- 
tinguished families of New England. Tlie judge was but six 
years old when his father died, leaving the mother with 
eleven children to rear and very slender means for their 
support. Necessity, therefore, united with the boy's high 
sense of duty in leading him to rely on himself at a very 
early age, and to contribute from the earnings of his labor 
to the support of the otlier members of the family. 

The burden laid on this aspiring youth by the necessities of 
his condition was a heavy one, but he did not chafe under it. 
On the contrary, it acted as a stimulus to him and sharpened 
his intensity in the pursuit of knowledge through every chan- 
nel open to him. So thorough and comprehensive was he in his 
studies that at the age of seventeen he was graduated from 
a high school in his native city of Portland. Standing then 
on the threshold of a wide and open world, he found no way 
of advancement without continued struggle and arduous 
effort in its requirements, and no matter to what direction 
he turned serious obstacles to his progress confronted him. 
His ambition was to become a lawyer, but the study of the 
profession could be followed by him only with frequent in- 
terruptions. But he held to his purpose and in seeking to 
accomplish it he accepted every aid that came his way, 
declining no honest labor of any kind. 

But the young man was not left wholly to his own re- 
sources. Friends were at hand to help him, won to his aid 
by his sterling wortli. They backed him for appointment to 
several offices of trust in succession, among tliem that of 
deputy collector of customs at the port of Passamaquoddy on 
the bay of the same name. His right to begin the practice 
of law came at length after weary waiting. In 1870 he was 
admitted to the bar in Washington county, Maine, and at 
once formed a law partnership with Charles R. Whidden of 
Calais in that county, an old lawyer of distinction in the 
state. 

This partnership lasted until Mr. Whidden's death in 1876, 
and in the meantime Mr. Bailey formed another of a different 
kind, a partnership for life, by his marriage with Miss Anna 
H. Moor, a daughter of Wyman B. S. Moor of Waterville, 
a versatile and gifted lawyer, who had been United States 
Senator from Maine and one of the promotors and builders 
of the first railroad in central Maine. Miss Moor was edu- 
cated at the Academy of Notre Dame in Montreal, Canada. 
Her marriage to Mr. Bailey was solemnized at Gloucester, 
Maine. 

After the death of his partner in Calais Mr. Bailey deter- 
mined to seek a new and more -open field of endeavor in the 
West, and in 1877 became a resident of Minneapolis. On his 
arrival in this city he entered the office and employ of the 
law firm of Lochren. McNair cSc'Oilfillan, and four years later, 
when Mr. Lochren was appointed judge of the district court, 
he became a member of the firm, which was reorganized imder 
the name of McNair, Gilfillan & Bailey. He continued his 
membership in this firm and shared in its labors, its triumphs 
and its very infrequent defeats until he was appointed asso- 
ciate judge of the Minneapolis Municipal Court, of which 
Hon. G. B. Coolcy was then the presiding judge. At the next 
election after his appointment Judge Bailey was elected to 
the Municipal Bench for a full term, and when Judge Cooley 
retired in 1883 he was elected to succeed that eminent jurist 



as presiding judge of the court, a position whicli he dignified 
and adorned for six years. 

In 1890 Hon. F. Von Schlegel, Judge of the Probate Court 
for Hennepin county, died and Governor Merriam appointed 
Judge Bailey to fill out the unexpired term, which he did to 
the entire satisfaction of the bar and the general public. 
After his retirement from the Probate Court he resumed the 
practice of law and continued in it as the senior member of 
the firm of Bailey & Knowlton until his death, which occurred 
on September 29, 1896. Mrs. Bailey is still living and has 
her home at No. 84 Willow street. Two of the five children 
born of her marriage to the judge are also living. They are 
Seavey Moor and Paul Thorndyke, both now grown to ma- 
turity. .Judge Bailey was a member of Masonic fraternity, 
being a member of Zion Commandery of Minneapolis. He 
was a member of Minneapolis and other clubs of the city and 
an attendant of the Plymouth Congregational church. 



JOHN DUN WOODY. 



A life of utmost rectitude and of inflexible fidelity to duty 
was tliat of the honored citizen to whom this brief memoir 
is dedicated. He was long in service of the St. Anthony 
Dakota Elevator Company, of Minneapolis, as one of its most 
valued executive officers, and of this important corporation 
he was treasurer and a director at the time of his death, 
which occurred on the 14th of April, 1909. Shortly after his 
demise, the official record of a meeting of the board of 
directors of the company with which he was long and prom- 
inently identified embraced the following account of his life 
in its record: 

"John Dunwoody began with this company, as cashier and 
bookkeeper, September 1, 1888. After about three months' 
service in this capacity he was obliged to relinquish his posi- 
tion temporarily, in order to look after the estate of a 
deceased brother, in Pennsylvania. Returning August 16, 
1889, he remained continuously in a responsible position till 
the day of his death. He was elected treasurer August 31, 
1891, and for nearly eighteen years was responsible for the 
proper handling of the funds and securities of the company. 
He was elected a director, to succeed Peter B. Smith. Sep- 
tember 14, 1907. He died almost literally with the harness 
on, April 14, 1909, having remained at his desk in the dis- 
charge of his usual duties until one short week before his 
death, though we know now that the last few days of his 
service must have been rendered under a continual burden of 
pain and weakness. Such, in brief outline, was his official 
connection with this company, but such an outline can give no 
adequate idea of the high character of the services here 
rendered. Modest, unassuming, considerate of others, devoid 
of self-assertion, he was, nevertheless, courageous and stead- 
fast in defense of his principles. There was nothing perfunc- 
tory in his service. He had a keen sense of his responsibilities 
and of the high confidence placed in him by the directors of the 
company, which made him extremely conscientious and pains- 
taking in the discharge of his duties. Under his careful 
watchcare and the powerful influence of his example upon 
other employes many millions of dollars were disbursed 
without one transaction ever being called into question. The 
mere making of money was a matter of minor importance 
with Mr. Dunwoody. Faithfulness to duty as he conceived it 



290 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



was the keystone of his character. He accepted prosperity 
and adversity in the same serenity of spirit, assured that the 
highest reward of labor was in a consciousness of duty 
well performed. As the one who lived closest to him has 
testified, he tried to live each day as though he knew it would 
be his last on earth; and all who knew him intimately must 
testify that, measured by this high standard, his life was a 
success." 

.John Dunwoody was born in Westtown, Cliester county, 
Pennsylvania, on the 21st of February. 1846, and thus he 
was but fifty-three years of age at the time of his death. 
On other pages of this work appears a review of the career of 
his brother William, and in that connection are given further 
data concerning the stanch old Pennsylvania family of whicli 
the subject of this memorial was a worthy scion. Mr. Dun- 
woody was reared to adult age in the old Keystone state. 
He was afforded tiie advantages of the common schools of the 
locality and period and during his entire mature life he was a 
student of good literature. As a young man Mr. Dunwoody 
came to Minnesota and established his residence in Minne- 
apolis, where he found employment in a Hour mill with which 
his elder brother, William, was identified as a principal. Later 
he iiad charge of the office of the Minneapolis Millers' Asso- 
ciation, and in 1888, as previously noted in this context, he 
entered the service of the St. Anthony Dakota Elevator 
Company. 

His nature was deeply and significantly spiritual and devout, 
and this was shown through his zealous labors and potent 
influence in connection with the various activities of West- 
minster Presbyterian church, of which he was a zealous 
adherent, as is also his widow, and in which he served as 
elder for virtually a quarter of a century, besides which he 
was specially active in the Sunday school. 

In the year 1876, in the city of Philadelphia, Penn.sylvania, 
was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Dunwoody to Miss Emma 
Bishop, of Media, Delaware county, that state, and of their 
children the finst-born was Preston, who was educated in the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the city of Boston, 
and who died at the age of twenty-six years; Hannah is the 
wife of Fayette Bousfield, of Aberdeen, Washington; Mary, 
now Mrs. Charles E. Cartwright of Detroit, Michigan; Ruth 
H. is the wife of Carl N. Hardee, of Toledo. Ohio. Preston, 
the only son, a young man of distinctive talent and sterling 
character, became associated with the extensive business 
activities of his uncle William, and on the occasion of a 
strike on the part of the workmen in his uncle's mills the 
office employes volunteered to serve in the place of the 
strikers. The enthusiasm and loyalty of young Preston Dun- 
woody were shown by such service, but in the strenuous inci- 
dental labor, to which he was unac'customed. he overtaxed his 
powers of endurance, the weather having been extremely hot 
at the time. He fell exhausted at his work, and this caused 
his death within a short time thereafter. He was loved by 
all who knew him with aught of intimacy and his death was 
a severe blow to his parents and Sisters. 



GEORGE L. DINGMAN. 



After several years of useful industry and successful 
achievemeijt as a newspaper man, a school teacher, a merchant 
and a public official, George L. Dingman entered the employ 



of the Pillsbury Milling company as a salesman eight years 
ago, and since then he has been one of the company's most 
enterprising and successful men on the road. He was born 
in Erie county. New York, at East Aurora, the town to 
whicli Elbert Hubbard and his periodical. The Philistine, have 
given celebrity, on October 10, 1853, and came direct from 
there to Brownsdale, Mower county, Minnesota, in 1876, and 
from Brownsdale to Minneapolis in 1883. He was educated 
at East Aurora Academy and from the age of seventeen to 
that of twenty-three taught in New York schools, and for a 
time was also connected with the East Aurora Advertiser. 
He also taught school at Brownsdale in this state. 

After locating in this city in 1883 Mr. Dingman engaged 
in the grocery trade at the corner of Twenty-fifth avenue 
(now Lowry avenue) and Central avenue, in the part of the 
city then called New Boston. In this store was located the 
first branch postoffice in East Minneapolis, while O. M. Lara- 
way was postmaster. The streets in New Boston were un- 
paved and the only means of public conveyance between it 
and the city proper was the old horse car line. He built his 
store building and continued his grocery business until 1895, 
when he sold it to W. J. King. That same year he was 
elected a member of the State House of Representatives from 
the Twenty-ninth legislative, which was the University dis- 
trict. 

In the session of the legislature which followed he was 
chairman of the committee on university lands, with Repre- 
sentative L. J. Ahlstrom and Senator J. T. Wyman, from 
that district, as his colleagues. He was defeated for re-elec- 
tion by the opposition of the liquor interests, because he had 
favored temperance legislation. He was very active in secur- 
ing the passage of a bill providing that any person could 
make a complaint against a disorderly saloon, which until 
that time only a policeman could do. He was renominated 
by the convention of his party, but was beaten at the election 
by a majority of fourteen votes. 

After his defeat Mr. Dingman wag appointed assistant dairy 
and food commissioner by Governor Van Sant, and held the 
office four years, from 1897 to 1901. This was a time of 
very great activity and marked progress. W. W. P. McCon- 
nell, of Mankato, was commissioner and gave Mr. Dingman 
special charge of the food department, with five deputies 
working under him, and he saw to it that the laws were 
strictly enforced in his department. The Armour and Swift 
packing companies and other big corporations were success- 
fully prosecuted for violations, and every case was won by 
the state. One source of great satisfaction to Mr. Dingman 
in connection with this period of activity is that it brought 
him into contact with many smooth offenders and he brovight 
tliem all to justice, with Go^'ernor Van Sant standing firmly 
behind him and aiding his every effort. 

After his term of office expired Mr. Dingman made a brief 
trip to the Pacific Coast. Since his return to Minnesota he 
has been actively connected with the Pillsbury Jlilling com- 
pany as a salesman. During his last year of service he sold 
6.000 barrels more in the western part of the state than were 
sold in his whole territory eight years ago. His sales have 
been constantly increasing from the start. During his first 
year of service to the company they amounted to 12,000 
barrels, and in 1912 the aggregate was 34.000. 

Mr. Dingman's interest in the improvement of the city has 
always been earnest and active. In 1887 he began an agita- 
tion for converting the Moulton nursery tract in Northeast 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



291 



Minneapolis into a park, and after two years of hard work 
in the matter he was successful. A committee, consisting of 
himself. Jacob Kessler and Aldis A. Sage, held conferences 
with the park board, and as a result Windom park of ten 
acres, which is now one of the most admired beauty spots 
in the city, was secured. 

Fraternally Mr. Dingman is a Freemason, one of the charter 
members and a Past Warden of Arcana Lodge, No. 187, 
Minneapolis, and also a member of St. Anthony Falls Royal 
Arch Chapter. He also belongs to Northern Light Lodge of 
Odd Fellows and the Koyal Arcanum. His religious affiliation 
is with Trinity Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has 
been a trustee for twenty-five years. He was first married in 
1878, in Mower county, to Miss Cena M. Sprague. She died 
in Minneapolis, and in 1887 he was married a second time to 
Miss Minnie S. Banker, a daughter of Silas R. Banker, who 
is still a resident of Minneapolis. One son, George Banker 
Dingman, has been born of the union. The beautiful family 
home is at 2315 Lincoln street northeast. 



SEVER ELLINGSON. 



In a residence in Minnesota of over fifty years, which began 
in 1856 and has continued to the present without a break 
except during the Civil war and about one year before and 
after that conflict. Sever Ellingson, now one of the patriarchs 
of Hennepin county, has rendered his immediate locality and 
his county excellent service as an enterprising and progressive 
farmer, and the state at large the same as a conscientious 
public official. 

Mr. Ellingson, whose home is in Bloomington township, on 
the bank of the Minnesota river, seventeen miles south and 
west of Bridge Square, Minneapolis, was born in Norway 
Dec. 22, 1839, and came to the United States with his parents 
in 1850. The family located at Rock Prairie, Wisconsin, and 
remained tliere until 1854, when the father entered a tract 
of government land in Poweshiek county, Iowa. In 1856 Sever 
came to Minnesota with his uncle, Sever Foss, and resided 
with him on a farm in Nicollet county, near St. Peter. 

In 1860 the preliminary throes of the great sectional con- 
test induced Jlr. Ellingson to return to his Iowa home, and 
the next year he enlisted at Decorah, Iowa, in Company D, 
Third Iowa Infantry, being sworn into the service of the 
United States at Keokuk. His regiment was sent to join the 
command under General Grant operating in the West. It 
took part in the battle of Blue Mills and the battle of 
Hatchie. Soon after the latter battle was begun he was 
detailed to conduct his captain. E. I. Weiser, who was severely 
wounded, to his home, and was absent from the regiment 
about eight months, rejoining it when it was operating be- 
fore Vicksburg, Mississippi. He had participated, however, 
in the battle of Shiloh under General Hurlburt, and there his 
regiment sufTered severely. 

At the end of his first term Mr. Ellingson re-enlisted, and 
after enjoying a veteran's furlough, went back to his regi- 
ment, wliich was then with General Sherman in the siege of 
Atlanta. He remained with Sherman through his famous 
march to the sea, and through all the subsequent operations, 
including the Grand Review at Washington, D. C. He was 
mustered out .July 16, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky, after 
having been in the army over four years. At the battle of 



Jackson, Mississippi, on July 12, 1863, in a furious brigade 
charge his regiment was almost annihilated. July 22, 1864, 
before Atlanta, it was reduced to one company of 27 men 
with no officer and was afterward consolidated with the 
Second Iowa Volunteers. 

Mr. Ellingson then returned to Iowa, and in 1866 he was 
married at Mankato to Mrs. Emily Bunker, a widow, whom 
he took back to Iowa. Two years later tliey located on the 
farm on which he now lives, which was originally taken up 
as a pre-emption claim by .Joseph Dean, who founded the 
Security National Bank in Minneapolis, and had been pur- 
chased of him by Mr. Bunker in 1862 or 1863. The farm at 
first contained 350 acres, but its present owner has reduced 
it to 180 acres, of which 100 acres is under cultivation. The 
first house built on it was of logs and was one of the earliest 
erected in Hennepin county. It is still standing at Bloom- 
ington Ferry, which in the early days was operated by 
Messrs. Dean & Chambers. 

Tlie present improvements on the property consist of a 
frame dwelling house, fine, large barns and other necessary 
structures. They were nearly all put up by Mr. Bunker, but 
some of them were the work of Mr. Ellingson. Mr. Bunker 
died on' the farm, and on it Mrs. Ellingson also passed away, 
her life ending on February 12, 1895. The dwelling house 
stands on a bluff overlooking the river and valley. Mr. 
Ellingson has kept on clearing and cultivating the land, 
raising live stock and grain, and has always been up to date 
in his operations. As long as the demand for roadster horses 
continued he was prominent as an extensive and successful 
breeder of them. 

In the public aflairs of his community this public-spirited 
citizen has always taken an active part. He served as town- 
ship clerk and assessor in the early days, and as postmaster 
from 1868 until after the election of President Cleveland, a 
period of twenty-seven years, during all of which the post- 
oflice was in his residence. In 1887 he was elected to the 
house of representatives from the district embracing the 
Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Twelfth wards of Minneapolis and 
about half of the townships in Hennepin county. In the 
legislature he was a member of the committee on temperance, 
and tlie advanced legislation of this state in behalf of tem- 
perance dates from his activity and intelligence as a member 
of that committee. He championed what are known as the 
"Patrol law," the "Blind Pig law," the "High License law" 
and the act requiring the public schools to teach the effects 
of alcohol and narcotics on the human system. 

In 1889 Mr. Ellingson was re-elected to the legislature, 
and in 1891 he was the Republican nominee for the state 
senate. Because of a division in his party at that time he 
was defeated by Dr. John S. Bell, and nearly all his colleagues 
on the ticket went down to defeat with him. only two 
Republican candidates out of twenty-one being elected, John 
Day Smith being one of the two. This election closed Mr. 
Ellingson's political activity as a candidate for office, although 
he has since been frequently a delegate to county and state 
conventions of his party, as he was before. 

In religious affiliation Mr. Ellingson is a member of Bloom- 
ington Ferry Methodist Episcopal church, whose house of 
worship was erected in 1900. He also belongs to the Grand 
Army of the Republic, holding his membership in Halstead 
Post at Excelsior, as a member of which he attended the 
national encampments of the G. A. R., which were held in 
St. Paul and Minneapolis. He and his wife were the parents 



292 



HiSTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



of two children, their daughter Minnie and their son Edward 
L. Minnie is now the widow of the late Edward Tapping and 
conducts a summer resort called 'Woodside" at the old 
homestead. She has two children, Mendon and Regina. Ed- 
ward L. EUingson owns an adjoining farm and operates the 
homestead, and raises large numbers of cattle and hogs for 
the markets. The latter constitute the main feature of his 
enterprise and he is very successful in raising and feeding 
them, and won three years ago a prize of $300 offered by 
James J. Hill, which was awarded to him for the best man- 
aged farm. He devotes his whole time and energy to his 
farming operations and live stock industrj-, and is one of 
the most progressive men in the state in this connection. 
His wife is Minnie, the only daughter of Col. Frances Peteler. 
They have no children. 



JAMES THOMAS WYMAN. 



Among the enterprising manufacturers, substantial business 
men and public-spirited citizens of Minneapolis, none stands 
higher in public esteem or deserves a higher rank in the re- 
gard of the people than James Thomas Wyman, who has been 
connected with the business life of the city for more than 
forty years, and has been very serviceable to the community 
both in his business operations and in public affairs. 

Mr. Wyman was born at Millbridge, Maine, on October 15, 
1849, and was one of the twelve children of John and Clarinda 
(Tolman) Wyman, both of whom were of New England 
nativity and English ancestry. On the father's side the family 
came from West Mill, Herefordshire, and on the mother's 
from Leeds, Yorkshire. The earliest arrivals of the house 
came to this country in 1640 and settled at Woburn, Massa- 
chusetts. The representatives of both families, the father's 
and the mother's, were devout in their loyalty to the colonies 
from the start, and took part in all the Colonial wars and 
the War of the Revolution. After the successful teimination 
of the struggle for independence, Mr. Wyraan's great-grand- 
father removed to Maine, which was then a part of Massa- 
chusetts. 

John Wyman, the father of James T., was a dealer in 
building materials, but his financial resources were limited, 
and owing to this fact and the size of his family, he was 
able to give his children nothing more in the way of mental 
training than a common school education. He and the mother, 
however, implanted in them correct principles, a strong sense 
of duty and high ideals of usefulness, and these attributes 
have been manifest in the lives of their ofl'spring ever since. 

James remained at home until he reached the age of 
eighteen, working for a living during all his school vacations 
from boyhood. He was of a very industrious turn from early 
life, and was also eager for more information thaii his school 
books furnished. He was a zealous reader, but the bent of 
his mind was for business, and his reading was mainly of 
books devoted to business life and requirements. 

He came to Minnesota in 1868 and located at Nortlifield. 
There he embraced a welcome opportunity for somewhat more 
advanced training than he had before secured, by attending 
Carleton College in 1869 and 1870. But he was not alile to 
complete the college course and graduate. His first adventure 
in business was as one of the jiroprietors of a small sash, 
door and blind factory and a sawmill cutting hard wood lum- 



ber. This venture proved unfortunate. The mill was de- 
stroyed by fire, and there was no insurance on it. He accepted 
his disaster with courage and manfully paid his share of the 
resulting liabilities in full. 

In 1871 the larger and more promising field of Minneapolis 
became attractive to him, and he moved to this city that 
year. Here he secured employment with Messrs. Smith & 
Parker, who operated a small sash, door and blind factory on 
the old sawmill platform at the foot of Cataract street, now 
Sixth avenue south. Before the end of the year he was made 
superintendent of the factory, and in 1874 a member of the 
firm, which became Smith, Parker & Co. In 1881 the name of 
the firm was changed to Smith & Wyman. and he was its 
junior member. 

The new firm bought the interests of the other partners 
and began to make arrangements to enlarge the business. 
Under their vigor and enterprise in managing its allairs the 
business has grown from the humble plant which they first 
operated to one employing three hundred persons. Mr. Wy- 
man became head of the house after the death of Mr. Smith 
on December 24, 1906, and he has still expanded its opera- 
tions into larger volume and value. 

In May, 1889, Mr. Wyman united with other enterprising 
men in founding the Metropolitan Bank of Minneapolis and 
was made a member of the board of directors. In 1890 he 
was elected president of this bank and held the position until 
the bank was merged with the Northwestern National Bank, 
of which he became a director, and he still holds that relation 
to the institution and he is also a director in the Minnesota 
Loan & Trust Co., an affiliated institution. During the finan- 
cial panic of 1893 he was a member of the Clearing House 
committee of the associated banks of Minneapolis and later 
was elected president of the Clearing House Association for 
one term. He also served as chairman of the committee on 
manufactures of the Minneapolis Board of Trade for a number 
of years, and as president of the Board for two terms, in 
1888 and 1889. In the latter year he helped to organize the 
Business Men's Union of the city and was chosen one of its 
board of directors. 

His busines engagements have been extensive and they have 
had his constant and intelligent attention at all times. But 
he has still found opportunity to serve the people of his city 
in important public offices. He has been a zealous Republican 
from the dawn of his manhood, and as such was elected a 
member of the state House of Representatives in 1893 and 
of the state Senate in 1895. In his legislative service the 
state had the benefit of his practical business capacity, clear- 
ness of vision and interest in all classes of the people, and he 
left the mark of these traits and acquirements in valued laws 
which are still on the statute books. Among the acts of which 
he was the author and promoter are the banking laws of the 
state, which has received the most favorable commendations 
from banking experts throughout the country; laws for the 
protection of employes from accidents in using machinery in 
factories and in building operations; the University tax law 
for the support of the University of Minnesota ; and others 
of greater or less importance in themselves, according to their 
purpose and operation. 

Mr. Wyman's interest in the cause of general education, 
his public spirit and well known ability and breadth of view 
led to his appointment on the board of regents of the Univer 
sity in 1901 for a term of six years, and in 1904 he was 
elected president of the board and chairman of its executive 





^^^u^nx^i^ / 




HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, :\riXNESOTA 



293 



committee, which positions he filled with great acceptability 
to the end of his term. For some thirty years or more he 
has been one of the trustees of Hamline University, the de- 
nominational institution of the Methodist Episcopal cluirch, 
to which he belongs, and has long been vice president of the 
board and a member of its executive committee. He was 
also one of the founders of the Associated Charities of Min- 
neapolis, and served for a number of years as one of the 
directors of the organization and for a time as president of 
the board. In the Hennepin avenue Methodist Episcopal 
church, of which he has been a communicant for a long time, 
having been received into the sect in 1S66, he is a member 
of the board of trustees. In social lines he is connected with 
the Minneapolis Club, the Minikahda Club, and .John A. Raw- 
lins Post, Grand Army of the Republic, in the last named 
holding the rank of a staff member. 

On September 3, 1873, Mr. Wyman was united in marriage 
with Miss Rosetta Lamberson, the daughter of a Methodist 
clergyman. They became the parents of seven children : Roy 
L. ; Guy A.; Alice, who is now the wife of E. W. Underwood; 
James C. ; Ethelwyime, who is the wife of J. S. Eaton; Earl 
F., and Ruth. The mother of these children died on April 15, 
1899, and on June 12, 1901, the father contracted a second 
marriage in which he was united with Mrs. Grace Shotwell, 
a daughter of .Jonathan D. Seaton, an early settler of Minne- 
apolis and one of its pioneers in the dry goods trade, as Mr. 
Wyman was in the business in which he is engaged. 

Mr. Wyman's business career has been successful. His 
citizenship has always been elevated and elevating and his 
public services have been conspicuously valuable. 



FREDERICK W. DEAN. 



Mr. Dean was born in this city on January 16, 1861, and 
is the sixth in the order of birth of the seven children of 
Joseph and Nancy Harvey (Stanley) Dean, a sketch of whose 
lives appears in this volume. The son obtained a high school 
education in Minneapolis, and has passed the whole of his 
life to this time (1914) in this community. Immediately 
after leaving school in 1878, when he was seventeen years old, 
he secured a position in the Security National Bank at the 
opening of that institution, of which his father was the first 
cashier. He remained in the employ of the bank until 1886, 
and by that time had risen through promotions made on 
demonstrated merit to the responsible position of assistant 
cashier. 

When he left the bank Mr. Dean united with his brother 
George in starting a private bank at Hutchinson, Minnesota, 
of which their father was made president. The sons conducted 
this bank two years, then sold it, and formed a partnership 
under the style of Dean Bros, to deal in commercial paper. 
This business also continued twenty-two years to 1910, during 
the latter of which Frederick Dean was its sole proprietor. 
In 1910 he sold it to F, D, Monfort, late vice president of the 
Second National Bank of St. Paul, and started the enterprise 
in which he is now engaged, or did some preliminary work 
leading toward it, as he did not actually open his present 
office until .January 1, 1913. 

In the business he is now conducting Mr. Dean deals in 
bonds and investment securities, handling his own property as 
well as that of other persons. He has been dealing in real 



estate on the side for a number of years and has acquired a 
considerable amount of it that is valuable. In 1908 he laid 
out Elmdale Addition to Minneapolis, containing thirty acres 
and lying at the intersection of Thirty-eighth street and 
Hiawatha avenue. He also platted Williston Addition at the 
intersection of Johnson and Division streets. Of these 
additions he was the sole owner. 

In the organized social life of this locality Mr. Dean has 
taken a cordial and helpful interest as a member of the 
Minneapolis club and the Minnesota club of St. Paul. On 
March 22, 1903, he was married to Miss Rowene Davis, a 
native of Monroe county, Missouri. They have no children. 
Both attend the Hennepin Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, 
and take an active part in all its uplifting and improving 
work, and both stand high in the estimation of the people in 
all parts of the city. 



DR. CHARLES WAYLAND DREW. 

Dr. Charles Wayland Drew was born at Burlington, Vt., 
January 18, 1858. He is the son of Homer C. and Lorinda 
(Roby) Drew, both of his parents being descendants of 
pioneers of New England, His father was a contractor and 
builder by occupation and in moderate circumstances. 

He attended the public schools and at the age of fifteen 
entered the University of Vermont. His inclination being 
chiefly toward scientific studies, he devoted special attention to 
chemistry and allied branches. In 1877 he was graduated with 
the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, also receiving honorary 
election to the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity. 

After about eighteen months devoted in part to further 
research work in chemistry in the laboratories of Brooklyn and 
New York, and in part to the study of medicine, he became a 
student in the Medical Department of the University of Ver- 
mont, from which he graduated with the highest honors in a 
class of sixty in 1880. For a year he was associated in medical 
practice with a leading physician at Brattleboro, Vt., and in 
1881 came to Minneapolis, where he soon established himself 
in the practice of medicine. 

Soon after his arrival he became connected with the Minne- 
sota College Hospital as professor of chemistry, and this con- 
nection continued for seven years, when this school with others 
was merged into the State University. 

In 1883 he was appointed as city physician and served for 
two years. He was a pioneer in the investigation of adul- 
terated foods, devoting several years to research work along 
these lines, and issuing valuable reports upon the subject, 
which did much to awaken public interest. As a result, he was 
appointed State Chemist to the Dairy and Food Department, 
in which connection he not only rendered valuable professional 
service, but was also influential in determining the policy of 
the department; and during the six years devoted to this work 
he was instrumental in securing the enactment of many sani- 
tary and food laws which have been most helpful. 

In 1886 he established the Minnesota Institute of Pharmacy 
and for almost thirty years its educational work has been 
carried on under his charge. The aggregate attendance ha-s 
been over 2,500 students and for many years more than one- 
half of the legally qualified pharmacists in Minnesota have 
been graduates from this school. 

In 1895 Dr. Drew was appointed chemist to the city of 



294 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Minneapolis, and for gome eight years he held this important 
position. From 1898 to 1902 he was professor of chemistrj- 
and toxicology in the Medical Department of Hamline 
University. 

Since about 1890 his time has been so largely devoted to 
analytical and research work in chemistry and to teaching, 
that medical practice has been largely abandoned. As an 
expert in cases in which chemico-legal and to.xicological ques- 
tions are involved his services are in frequent demand 
throughout the Xorthwest. 

In politics he is a Republican, and although he has never 
held any other than a professional position he in interested 
in everything that makes for good government and civic bet- 
terment. 

He is a member of various medical, chemical and pharma- 
ceutical societies, both state and national. 

He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and 
of the Society of the Colonial Wars of Minnesota and of the 
State Historical Society. 

He was made a Mason at Burlington, Vt., in 1879, later 
became affiliated with Khurum Lodge, and was a charter 
member and the first Master of Minnehaha Lodge. He is now 
a member of Ark Lodge, Ark Chapter, Minneapolis Mounted 
Commandery Knights Templar, of which he is a Past Com- 
mander. He was also Grand Treasurer of the Grand Com- 
mandery of Knights Templar for a number of years, and is a 
member of Zuhrah Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is also 
an Elk and a member of the Athletic Club. 

He is a member of the Episcopal Church. 

He married at Brattleboro, Vt., September 18, 1884. Annah 
Reed Kellogg, daughter of Henry Kellogg, of Boston, Mass. 
They have two children, Julia Kellogg and Charles W., Jr. 



FRANKLIN .J. EATON. 



Mr. Eaton belonged to old New England families and was 
born at Old Town, Penobscot county, Maine, on August 12, 
1852. He died in Minneapolis on April 26, 1909, well known 
in all parts of the city and highly esteemed by all classes 
of its residents. When he was a boy of fourteen he came 
with his father, .John W. Eaton, to Chicago, from that great 
mart to Forest City, Minnesota, a year or two later, and 
from there to Minneapolis in 1871, when he was nineteen 
years of age. 

The father was a carpenter and worked at his trade in the 
various places of his residence. His life ended in Minneapolis 
in 1891. The mother survived him twenty years, passing 
away in 1911, in this city also, and at an advanced age. 
She was an active working member of the First Baptist 
church for some years after her arrival here, and afterward 
zealous in her devotion and services to the Fourth Baptist 
church, to which she then belonged, and in which she was 
for many years a Sundaj' school teacher. 

Franklin .J. Eaton was blessed by nature with a fine bass 
voice, and this was developed and enriched by careful train- 
ing. His academic education was interrupted by his frequent 
changes of residence in early life, but his musical training 
was never neglected, and he became a singer of superior 
power and skill. He acquired the mastery of several musical 
instruments as a performer also, and was therefore well 
qualified to teach instrumental as well as vocal music. He 



inherited his talent in a measure, his father having been for 
a long time a singer in church choirs in various places. 

In religious faith Mr. Eaton was a Baptist and an active 
worker in the church of that denomination in North Minne- 
apolis which was attended by his mother. He was married 
in Minneapolis in 1880. to Miss Anna M. Moulton, a native 
of Wisconsin, but reared in this city. No children were bom 
of their union, but they reared a niece from early girlhood. 
Mrs. Eaton still maintains the family home at 3240 Clinton 
avenue. 



OLOF N. OSTROM. 



Representing in splendid degree the fine traditions, prin- 
ciples and personality that have made the Scandinavian ele- 
ment such a valuable force in connection with the development 
and progress of the great northwestern section of our national 
domain, the late Olof N, Ostrom wielded large and benignant 
influence in connection with large and important business 
and industrial activities in Minnesota and his pronounced and 
worthy success represented the direct results of his own 
efforts, the while he so ordered his course as to merit and 
receive the implicit confidence and respect of his fellow men. 
Self-reliant, positive and optimistic, he undertook his work 
with the assurance of success and he virtually magnetized 
conditions. 

At Christianstad. Sweden, capital of the laen of the same 
name. Olof N. Ostrom was born on the 29th of July, 1850, 
and his life was cut short in the very zenith of its strong 
and virile usefulness, as he was summoned to eternal rest, 
at his home in Minneapolis, on the 19th of September, 1893. 
His father was a boot and shoe merchant in Christianstad 
and was enabled -to give to the son excellent educational ad- 
vantages, including those of the common schools of the town 
and also tuition under private instructors at the family 
home. The initial business experience of Olof N, Ostrom was 
gained in his native city, in the capacity of bookkeeper, but 
his ambition for advancement was equaled by the courage of 
his convictions, so that, at the age of seventeen years, he 
severed the home ties and set forth to seek his fortunes in 
the United States. In 1867 he came to America, with Minne- 
sota as his objective point. He first located in St. Paul, the 
capital city of the state, but in the following year he re- 
moved to St. Peter, judicial center of Nicollet county, where 
he entered the employ of a firm engaged in contracting and 
building. He made good use of the opportunities afforded 
him in this connection and familiarize<l himself with the 
various details of the business. In 1872 ho there engaged 
in the same line of enterprise on his own responsibility, and 
he proved himself well fortified for sjich independent effort. 
He continued successfully in the contracting and building 
business until 1878. and within this interval he superintended 
the construction of a number of large and modern buildings, 
including those of the Gustavus Adolphus College, at St. 
Peter, he having assumed the contract for the work. 

In 1879 Mr. Ostrom removed to Evansville, Douglas county, 
where he engaged in the general merchandise business and 
also in buying and shipping grain. He brought to bear his 
splendid powers and built up a large and prosperous busi- 
ness. Further advancement was made by him in 1883, when 
he founded the Bank of Evansville and gave inception to his 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



295 



admirable career as an able and discriminating financier. In 
1885 he disposed of liis mercantile business and thereafter 
he gave his time and attention to his grain and banking 
enterprises at Evansville until 1888, when he disposed of his 
banking interests and removed to Minneapolis, in which 
broader field he found ample opportunity for the exercising 
of his fine executive and constructive talents. Here he ef- 
fected the organization of the Swedish-American Bank, which 
was incorporated with a capital stock of one hundred thou- 
sand dollars and of which he became the executive head. 
The capital was later increased to two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars, and finally, with the substantial expansion 
of the business of the institution, its stock was increased 
to five hundred thousand dollars. Almost entirely to the 
able management and effective policies of Mr. Ostrom was 
due the upbuilding of the solid and important business of 
this institution, his administration as its president until the 
time of his death. On the 28th of November, 1908, the 
Swedish-American Bank was merged into the Northwestern 
National Bank, which bases its operations on a capital stock 
of three million dollars, with a surplus fund of two million 
dollars, and it is specially gratifying to note that the only 
son of Mr. Ostrom is cashier of this great institution, one of 
the strongest banking houses of the northwest. 

In 1888 Mr. Ostrom became the prime factor in the organi- 
zation of the Inter-State Grain Company, of which he became 
president and general manager. This company was incor- 
porated with a capital stock of five hundred thousand dollars, 
and Mr. Ostrom's coadjutors in the same were Cliarles S. 
Hulbert and Charles M. Anisden. The new corporation, with 
headquarters at Evansville, engaged in the buying and ship- 
ping of grain on a most extensive scale and its operations 
covered a wide area of country. At the time of its organi- 
zation the company assumed control of twenty-five grain 
elevators, and this number was later increased to one hun- 
dred elevators, located on the Chicago & Great Western, the 
Minneapolis & St. Louis, and the Great Northern Railroads, 
the large terminal elevator of the company being established 
in Minneapolis and having a capacity of one million bushels. 
.Mr. Ostrom was also financially interested in a number of 
other important business enterprises, and it may be noted 
that at the time of his death he was a stockholder of the 
First National Bank of Alexandria, Douglas county; the 
Bank of Gibon, Sibley county; and the Washington Bank 
of Minneapolis. 

A lively appreciation of and loyalty to the state and nation 
of his adoption ever characterized Mr. Ostrom, and as a 
citizen he was essentially progressive and public-spirited. He 
kept well informed in the questions and issues of the day 
and was a stalwart supporter of the principles of the Repub- 
lican party, his religious faith having been that of the 
Lutheran church, of which his widow and children likewise 
are zealous communicants. His life was ordered upon a lofty 
plane of integrity and honor, his nature was generous and 
kindly, and he held the high regard of all who knew him, 
the while his more intimate friends loved and admired him 
for his many sterling traits of character. He was in the 
most significant sense the artificer of his own fortunes and 
the record of his achievement shouhl prove a source of en- 
during inspiration to young men facing the battle of life on 
their own responsibility. 

On the 1st of October, 1870, was solemnized the marriage 
of Mr. Ostrom to Miss Helen M. Ely, at St. Peter, this state, 



and she survives her honored husband, as do also tlieir two 
children. Alma M., who is the wife of Frank P. Lothmann, of 
Minneapolis, and Alexander \'., who is cashier of the North- 
western National Bank, as previously intimated in this sketch. 
Concerning Alexander V. Ostrom the following consistent esti- 
mate has been otl'ered by one familiar with his career: "He 
is one of the best known and most highly esteemed young 
business men of Minneapolis, and he subordinates all other 
interests to the executive duties devolving upon him as 
cashier of one of the great banking institutions of the Min- 
nesota metropolis. As a citizen and business man he is 
fully upholding the prestige of the name which he bears and 
he is known as one of the intluential and able representatives 
of the younger generation of Minnesota financiers, his services 
in his important executive office being, such as would reflect 
credit upon a man whose active banking experience would 
e.xceed in compass the entire age of Mr. Ostrom. He is popu- 
lar in the business and social circles of his home city, takes 
a deep interest in all that touches its welfare, and is a prom- 
inent and valued member of the Minneapolis Club, the Minne- 
kada CHub and otlier representative civic organizations in 
Minneapolis." 



SENATOR JAMES T. ELWELL. 

Senator .James T. Elwell has always been one of the fore- 
most of Minneapolis' citizens in the betterment and develop- 
ment, not only of the East Side, where he has been 
particularly interested, but in the city at large, as well. 

Senator Elwell was born in Minnesota and has the true 
Minnesota spirit of initiative. His early life was spent in 
Washington county, Minnesota, and he was particularly for- 
tunate in his educational advantages. After attending the 
common schools he attended Carlton College, at Northfield. 
He made his first venture for individual independence, when 
he was but sixteen years old, by inventing a spring bed. He 
soon began to manufacture it. Out of the boyish venture has 
grown two of the largest manufacturing institutions of the 
Northwest, the Minneapolis Furniture Company, of which 
George H. Elwell is now at the head, and the Minneapolis 
Bedding Company, which is an outgrowth of the first named 
company, as C. M. Way, who was active in the furniture 
company withdrew from it to found the bedding company. 
This concern has grown and thrived until it is a close second 
to the original company. 

All through the University district there are many beauti- 
ful elm shade trees which Senator Elwell was instrumental 
in having planted with a conception of what they in time 
would mean to tlie city. It was in 1882 that he laid out 
Elwell's Addition to Minneapolis and improved it. not only 
with the planting of numerous trees, but also by building 
fifty-five houses upon it. These he put upon the market and 
set about platting Elwell's second addition. He again showed 
his intelligent regard for the future, by the great number of 
trees he had planted. These are now one of the chief sovirces 
of the charm and beauty of the district. Elwell's third 
addition and Elwell and Higgin's addition followed with all 
the same general characteristics. 

Senator Elwell was a pioneer in the matter of reclaiming 
lands through a system of drainage. He bought 52,700 acres 
of land in the eastern part of Anoka county which was 



296 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



largely low land and meadow. Through his enterprise he 
caused to be constructed about 200 miles of ditching on the 
property and in this was reclaimed many thousand acres of 
otherwise almost valueless land and made it into splendid 
farms. 

Like all energetic men, Senator Elwell has a hobby. His 
is a worthy one which is bringing much good to the state. 
It is good roads. He might truthfully be called a "good roads 
enthusiast," for he not only believes in good roads but he 
backs up his belief with vigorous efficient work for them. 
He early conceived the idea of good, straight roads for the 
farming communities and by way of showing how valuable 
they could be he built eight miles of straight, fine road con- 
necting his two stock farms. This was the first of its kind 
in the state and was built at a cost of about $1,000 a mile. 
While a member of the state legislature he did much for the 
cause of good roads and also was especially active and 
earnest in doing what he could to promote interest in stock 
raising. 

It was in 1906 that Mr. Elwell was elected to the state 
senate from the thirty-ninth district. During his service in 
this capacity he was zealous in his efforts in behalf of the 
State University. He is far-sighted enough to see what this 
will mean to the community and the state in the time to 
come. He is a stanch Minneapolitan, but he is glad to be 
of use in anything that has to do with the state at large, 
realizing as he does that whatever helps the state must of 
necessity help the metropolis. He has always been an enthu- 
siastic worker in the St. Anthony Commercial Club and has 
served as its president. While Senator Elwell is often very 
much in the limelight because of his interest in things civic 
and for the general good, he is not in the least a spectacular 
man in any sense. He is only a business man of rather 
iNceptional talent and foresight who has been extremely 
generous in devoting his time to the public welfare. 

Senator Elwell was born July 2, 1855, on a farm in Ram- 
sey county, near the Hennepin county line. He was the son 
of parents of considerable property, but was of the disposition 
to begin early to do for himself, so in all respects he might 
Well be called a self-made man. On the 28th day of June, 
1882, he was married to Miss Lizzie A, Alden and they have 
raised a family of nine children, five boys and four girls. 
The boys are James T., Jr., Edwin S., Alden W., Lawrence R. 
and Watson R. and the girls are Margaret A., Elizabeth, 
Ruth and Mary. The family is prominent in the social circles 
of the East Side and attend the Como Avenue Congregational 
Church. 



JAMKS W. DAY. 

For a period of fifty-two years this enterprising citizen, 
now retired, has been a resident of Minneapolis, having come 
here in 1861, when he was but eleven years of age. and while 
he has contributed to aid in advancing and improving the 
city, it has also contributed to his progress by the oppor- 
tunities it gave him for the exercise of fine business capa'city. 

Mr. Day was born in Cooper. Washington county. Maine, 
March 29, 1850. His mother and stepfather, Tillie Richard- 
son, whom she married in 1861, and who had come to Minne- 
sota in 1849. went to a farm in Richfield township, eight miles 
south of Bridge Square. Mr. Richardson died in Richfield 



about 1885, his wife surviving him twenty-seven years, dying 
October 4, 1912, in her eighty-sixth year. 

Mr. Richardson had eight children, Eliza, Hattie, Lizzie,. 
Emma, Fred and Willie, two sons by a former marriage, 
Dean E. and Henry W. Richardson, and she had three chil- 
dren, James W., Myra and Alice. Myra is the wife of her 
stepbrother, Dean R. Richardson, and Alice is the wife of his 
brother Henry. Both are in Richfield on farms that have 
become valuable, lands near them selling at $600 an acre. 
Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. (Day) Richardson only one 
is living, Nellie, Mrs. W. F. Willie, of Northeast Minneapolis. 
■James W. Day remained with his stepfather, helping to 
clear, break and improve the farm, until the age of eighteen. 
He then worked six years for Leonard Day & Son, who, 
although they were of the same name were no kin. For 
four years he drove a four-horse team, hauling logs from thfr 
woods to their mill at Sixth avenue south and the river, and 
for two years was scaling lumber at the mill. He lived with 
W. H. H. Day, son of Leonard, in whose absence he cared 
for the family. Mr. Day was absent a great deal looking up 
timber land and attending to other business for the firm, and 
James W., enjoying his full confidence, then had charge or 
home affairs and helped in rearing his and his brother's 
children. 

In 1875 Mr. Day, with General Stanley, crossed the 
plains, but returning passed two years in manufacturing a 
general line of fencing at Davenport, Iowa. Returning to 
Minneapolis in 1879, he began dealing in ice. Years before, in 
his boyhood, he had caught a prairie chicken, which he traded 
for a domestic hen, whose production of eggs and chickens 
realized him twelve dollars. He bought two calves, and so 
kept on dealing until he had money enough to buy the lot on 
which he has had his home for many years. In a jocular way 
he has often traced his career back to the prairie chicken as the 
foundation of his prosperity. 

During the first year in the ice trade he had 125 customers, 
this then being the extent of the business of supplying ice 
on the East Side that year. In 1903, when he sold his 
business, he had some 4,000 customers and kept ten big 
wagons busy, handling about 20,000 tons of ice, from a num- • 
ber of ice-houses located at convenient points. He confined 
operations to the East Side, and he kept his workmen as long 
as they proved worthy and willing to remain, some being 
with him 12 to 15 years. The last year in business he paid 
the railroads $10,000 in freight for 800 carloads of ice 
shipped. 

Mr. Day has long been a stockholder in the East Side 
State Bank, but, while he has always been warmly interested 
in the welfare of the community, has never sought, desired 
or been willing to accept a public office, although he has 
frequently been urged to be a candidate for alderman. In 
political faith he is a Republican and a Prohibitionist. He 
catered to saloons in his business, but he has himself abstained 
from the use of intoxicants as a matter of principle. 

Mr. Day has clear recollections of Minneapolis at every 
stage of its growth and recalls vividly the scenes attendant 
upon the taking up the planking on the old suspension bridge 
to keep it from being carried away by the high water in 
1861. The Nicollet House was then but half completed, ami 
the view from its upper stories was extensive and unob- 
structed. He saw bear tracks near the present intersection 
of Lake street and Minnehaha avenue, the bear making them 
being killed when it came out of its hiding at night. While- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



297 



lie was driving for Leonard Day & Son he delivered a great 
deal of the lumber for the early houses, many of which arc 
still standing. Once he hauled in one load all the lumber 
for a house and the woman, who was to live in the structure, 
on top of the load. He was intimately acquainted with all 
the old families and business men of the city. 

April 30, 1879, Mr. Day was united in marriage with Miss 
Marj' Annette Button, of .Jamestown, New York, who came 
to Minneapolis in 1874. They have one child. Leon W. Day. 
who was deputy treasurer of Hennepin county for a number 
of years. He married Miss Gertrude Jacobs and also has one 
son, Rollin Freeman Day. Mr. Day (-Tames W.I is a member 
of the St. Anthony Commercial club. He used to be a great 
hunter and a lover of fine horses, being said at one time to 
own the best in the city. One noted team he sold to the 
city fire department for $600. He also owned track horses, 
and was fond of driving them in races on the ice. His son 
is a natural mechanic and has done work for the city, installing 
dynamos in high school buildings and other public structures. 
Everywhere in the city both father and son are well known 
and highlv esteemed. 



GEORGE H. ELWELL. 



(ieorge H. Elwell, president of the Minneapolis Furniture 
company and of the Minneapolis school board, was born on 
Xovember 25, 1856, in what was then the village of St. 
Anthony. He is a son of Tallmadge and Margaret (Miller) 
Elwell, natives of the state of New York, both of whom came 
to Minnesota in 1852. The mother and her sister were mil- 
liners at Stillwater from 1852 until their marriage at St. 
Anthony in 1854. This was a double wedding; the sister 
was married to .John P. Furber of Cottage Grove, Minnesota. 
This double marriage was solemnized in the First Congre- 
gational church by Rev. David Secomb. The father was a 
daguerreotyper for some years, and many of the historic 
views now owned by E. A. Bromley and used in this work 
were taken by him. 

After following his art for a number of years he started 
a town site at Granite City in Morrison county in 1855, where 
he remained until 1862. The period was one of great expecta- 
tions in the way of new towns and his enterprise in this line 
looked very promising. But in 1862 the uprising of the 
Sioux and Chippewa Indians made the place unsafe and he 
abandoned the project he had so hopefully undertaken. He 
then moved to Little Falls, where he remained two years, 
then to St. Cloud for another period of two years, during 
which time he was in the employ of the government as col- 
lector of internal revenue. 

In 1865 he located at the village of Cottage Grove in 
Washington county, where he remained until 1872. when he 
again changed his residence, removing to Minneapolis, and 
here he and the mother passed the remainder of their days, 
her life ending on March 19. 1894, and his on February 7. 190:!. 
After his return to this city he organized the Elwell .Manu- 
facturing company in 1873 for the manufacture of spring beds, 
being the founder of the industry in this part of thS country. 
He continued at the head of the company until the business 
was incorporated in 1882 as the Minneapolis Furniture com- 
[lany, and when he retired from all ctmnection therewith. 

Mr. Elwell, the elder, and his wife, the parents of George IL. 



were members of the First Congregational church, in which 
they were married. They had eight children : James T., who 
has represented the Thirty-ninth district in the state .senate 
since 1907; George H., the subject of this brief review; John 
F., who resides in Los Angeles. California; Rev. Robert T., who 
is pastor of a Congregational church in Seattle, Washington; 
Susie Isabel, now the wife of C. T. Rickard, proprietor of the 
Minneapolis School of Business; Mary Whitmore, now Mrs. 
T. N. .Spaulding, of Pasadena, California; Mattie Laura, the 
wife of Dr. William Noyes, dean of chemistry in the University 
of Illinois at Urbana, Illinois, and Jessie Helen Campbell, the 
wife of Dr. William Frost, professor of bacteriology at Madi- 
son, Wisconsin. 

George H. Elwell was eighteen when the family returned 
to Minneapolis. He was educated in the public schools, at 
Carleton College, where he passed three years, and at the 
University of Minnesota, which he attended one year. He 
began making his own way in the world as a teacher, serving 
as the principal of the public School at Appleton, this state> 
occupying the position from 1879 to 1882. In the fall of 1S82 
he was married to Miss Belle Horn, one of his pupils in the 
school. In March of that year he took charge of the business 
of the Minneapolis Furniture company, of which he was one 
of the incorporators, as its secretary and manager, and the 
ne.xt j'ear became its president, which position he still holds. 

The business of this company has shown steady and con- 
tinued growth under his vigorous and progressive manage- 
ment. This company has been engaged in manufacturing 
and supplying to the trade bedroom furniture and Elwell 
kitchen cabinets. Tlie kitchen cabinet is a very useful article 
of furniture, very popular and extensively used. The com- 
pany employs regularly 150 persons and has $200,000 invested 
in its business. Its annual trade amounts to $250,000 to 
$300,000. 

In his political faith and allegiance Mr. Elwell has been 
a firm adherent of the Republican party. He never souglit 
political office either by election or appointment until about 
five years ago, when he was elected a member of the board 
of education, and immediately after his election was made 
president of the board, a position he is still filling. The 
period of his service has been one of the most important in 
the history of the school system of the city. The growth of 
the schools has been rapid, many new buildings have been 
demanded, and every phase and feature of the system has 
been expanding in usefulness and requirements. His duties 
as president of the board have been heavy, but they have 
been faithfully attended to and his fidelity and ability in 
performing them are highly appreciated. 

Mr. Elwell is also deeply and serviceably interested in 
church work. He and his wife are members and regular at- 
tendants of the First Congregational church, the one in 
which his parents were married and he was baptized. Hia 
principal recreation is an occasional hunting trip, but he finds 
enjoyment in the social life of his community. He is an 
active member of the Minneapolis and St. Anthony Com- 
mercial clubs. 

He and his wife are the parents of five children: Harold 
Manford, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, who 
is secretary of the company over whose affairs his father 
presides; Georgia Belle, a graduate of Columbia Teachers' 
College, now a teacher of Domestic Art in the East High 
School; Florence and Susie Marie are graduates of East 
High School, and George Herbert, .Jr., is now a high school 



298 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



student. All of the children are still members of the parental 
family circle and ministrants to its enjoyments and attrac- 
tions. 



WILLIAM W. WALES. 



This esteemed pioneer, whose Scotch and Irish ancestry is 
traced back hundreds of years, was born in North Carolina 
in 1818. In early manhood he moved to Indiana, and there 
married Miss Catherine Elliott Bundy. Impelled by the spirit 
of the Builder of New Communities, he came to the North- 
west with Mrs. Wales, locating in the spring of 1851 at the 
Falls of St. Anthony, now East Minneapolis. The popula- 
tion of the village at the Falls was about 300 persons at this 
time. During the year two sawmills were added to a small 
mill previously in operation; the St. Charles hotel was built 
and a ferry was established to the west side of the river, 
then known as the "Fort Snelling Military Reserve." It was 
also during this year that the University was located at St. 
Anthony, and the regents held a meeting on June 14th, at 
the St. Charles Hotel, and decided to build the "Preparatory 
School" building at a cost of $2,500, and to raise that amount 
by subscriptions from the people. Mr. Wales took an active 
part in soliciting such funds. 

While the growth of Minneapolis on the east side of the 
river may be reckoned from this time, the Reserve on the 
west side was not opened to settlers until 1852. 

Mr. Wales soon became active in the civic and social life 
of the village, and established himself in the book trade, oc 
cupying the ground on which the Pillsbury A mill now stands 
his being the first book store in the community. His exten 
sive knowledge of books and discriminating taste in litera 
ture, added to his rare social qualities, soon made Mr. Wales 
little book shop a favorite resort of men and women com 
bining the culture of the East and South with the vigorous 
and enterprising spirit of the frontier, all drawn together in 
the making of a notable community. 

Mr. Wales took an active part in the organization of the 
Republican party in Minnesota. The first meeting of aboli- 
tionists held in the state was at St. Anthony on -July 4th, 

1854, and was addressed by Rev. C. (i. Ames who handled 
the slavery question without gloves. The following spring 
the first Republican Territorial Convention was held at St. 
Anthony on Thursday and Friday, March 29th and 30th, 

1855. It was a mass convention presided over by Wm. R. 
Marshall, later Governor of Minnesota. Mr. Wales was one 
of the leaders among those who were radically opposed to 
slavery and the fugitive slave law. The convention remained 
in session for two days, and finally closed after passing the 
following resolution: "Appealing to Heaven for the rectitude 
of our intentions, we this day organize the Republican party 
of Minnesota." 

Mr. Wales served the town as clerk, as a member of the 
school board, and. after its incorporation as a city, as mayor, 
and also as postmaster under appointment from President 
Lincoln. Furthermore, he Served the legislative district as a 
member of the territorial legislature in the memorable ses- 
sion of 1857, being a member of the upper house, then known 
as the Council; and he took a prominent part in the most 
thrilling of the legislature's proceedings. 



In 1857 Mr. Wales published a "Sketch of St. Anthony and 
Minneapolis," in which he first reviewed St. Anthony, which 
at that time was far more important than the village on the 
west side of the river, to which Mr. Wales referred in the 
following language: "Minneapolis is one of the most beauti- 
ful and flourishing towns in the United States. Two years 
ago there were probably not two hundred persons in the place, 
now there are over two thousand. No place in the Territory 
has grown more rapidly or on a more permanent basis than 
Minneapolis. It has all the elements of prosperity. The site 
for a large city could not have been made more beautiful by 
art than nature has laid it out." As an indication of the 
growth of the city Mr. Wales referred to the increase in the 
ferry tolls from $300 in 1851 to .$6,000 in 1854. He also 
called attention to the completion of a suspension bridge 
across the river. 

In his sketch Mr. Wales wrote further: "St. Anthony and 
Minneapolis are situated at the head of navigation on the 
Mississippi river. Some expense must necessarily be incurred 
in improving the channel of the river, but we entertain no 
doubt that navigation to these points may be regarded as a 
fixed fact, and there can be no doubt that within five years 
railroads will begin to intercept the territory in different 
directions. The prospects of the rapid growth of St. Anthony 
and Minneapolis are at this time far more flattering than 
ever before. There is not a town in the West which enjoys 
Such a combination of advantages and elements that must 
inevitably build up a large city at these points." 

In regard to the climate, Mr. Wales said: "A general error 
prevails as to the winters in Minnesota. The soil is of a 
very deep, black, sandy loam, which imbibes heat to a great 
depth. This is the reason why frost ceases early in the 
spring, and the principal reason why it holds otf so late in 
the fall, as compared with clay soils hundreds of miles far- 
ther south. The growing season is quite sufficient to mature 
all products of neighboring states." In conclusion he said: 
"We look to see Minneapolis and St. Anthony united under 
one corporation, constituting one great city, which will know 
no superior northwest of Chicago." This publication was 
widely circulated and was efi'ective in removing erroneous 
impressions as to the productiveness of the state and in stim- 
ulating immigration. 

From the little book shop established by Mr. Wales a pros- 
perous business along art lines was founded, the Wales Art 
Galleries becoming a strong factor in developing the art inter- 
ests of the city. Always in advance of the times, Mr. Wales 
maintained a standard above commercialism. In his galleries 
all artistic Minneapolis found inspiration and encouragement 
to high ideals. In this atmosphere, as well as that of a cul- 
tivated home, his daughters were developing rare natural 
gifts into beautiful forms of expression, both in literature 
and art. In their several lines all have become well known 
— one in connection with the New York Public Library, others 
in connection with the Handicraft Guild of Minneapolis and 
the public schools of Milwaukee and Cleveland. Mr. Wales' 
son, Charles E. Wales, a well known business man of Min- 
neapolis, is mentioned elsewhere in this volume. 

Pursuant to his early expectation, Mr, Wales retired from 
business in 1892 to devote his time to social and religious 
work among the mountain people of North Carolina, his na- 
tive state. His activities in bettering the condition of the 
mountaineers, whom he so thoroughly understood, occupied 
tlie last ten years of his long life, which came to an end 




///^ . 4i-yfKA<i^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



299 



in 1902. His wife, son and three daughters survive him, 
and all are residents of Minneapolis. 

Mr. Wales was a man of strong convictions and great 
felicity of expression, and was therefore convincing. Perhaps 
of all his qualities his sympathetic understanding and love 
of his fellow men stood out strongest. He had a rare genius 
for making friends, and his friends were among "all sorts and 
conditions of men." Although his religious affiliations were 
with the Society of Friends, his Catholic spirit was larger 
than sect or denomination, and recognized the good in human- 
ity wherever it was found and in whatever form expressed. 
His interests were numerous, for he touched life at many 
points, and his never failing enthusiasm made him an inspira- 
tion to all who came in touch with him. The influence of his 
life upon others, as felicitou.sly expressed by one of his co- 
workers was, "that of a quiet, encouraging spirit, like the 
falling of the gentle warm spring rains, which cause the earth 
to respond in a glad renewal of life." 



CHARLKS E. WALES. 



Charles E. Wales, a Son of the revered Minneapolis pioneer, 
William W. Wales, is a native and lifelong resident of Mjn- 
neapolis. He is widely known as a successful business man 
and a progressive and public-spirited citizen, and is connected 
with many business corporations and social organizations, in- 
cluding the principal clubs of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, 
Chicago and Pittsburgh. 

In early life Mr. Wales became identified with the coal 
trade as an employee in a business conducted by James J. 
Hill of St. Paul and .John A. Armstrong of Minneapolis; later 
he succeeded to the Minneapolis branch and organized the 
Pioneer Fuel Company and soon extended its operations far 
beyond the boundaries of the state. Still later he merged 
the Pioneer Fuel Company's business with the organization 
of numerous Pennsylvania coal mines under the name of the 
Pittsburgh Coal Company. He was made vice-president of 
the new organization, with headquarters in Chicago, and for 
some years devoted his time and energies principally to or- 
ganization work in securing Northwestern outlets for the 
company's productions. During the same period he exercised 
general supervision of the Home Company's subsidiary sales 
organizations throughout the Northwest, including the Pitts- 
burgh Coal Company of Wisconsin, whose headquarters are 
in Minneapolis. 

With the completion of this organization Mr. Wales re- 
signed as an officer of the company in order that he might de- 
vote more time to organization work in the development and 
Sale of various properties in which he had from time to time 
become interested, and in which are included terminal and 
water-front properties at Duluth, Superior, and other ports 
on the Great Lakes. During the last few years Mr. Wales 
has effected sales and leases of such properties to many coal 
companies and to various railroad companies. 

Mr. Wales maintains his principal office at his country 
home, known as "Waleswood-on-the-Minnesota," about six 
miles south of the Minneapolis city limits. 

Mr. Wales' wife is a daughter of the late John M. Smyth, 
an honored pioneer and well-known merchant of Chicago. 
Their family consists of two sons, Martin Smvth and Robert 
Elliott. 



Charles Raymond Wales, an elder son of Mr. Wales by an 
earlier marriage is a member of the Wales-Campbell Com- 
pany, of Minneapolis, engineei-s and general contractors, 
whose operations have been principally on the Great Lakes, 
Charles Raymond' Wales with his younger brothers represent 
in Minneapolis the third generation of the Wales family and 
they are expected to perpetuate their name with that of the 
city. 



JOHN ENGQUIST. 



Mr. Engquist is president of the American Realty & Build- 
ing Company and a well known contractor of Minneapolis. 
He is a native of Sweden. He came to Minneapolis in 1884 
and having served a long apprenticeship as wagon maker 
endeavored to find employment. He was unsuccessful in all 
his applications for work, though he finally offered to give 
his services free for one month for the opportunity to prove 
his ability. He was compelled to turn to other occupations, 
and the first job he secured was as a hod-carrier. 

He finally won out and the following year, 1885, he was in 
position to engage as a contractor on his own account. The 
carpenters' strike of that year had left many unfinished 
buildings and he found their completion a profitable field of 
operation. The site of the first house which he erected was 
at 3607 P^irst avenue, and for a time the majority of his 
contracts were in the Eighth and Thirteenth wards. From 
the first his operations were successful and finally required 
a force of eighteen or twenty workmen. Mr. Engquist became 
one of the leading contractors in the city. He built Zion 
Lutheran church and Lyons Court, on Stevens avenue, and his 
operations extended to Cambridge and Princeton and various 
other towns. 

The American Realty & Building company was incorporated 
in 1909, with a capital of $50,000 and with John Engquist 
as president, Charles, G. Engquist, vice president, and E. L. 
Bergquist, secretary of the corporation. The company has 
extensive real estate interests in the city, including about 
thirty buildings and residences and has erected several busi- 
ness blocks, among which are the building on the corner of 
Nicollet avenue and Lake street, occupied by the Minneapolis 
State bank; the new Lake Theatre, which is one of the two 
fireproof theatres on Lake street and has a seating capacity 
of 600; the block between Nicollet avenue and Blaisdell ave- 
nue, in which the offices of the company are located, and the 
Stewart Memorial church. The company handles plumbing, 
heating and cement contracts and aside from local invest- 
ments owns real estate and buildings in International Falls, 
Minnesota. For a number of years Mr. Engquist extended 
his real estate interests to North Dakota farm lands, where 
for a time he cultivated about 3000 acres, half of which was 
his own but of which he has since disposed. He is a director 
of the Minneapolis State Bank and the Bankers' Security 
Company, assisting in the organization of the former institu- 
tion as stockholder and one of its first directors. He was 
married in 1887 to Miss Ida Magney, of Minneapolis. They 
have five sons, Carl A., .John E., William A., Fred E., and 
Ray A. The eldest son is associated in business with hia 
father, in the cement department of the American Realty & 
Building Company and John E. Engquist has charge of all 
the architectural work for the Company. 



300 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



WILLIAM ALBERT FRISBIE. 

Connected with the leading daily newspapers of Minneapolis 
as a reporter and in various editorial capacities since 1890, 
William A. Frisbie, editor of the Minneapolis Daily News for 
the last five years, has made his work count for usefulness 
and good in the community. 

Mr. Frisbie was bom in Danbury, Connecticut, on December 
12, 1867, the son of Alvah Lillie and Jerusha R. (Slocomb) 
Frisbie. He began his academic education in the public 
schools and completed it at Grinnell College, from which he 
was graduated with the degree of B, S. in 1889. He was 
engaged in manufacturing in Des Moines, Iowa, until the 
latter part of 1890, when he came to Minneapolis and turned 
his attention to journalism, which has been the field of his 
labors ever since. 

The first appearance of Mr. Frisbie in this field was as a 
reporter and assistant city editor on the Minneapolis Tribune, 
which he served in those capacities in 1890, 1891 and 1893. 
In 1892 and 1893 he was assistant city editor of the Minne- 
apolis Times. The Minneapolis Journal had his services next 
as city and managing editor from 1893 to 1908. On Septem- 
ber 1, 1909, he became editor of the Minneapolis Daily News, 
a position of great trust and responsibility which he has 
filled ever since. 

Mr. Frisbie has found time from his daily duties to do 
some outside literary work and among the successful books 
he has published are: "Tales of the Bandit Mouse," 1900; 
"Pirate Frog and Other Tales," 1901; "Puggery Wee," 1902: 
"The Other Man," 1904; "A. B. C. Mother Goose." 1905, and 
others of note. On May 16, 1893, Mr. Frisbie was united in 
marriage with Miss Nellie McCord, of Des Moines, Iowa. 
Their pleasant home in Minneapolis is at 1778 Irving avenue 
south. 



GEORGE GOTTHILF EITEL, M. D. 

Founder of The Eitel Hospital, was bom near Chaska, 
Carver county, Minnesota, September 28, 18,58. He is a son 
of John G. and Mary (Ulmer) Eitel, natives of Wurtemberg, 
Germany, and who were married at Chaska. The father came 
to America, like Carl Schurz, a refugee from the proscriptions 
following the Revolution of 1848. His wife's father had 
been active in that agitation, cooperating with Carl Schurz, 
and like him was obliged to seek safety in a foreign land. 
Several of Mr. Ulmer's associates came with him, among 
them Mr. Eitel. The latter made two trips to California, 
one in 1849 by the Isthmus route, and the other after coming 
to Minnesota. After spending some years on the coast he 
became a farmer and flour miller at Chaska. George G. Eitel 
was reared on the home farm two and one half miles from 
Chaska and attended the common schools and an academy. 
He early chose the medical profession and in 1888 was grad- 
uated as an M. D. from the Minnesota Hospital College. 
Desirous of special training he next devoted one year to 
clinical work in the University of Berlin, one of the greatest 
medical schools. After practicing one year he entered the 
medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, taking 
a thorough review in all previous work; and, upon graduation 



practiced at Centralia, Washington, until 1893. He then 
located in Minneapolis, but later revisited Berlin, receiving the 
medical degree from its University. His twenty years of 
practice in Minneapolis has not only been extensive and 
successful, but has won him elevated position in his pro- 
fession. The idea of owning and conducting a private hospital 
he had long in mind, but hesitated for years because of the 
vast responsibility. His practice at various hospitals, how- 
ever, continued to so enlarge that in order to concentrate and 
secure best results he was almost compelled to put his design 
into execution. In March, 1911, work was begun on the 
hospital building, it being opened for patients in .lanuary, 
1912. The hospital is a purely personal enterprise on the 
part of Dr. Eitel. It has accommodations for 100 patients, 
demands 40 nurses and 25 attendants and employs four 
assistant physicians, all of whom are specialists in surgery. 
In fact, although it admits patients sent by other physicians, 
the hospital is largely a surgical institution, thus more meet- 
ing the desires and intention of its founder, who has special- 
ized in surgery during the last twelve years. $190,000 was 
needed to erect, equip and maintain the hospital and the 
Eitel training school for nurses. Only the best and most 
modem facilities of every required kind have been installed 
in the equipment. Dr. Eitel holds active membership in the 
various medical societies. He has been consulting surgeon 
of the Soo Railroad for years, and has enjoyed an extensive 
general practice in surgery. Concentrating his mind on his 
profession and with keen and critical analysis, he has written 
numerous articles for the medical journals which accord him 
a high reputation for the lucidity and force of language, the 
extent and accuracy of examination and comprehensive knowl- 
edge displayed. Dr. Eitel was married February 1, 1908, to 
Miss Jeannette E. Larsen of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The 
doctor is both a Scottish rite and Knight Templar Mason 
also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. 



W7LLIASI DONALDSON. 



From the humble position of draper's apprentice to the 
exalted one of merchant prince reads like a fairy story, but 
it is not, it is the life story of William Donaldson, who rose 
from the first named position which he held in Scotland to 
the honored one which he won for himself in Minneapolis and 
all this without wands or magic, without incense or incanta- 
tions but simply by his own unaided efforts, by his industry 
and integrity, his genius for administration and organization, 
his humanizing sympathy and his broad understanding. Min- 
neapolis people were always glad of his success and proud of 
the man, and in the old days when he was climbing the ladder 
of success so rapidly they delighted in calling him "the mer- 
chant prince." All this had a significance beyond the recog- 
nition of his material gains and had to do w-ith recognition 
of his qualities of heart and personality. No man was ever 
more loved by his employees, no man was ever more respected 
by his business friends and associates, no man was ever more 
welcome in the social circles in which he moved than William 
Donaldson was. His constructive genius is part of the history 
of Minneapolis. He built for the prosperous future which he 
did not live to enjoy, but the fruits of his genius are the 
harvests of today. 






^^^z£cU^^^^ 



1 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



301 



Mr. Donaldson was a typical Scotchman. He was born at 
the village of Milnathort in the Shire of Kinross on .June 16, 
1849. This village is in the beautiful upland country mid- 
way between Edinburg and Perth. His ancestors for many 
generations were of the industrial class with ambition to 
excel in whatever they undertook but contented with their 
lives and with their lot. Proud only of industry, integrity 
and sobriety and living upright, honorable lives for the jov 
of so living. His father was John Donaldson, who was a 
maker of fine shawls. His mother was Mary (Steedmon) 
Donaldson, and did her part in the family plan by rearing 
fine children and keeping a neat orderly homo for tliem. 
William was her eldest son, and had one brother and two 
sisters. He went to the village schools and having a great 
power of application and concentration was able to gain a 
very good classical education before he had outgrown his 
boyhood. This he was always glad to attribute to the fact 
that lie had such highly accomplished and learned teachers. 
He and his father had determined early in his life that his 
should be the life of a merchant and so when he came to the 
age when he must take up his work from the man's view- 
point he was apprenticed to a draper in his home town, for 
the term of four years. His pay was three shillings a week 
and his work included the humblest of labors. During the 
four years he was advanced from grade to grade of the 
mercantile practice and at the end of his apprenticeship lie 
accepted a position as clerk in a dry goods store in Glasgow. 
Here he drew a salary of forty pounds a year. In this posi- 
tion he remained eight years, being promoted from time to 
time until he had held many of the most responsible positions 
in the establishment with always and increasingly advanced 
salary. It was while he was employed here in 1873 that he 
married Miss Mary Turner, of Glasgow. At the end of this 
eight-year engagement the stirrings of an independent spirit 
began to be felt and Mr. Donaldson, now the father of a 
family, began to long for the time when he could be a mer- 
chant on his own account. The opportunities were not allur- 
ing in his native country. Old houses there have their estab- 
lished and attached customers and new enterprises do not 
flourish and Mr. Donaldson knew that to engage in business 
there was to court failure. He did not mean to fail. Report 
of the flourishing condition of business in America at this 
time fired his ambition and' he. after a conference with hi.s 
wife, determined to leavQ his wife and children in the care 
of her father and come to America where there were broader 
fields and bigger opportunities. This was in 1877. William 
took a position with a Scotch dry goods house in Providence, 
R. I. It was a big concern doing business over a great 
territory and was both wholesale and retail. Here Mr. Don- 
aldson learned the more enterprising American methods and 
took on the alertness of an American citizen. Here also, he 
acquired knowledge of great value to him as to the needs ot 
various sections of the country. From the viewpoint of his 
acquired knowledge, Minnesota was particularly promising 
and so in 1881 he came to St. Paul. He began his business 
career in the West as a salesman for Auerbach, Finch, Van 
Slyke and Company and solicited business in both St. Paul 
and Minneapolis. It was not long before he recognized the 
superior advantages of Minneapolis for retail trade and in 
1882 he rented a small store at 309 Nicollet avenue and put 
in a stock of la<lies' and gentlemen's furnishing goods. He 
had some little capital wliich he had sav<'(l during his clerk- 
ing days in Scotland but for a good many things he was 



obliged to get credit. He bought his first show case of 
Leonard Paulle on credit. His success came from the begin- 
ning and at the end of a year when he could not obtain a 
renewal of his lease he took a department in the Glass Block 
which had just been erected by Colton and Company. This 
venture he made at liis own risk and for his own profit. It 
was only a few months before the Coltons failed and Samuel 
Groucock purchased their stock and put Mr. Donaldson in 
charge of the establishment. The stock of general dry goods 
was complete. In April, 1884, Mr. Donaldson bought out the 
Groucocks and went into business on his own account. He 
bought quantities of fresh stock and went into the dry 
goods business to win. He prospered from the start. Greatly 
increasing business made it necessary that he have more 
room, so the old building was torn down and the main 
building of what is now known as the Glass Block wa8 
erected. This building was a marvel of construction at that 
time. There were five floors with elaborate stairways, ele- 
vators, and all lighted by a great central light well. The 
electric illumination of this building was a wonder and a 
revelation to Minneapolis twenty-five years ago. In 1891 
the main building was enlarged by an annex on Sixth street. 
In twenty years the annual sales of this establishment had 
reached and passed the $2,000,000 mark and the number of 
employees was not less than 900 persons. He had twelve 
salaried buyers in New York and had offices in New York, 
Manchester and Paris. Mr. Donaldson watched the marvelous 
growth of this establishment for a number of years after 
this, but death claimed him at the very height of his business 
career. It was always Mr. Donaldson's policy to buj- at first 
hand for cash and to give his customers the benefit of this 
advantage. He believed in liberal advertising and in conse- 
quence his trade reached to the Pacific coast. He made the 
annual opening of his store a social event with goods at- 
tractively displayed, handsome decorations and beautiful 
music. An opening at Donaldson's in the old days was a 
thing to be remembered. Ten cents admission was charged 
and the proceeds given to charities. 

Great as was the expenditure of energy in the manage- 
ment of his own business enterprises Mr. Donaldson yet 
found time to devote to the interests of the city of his adop- 
tion. His civic spirit and interest was keen and he gave his 
time freely to anything which he considered for the good of 
the community. He was very prominent in the Business 
Men's Union of Minneapolis and for a long time was chair- 
man of the executive committee of this organization. This 
was a voluntary association of business men for the purpose 
of promoting the manufacturing and jobbing interests of the 
city and Mr. Donaldson entered into it with heart and soul. 

His business life did not isolate him from the social life 
of tlie city. Like all men of tremendous energy he liked to 
play as well as work. He was particularly active in the 
Caledonian Society and was the first chief of this organiza- 
tion in Minneapolis, and was associated with Mr. Forgan, 
banker of Chicago. 

The family life in the Donaldson household was ideal. The 
social life of each member of the family was shared by all 
and there was found in this home what has unfortunately 
grown unfashionable of late years, the real family circle 
where the interests of one are the interests of all. Mr. 
Donaldson built a beautiful home near the Lake of the Isles 
not many years before he died and he bought a villa at Lake 
Minnetonka for a summer home for the family. 



302 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Mr. Donaldson was an active member of the Westminster 
Presbyterian Church, and for many years a trustee of that 
society. 

He was instrumental in selling the old building at the 
corner of Nicollet avenue and Seventh street, where the Day- 
ton store is now located, and in securing the new location 
at 12th St. and Nicollet avenue. He assisted in laying 
the corner stone, and was ever a liberal supporter of it during 
bis life time. 

Mr. Donaldson died in .January. 1897, his wife, two sons, 
and one daughter survive him. 



WILLIAJI W. EASTMAN. 



William W. Eastman was born in MinneapoliB June 22, 
1886, son of Frederick W. Eastman and grandson of William 
W. Eastman, the pioneer manufacturer, as told in a separate 
sketch. 

He was graduated from St. Luke's School, Wayne, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1905, and entering the Sheffield Scientific School at 
Yale University received his degree with the class of 1910. 
The next year he became connected with the bond department 
of the Minneapolis Trust company. In January, 1912, he 
started in business for himself and later was incorporated as 
William W. Eastman Company, with a capital stock of $100,- 
000, and is proving an important factor in the commercial life 
of Minneapolis. 

He is a member of the Minneapolis, Minikahda and Lafayette 
clubs, and of the St. Paul University club. He was married 
February 18, 1913, and now has a son, William W. East- 
man, Jr. All duties of good citizenship receive his careful 
attention, and he is a zealous Supporter of undertakings 
involving wholesome advancement and enduring welfare. 



GUSTAVE F. EWE. 



Gustave F. Ewe, a prominent member and former president 
of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, was born at La 
Crosse, Wisconsin, May, 1863. His father, Otto Ewe, was a 
native of Berlin, Germany, and came to America in 1850, 
locating at La Crosse in the same year and establishing him- 
self as a grain merchant. His son, Gustave, was therefore 
acquainted with grain handling from boyhood, and after 
leaving the La Crosse public schools, where he received his 
education, he began active participation in his father's business 
and for thirty-four years has devoted himself exclusively to 
this line. His first position was with the Cargill Elevator 
Company as grain agent. He served in this capacity for eight 
years and then became grain auditor for the same company. 
In 1888 he came to Minneapolis, wliere he continued in the 
employ of the Cargill Elevator Company until he became 
associated with the Van Dusen-Harrington Company, of which 
he is now vice-president and one of the active managers. He 
is also vice-president of the G. W. Van Dusen Company, the 
National Elevator Company, the Interstate Grain Company, 
and the Atlas Elevator Company, all organizations that are 
affiliated with the Van Dusen-Harrington Company. Through 
his life-long application and successful business career he has 
come to be regarded as an expert in all lines pertaining to his 



field of occupation and in the business circles of the city. Dur- 
ing tlie many years of his membership of the Chamber of 
Commerce he has held numerous responsible positions; chair- 
man of the board of appeal and of the committee on arbitra- 
tion; in 1892, elected to the board of directors, serving as a 
member of that body for seven years; elected president of the 
Chamber of Commerce for the term of 1909 to 1910. Mr. Ewe 
was married in 1891 to Miss .Julia Molitor and they have four 
children, Willie F'rank, Clark W., Laura and Caroline. Mr. 
Ewe is a Shriner and has attained to the highest rank in 
Masonry. He is a member of the Minneapolis club, the Mini- 
kahda club and other leading social organizations. 



CHARLES A. ERDMANN, M. D. 

Though it is a far cry from the vocation of a skilled 
mechanic to the profession of a surgeon, it is generally 
accepted as a fact by his most intimate friends that Dr. 
Charles Andrew Erdmann inherited from his father, a 
mechanic, his love for exact knowledge and for research work 
which has made him recognized as one of the foremost 
anatomists of the West if not of the entire United States. 
Indeed, even before he had received his degree as Doctor of 
Medicine at the age of twenty- seven years, he was looked 
upon as one of the men of great promise among those about 
to enter into the practice of his profession. His early years 
had been spent in Wisconsin; he was born in Milwaukee 
August 3, 1866, and his father, Andrew Erdmann, had guided 
him to his schooling in the public schools of Milwaukee and to 
his academic course in the University of Wisconsin, from which 
he was graduated. He came to Minnesota for his course 
in medicine, and received his doctor's diploma there in 1893, 
from the College of Medicine of the University of Minnesota. 
From there he went, to round out his medical education, to 
the universities and clinics of Berlin and Vienna. Returning, 
Dr. Erdmann was at once appointed demonstrator of 
anatomy in the college from which he had been graduated, 
and he held this position from 1894 to 1899. when he was ele- 
vated to a full profes-sorship of anatomy. 

Dr. Erdmann has not limited his interests to the confines 
of his profession or of his college, but has figured actively in 
movements directed toward the civic and social betterment 
of the city and state. While he was still in the University as 
a student he served as deputy coroner of Hennepin county. 
He also took a leading part in the lodge work of several 
secret societies and belongs to several civic and non-profes- 
sional organizations. He is a member of the American Medical 
Association, a Fellow of the American Association .a. Science, 
the American Association of Anatomists, belongs to the 
Minnesota State Medical Society and to the Hennepin County 
Medical Association. 

In 1896 Dr. Erdmann married Miss Corollne Edger. They 
have three children, Edgar, Elizabeth and Robert. 



WALTER DONAI.D DOUGLAS. 

The people of modern days are in the habit of saying 
much of the heroic ages in human history, overlooking the 
fact that to render any age, or time, or place one of heroism 




-> 



X-, 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



303 



nothing is needed but heroic souls, and such will always find 
crises to try their edge. The venerable Past has its les- 
sons, doubtless, and well is it for those who master and heed 
them. But were it otherwise, the Present has themes enough 
of ennobling interest to employ all our faculties, to engross 
all our thoughts, save as they should contemplate the still 
vaster and grander Hereafter. Do any speak to us of Grecian 
or Roman heroism? They say well. But genius died not 
with Greece, and heroism has scarcely a recorded achievement 
which our own age, our own country, cannot parallel, in 
loftiness at least, if not in kind. 

One shining case in point, in which the residents of Minne- 
apolis are deeply interested and for which they are pro- 
foundly grateful, is the heroic stand taken by the late Walter 
D. Douglas, one of their most prominent and useful men, in 
the terrible Titanic disaster, in which he lost his life. They 
all most seriously deplore his untimely and tragic death, but 
the manner in which he met it has gone a long way toward 
reconciling them to his fate. For by that he established a 
record for manliness of the highest character among their 
citizens, and gave the community of his home a nation-wide 
reputation in a new field of comment and commendation, or 
one, at least, in which they had before planted no specifically 
illustrious monuments. 

Mr. Douglas had a chance to save his life by getting into 
one of the later boats, and was urged to do so. But he 
resolutely put away his opportunity, declaring that he 
"wouldn't be a man if he entered one of the small boats 
while there was a woman left on board the doomed ship." 
At the same time, in obedience to the attributes and dictates 
of his high character and elevated manhood, he took an active 
part in helping the crew of the sinking vessel place the 
women and children on the life boats, aiding in loading and 
lowering the very last one of them. Then his last chance 
was gone, and lie resolutely looked death in the face and met 
it calmly. Within an hour afterward he went down with 
the stricken giant of the sea. 

"Tliat is what we would have expected," said many of his 
fellow citizens of Minneapolis, when they heard the story, 
and George F. Piper, for many years a business associate of 
Mr. Douglas, tersely expressed the general sentiment of the 
community in an interview published in the Minneapolis 
papers at the time. Mr. Piper said: "Walter Douglas could 
not have died any other way. He was heroism itself, and 
his sincere respect for women and his natural bravery were 
dominant features of his character. I should have been sur- 
prised had Walter Douglas conducted himself in any other 
way than he did on the sinking Titanic." 

Mr. Douglas was born at Waterloo, Iowa, in 1861, and was 
a son of George and Margaret (Boyd) Douglas, the former 
a native of Scotland and the latter of Belfast, Ireland. They 
were married in the United States and came West, to Dixon, 
Illinois, soon afterward. There the father was a contractor 
on the Northwestern Railroad for a time. The family then 
moved to Waterloo, Iowa, and afterward to Cedar Rapids in 
that state, where the father died. 

The son obtained his education in the common and high 
schools and at Shattuck Military Academy. He began his 
business career in association with his father in what was 
known as Douglas & Stuart, later the American Cereals 
company, which manufactured Quaker oats, the celebrated 
breakfast food. Some time later, with his brother, George 
B. Douglas, he organized the Douglas Starch company in 



Cedar Rapids, with which he was connected until his death. 
After his removal to Minneapolis in 1895 he became con- 
nected with the manufacture of linseed oil, conducting the 
business under the name of Douglas & Co., and was 
also connected with the Midland Linseed Oil company, of 
which E. C. Warner was president. 

The oil business of the Douglas company was sold to the 
American Linseed Oil company in 1899, when Mr. Douglas 
became a partner in the grain firm of Piper, Johnson & Case, 
with which he was connected until January 1, 1912, when he 
retired, but still maintained many business interests in asso- 
ciation with George F. Piper and E. C. Warner. His mind 
was broad and active, and required many business enterprises 
to occupy it, and he gave it full scope. 

Among other industrial and mercantile institutions with 
which Mr. Douglas was prominently connected were the 
Canadian Elevator company, the Monarch Lumber company, 
and several other companies in the Dominion; the Saskatche- 
wan Valley Land company, which owned, at one time, three 
million acres in the province of the same name; the Empire 
Elevator company of Fort William, Ontario, of which he was 
a director and member of the executive board, and the 
Quaker Oats company, in which he also served as a member 
of its executive board. In addition he was a director of the 
First National Bank of Minneapolis for years. 

Mr. Douglas was married in Iowa on May 19, 1884, to 
Miss Lulu Camp, a daughter of Edward L. Camp, a highly 
respected resident of that state. By this marriage he be- 
came the father of two sons, Edward B. and George C, both 
of whom are living. Tlieir mother died in December, 1899. 
He was again married Nov. 6, 1907, to Mahala Dutton, who 
was rescued from the Titanic, and they all reside in Minne- 
apolis. The father was a Democrat in his political affilia- 
tion early in life, but later threw off all party ties and became 
independent of them. In church connection he was a Pres- 
byterian and devotedly serviceable to the congregation to 
which he belonged, as he was in promoting good works of 
every kind. 

This zealous, public-spirited and highly useful citizen in 
life and radiant hero in death was known in Minneapolis as 
an undemonstrative and retiring man. It was not his custom 
to let his left hand know what his right hand did, and so, 
although liis private benefactions to the needy or struggling 
were large, the world knew little or nothing of them. Neither 
was he ever known to boast of his business successes or 
large accumulations of wealth. He was one of the richest 
men in his home city, but this was known only to a few of 
his most intimate associates, although his operations in busi- 
ness extended over several states and were large in Canada. 

Mr. Douglas' body was picked up after the wreck of the 
Titanic and conveyed to Minneapolis, and it was buried in 
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in May, 1912. His useful life ended on 
April 15, and his untimely and tragical death at the age of 
fifty years ended a brilliant business career, an exalted citi- 
zenship and a record of general usefulness that would be 
creditable to any man or any community in any age of the 
world. High tributes were paid to the excellence of his 
character by every public voice, and the heroism he displayed 
in his death received new tributes of praise. 

IN MEMORIAM. 

The directors of the First National Bank of Minneapolis, 
are shocked and grieved by the tragic death of one of our 



304 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



number. Our friend and fellow-associate. Walter D. Douglas, 
embarked upon the steamship "Titanic", sailing from South- 
ampton April 10th. for the port of New York, and on the 
night of April 15th, while on its course in the North Atlantic, 
the ship was brought into violent collision with an iceberg, 
rendering her absolutely hel|)le3s. The life-boats were manned, 
and in one of these, Mr. Douglas was urged to escape, but 
this he steadfastly refused to do while women were to be 
saved, choosing to face death with honor, which he bravely 
and heroically did by the going down of the ship. Some 
mitigation of this most sad and tragic death of our friend 
and associate is derived from the fact that his body has since 
been reclaimed from the ocean, and will find suitable sepul- 
ture among his own family. 

And now while pained and sorrowing for the loss of one 
beloved by us all, we desire to honor his memory, and to 
reverence the noble heroism of his deatli ; Therefore, 

Resolved, That we bear willing testimony to our apprecia- 
tion of him in all the walks of life; as a citizen ever true 
and faithful; in business affairs acute, unerring, successful 
and honorable, his word absolute verity: as an associate in 
our Board, always active, zealous, sound in judgment and 
helpful; as a friend, not fulsome, but ever courteous, kind, 
generous and dependable; as a man above reproach, of high 
culture, ripe in all the elements of a true manhood, and in 
his last great hour of trial, proved the sublimity of heroism 
which can only be the outgrowth of such a manhood. 

Resolved, That we extend to the bereaved family assur- 
ance of our most profound sorrow and sympathy. 

Resolved, That in adopting this testimonial we express our 
reverence for the memory of our friend and associate by 
rising. 

Respectfully submitted, 

.J. B. GILFILLAN, 
WM. A. LANCASTER, 
FREDERICK B. WELLS, 

Committee. 

May 4, 1912. 

The universal feeling was that "the elements were so 
mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all 
the world. This was a man!" 



LESTER BUSHNELL ELWOOD. 

The late Lester B. Elwood, long one of the leading real 
estate and insurance men of Minneapolis, who died here on 
October 3, 1911, after a residence in this city of thirty-six 
years, was born in Rochester, New York, on October 19, 1856, 
the son of E. P. Elwood, a banker, and a nephew of S. Dow 
Elwood, the founder and president of the Wayne County 
Savings Bank of Detroit, Michigan. He was educated at 
Oneida Seminary, state of New York, and came to Minne- 
apolis at the age of nineteen. He came to this city to join 
Elwood S. Corser in the real estate, investment and insurance 
business, and was associated with him in business from the 
time of his arrival until his death. Mr. Corser is one of the 
oldest real estate men in Minneapolis, and the Corser Invest- 
ment company, which he founded, is one of the city's most 
prominent and successful business institutions. 

When Mr. Elwood's father died his uncle in Detroit, Michi- 
gan, wished to adopt the son, but his mother could not bring 



herself to consent to the proposed arrangement. So the 
destiny of the youth was- directed into a different channel, 
but it brought him an honorable and triumphant business 
career, which he would probably have worked out in any 
situation or amid any surroundings. He became a jiartner 
of Mr. Corser in business, and when the Corser Investment 
company was organized he was chosen its vice president. 
From the time of his arrival in the city he was a great 
believer in its future and devoted to its advancement and 
improvement. He laid out several additions to the city and 
Elwood avenue was named in his honor. 

In political faith Mr. Elwood was an ardent Democrat of 
the old school, and frequently served as a delegate to the 
state and national conventions of his party. He was a firm 
believer in Hon. William J. Bryan, and a devoted friend of 
Governor John A. Johnson, of this state, who appointed him 
a member of the board of equalization, on which he rendered 
the state valuable service. He was also very active in the 
Minikahda club, the purchaser of all its property and in- 
fluential in its councils. In addition he belonged to the 
Minneapolis club, the Minnesota club of St. Paul and the 
Sons of Veterans of the American Revolution. His religious 
affiliation was with Plymouth Congregational church, and in 
his early life he was a singer in the choir of the church he 
attended, and always a great lover of music. 

Mr. Elwood was a studious and judicious reader, but gave 
his attention to nothing in this way but the old standard 
authors. He was noted for his genial wit, and also for sharp 
and caustic sarcasm when occasion required the use of it. 
He was devoted to his business, but was also fond of fishing 
and other outdoor sports, and intensely enjoyed his home life. 
He built the house in which he lived before his marriage. It 
was far out and there were few residents in the neighborhood 
at the time. But he had a wide choice of locations and chose 
this one in preference to all others. It became in a short 
time one of the best in the city. The lot is now No. 400 
Ridgewood avenue. 

On Oct. 23, 1890, Mr. Elwood was married to Miss Deda 
Mealey, of Monticello, a sister of Mrs. R. R. Rand and Mrs. 
J. 0. P. Wheelwright. Her parents settled at Monticello, 
Minnesota, in the early fifties, when there was but a little 
tavern at St. Anthony and not a house on the West Side. 
They both died at Monticello, where the father was a 
merchant and banker, and where they had full experience in 
all frontier conditions. They were real pioneers and the last 
survivors of the first settlers of Monticello. Mrs. Elwood 
was educated at Rockford College, Illinois. She is still liv- 
ing. Two children were born of the union: Catherine P., 
who is a student at Bryn Mawr, class of 1915, and Lester, 
who is preparing for Y'ale University at Phillips-.\ndover 
Seminarv. at Andover, Massachusetts. 



wiijLiam henry FRUEN. 



Among Minncapoli's men whose lives have carried important 
influence in business, political and religious circles is he whose 
name heads this sketch, now living retired in the enjoyment 
of well earned rest, though his brain is still keen in its 
activity on all questions of the day. 

Mr. Fruen was born at Salisbury. England. .July 15, 1845; 
and served a regular apprenticeship as a machinist. Com- 



HISTORY OF MlxNNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



305 



ill" to the United States in June, 1865, he found employment 
with the Boston Screw Company, and there learned all the 
detail of the manufacture of screws and of the making of 
screw machinery. He made patterns for several new ma- 
chines and installed them, also becoming a stockholder in 
the Company. In those years fhe American Screw Com- 
pany was buying up the smaller shops and forming a mo- 
nopoly, the Boston Company being thus absorbed. 

In 1870 Mr. Fruen visited St. Paul — had then never heard 
of Minneapolis — but soon secured a repair and machine shop 
in the milling district of Minneapolis. The new process of 
flour manufacture was being introduced; and his skill was 
Bought to make patterns and build new machinery. With the 
idea of screw manufactory in mind he built twenty-five ma- 
chines; and, in 1874, built a dam on Bassets Creek near where 
Western Avenue crosses it and erected a plant where he made 
8,000 gross of screws, most of which were Sold to T. B. Janney 
& Co. R. P. Russell and M. J. Mendenhall were original part- 
ners, but both were so crippled by financial depression that 
the burden fell wholly upon Fi-uen, who found it difficult 
to enlist capital, so that it took some years to get well estab- 
lished. The American Screw Company had paid 200% divi- 
dends which were now reduced to zero. Screws which had 
sold at 90 cents per gross were selling at 19 cents ; and, 
when, in 1878, the American Company sought to buy Fruen's 
plant, he contracted not to reengage in the manufacture nor 
to teach others how to make screw machinery. While he 
had not been able to secure capital, and was at times almost 
destitute, he had hosts of friends who appreciated his struggle: 
and, once at least, they filled his buggy with provisions, and 
thus gave him substantial as well as moral support. After 
the historic mill explosion, his services were sought to pro- 
vide means to prevent a recurrence, one being an alarm bell 
to indicate shortage of flow of grain between the mill stones 
and stop the machinery before the surfaces would be injured. 
Speed of machinery also needed regulation and in 1878 he 
secured patents on a Water Wheel Governor; which, within 
a year, had replaced all other such devices in Minneapolis; 
although, to get his first Governor into use he had to give 
it to one of the mills. His old screw factory was now con- 
verted into a manufactory of these governors. These ma- 
chines which automatically regulated the speed of water 
wheels, regardless of the head of water, were shipped into 
many foreign countries including England, Japan and Ar- 
gentine. His industry demanded his attention largely till 
1890. and proved a financial success, making him an im- 
portant factor in business circles. Mr. Fruen is doubtless 
best known in connection with the supply of spring water 
to Minneapolis. Fine springs of purest water near his 
factory began to be utilized about 1882 for this purpose, 
H. W. Phelps being a partner in the venture. A franchise 
was asked for to lay mains to bring the water to the heart 
of the city and to supply users on the route. .John T. West 
and Thomas Lowry being associates. But one dissenting 
vote opposed, but Mayor Pillsbury vetoed it, the rates 
a.sked by Mr. Phelps not being satisfactory even to his own 
associates. In a second efifort Philip Winston was a part- 
ner: and, still later a third attempt was made, Mr. Winston 
then being mayor; but not then interested, and who vetoed 
it. Opposition developed, the papers especially 'calling the 
promoters grafters, fakers, etc. In 1885 in company with 
Phelps they began to deliver water in jugs; and. in a few 
months Mr. Fruen became solo owner. An ice plant was 



added and ever since the business has grown till it has now 
assumed immense proportions. In 1896 Mr. Fruen retired, 
liis son. Wm. H. Fruen, becoming the head of the business now 
known as the Glenwood-lnglewood Company. 

The Fruen Cereal Company is another project started by 
Wm. F. Fruen and H. W. Phelps in 1896, then making the 
Pettijohn Breakfast Food. Mr. Phelps retired from this plant 
some years since, Mr. F'rueu continuing till this was turned 
over to his children, the original screw factory being utilized. 

Mr. Fruen's house stands on an elevation on the Bank of 
Bassett's Creek, and here his fertile brain is occupied with 
history, politics, philosophy, sociology and religion. His ex- 
perience as a manufacturer made him an ardent free trader, 
his views appearing in pamiihlets, which have had some in- 
fluence in leading the political thought of agricultured states 
away from the old protection fetich, his story of the Minne- 
sota Congressman having had a wide circulation. In re- 
ligion he is a member of the First Baptist Church; but. in 
this as in other matters he is not bound by other's views, 
but is a free thinker, holding liberal ideas, and being espe- 
cially opposed to the modem commercialized religion or the 
adherence to Mosaic law, holding that we live under more 
advanced conditions. With fullest faith in American insti- 
tutions the love of country has impelled him at times to 
break forth in song in praise of Patriotism. 



MANLEY L. FOSSEEN. 



Recognized as among the foremost members of the upper 
house of the Minnesota legislature. Hon. Manley L. Fos- 
seen has come to be looked upon as a leader in constructive 
legislation. Schooled in the law by virtue of his practice and 
because of his long service as a member of the law-making 
body. Senator Fosseen is looked to as an authority among 
the framers of legislation tending to build for the sociological 
betterment of mankind. Indeed, it is in this particular phase 
of law-making that he has won high place, not only among 
his colleagues of the legislature, but among builders for 
better conditions of society in other states. 

He was educated in the public schools of Minneapolis and 
in Dixon College, Dixon, Illinois. He was graduated from 
the Law School of the University of Minnesota in 1895, 
after a course that was marked by a strong show of ability 
in consideration of aff'airs of state. He at once began active 
pra'etiee of his profession, and has since enjoyed an extensive 
and satisfactory general practice. 

Ever an ardent Republican, Senator FoSseen has been 
found one of the most enthusiastic workers in the party. 
He has been a delegate to and participant in almost innu- 
merable party conventions and conferences, and he has been 
as well a strenuous worker in the committees which have had 
to do with the campaigns. In 1901 Senator Fosseen was a 
member of the Hennepin County Republican Central Com- 
mittee, and one of three in charge of the speakership bureau. 
His signal ability there won for him the support of a great 
number of the leaders, to the end that he became a candi- 
date for and was elected to the lower house of the legis- 
lature in 1902, representing the Forty-second District, in the 
session of 1903. Ever since he has served continuously in 
one or the other of the two houses. He was elected to the 
state senate in 1906, and has continued in that office, serving 



306 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



in the sessions of 1907, 1909, 1911, and 1913, as well as in 
the Special session of 1912. 

The district which Senator Fossecn represents is a strong 
labor district, and so the senator has been the author of 
much constructive legislation that would naturally arise 
from the exhaustive study of labor problems which was 
prompted by his representing the strongest labor district in 
Minnesota. Thus is he looked up to as the man who made 
possible through legislation the evening schools which . are 
a boon to a great number of the working people, including 
free books and supplies which go with those evening schools. 
He is an untiring worker for the betterment of the schools, 
and it is he to whom the children who will be the citizens 
of the future are indebted for the statute which forbids 
use of basement rooms as school rooms. 

Senator Fosseen has taken a great interest in the prac- 
tice of law, and in the methods of procedure in the courts. 
His experience has thus taught him of the abuses, and so 
it came about that among other laws to his credit there is 
one which requires foreign insurance companies to try all 
cases affecting them in the state courts, instead of taking 
them to federal courts in states other than that in which 
tlie litigation originates. As a member of the judiciary com- 
mittee of the state senate Mr. FosSeen has taken a prominent 
part in the furthering of legislation. So, too, his research 
into matters having to do with the labor questions has been 
recognized, and he was chairman of the labor committee in the 
session of 1909, and a member of a sub-committee of five in 
1911 to study the labor question with reference to compensa- 
tion, hours, etc. Tlie conclusions of this special sub-com- 
mittee led to the introduction in this and subsequent sessions, 
of bills pertaining to the matter. These bills, which he helped 
largely in drawing, embodied the best of labor legislation from 
other states. 

For two years or more following the session of 1911 Sena- 
tor Fosseen was a member of a joint commission with 
legislators from Wisconsin, engaged in an endeavor to 
straigliten out disputes of long standing over the boundary 
lines of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The summer of 1912 was 
devoted largely to personal study of the question, and in ob- 
servation, the committee being assisted by the attorney 
general from each state. The chief controversy, over the 
boundary line in St. Louis bay, remained unsettled. But the 
work of Senator Fosseen is expected to go far toward ending 
the dispute over the boundary line in Lake Pepin. 

Among important pieces of legislation introduced by him 
in the legislature was the first attempt at regulation of cold 
storage. He also introduced the first bill providing for 
policewomen in Minnesota. The most advanced of the bills 
providing for sterilization of criminals and defectives — a 
measure strongly urged by criminologists, sociologists, and 
others as tending to eliminate re-creation of criminal tenden- 
cies — was introduced by Senator Fossen. And that he held 
a high relation in respect to his fitness for directing and 
guiding legislation is evidenced in the fact that he was chair- 
man of the so-called "reception committee" of the senate in 
the special session of 1912 — ^a session called for a specific 
purpose, which could best be furthered by having tlie recep- 
tion committee pass on all measures introduced. It was a 
committee which was all-powerful, and its chairman was highly 
complimented on his direction of its proceedings. 

Senator Fosseen is a native of Illinois. He was born in 
Leland in that state December 10, 1869. His father is Osman 



Fosseen, who is now living, retired, in Minneapolis. Mr. 
F'osseen was married in 1897 to Carrie S. Jorgens of Minne- 
apolis, and they have two children, Freeman F. and Rolf 0. L. 
Mr. Fosseen is active in social and civic organizations, and is 
a director of the Citizens' State bank as well as its counsel. 



JACOB F. TOURTELLOTTE, M. D. 

A publication of this nature exercises its most important 
function when it takes cognizance, through the medium of 
proper memorial tribute, of the character and achievements 
of so noble and distinguished a citizen as the late Dr. Tourtel- 
lotte, who established his residence in Minnesota more than 
forty years ago and whose benignant influence here extended 
in many directions. He ever stood exponent of the most 
leal and loj'al citizenship and was a gracious, kindly per- 
sonality whose memory will long be cherished and venerated 
in the great state in which he long lived and labored to 
goodly ends. The career of Dr. Tourtellotte was one of 
varied and interesting order, and he gained prestige not only 
as an able representative of the medical profession but also 
as a man of affairs. His life was marked by signal purity 
of purpose and a high sense of stewardship. 

Dr. Jacob Francis Tourtellotte was born at Thompson, 
Windham county, Connecticut, on the 26th of December, 
1835, and at his beautiful home in the city of Minneapolis, 
Minnesota, he was summoned to the life eternal on the 11th 
of September, 1912, in the fulness of years and well earned 
honors. He was a scion of a family that was founded in 
America in the colonial era of our national history and the 
lineage is traced back to sterling French origin. He was one 
of four brothers, all of whom attained to distinction in con- 
nection with the activities and responsibilities of life. Gen. 
John E. Tourtellotte, one of the brothers was breveted at the 
close of the war Brigadier General. He gave half of his fortune 
to his brother, the Doctor. The other brothers were Dr. 
Augustus and Monroe L. 

To the common schools of his native state Dr. Jacob F. 
Tourtellotte was indebted for his early educational discipline, 
which was supplemented by an effective course in a normal 
or teachers' school at Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He proved 
an able and popular representative of the pedagogic profes- 
sion wlien a young man, and in addition to serving as prin- 
cipal of public schools at Dudley and Oxford, Massachusetts, 
he also taught one year in the public schools of Ohio. With 
alert and receptive mind, and high ambition, Dr. Tourtellotte 
finally entered with characteristic vigor and earnestness upon 
the work of preparing himself for the exacting and humane 
profession which he signally dignified and honored by his 
character and services. He finally entered tlie College of 
Physicians & Surgeons in the city of New York, this being 
now the medical department of Columbia University, and in 
this great institution he was graduated in 1861, with the 
degree of Doctor of Medicine. His intrinsic loyalty and 
patriotism forthwith came into evidence, as the Civil war 
had been precipitated upon a divided nation. Immediately 
after his graduation he tendered his aid in defense of the 
Union and was assigned to duty as naval surgeon. He gave 
himself with all of devotion to his responsible duties and 
continued in active service in the navy department during 
virtually the entire period of the great conflict through which 




rf'i ' (X'lA-iAyUy\yO'-6Ci_ 




^/^w/^^^^M^ 




HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COrNTY, MIXNKSOTA 



307 



the inti'grity of tlic iiiitioii was pcrpctuiitcd, liis sorvicc 
having been on three dilFerent war vessels. 

At the close of the war Dr. Tourtellotte Continued in the 
naval service of the government and was assigned to duty 
as surgeon on the "Nyack," on which vessel he proceeded to 
Valparaiso, Chili, where he remained stationed for three 
years. In the meanwhile he became alfected wifli an organic 
disorder of the heart and the same was emphasized by his 
marked increase in weight. Under these conditions he found 
it imperative to resign his |)Osition in the naval service, and 
as soon as possible he rejoined his wife, who had remained 
in the city of New York. Skilled physicians gave to Dr. 
Tourtellotte the assurance that his physical condition was 
such that he could hope to live but a short period if he re- 
mained in the climate of the eastern states, and accordingly, 
in the spring of 1870. he came with his wife to Minnesota 
and established his residence at Winona. His selection of a 
home in this state having been largely inlluenced by the fact 
that one of his brothers was at that time living at LaCrosse, 
Wisconsin, and had strongly advocated the desirability ol 
this change. 

Having at his command considerable financial resources, 
including the $20,000 received as marriage dower by his 
devoted wife, Dr. Tourtellotte found it possible and expedient 
to establish himself in the private banking business at 
Winona, and with this important line of enterprise he con- 
tinued to be actively and successfully identified for a period 
of fully twenty years. He showed much discretion and ma- 
ture judgment as a financier and through his careful and 
judicious investments in Minnesota real estate he added 
materially to his already substantial fortune. He likewise 
made circumspect investigation in the e.\ten<ling of financial 
loans, and his work in looking up real estate in this line 
kept him niuih in the open air. so that his health greatly 
improved, though he found it necessary throughout the residue 
of his life to observe the most careful and punctilious habits, 
with rigid and abstemious diet and constant self-denial in 
manifold other ways. He thus prolonged his life to a goodly 
old age, though he had originally been admonished that his 
tenure of life must be most precarious at all times. His 
physical condition made it inconsistent for him to follow the 
Work of his profession, but his fine power found other me- 
diums for useful and worthy action, and he proved one of the 
world's productive workers, with good will and sympathy 
for all mankind and with a constant desire to be of service 
to his fellow men. It stands in evidence of his wisdom and 
great self-control that he lived for forty years after his 
retirement from the navy and contrary to the predictions of 
the best medical authorities. In his operations as a banker 
the Doctor never suffered loss through loans or investments 
made by him and never dispossessed any man of a home, his 
dominating ideal being to do all in his power to aid others, 
and his trust having thus been inviolable. He was known and 
honored as one of the leading business men and influential 
citizens of Winona, to the development and upbuilding of 
which he contributed in generous measure. There he con- 
tinued to reside until 18it2, when, after the death of her 
father, Mrs. Tourtellotte manifested a desire to seek a home 
in a metropolitan center in which could be found broader 
and more inviting social advantages. After making investi- 
gations in the city of St. Paul, where they found no residence 
property which met with their tastes and approval in full. 
Dr. and Mrs. Tourtellotte came to Minneapolis, where they 



were most fortunate in si-curing the beautiful residence still 
occupied by the widow. This magnitieent home is situated 
on West IStli street, facing lyoring park. 

Dr. Tourtellotte passed the gentle twilight of his life, in 
the loving companionship of the wife of his youth and amid 
associations that were in every res[>ect ideal. Realizing how 
precarious was his hold upon life. Dr. Tourtellotte denied 
himself the many social amentities in which he would other- 
wise have found satisfaction. At all times Mrs. Tourtellotte 
subordinated all other interests to thoughtful care and min- 
istration awarded to her invalid husband during the later 
years of his life, and mutual sympathy, aspiration and devo- 
tion characterized their entire wedded life, so that its mem- 
ories are hallowed to the one who survives and who finds her 
greatest measure of consolation and compensation in the 
memories of their long and ideal companionship. 

After coming to Minneapolis Dr. Tourtellotte made most 
judicious investments in central realty, and with the passing 
of years these properties have become very valuable, the well 
improved buildings being devoted to stores and ollices and 
thus yielding a substantial income to Mrs. Tourtellotte. 

With an intense desire to do somefliing worthy for their 
childhood home, the attractive little city of Thompson, Con- 
necticut, Dr. and Mrs. Tourtellotte gave the matter careful 
and earnest consideration and finally decided to erect as a 
memorial the handsome high-school building which now graces 
and honors the town and stands as an enduring monument 
to their generosity and wisdom. The selection of a site foi 
the new building was made by Mrs. Tourtellotte, as her bus- 
band was too enfeebled to make the requisite journey to th<! 
old home, and popular opinion in Thompson now fully up- 
holds the wise selection made by Mrs. Tourtellotte, the 
beautiful building standing upon a commanding elevation and 
affording a (ine view over the attractive valley, as well as a 
sight of tlie mills erected and long operated by the father ol 
Mrs. Tourtellotte. The Tourtellotte Memorial High School 
was completed in 1909 and is a model in architecture and all 
its provisions for effective service in behalf of popular edu- 
cation. The children of the mill operatives are here given 
admirable opportunities to tit themselves for the duties and 
responsibilities of life and speiial facilities have been gener- 
ously provided for heightening appreciation for those things 
that represent the higher ideals of human existence. Tht 
specially unique feature of the building is its memorial room, 
which is thrown open to the public on the first Sunday ol 
each month and which has proved a strong educational in- 
fluence, as well as a means of entertainment. In this room 
are placed nmny family heirlooms of both the Tourtellotte 
and Arnold families, of which latter Mrs. Tourtellotte is a 
representative, besides excellent family portraits and other 
works of art executed by well known masters. It may be 
understood, without further details, that these fine specimens 
of sculpture and painting give to the people of the little 
New England city many of the advantages of the great art 
centers and prove a great educational force in the community. 
The village of Thompson is the place of summer homes for 
many prominent an<l influential lioston and New York fam- 
ilies and it is one of the picturesque and beautiful towns 
that contribute to the manifold charms of New England, 
fhat gracious cradle of much of our national history. 

Dr. Tourtellotte was a man of broad and well-fortified 
opinions and great intellectual vitality. Uc was modest ond 
retiring by nature, signally free from bigotry and intolerance, 



308 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



and guided and ordered his life upon the loftiest plane of 
integrity and honor. He was mindful of those in affliction 
or distress and his private benevolences wire many, but ever 
rendered with characteristic lack of ostentation, so that he 
avoided notoriety. One old lady, a youthful friend of his 
mother, received from his hands for many years a virtual pen- 
sion, and he considered it a privilege to extend to her this 
kindly and merited aid. A similar benefice has been given to 
this gentle and venerable woman by Mrs. Tourtellotte since the 
death of her honored luisband, and one of her valued possessions 
is a tender and thankful letter written to her by the one whose 
life, at extreme age, has been illumined and made thankful by 
the timely and generous aid thus extended. In politics Dr. 
Tourtellotte gave his allegiance to the Republican party and 
his religious faith, which dominated him in all the relations 
of life, was that of the Baptist church. The mortal remains 
of this honored citizen were laid to rest beside those of his 
two and only children, in the beautiful Sylvan cemetery at 
Winona, and he was the last of his immediate family, the 
name of which he dignified and ennobled by his character and 
services. Mrs. Tourtellotte has planned and is now executing 
her gracious design of providing in Minneapolis a worthy 
and enduring memorial to her husband, and this is to be a 
home for the deaconess nurses of the M. E. Church. The 
building will cover half a block of land and will be a model 
in design and appointments, even as it will prove a generous 
and noble contribution to the humanitarian influences work- 
ing in the community. Mi*s. Tourtellotte is a woman of most 
gracious personality and marked culture, with admirable 
social proclivities, so that she is naturally a loved and valued 
factor in the representative social activities of her liome 
city, which is endeared to her by the hallowed memories and 
associations of past years as well as by the pleasing relations 
of the present time. 

On the 36th of .Tune. 1865, was solemnized the marriage 
of Dr. Tourtellotte to Miss Harriet Arnold, who was born at 
Thompson, Conn., and whose father, William 8. Arnold, was 
a wealthy cotton manufacturer and influential and honored 
citizen of Connecticut. Mr. Arnold was an ardent abolitionist 
and contributed freely to the cause. He was a leader in the 
movement to erect a statue of William Loyd Garrison on 
Commonwealth avenue, Boston. Mr. Arnold also became iden- 
tified with enterprises that conserved development and progress 
in the state of Minnesota, where he was prominently concerned 
in the building of the Southern Minnesota Railroad, of which 
his friend Van Horn, the well known railroad man, was at 
the head, as president of the company. When Mrs. Tourtel- 
lotte was fifteen years of age she entered a coeducational 
boarding school at Dudley, Mass., and there she formed the 
acquaintance of her future husband. Their mutual attraction 
ripened into a tender and abiding love, and this glorified and 
idealized their companionship during the long years of their 
wedded life, their marriage having been solemnized imme- 
diately after the close of the war. Two children were bom 
to them, Harriet Lucina Mary, died in 1870 aged one year 
and Francis Harriett, born in 1874, died in 1884. In all 
that represents the best values of life Mrs. Tourtellotte 
feels that she has been graciously endowed, and she has 
shown her appreciation through the medium of kindly 
thoughts and kindly deeds, so that th£ later years bear their 
fruitage in loving friendships and pleasing memories, — the 
elements wliich make for compensation and happiness. 



GUY A. THOMAS. 

Guy A. Thomas, one of the directors and department man- 
agers of tlie Washburn-Crosby company, which is known and 
recognized the world over as the greatest flour milling institu- 
tion in the history of mankind, is a native of Keeseville, Es- 
sex county. New York, where his life began October 28, 1874. 
He is a son of G. T. and France's (Nimocks) Thomas, natives 
of tlie states of New Y'ork and Michigan respectively. His 
father later moving to New Orleans where he was for many 
years in the flour commission business. 

The son was educated in a private school at Fargo, North 
Dakota, and came to Minneapolis in 1887. His business career 
was then started as a newsboy. He soon afterward secured 
employment in the Washburn -Crosby company, and he has 
been connected with it ever since, serving in a number of dif- 
ferent capacities and demonstrating his efficiency and capacity 
in each to such an extent that his progress in the employ of 
tlie company has been steadily toward the top. For a num- 
ber of years he made an excellent record as a salesman for the 
company, and he is now one of its directors and managers 
in addition to being interested in all its subsidiary companies. 

In the public and civic afl'airs of Minneapolis and Hennepin 
county Mr. Thomas has always taken an earnest interest and 
an active part. He is of the Democratic faith in politics, and 
has long been a member of the State Central committee of his 
political party. He has also served as president of the Hen- 
nepin County Democratic committee. At this time (1914) he 
is one of the directors of the Minneapolis Civic and Commerce 
association and belongs to all the prominent clubs in the city. 
Mr. Thomas has always evidenced his faith in Minneapolis' 
business being a large owner in property. Fraternally he is 
a member of the Order of Elks on the roll of Minneapolis 
Lodge No. 44. 

Mr. Thomas was married in 1901 to Miss Lulu Frisk, of 
St. Paul. They have one son, Guy Thomas, Jr., now (1914) 
five years of age. The family residence is at 1600 Mount 
Curve avenue. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas take a helpful interest 
in promoting the work of all good agencies active in the 
community and are zealous in the careful performance of all 
the duties of serviceable citizenship. 



HERBERT EVERETT FAIRCHILD. 

His ancestors were of Scottish descent and came to the 
colonies early and taking a leading part in the development 
of the country in the early days. His father was S. M. Fair- 
child of New York. He was a farmer, and in 1863 he came 
west to Iowa and took 160 acres of government land, which 
he developed and cultivated for a good many years. His 
mother was Helen (Pierce) Fairchild and Herbert was one of 
five children, all but one of whom are living at the present 
time. There were tliree sons and two daughters. In 1893 
Mr. Fairchild, Sr., moved to ;\linnea|ioIis to make his home 
here. Soon afterward the mother died and the father went 
to live in Virginia. 

Herbert Everett Fairchild is the only member of the family 
who still lives here. He was born in Galena. 111., on December 
17, 1861, and he received his education in the ))ublic schools 
and graduated from the high school of F'ort Dodge. Iowa. He 
was not yet of age when he came to Miimeapolis in 1880 and 
began his active business career. He went into the drug 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COl'NTY, MINNESOTA 



.{(lit 



bu!iiii>'»:j. Kor live yi-arn lie worked at this and his industry 
and energy told in the rapid iirogress which he made, but 
the work was too fonfining and his health suffered, so in 1885 
he gave it up lor good and went into the real estate and lire 
insurance business. He was I'ortunate in making prolitaiile 
investments in Minneapolis real estate and by close application 
made the yeaiis count lor good gains in this new venture. He 
was unusually successful. It was in ISSS that hr lirst went 
into the banking prol'e»siun and he is at present pjesiilint ol 
the State Institution lor Savings. 

The profession of bunking is an exacting one; it mpiires 
in its managing ullicers unn-niitting attention, close aci|uuint- 
ance with the linancial conditions of the country and of the 
greater inlluences which affect the monetary stability in the 
country; good judgment, firmness of administration and alert- 
ness in all the daily occurring details of business, but in the 
midst of all this and in spite of his struggle for success and 
wealth he has never neglected his civic or social duties. He is 
a Republican, but the hanking business is ineoinpatible with 
political life anil seldom affords its votary time to seek political 
honors even if he were inclined. In city matters Mr. Kairchild 
is independent in his choice of candidates, and he is always 
keenly alive to the issues of the day. 

Socially, Mr. Kairchild is also active. He is a Mason ami 
a Shriner, and he belongs both to the Automobile and to the 
Commercial clubs. 

He was married in tS8T to Delia Wilson of Chicago. 



EZRA FARNSWORTH. 



Mr. Farnsworth is recognized as one of the builders of 
the city of Minneapolis. Evidences of his foresight and of 
his appreciation of the city's possibilities may be seen in 
numerous institutions that are part of the city's chief assets. 

Born in lioston .lanuary 3, 1S43, he grew to manhood in that 
city. Graduating from the high school, he at once went to 
work in the big drv goods house of Jewett-Tibbits & Co., 
for two years, and at the close of the war he engaged with 
the Parker. Wilder & Company, in which his father was a 
partner. Young Farnsworth started in at the bottom, intend- 
ing to learn the business in its every phase. 

But he was interrupted by the breaking out of the Civil 
war, and in the Fall of 1861, he enlisted as a private soldier 
in the Twenty-sixtli Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, which 
had been reorganized from the old Sixth Massachusetts 
Militia, the regiment which had shed the first blood of the 
war at Baltimore. The new regiment saw extraordinary 
•"•rvice. It was with Butler at the capture of New Orleans 
and of the forts below, and did provost guard duty in the 
tity. In 1863, then a first lieutenant, he was detailed to 
receive recruits at Boston. Tliis duty kept him in Boston 
for six months. The general in command detailed Lieutenant 
Farnsworth ami other minor ofllcers to drill the recruits. He 
much preferred active service and rejoined his regiment at 
Franklin. Ixiuisiana. after it had returned from the Red River 
expedition. It was then sent to Bermuda Hundred, Va., under 
Oen. Butler again, and Lieut. Farnsworth was made l>riga<le 
commissary. When in 1S64. the Confederates under Knrly 
made thi>ir raid on Washington, in an endeavor to capture the 
national capital, the Twenty-sixth Massachusetts, as part of 
the Nineteenth Corjis. was sent to Washington to head off 
the invaders. It followed the enemy back to the .Shenandoah 



Valley and was under Sheridan at Winchester. Upon the 
arrival of Sheridan after his famous ride, the regiment wiui 
in the charge which routed the enemy. At the battle of 
Cedar Creek, while in command of his company, Lieut, Farns- 
worth was wounded for tlic first time in his three years' 
service, a grape shot taking off his left foot. He was then 
promoted captain, and was sent home. It was a year before 
Captain Farnsworth recovered from his wound sulliciently even 
to endure the wearing of an artificial foot. 

His war service over, Mr. Farnsworth re-engaged with his 
old house of I'arker, Wilder & Co. He went into the New 
York branch, which had an immense trade. Later he became 
a partner, and he was with that house until ISSl. He was 
given charge of the finances and credits, inude iinpurtant 
changes in the system of handling creditors, and also watched 
closely the western buyers. The firm of H. B. Clallin & 
Company had handled this business, but Mr. Farnsworth now 
decided to sell to the Western trade direct. So it came about 
that when 'Black Friday" came, the linn had a large amount 
of notes due. One jobbing house alone owed Parker, Wilder 
& Company $80,000. The debtor paid the firm $1,000 in 
cash, and Mr. Farnsworth accepted small country dealers' 
notes for $70,000. The debtor firm failed. Mr. Farnsworth's 
partners were incensed because he had made what they 
regarded as so "thin-spread-out" a settlement without consult- 
ing them. The country notes were for small amounts; but he 
preferred to carry them rather than the $70,000 notes of the 
one firm, and later the one firm's failure justified his judgment. 

After his term of partnership expired, his family physician 
advised a complete change of surroundings, for the benefit of 
his wife's healtli. Mr. Farnsworth had some wild lami, in 
Stevens County, Minnesota, which he owned in partnership 
with his brother-in-law, Chas. B. Xewcomb, who lived in St. 
Paul. Efforts of his partners to induce him to retain his 
interest in the firm were unavailing, although he had then a 
$.')0.000 interest in the business, and that business had become 
very substantial, and its future looked fine; younger partners 
soon aciiinnilated handsome fortunes. Hut Mr. Farnsworth 
left the firm, and today he has no regrets over his decision. 

With his brother-in-law, Mr. Newcomb, for a partner, Mr. 
Farnsworth went enthusiastically into the farming enterprise 
in Stevens County, Minnesota. The change was advantageous 
to Mrs. Farnsworth's health, and they remained there for 
three years, although spending their winters elsewhere. Mr. 
Newcomb returned to St. Paul, and Farnsworth was in full 
cliarge. 

Mr. Farnsworth finally abandoned farm life. He and New- 
comb traded their land for Jlinncapolis real estate, about the 
Lake of the Isles and along Central Avenue, Mr. Farnsworth 
decided to live in Minneapolis, although St. Paul friends urgi'd 
him to live there. He came to Minneapolis in ISKl, and soon 
had more than three hundred lots and thirty-five or forty 
houses on Central Avenue, ami one hundred lots near Lake 
of the Isles. He began to improve them, and he also did a 
general real estate business, in partnership with ,Iohn R. Wool- 
cott. 

Mr. Farnsworth, during the days before his retirement, 
had a long and persistent — but successful — struggle for the 
erection of the Franklin Avenue bridge over the Mississippi. 
The bridge fight involved warring real estate interests, was 
carried into the State I><gislature. and fhtis into the campaigns 
of candidates for the legislature, and was partieipate<l in 
by such men as "Itill" King. T. 11. Walki-r. riiarh-s A. I'illsbiiry. 
J. B. Gilfillan, and L. I'. Menage, llii' Ih-I iiaiM.d then in the 



310 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



height of his activity in Minneapolis. Mr. Farnsworth's efforts 
finally triumphed and the bridge was built. 

Mr. I'arnsworth greatly aided in the development of the 
Minneapolis park system. The Park Board had entered upon 
the work of development, and Mr. Farnsworth offered it a part 
of Prospect Park. The Board refused it on the ground that 
the land was too rough. Mr. Farnsworth also owned a long 
strip of the Mississippi river bank, a mile and a quarter long. 
He petitioned the Board to take this strip for a park. He 
also interested the St. Paul Park Board in the offer. Both 
bodies at first firmly opposed Mr. Farnsworth's project, but he 
clung tenaciously to it, and after four or five years succeeded 
in inducing the Park Board to take over that property by 
issuing certificates of indebtedness. J. B. Gilfillan furnished 
the money to Mr. Farnsworth at six per cent (when, during 
the panic of 1893, the regular rate was twelve), with which 
to pay off a mortgage so as to make the lots clear. 

It was Mr. Farnsworth who interested Henry Villard, then 
president of the Northern Pacific, in a plan of building a dam 
at Meeker Island, the purpose being to generate power with 
which to furnish electricity to the Twin Cities. He had an 
engineer examine and report on the project. The big mill 
owners of Minneapolis opposed the project, and they got the 
city engineer to certify that there would be no such fall as 
planned, and that the backwater would destroy the tail race 
at the Falls of St. Anthony. The shrinkage in the transmis- 
sion of electrical power, also, was then so great that Villard 
abandoned the project. It is on the same site that the high 
dam construction by the United States government was begun 
in 1913. to generate power and light for the Twin Cities and 
the University of Minnesota. Thus did Mr. Farnsworth see 
results from one of his pet hobbies, as it was termed at the 
time he broached it, and its subsequent development con- 
firmed his judgment. 

Mr. Farnsworth married Leila F. Newcorab, of Boston, in 
1869. To them three sons and one daughter were born. Of 
these Arthur Farnsworth is a consulting engineer in Fresno, 
California; Ethel, who lives at home, is an artist and also is 
active in settlement work, and had charge of the art exhibit 
at the time of the Civic celebration in 1911; Ezra, Jr., and 
John Jay, twin brothers, are in real estate in Los Angeles, 
California. Mr. Farnsworth is a member of and former elder 
in Westminster Presbyterian Church; he is prominent in the 
Loyal Legion, and is a member of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, being a past commander of John A. Rawlings post. 
His home is at 1418 Mount Curve Avenue, Minneapolis. 



HON. CHARLES EDWIN VANDERBURGH. 

In the sixty-eight years of the useful life of this most 
highly esteemed citizen of Minneapolis and distinguished 
jurist of Minnesota were achieved more substantial and prac- 
tical results of enduring value and a larger measure of 
benefit for his own and subsequent generations than many 
men of eminent ability and sedulous industry accomplish in 
much longer periods of continued labor under conditions more 
favorable to production than those amid which he wrought 
out his great career. For his work was fundamental in 
character, and had to be broad, deep and enduring, and he 
had no aspiration higher than that of making it so, and his 
unusual qualities of mind and manhood enabled him to do it 
in the highest degree. 

Judge Vanderburgh was born in the village of Clifton 
Park, Saratoga county, New York, on December 2, 1829, and 



died in Minneapolis on March 3, 1898. He was of sturdy 
Holland Dutch stock, which showed its sterling quality in 
his grandfather, who was a soldier for American liberty in 
the Revolutionary war, and his father, Stephen Vanderburgh, 
who was one of the men of strong character, prominence and 
influence in the county of the judge's nativity, where the 
father was also bom and reared. 

Charles Edwin Vanderburgh began his academic education 
in the district schools, continued it at Courtland Academy, 
at Homer, New York, and completed it at Yale College, from 
which he was graduated in 1852. For a time after his grad- 
uation from Yale he was principal of an academy at Oxford, 
in his native state, and while serving the public in that 
capacity he studied law. He was admitted to practice in 1855 
and the next year took up his residence in Minneapolis and 
formed a law partnership with the late Judge F. R. E. Cor- 
nell. This partnership lasted until 1859, when Mr. Vander- 
burgh was elected judge of the Fourth Judicial District, which 
had been recently formed and included all of the state of 
Minnesota extending from Fort Snelling to the Canadian line 
and from the Red river almost to the Great Lakes, and lie 
was chosen to administer the law throughout this immense 
territory when he was only about thirty years of age. 

The duties of the office were, however, congenial to the 
young judge, and he made use of them to excellent purpose 
for the good of the state. In driving from place to place in 
his district he impressed his individuality upon a wide circle 
of friends and acquaintances and secured a hold on the con- 
fidence and regard of the people that nothing could ever 
shake. As he used his power and influence only for the best 
interests of the whole people and the establishment of abso- 
lute and substantial justice, as far as that was attainable 
through human agencies, his popularity was a source of 
great and lasting benefit to the people of his day and those 
of all subsequent years because of the strong leverage it gave 
him in attaining the righteous ends toward which he always 
worked. 

After a service of over twenty years on the district bench 
Judge Vanderburgh was elected, in 1881, a justice of the 
supreme court of the state to fill the place made vacant by 
the death of his old partner. Judge Cornell. He served on 
the supreme bench until 1894, with satisfaction to the judi- 
ciary, the bar and the people of the whole state. After his 
retirement from the supreme court he resumed the practice 
of law and his activity in political affairs. He was always 
a devoted friend of the common people, and valued their 
esteem and friendship above that of any other class. In 1896, 
when Hon. William .1. Bryan was first a candidate for the 
Presidency of the L^nited States, Judge Vanderburgh presided 
over the first mass meeting addressed by that distinguished 
Commoner in Minneapolis. 

One of the most celebrated cases decided by Judge Vander- 
burgh was that of Eliza Winston, a slave belonging to a 
wealthy Mississippian and brought by him to St. Anthony, 
which was then a popular summer resort for Southern fam- 
ilies. The slave woman was brought before the judge on a 
writ of habeas corpus, and he held that a slave brought into 
the free state of Minnesota became free, and set the woman 
at liberty. By the aid of sympathetic residents of St. 
Anthony she escaped to Canada, and the action of the judge, 
in the face of intense and influential opposition, fixed his 
fame here as a man of the kindliest feeling for the lowly 
and utter fearlessness in the discharge of what he felt to be 
his duty, betide what might. 



IIISTOKY OF .MINNKAI'OLIS AND II KNNKI'IN CorNTV. MINNESOTA 



311 



Judge Vanderburgh's dpcisioiis while on the supreme bench 
were distinguished for strong eommon sense, great legal 
learning, thorough investigation of facts and admirable con- 
cim-ness of expression. They are best described, as is his 
character as a man and as a judge, by his associates in the 
court and the members of the bar who practiced before him. 
One of them declared he was entitled to the reputation he 
had of being "the best administrator of the equity jurisdic- 
tion who ever occupied a seat on the supreme bench, as well 
as a man of eminent ability in other departments of judicial 
procedure." Another said: "He brought to his high office 
a thorough scholarship in the law, a love of right, a studious' 
and painstaking habit. -What is the right of this matter T' 
was ever his guiding thought. Whether considered as a man, 
a citizen or a jurist, the main springs of his life and character 
aeenied to be a steadfast fidelity to duty, a sincere conviction 
in what he believed to be right ami a fearless courage in 
expressing that conviction." The highest tributes to his 
worth as a man, his usefulness and elevated tone as a citizen, 
his superior excellence as a ju<lge, and the exemplary nature 
of his private life were paid with one voice all over the state 
•t the time of his death and many times while he lived. 

On ."September 2, 1857, Judge Vanderburgh married Miss 
Julia >r. Mygntt, of Oxford, New York. She died in 1863 after 
a protracted illness, leaving two children, William Henry, 
who is now a prominent member of the Minneapolis bar, and 
Julia M., who was accidentally drowned in a cistern in the 
family residence in 1871. In 187.'} the juJgc married Miss 
Anna Culbert, a daughter of Hon. .lohn Culbert, of Broadalbin, 
Fulton county, Xew York. The only child of this union was 
a beautiful daughter named Isabella, of unusual talents and 
promise. She died in ISO.!, at the age of eighteen. Her 
mother is still living and has lier home at 806 Mount Curve 
tvenue. 

Judge Vanderburgh was preeminently a thurchman and a 
friend of the feeble congregation of his denomination. He 
was a Presbyterian, and for years served as a Sunday school 
su[>erintendent in different churches at different times and 
(S an elder of Westminster church and later of the First Pres- 
byterian. He gave the ground and building for Stewart 
Memorial church, was a delegate to the Pan-Presbyterian 
Council held in Glasgow in 1896, a trustee of Rennet Serai- 
nary, which was incorporated in 1871, and vice president of 
the Young Men's Library Association, whidi was organized in 
1859. He was also a liberal contributor to Macalestcr Col- 
lege, and took a deep interest in Albert Lea College, of which 
he was a trustee. His death was sudden and seemed un- 
timely, but his memory still lives in the affectionate regard 
of the whole community. 



MARTIN" C. FOSNES. 



-An imitance of capability in public office is furnished in 
the career of Martin C. Fosni-s. the late emcient, capable 
and popular assistant postmaster of Minneapolis. 

Mr. Kosnes was lM)rn in Norway. March 26, 1831, ami 
etme to Minnesota with bis father, Amund Fosnes, at the 
•Re of sixteen. They located on a farm in Winona county, 
where Martin attended the sfchool in the neighborhood. His 
c«pabilitie» attracted the attention of Hon. William Windom, 
United States Senator, and secured him an entrance into 



the official life of the country, in which he was thenceforth 
creditably employed. Senator Windom made him his private 
secretary, and lie was axscK'iated in that relation with that 
eminent and amiable gentleman for a number of years. He 
afterward became an exumiiier in the pension office and so 
continued until .January 1, IHUl. His services here won him 
strong commendation, and his aptitude and l>caring gained 
him additional credit and popularity until his death, Oct. 16, 
1913. 

In January, 1891. Mr. Fosnea was trunxferred to the post- 
oflice branch of the public service as a postoffice inspector. 
This office he held until early in 1911, when he was assigned 
to duty in Minneapolis as assistant postmaster, a position 
he filled with credit to himself, honor to the city and satis- 
faction to the government. During his twenty years as 
postoffice inspector. Mr. Fosnes paswed two years in Cuba, 
having Ix-en sent to take charge of postal matters there. 
He was designated as "Director (ieneral of Posts" on the 
inland and in official rosters, and when the United States 
retired from its protectorate he was assigned to the inspection 
of postoffices in the Northwest. 

Mr. Fosnes was a Lutheran in religious affiliation and a 
Republican in political faith and allegiance. But he never 
was an active partisan or took a prominent part in political 
Contentions. He loyally adhered to party, but deemed faith- 
ful performance of his official duties the l>est service he 
could render it. The welfare of every community in which 
he lived engaged his interest warmly as diil all projects for 
public improvement. In every requirement and particular 
he proved himself to be an excellent citizen, and won uni- 
versal approval and regard. Yet he bore his popularity 
modi-stly, claiming no distinction, and U'iiig content with 
having performed his duty well. On -luly 9, 1891. he was 
united in marriage, at Des Moines, Iowa, with Doctor Edith 
M. Gould, a native of Connecticut. She shares in the public 
esteem bestowed upon her husband, and like him is well 
worthy of all regard and admiration. She has been in 
active practice in St. Paul since 1909. She is a club woman, 
being identified with the Federation and of the Suffrage move- 
ment. 



WILLIAM F. FKl'EN, 



As the means of supplying the residents of Minneapolis 
with pure spring water for drinking and domestic purposes, 
and as a citizen deeply and productively intereste<l in the 
moral, social, fraternal and civic life of the city and the higher 
and finer development of its aesthetic features. William F. 
Fruen, secretary and treasurer of the (Jlenwood-Inglewood 
company and president of the Fruen Cereal company, is making 
himself very useful in the community, being esteemed in 
accordance with his elevated and progressive citizenship. 

Mr. Fruen is a native of Boston, where his life began in 
1869. He is a 8<m of William H. and Elizabf-th (Wheeler! 
Fruen, who came to Minneapolis in 1870, leaving William F., 
with his grandmother in Boston until two years later. Full 
mention of his parents will be found elsewhere in this volume. 

In 1885 Mr. Fruen became associated with H. W. Phelps in 
the sale of spring water to public and private houses, restau- 
rants and other business establishments in the city. The 
springs were on his factory property, which embraced three 



312 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



acres, and the sales from tlie start were suflicient to require 
the use of two delivery teams. On the adjoining property 
were bountiful springs belonging to the Inglewood company, 
which was engaged in the same business. The two plants were 
competitors for ten or eleven years, and by the end of that 
period each was obliged to use five or six wagons, and in 
1896 the Avise step of consolidating them under one manage- 
ment was taken. Then the Glenwood-Inglewood company was 
formed and incorporated in 1904, with A. E. Holbrook. the 
former owner of the Inglewood springs, as president. 

At this time William F. Fruen was made secretary of the 
new company and his father, William H. Fruen, retired. 

When the Glenwood-Inglewood company was incorporated, 
seven delivery teams were suflicient to meet its require- 
ments. It is now obliged to use thirty-three, and delivers 
about 3,000,000 gallons annually, employing regularly more 
than seventy persons. The capital stock of the company in 
19t)4 was $50,000. In 1910 this was increased to $250,000, 
and, in 1912 the large store and office building which the 
company now owns at 911 and 913 Hennepin avenue, was 
erected. W. F. Fruen was made president of the company in 
1904 and is also president of the Fruen Cereal company of 
Minneapolis. 

Mr. Fruen is an active member of Calvary Methodist Episco- 
pal church and has been superintendent of Sunday school for 
fifteen years. He also belongs to the Royal Arcanum, the 
Auto, Rotary, and Athletic clubs, the Young Men's Christian 
Association and the Philharmonic and Fine Arts societies, and 
takes an active and serviceable interest in each. On May 20, 
1896, he was married to Miss Jessie Confer. She died in 
1904, leaving three children, Kenneth L., Helen M. and John 
Donald, all of whom are still members of the parental family 
circle. 



spirit, and soon after coming to Minneapolis joined the Minne- 
sota National Guard. In 1884 he was made surgeon of the 
First Regiment, and so continued until the time of his death. 
It was in his capacity as regimental surgeon that, at the 
time of the wreck of the excursion .steamer and barges on 
Lake Pepin in 1888 he repaired with his company of the 
National Guard to render assistance. His services on that 
occasion indelibly endeared him to many persons with whom 
he came in contact. 

When, in 1898, the First Regiment Minnesota National 
Guard, became the Thirteenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, 
and was ordered to Manila, Dr. Fitzgerald went as its surgeon. 
In time he was made division surgeon of the Eighth Army 
Corps, with the rank of major. In this position Major 
Fitzgerald made many friends among the regular army officers, 
who tried to prevail upon him to remain in the service after 
the departure of his regiment. But he chose to return to 
Minneapolis with the Thirteenth Minnesota, and after the 
reorganization of the Minnesota National Guard he resumed 
his old position as surgeon of the First Regiment, a position 
which he continued to hold until his death. Dr. Fitzgerald 
had contracted malaria while in Manila, and death was the 
result. 

Dr. Fitzgerald was an active member of the Sons of the 
Revolution, his great-grandfather having been a Revolutionary 
soldier, and as his grandfather fought in the War of 1812, the 
military line of the family may be said to have been carried 
down to the present generation. Dr. Fitzgerald was a member 
of the Masonic order and of the Knights of Pythias. He was 
also a member of Gethsemane Episcopal church. His widow, 
whose maiden name was Eleanor Bradley, survives him. 



SIMON PETER SNYDER. 



REYNALDO J. FITZGERALD, M. D. 

Dr. Reynaldo J. Fitzgerald was born in Chinindagua, Nicar- 
agua, Central America, September 15, 1853. At that time his 
father C. C. Fitzgerald, was an American consul in Nicaragua, 
and was also engaged in civil and mining engineering and mine 
development work for American capitalists. The consul was 
a native of Oswego county. New York, and a graduate of 
Union College. He spent twenty-two years in Central and 
South America, giving some years, after his service as a 
diplomatist in Nicaragua, to gold mine development in Vene- 
zuela. Finally he returned to the L^nited States, continuing 
as an engineer in New York, and becoming extensively 
interested in mining in Arizona and New Mexico. 

His son, R. J. Fitzgerald, was sent to the father's native 
State as soon as he was old enough to go to school. He 
attended Seabury Military Institute in Saybrooke, Connecticut, 
and Claverack Military Institute, in New York. Then he 
became a student in Albany Medical College, a department 
of Union College. He was graduated in 1882 with the degree 
of Doctor of 'Medicine and came to Minneapolis the same year. 
Here he decided to enter upon the practice of his profession, 
emphasizing surgery. He became especially associated with 
certain manufacturing interests as surgeon, and soon built up 
an extensive practice. What was more important, he became 
an exceptionally popular man in the life of the community. 

Dr. Fitzgerald was possessed in no small degree of a military 



Becoming a resident of Minneapolis in 1855, or rather of 
St. Anthony, as the part of the city on the East side of the 
river was then called, a young man of twenty-nine, and at 
once taking . hold of the interests of the new community 
whose growing fame had won him to its midst, Simon P, 
Snyder became a leading factor in the growth, development 
and improvement of the metropolis of Minnesota very early 
in its history and his own. It was young blood, enterprising, 
energetic, full of life, resoxirceful, self-reliant and daring that 
the Northwest needed, and in becoming a part of its force for 
advancement he not only entered his own proper field, but 
gave it a potency and directing hand full of benefit for its 
residents and highly appreciated by them. In his "Personal 
Recollections of Minnesota" Colonel Stevens says: "Probably 
to Messrs. Snyder & MacFarland are the citizens of Minne- 
apolis more indebted than to any others for the i.vpid progress 
made in the early industries on the west side ot the falls." 

Mr. Snyder was born in the town of Somerset, Somerset 
ciiunty. Pennsylvania, on April 14. 1826. He was of Oernian 
ancestry, his grandfather having come to thLs country from 
Oerhardstbnim, Germany, and located in Maryland near the 
close of the eighteenth century. He afterward moved to 
Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and settled permanently. 
The grandfather obtained title to one-half of the land on 
which the town of Somerset was afterward built, and when 
the time came for the erection of a court house and a public 
school house in the settlement he gave half the land required 




h<^^::6c/Ly 



HISTORY OF .MIXXHAI'OI.IS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



313 



(or thi- |)ur[Ki8c, ineluiliiiK in his doniition enough for a 
Lutheran church, the Lutherantt being the sect in which he 
had been reared and to which he belonged. 

Simon P. f<nyder is the son of .John A. and Elizabeth 
(Shaffer! Snyder, and was the third of twelve children, six 
sons and six <iaiiphters. whose mother lived to see them all 
married. Three of the daughters are still living. Simon had 
such educational opportunities and facilities as were provided 
by the district schools of his day and locality, but began the 
battle of life for himself in his early youth. .\t the age of 
fourteen he hecanii' a clerk in a general store kept by "ne of 
his uncles, and in that he served as an employe for three 
years. At the end of that period he was given full charge of 
the store and the Berkley flouring mill, which he managed 
for his uncle successfully and profitably two years. He then 
bought the store, which he owned and conducted for four 
years on his own account, greatly enlarging its trade and 
extending its popularity. 

In 1850 Mr. .Snyder sold his store and other interests in 
Pennsylvania and journeyed by team, by way of Wheeling 
and Columbus, to Springfield, Ohio, where another uncle, 
John L. Snyder, was living and engaged in general merchan- 
dising. The young voyager had his heart set on the Farther 
West, as it was then, and drove on to Peoria, Illinois. When 
he reached that town he found awaiting him a letter from 
bis Uncle .lohn urging him to return to Springfield and buy 
the store. The invitation was accepted. Mr. Snyder drove 
back to .Springfield, bought the store and kept it until 1855, 
when he again sold out and came on to Minneapolis, arriving 
in May. 

Directly after reaching this city the newcomer formed a 
partnership with W. K. MacFarland for the purpose of lo- 
cating and dealing in lands. Until the ensuing autumn he 
had his otlice with O. Curtis on Main street. St. Anthony, 
about where the Pillsbury A mill now stands. In September, 
1855, the firm built an oflice on Bridge Square, directly across 
the street from the Pauly house, where its enterprising 
members continued their land business and also opened the 
first banking house in Minneapolis. Two years later I>evi L. 
Cook joined the firm, which then became .Snyder, MacFar- 
land & Cook. 

Prior to this time, however, and soon after his arrival in 
the city. Mr. Snyder bought eighty acres of land near Nicollet 
avenue and Tenth street, which he platted as "Snyder's First 
Addition to Minneapolis." He paid $100 an acre for this 
land. It is now worth several millions. His interest in the 
welfare of his new home was manifest from the beginning 
of his residence here. In 1856, 1857 and 1858 he was treas- 
urer of the Minnesota Agricultural Society, and during his 
occupancy of this ollice the first state fair was held, the 
ground now covered by the public library building and the 
First Baptist church being used for the piirpose. 

Other evidences of the public spirit of this progressive 
citizen were soon given. In 1862 he established the first 
auction and storage room in the city and in 1876 built the 
first warehouse for the storage of overtime railroad freight. 
During the Indian outbreak in 1862 he and .Anson Northrup 
organized a volunteer company of one hundred and forty 
men to go to the relief of New Ulm and Fort Kidgeley. Mr. 
Northrup was captain and -Mr. Snydi'r first lieutenant of this 
company, in which eai-h man furnished his horse and equip- 
ment. The company proci-eiled to St. Peter and reporte.l to 



General Sibley, the commander-in-chief, who had then about 
1,400 armed men at that point. 

The company was detained at .St. Peter two days and be- 
came very restless on account of the delay. Captain Northrup 
and Lieutenant Snyder waited in person on (Jeneral Sibley, 
and asked leave to proceed with their company at once in 
aiivance of the general movement. General Sibley said: "I 
cannot grant you the privilege, but if you wish to go you 
will have to do so at your own peril." When this was re- 
porteil to the company it decided to proceed at once. The 
men mounted their horses and made a midnight ride, arriving 
safely at the fort at sunrise next morning, one day ahead of 
the main column, bringing the first relief and great joy to 
the little garrison. 

Mr. Snyder lived in Minneapolis continuously for fifty- 
eight years. He was vigorous, active and in good health until 
a few months before his death, which occurred Aug. 19. 191.1. 
On August 21. 1856. he was united in marriage to Miss Mary 
Ramsey, who was born in Springfield. Ohio, on February 21, 
1832, a daughter of Alexander and Jane (.Stephenson! Ram- 
sey. Her grandfather came from Ireland and was well edu- 
cated, being a good Latin scholar and well versed in other 
liberal branches of learning. Her mother was a Kentuckian 
and a cousin of fJeorge .Stephenson, the inventor of the steam 
engine. Mr. and Mrs. Snyder's first home in Minneapolis was 
in the first frame house built on the west side of the river 
by Colonel Stevens. This house was where the Union station 
now stands, but has been placed in Minnehaha Park within 
recent years. Frank C. and Fred B. Snyder, the first two of 
the three children of the household, were born in this house. 
The third child. Mary ('. Snyder, was born in a cottage on 
the hill: now a part of Bridge Square. The present Snyder 
residence is at 410 Tenth street south, where the family has 
resided since 1876. 

In their long record of service to the community these two 
venerable persons have been high examples of noble manhood 
and womanhood, and have devoted ability, culture and good 
citizenship to the public weal and to high ideals of domestic 
life. 



WALTER V. PHFIELD. 



On .Inly 25. rill, after a residence of twenty-one years in 
the city. Walter V. Fifield. a prominent lawyer and one of 
the founders of the Attorneys National Clearing House and 
publishers of the Clearing House Quarterly, died, thus end- 
ing a life of usefulness extending over fifty-five years. He 
was bom in Dubuque. Iowa. February 25. 1856, a scion of 
old New England stock that "built a church on every hillside 
and a school house in every valley." 

He obtained an academic education at Orinnell College, 
then studied law. and was admitted to the bar at Oeneva, 
Nebraska. In 1890. he moved to Minneapolis, and in asso- 
ciation with his brother, .Tames C. Fifield. and Henrv J. 
Fletcher, organized the law firm of Fifiehi. Fletcher A Fifield. 
with offices in the Minneapolis Bank building, later in the 
Lumber Exchange and finally in the Andrus building. His 
preference was commercial law. and he was one of the 
first members of the (^imniercial Law League of .America. 

In Sejitember. 1894. in association with his brother James 
he founded the .Attorneys National Clearing Hoiuie. and in 



314 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



January, 1895, published the first number of the Clearing 
House Quarterly. This magazine is devoted to the interests 
of lawyers, credit men and bankers; and has become an 
important influence in business life. In its pages, Mr. Fitield 
found expression for his stimulating views on topics con- 
nected with commercial, civic, social and legal questions, 
his contributions being a strong factor in winning for it 
an enviable and widespread reputation. 

For some years a zealous member of the Fifth Avenue 
Congregational church and afterward of the Lowry Hill 
congregation, Mr. Fifield labored with diligence and efl'ective- 
ness, helping liberally to build a church edifice and to main- 
tain all benevolences and to promote the general welfare of 
the community. His was a strong personality, quick, posi- 
tive, full of feeling, alive with keen business faculties and 
endowed with large executive ability. He was ever true 
to his friends, responsive to appeals from old associates and 
sedulous in doing good to others. By his old companions he 
was most deeply missed and mourned, and all who knew 
him lamented his early demise. 

Mr. Fitield was married in August, 1879, at Geneva, Ne- 
braska, to Miss Annie M. Richardson, of Chicago. She died 
September 23, 1908, leaving three children: Gertrude, wife 
of B. A. Fulmer, Albert W. and Walter W. On November 
19, 1910, the father contracted a second marriage with Miss 
Elizabeth Wainman, daughter of the late C. P. Wainman, 
who still survives. 



DR. DON F. FITZGERALD. 



Dr. Don F. F^itzgerald, who is also a resident of Minne- 
apolis, was born in Nicaragua, Nov. 27, 1867. During 
the ten years before he entered his fifteenth year, he at- 
tended school in New Orleans, and then went to the Albany 
Military Academy, Albany, New York. He also attended 
and finished at a preparatory school in Brooklyn, and later. 
in 1885, joined his brother in Minneapolis. He worked 
for a time for the Minneapolis Hardware Company, and 
then entered the employ of the Nicollet National Bank. 
After a time, too, he began to read medicine in the office 
of his brother. Dr. R. J. Fitzgerald. He had joined the First 
Regiment, Minnesota National Guard, and upon its conversion 
to the Thirteenth Minnesota, in 1898, he passed from private 
to Lieutenant of Company B. He served with this rank in the 
Philippines, and had several important details on special 
service. At one time he was quartermaster of the Regiment 
at the convalescent hospital in Manila. He went into the 
field with his company when the insurrection broke out, and 
remained in this service until the regiment was ordered home, 
after having taken part in twenty-one engagements. 

On his return from the Islands, he finished his medical 
course, graduating from the College of Medicine of the Uni- 
versity of Minnesota in 1903. He went into practice with 
his brother, continuing until the latter's death, and has since 
continued in the same jiractice. After graduating, he again 
entered the First Regiment, and succeeded his brother as 
Surgeon Major of the regiment. 

In 1902 he married Isabel Bradley, of Minneapolis, and they 
have three children. His wife is a prominent member of 
church clubs and is active also in women's literary clubs, as 
well as being an accomplished musician. Mrs. Fitzgerald is 



also well known for her musical talent, and has long been a 
member of the Philharmonic Club. The Doctor is a member 
of the Minneapolis Athletic Club, the Knights of Pythias, as 
well as of the Sons of the Revolution. He holds membership 
in the various organizations of his profession. He is an 
Episcopalian, and a member of Gethsemane Episcopal Church. 



J. WALKER GODWIN. 



The Penn Mutual Life Insurance company has more monev 
invested in loans on Minneapolis propertv than any two 
other companies combined. This fact is due almost wholly 
to two impelling causes. One is that the leading oflicials of 
the company have great and abiding faith in the future of 
this city and the steadfastness of its progress and property 
values; and the other is that it has here, in the person of 
J. Walker Godwin, one of its two general agents, a strong 
persuasive force and an excellent judgment at work for its 
interests and the promotion of its business. 

Mr. Godwin is a Philadelphia gentleman of the old school, 
with all the polish and deep-seated courtesy of the best 
society of the Quaker City and a very large measure of 
business capacity. He has been one of the Penn Mutuat's 
most successful insurance w'riters and become thoroughly 
familiar with all phases of the company's business opera- 
tions. He also is a great believer in Minneapolis, and has 
settled down here as a permanent resident. He connects him- 
self closely in a serviceable way with all the best interests of 
the city and its residents, is an active member of the Minne- 
apolis club and takes a very helpful part in the work of St. 
Mark's Episcopal church. His wife, to whom he has been 
married since coming to Minneapolis, was formerly Miss 
Frances Stockton of .Jacksonville, Florida. 



THOMAS DAGGS SKILES. 



Reared and trained in the business tenets, methods and 
scope of operations current in one of the oldest States on the 
Atlantic slope, and very successful there in the application of 
them, the late Thomas Daggs Skiles of Minneapolis showed, 
after his advent in this part of the country, that he pos- 
sessed the ready adaptability that made him at home in any 
business environment and enabled him to meet the require- 
ments of business operations on any scale of magnitude. The 
whole atmosphere of the business world here was different from 
that to which he had been accustomed, and the range of its 
transactions included features and magnitudes entirely new to 
him. But he took his place in its most active currents of 
trade with perfect poise, and at once and completely grasped 
their full import and made them subservient to his will and his 
advancement. 

Mr. Skiles was born in Uniontown. Pennsylvania, on Decem- 
ber 5, 1832, the son of Isaac and Harriett (Daggs) Skiles. the 
former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Virginia. 
The father was a merchant, and his son Thomas, after an 
irregular attendance at the district schools in his neighbor- 
hood, entered the store as a clerk and salesman at the age of 
fifteen years. He remained in the store with his father until 
the death of the latter, and then .succeeded him in the owner- 



HISTORY OF .MINNEAI'ULIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, M1NNE«UTA 



;il5 



ship Hnd management of the businens. The store was the 
largest and most prominent one in the eity of Uniontown, and 
its business, wliich had long been very extensive and active, 
was still further expanded after the son lM>came proprietor of 
it. He did not. however, devote himself exclusively to its 
demands. During the Civil war he served in the Pennsylvania 
Reserves, which were kept in readiness for field service at any 
time, if that should be required of them. 

Id October, ISTU, ilr. Skiles came to Minneapolis in company 
with his brother Isaac, who had been a banker in Uniontown. 
Pennsylvania. They had Duluth in mind as the place of their 
residence in this state, but in a visit to Minneapolis they were 
so well pleased with the city and its business prospects that 
they decided to remain here. Isaac, however, lived a retired 
life, not engaging in any very active pursuits. He died in 
this city in 1S7T, leaving six daughters, three of whom are 
still residents of Minneapolis. They are Mrs. E. H. Moulton. 
Mrs. R. II. Newlon and Mrs Franklin Benner. and are all well 
known and highly esteemed 

Thomas D. Skiles bought 110 feet of land on Xicollet ave- 
nue jit the corner of Fifth street and erected on his purchase 
the building that is still standing on that corner. He bought 
the lot for $11,000 about 1874, and in 1912 the improved 
property was sold to Mr. Sears, of Clilcago, for .$.500,000. 
Mr. Skiles also bought, in 1873, eighty-two feet on Nicollet 
between Sixth and Seventh streets, and on this lot he had his 
home until 1883, when he put up on it the Skiles block, which 
was erected in connection with the LIndlay block. In addition 
to these purchases Mr. Skiles bought property at the intersec- 
tion of Washington and Thirteenth avenues south. He died 
on March 4, 1888. at the comer of Seventh street and Fifth 
avenue south, where he had lived for several years. 

Being a devout Presbyterian in religious faith, Mr. Skilea 
was an active and serviceable attendant of Westminster church 
of that sect. For many years Rev. Dr. Sample was his pastor, 
but at the time of his death Rev. Dr. Burrell was in charge of 
the congregation. Mr. .Skiles was also one of the original 
members of the Minneapolis club and belonged to the Cham- 
l«-r of Commerce. He was married in 1869. in Washington. 
I). C to Miss Kate Watklns. at the time a resident of that 
city. She is still living, a lady of superior intellectual attain- 
ments, line social culture and pleasing and productive public 
spirit. She is active In the work of Westminster I'reshyferian 
church and takes a cordial and helpful Interest In the welfare 
of the Minlkahda and Lafayette clubs, to both of which she 
belongs. .\ great deal of her time is now passed in the state 
of California, where she has hosts of friends, as she also has 
in Minneapolis. 

Mr. and Mrs. .Skiles became the parents of four children. 
William, their first born, died in 1896, at the age of twenty- 
five. Helen, who became the wife of Hon. Allen Wright, a 
judge in Mc.^lestcr. Oklahoma, died in that city in December, 
1912. The other two children, Alvln V. and Thomas D., arc 
m the real estate and Insurance business, and have their 
offices in the Skiles block. Their father was a member of the 
firm of Skiles & Newlon. brokers and railroad ticket agents, 
whose offices were In the Nicollet House block. They operated 
extensively and had a very profitable business, and both were 
men of commanding infiuence in business circles In the city. 
Mr. Skiles was also earnestly and actively interested in the 
development ami improvement of the city, and one of the 
leaders of thought and enterprise In promoting Its growth and 
welfare. He died at the age of fifty-five, while his usefulness 



was at its height, and his untimely demise was universally 
lamented, for he was regarded as one of the most estimable 
and serviceable citizens Minneapolis hud. He was a director of 
the First National Bank some years and was at the time of 
hU death. 



FRANK WILUAM FORMAN. 

Frank W. Forman, for twenty-seven years an active glass 
manufacturer as president of Forman, Ford & Co., of Minne- 
apolis, was born In Oneida county. New York, November 21, 
1835, and died in this city May 22. 1910. During the first 
twenty years of manhood he was engaged in general mer- 
chandising at Leroy, New York, and came to Minneapolis 
in April, 1883. He luid previously visited this city and St. 
I'aul. becoming captivated by the locality and prospects of 
business advancement. He engaged in real estate opera- 
tions for a few years, laying out additions to the bity, one 
of which was the Cottage City addition at Lake Calhoun, the 
thriving future of which he clearly foresaw. 

In 1880, he turned his attention to the wholesale glass 
business as a member of the firm of Forman & Ford. Bird- 
well & Ford had established the business some six years pre- 
viously and in 1884, Frank B. Forman, son of Frank Wm., 
purchased Mr. Birdwell's interent and William E. .Steele be- 
came a partner, the firm becoming the Steele. Forman & 
Ford. Frank W. was the active nmnager of the business 
whose operations were increased to include the manufacture 
of art and stained glass mirrors and other high-class prod- 
ucts. The business conducted under the name of Forman, 
Kord & Company is still one of the leading ones of its line 
In the country. As president of the company he had added a 
paint factory to its other departments, eretted a new building 
on Second street south between First and Second avenues, 
had extended the trade over the whole Northwest, and had 
made constantly increasing gains in business. Frank W. For- 
man was an active and controlling force in the business until 
death. He had also established and was president of the 
Nortliern Linseed Oil Company, at Midway. His son Frank 
died In 1905, and he continued In charge as the head of the 
company, also becoming Interested in a company which 
erecteil a large numlM-r of buildings in Winnipeg where it 
made many other improvements. He was always enthusiasttb 
in the growth of Minneapolis, and saw Its progress surpass 
his earlier expectations. His religious connection was with 
St. Mark's Episcopal church, of which he was a vestryman 
and warden for a number of years. He was also for some 
years a tmstee of St. Mary's School, at Faribault, being 
much interested in its work and that of the church. He was 
widely read, and, although a great lover of home, enjoyed 
travel with his wife, visiting China and .Tapan and Europe, 
inspecting temples, cathedrals, historic buildings and other 
scenes of interest. 

.■\t the age of twenty-one Mr. Forman was married to Miss 
Mary .Jane Bridge, also n native of Oneida county, New- 
York, who survives at the old home at 2303 Park avenue. 
She is active in club and church work, as well as In social 
life. She is the mother of one son and three daughters. 
Frank B.. died at the age of forty-five. Evelyn .lane is the 
wife of Alexander E. Clerihew, president of the Forman. Ford 
Co., and also living at the old home. Katherine ¥. is the 



316 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



wife of Edgar G. Barratt, president of a bag and paper 
company in New York City, and Mary M. died at the age of 
eighteen. 



JOHN FAGERSTROM. 



John Fagerstrom, contractor and builder, is a native of 
Sweden, born November 17, 1856. He came to America in 
March. 1882. and immediately settled in Minneapolis. Full 
of faith in his adopted country, he secured employment at 
$1.25 a day and took his place in the ranks of American 
citizens. As a memento of his first day of work he recalls 
the fact that he struck the first pick in the breaking of the 
ground for the West hotel. From this start and with the 
capital of his own hands. Mr. Fagerstrom has built up a splen- 
did independent business and now owns numerous properties, 
residences and flats in Minneapolis, a city that continues to 
command his ardent support and trust. A few weeks after 
securing his first position he was taken ill and forced to 
spend several months in the hospital. On his recovery he 
continued at day labor, this time working for a year assist- 
ing in the construction of the Second street sewer. He then 
became employed as a brick and stone mason and from that 
occupation advanced to his present one of contractor and 
builder, in which he has been engaged for the last fifteen 
years. He began to invest in property as early as 1886 and 
his keen judgment in business matters and great efficiency 
in all details of his work, being himself both superintendent 
and architect, have contributed to his successful career. 
He keeps in his employ from ten to fifteen men and devotes 
most of his labor to the construction of flat buildings and 
residences of which he disposes by renting or selling on terms. 
In 1885, Mr. F'agerstrom visited in Sweden and on his return 
a sister and brother accompanied him to his new home and 
a little later they were joined by a second sister. An- 
other journey to the old country was made in 1908. Mr. 
Fagerstrom served for two years in the city hall as street 
opening commissioner and is a director of the Minneapolis 
State bank and the Bankers' Security company. His political 
affiliations are with the Republictui party. He is a member 
of the Modern Woodmen fraternal order, the West Side Com- 
mercial club and is vice president and a director of the 
Swedish-American club. Mr. Fagerstrom has been a faith- 
ful and generous supporter of the Zion Lutheran church 
since its organization twenty years ago. He was married in 
188.'> to Miss Caroline Erickson. like her husband a native of 
Sweden, who came to Minneapolis in 1881. They have two 
sons, Albert, who graduated in medicine from the Univer- 
sity of Milwaukee, and is now a successful practitioner in 
Minneapolis, and Lawrence F.. a student in the University 
of Minnesota. 



CHARLES ROLLIN FOWLER. 

Charles RoUin Fowler is of 'Quaker ancestry, and his family 
who were from Warren county, Ohio, came to Minneapolis 
in a body in 1853. The Quaker blood comev* from his mother's 
side. .She was Jane Varner. His fntlier was RoUin D. Fowler. 
The son. Charles R., was l)orn at -Jordan. Minnesota, on 



September 17, 1869. His early boyhood was passed at Jordan 
and he began his education there. In 1885 he came to Minne- 
apolis and has been a resident of this city ever since with 
the exception of one year which he spent in Glencoe, Minne- 
sota, and another at Fargo, North Dakota. He entered the 
Law Department of the University of Minnesota and grad- 
uated in 1892. For the years 1892 and 1893 he practiced 
his profession in Fargo, North Dakota. In 1893 he opened an 
office in Minneapolis and has enjoyed a continuously suc- 
cessful and profitable practice ever since. In 1905 he formed 
a partnership with Judge W. A. Kerr and the firm was known 
as Kerr and Fowler. Later .Judge Fred V. Brown became 
a member of the firm with the firm name Brown, Kerr and 
Fowler. Mr. Brown soon withdrew to become General At- 
torney for the Great Northern R. R. at Seattle. The firm 
was continued under the name of Kerr and Fowler until 
.January 1st, 1913, at which time John R. Ware and Fred 
N. Fowler were added as partners under the firm name of 
Kerr, Fowler, Ware & Fowler. For a number of years 
Mr. Fowler has been resident vice-president of the Ameri- 
can Surety Company of New York. 

He is socially inclined and his tastes are thoroughly demo- 
cratic. While he was in the University he took an active 
part in the social life of the instituton as a member of the 
Delta Chi Fraternity and was pi-esident of the law alumni 
association in 1897. He is a Mason, an Elk and a member of 
the Royal Arcanum. He is a member of the Minneapolis 
Chamber of Commerce, the Minneapolis Athletic. Minneapolis 
Automobile, Minikahda and University clubs. He is a mem- 
ber of the Episcopal church. He was a member of the 
Minnesota National Guard from 1886 to 1891, in Company 
B. of the First Regiment. 

Mr. Fowler is an active Republican and served in the Minne- 
sota legislature during the 1911-1912 session. 



HOVEY CHARLES CLARKE. 

Hovey C. Clarke of .Minneapolis, who has for many years 
been one of the leading lumbermen of this country, and whose 
operations in the industry to which he has given the greater 
part of his time and attention have been imperial in their range 
and results, is a native of Flint. Michigan, where his life began 
on May 7, 1859. He is a son of (^.eorge Thomas and Mary 
Elizabeth (Du.\bury) Clarke, natives of New England. The 
father was a civil engineer, and had charge of the Baltimore & 
Ohio, the Maine Central, the Pere Marquette, the Ann Arbor, 
and other railroads east of the Mississippi. 

The ancestry of the family in this country runs back to 
early Colonial days and began in New England, where the 
progenitors of the American branch of the house were among 
the pioneers and founders of civilization. Hobart Clarke, the 
grandfather of Hovey C, was a resident of Andovcr, Massa- 
chusetts, a lawyer by profession, and the first president of 
the Boston & Maine Railroad: and throughout the American 
history of the family its members have dignified and adorned 
the higher walks of life in many fruitful fields of useful 
endeavor. 

Hovey C. Chirke began his academic education in the com- 
mon school in his luitive town and finished it at the high 
school in .\nn Arbor in the same state. \\Tien he left school he 
entered the office of the (liicagd & AVest Michigan— now the 




/^o^lf^^^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HHNNEIMN COl'NTY. MINNESOTA 



317 



Pere Miirqtu'tte — Railroad, beginning his services to this lino 
at Muski'gon, Micliigiiii, in 1HT6. He started as a clerk in the 
auditor's olliw. but rose by rapid promotions for meritoriuiu 
work ami tiniisiml adaptability to tlic business to one higher 
position alter aiiotlier. biroining in turn purchasing agfnt, sec- 
retary to the general superintendent and chief clerk to the 
freight, traffic and passenger agent. 

But while he found railroad work agreeable ami full of 
promise for him, Mr. Clarke had a longing for another line 
of etfort which seemed to open a shorter avenue to large suc- 
cess through business interests of his own. Accordingly, when 
the Hall \ Ducey Lumber c<)mi)any was organized in the spring 
of l!<sr> by Thouuis H. 8licvlin. Patrick A. Ducey, .*<tephen C. 
Hall and himself, he gave up his engagement with the railroad 
company and became secretary of the new lumber enterprise. 
In this position he proveil himself to bo possessed of great 
energy and excellent ju<l;.'ment in connection with the work he 
bad in hand. He rapidly ma<le himself master of inner knowl- 
edge of the manufacture and distribution of lumber, and 
noon became one of the best informed and most useful men 
in the industry. 

(In .January 1, 1K93, Klbort L. Carpenter, a sketch of whom 
will bo found in this work, and who had been a wholesaler 
in Minneaiiolis. bought an interest in the Hall & Ducey com- 
pany, and it was then consolidateil with the Hall & Shevlin 
Lumber company, which was organized in 1887 to carry on a 
manufacturing business. The name chosen for the new cor- 
poration was the ShovlinCarponter Lumber company. Thomas 
H. Shevlin was elected its president, E. L. Carpenter its secre- 
tary and Mr. Clarke its treasurer. 

Minneapolis was the great primary white pine lumber mar- 
ket of the country, and the Shevlin-Carpentcr Lumber company 
rose rapidly to the first rank among the lumber manufac- 
turers in this part of the world. But it was all alive with 
enterprise, and as soon as it had one big undertaking well 
in hand it reached out for another. The company secured 
extensive timber holdings in the Red River district in Northern 
Minnesota, which it is now operating on a large scale. In 
1895 Mr. Clarke and his associates organized the .1. Neils 
Lumber company, which owns and operates a sawmill at Sauk 
Rapids, this state, which cuts 15,000.000 feet of lumber 
annually: and in IS'.i'J the eom|>any bought another mill at 
Cass Jjike. and there built an ailditional band and bund resaw 
mill. The capacity of this has since boon enlarged by the 
addition of a gang saw, and thereby the annual output of the 
two mills was increased to 50,000.000 feet. 

Another undertaking of consi<lerable magnitude in which 
.Mr. Clarke was interested with .Mr. Shevlin cluring the life 
of the lattiT, anil with which he is still connected, aixl in it 
associated with Krank 1'. Hixon of Iji Crosse, Wisconsin, was 
started in 1896, when a hirge amount of timber was bought 
on the Red Lake Indian Reservation tributary to the Clear- 
water river, and the St. Hilaire Lumber company was organ- 
ized to deveU>p it. A saw mill with a capacity of 40.000.000 
feet u year was put up ut St. Hilaire. and one year later the 
St. Hilaire company bought the sawmill and logs of the Red 
River Lumber comjiany at Crookston, with all of the timber 
holdings of the latter. The Crookston Lumber company was 
then organizcil, the present plant of which has a capacity of 
40,000.000 feet a year. In connection with these manufactur 
ing plants twelve retail odices and yards are opi'rated under 
the name of the St. Hilaire Retail Lumber company. These 
greatly facilitate handling the lumber from the tree to the 
consumer, which it has alwavs been the desire of the far- 



seeing gentlemen at the head of these mammoth institutions 
to do to the greatest possible extent. 

Subsequent to the time mentioned above the old Crookston 
Lumber company and the St. Hilaire Lumber company were 
consolidated under the name of the former. .\Ir. Clarke con- 
tinued to serve as treasurer after the consolidation, and he 
still bears that official relation to the company. .Soon after 
the combination of the two companies a large mill was built 
at Bemidji, where the general offices of the company for that 
part of the state had been Iwated some time before, and wa» 
ei|uipped with two band saws and a gang saw. which made 
it capable of turning out annually 70.000,000 feet of lumber. 
For the purpose of furnishing logs for this mill by direct trans- 
portation a logging spur twelve miles long was built through 
the timber, connecting with the Minnesota & International 
Railroad at Ilovcy .lunction. This arrangement has uuide 
easily available a large amount of timber inaccessible jirior to 
its completion. The company now owns approximately 400,- 
000,000 feet of stumpagi' in this state, and is working it all 
vigorously. 

.Mr. Clarke and his associates are also very extensively inter- 
ested in the lumber industry in Canada, in addition to what 
they are doing in this country. In the fall of 189:t the Shev- 
lin-Clarke company, limiteil. was organized to operate in the 
province of Ontario, and a number of timber berths, aggregat- 
ing 225,000,000 feet of pine, were purchased in the Dominion. 
This company is still energetically engaged in business, and 
its output and dealings reach an enormous total in volume 
and value. 

Mr. Clarke's business interests and operations have a mag- 
nitude surpassing those of many other men. and it is easy to 
infer that they are very exacting. But he has always found 
time and energy to take an active oml helpful interest in the 
public affairs and general welfare of his community. Perhaps 
nil service he ever rendered Minneapolis has been of more 
value than the courageous work he did in helping to cleanse 
the city of the municipal rottenness which permeated it umler 
the administration of former Mayor Amos, and which broiight 
great temporary discredit to it. 

Throtigh the corruptness of some of its municipal officials, 
the Scandinavian metropolis of the Northwest was infested 
with criminals of every class, invited to the city by the offi- 
cials themselves, it was said, in order that those officials 
might increase their bank accounts by the graft that would 
follow. For a time crime ran riot in the city, and a most 
deplorable condition prevailed. This was in the latter part 
of 1901 and the early months of 1902. In April of the year 
last named an ordinary grand jury was impanoleil and began 
its work without special instructions. Mr. Clarke was foreman 
of this grand jury and had some knowledge of the malfeasance 
of the city's officials. He proposed an investigation to his 
fellow jurors, won them over to his views, and the investiga- 
tion was begun. 

From the start Mr. Clarke was hampered by the persons 
likelv to be exposed. Kvery device available was used to hin- 
der his progress. Bribes wore offered to induce him to desist, 
and even his life was threatened if ho persevered. But he 
went on with the inquiry no matter what obstachs were 
placed in his way or what .langer was nuide to appear immi- 
nent. When evidence through the ordinary channels was 
denied him he hir.Ml local iletectiv.'S and then employed outside 
sleuths to wHtil/ them. He paid the bills himself, the expenses 



318 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



of the grand jury lor the summer being less than $300 to the 
county. 

In a short time the better elements in the community ral- 
lied to ilr. Clarke's assistance, and within eight months the 
criminals were routed, corrupt officials were sent to prison, 
and the city was cleansed and regulated as it had never been 
before, Minneapolis, grateful for his good work in this coura- 
geous action, oflered him political reward for it, but, with 
characteristic manliness and unselfishness, he declined all over- 
tures in that line. He won, however, a better and more endur- 
ing reward than any political preferment could have given him 
in the lasting regard and admiration of all right-thinking men 
and women in the city and throughout the length and breadth 
of the land. 

In addition to the business enterprises already mentioned 
Mr. Clarke is connected with several others. He is treasurer 
of the Lillooet Lumber company and of the Land, Log and 
Lumber company; and he is also a director of the First 
National Bank of Minneapolis and one of the trustees of the 
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance company of Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin. In social relations he is connected with the Min- 
neapolis, Lafayette and Minikahda clubs of his home city, the 
Chicago club of the Illinois metropolis, and other social, golf 
and entertainment organizations. He has been president of the 
Lafayette club for ten years, and has long been active and 
serviceable in every other organization to which he belongs. 
In religious affiliation lie is an Episcopalian and for some years 
has been a member and vestryman of St. Mark's church of that 
denomination in Minneapolis. He takes great interest in the 
affairs of the congregation to which he belongs, and in religious 
matters generally, and is broad-minded and practical in the 
service he renders in this behalf. On .June 9, 1886, he was 
united in marriage with Miss Maggie L. Rice of Detroit, Michi- 
gan. Thev have no children. 



GEORGE N. FARWELL. 



In 1856 John L. Farwell, father of him whose name ini- 
tiates this article, came to the west from his native state of 
New Hampshire, as a young man of twenty-two years. Ho 
made the trip to Davenport, Iowa, in company with another 
young man, the late Austin Corbin, who later achieved na- 
tional reputation as a successful railroad builder. Mr. Cor 
bin at that time was virtually without financial resources, 
as shown by the fact that he borrowed from his friend Far- 
well the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars, to defray 
the expenses of his western trip. It is gratifying to note 
that Messrs. Farwell and Corbin continued close personal 
friends and associates for fully forty years, the relations 
being severed only by death. After visiting St, Louis young 
Farwell came up the Mississippi river to the ambitious but 
embryonic city of Minneapolis, and he became so impressed 
with the locality that he purchased, at eighteen dollars an 
acre, the tract of eighty acres which his son has in recent 
years developed into the suburli known as Homewood, 

John L, Farwell finally returned to New Hampshire, where 
he eventually became a substantial banker, as well as one 
of the representative men of affairs in the state. He retained 
the Homewood tract at Minneapolis until his death, and 
though he had been offered five thousand dollars an atre for 



the property it was still little more than a cow pasture 
at the time when he died. 

In 1879 George N. Farwell, who had been reared and edu- 
cated in his native state of New Hampshire, made a trip to 
the west, the principal allurement being a gracious young 
woman who was then living at Dubuque, Iowa. It may 
be stated that the friendship of the young couple ripened 
into love and resulted in the marriage of Mr. Farwell to 
Miss Anna Grosvenor. About 1882 Mr. Farwell became asso- 
ciated with William A, Barnes and EUwood S. Corser, who 
owned eighty acres, and with a Mr, Griswold, who had forty 
acres, and they platted the Oak Park addition. The Barnes 
and Corser half of the property was greatly improved within 
the next few years, streets being laid out and other modern 
improvements being installed. Prior to the time when real 
estate improvements came to temporary ebb in Minneapolis, 
there had been erected on the addition about eighty houses 
of the better order, at cost varying from four to eighteen 
thousand dollars. Mr. Farwell had in the meanwhile become 
a substantial banker at Claremont, New Hampshire, and 
had made no special effort to dispose of his Minneapolis 
realty. In the meanwhile he acquired ownership of the eighty 
acres of land that had been purchased by his father in the 
pioneer days of Minneapolis. About the year 1906, he decided 
to come to Minneapolis and devote a few years to the im- 
provement and development of his local property. In the 
meanwhile the D. C. Bell Investment Company had ac- 
quired the west half of the original eighty acres, and in con- 
junction with this corporation Mr. Farwell became active in 
tlie platting and improving of the Homewood addition to the 
city of Minneapolis. Adjoining the tract on the west was a 
tine body of native timber, and this had been purchased by 
the Minneapolis board of park commissioners, at the insti- 
gation and advice of Mr. Farwell, the tract now constituting 
the city's beautiful Glenwood Park. 

His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, 
both he and his wife are communicants of St, Mark's church. 
Protestant Episcopal, and he is a member of the board of 
trustees of the Wells Memorial Settlement House. Mr. and 
Mrs. Farwell have two children, Grosvenor was graduated in 
Harvard University, as a member of the class of 1909, and 
is now identified with banking operations in New York city; 
Susan is the wife of Harold H, Bennett, a Harvard graduate, 
and they now reside at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 



MAJOR EDWARD G, FAI.K, 

Was born in Red Wing. Minnesota, July 22, 1859, and is a 
son of Andrew and Catherine Falk. The father coming from 
niinois, was a pioneer of Red Wing, locating there in 1845, 
where he opened the first hotel. Later he took a homestead 
in Goodhue county, but still maintained his residence in Ked 
Wing, and for a time traded with the Chippewa and Sioux 
Indians until they were removed. 

Edward G. Falk learned the trade of harness making there 
and came to Minneapolis in 1879, working at the bench till 
1886, when he opened a grocery store at Stevens avenue and 
Twenty-sixth street, which he conducted for three years, then 
engaging in carriage trimming and harness making for Stark 
& Darrow for three years. He was for two years in the 
livery business, and then took a contract for Podds & Fisher, 



IIISTOHY OF MINXKAI'ULIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



319 



making their light harness and kindred products for eight 
years. 

In 1892 ho started his present business as ii mnmifacturer 
and dealer of harness and other leather goods, on Lake street, 
and in this has been eonfinuously engaged for twenty-one 
years. 

,Iunc 19, 1882, he enlisted in Company A, First Minnesota 
]{eginient. and was soon afterward made corporal and sergeant. 
In 1H92 he was appointed inspector of rille practice on the 
staff of Col. W. B. Bond, and held this position until the 
iH-ginning of the Spanish-American w;ir, when lie was made 
regimental ailjutant of the Thirteenth .Minnesota \'olunteer 
Infantry with the rank of first lieutenant. He went to the 
Philippines with this regiment, and in March, IK'Jll, was pro- 
moted to the rank of captain and adjutant. 

As adjutant Captain Kalk hail supervision of all the details 
of the regiment. All orders were issued and all promotions 
made through him. and all parts of the field work of the 
regiment were also under his personal attention, j In addition 
he had direct supervision over the non-commissioned staff 
band and hospital corps. 

He was appointed regimental iuljutant with rank of captain 
at the reorganization of the First Regiment upon the return 
of the Thirteenth Regiment from the Philippines, in which 
position he served to I'.lll, when he was made adjutant-general 
of the First Brigade with the rank of major. In the Philip- 
pines the major took part in about thirty-five engagements. 
At the battle on the Uth of August, 1898, he was recom- 
mended lor bravery and special reward. 

Major Falk is a Shriner in Zurah Temple, a member of the 
Junior Order of American Mechanics and is Past Regent in 
the Royal Arcanum. He helped organize and was three years 
president of the West Side Commercial club, which has done 
much to improve the Lake street district, and which presented 
him with a handsome testimonial. 

Major Falk was married in 1883, to Miss Frances Lydia 
.lames, a native of Ohio, and a daughter of Jonathan James, 
a prominent contractor of Minneapolis. They have one son, 
Harold N. Falk, a real estate dealer on Ijike street. He 
graduated from the high school and the law department of 
the State University. 

Major Kalk has won many honors as a nmrksnian and taken 
a large number of medals, iiliout 100 in all. in shooting eon- 
tests. He was a member of the state ami regimental team 
twenty-five years, and while connected with it won the 
American championship on many shooting ranges. He also, 
in 1888. broke the army record at Fort Snelling. before that 
time hell! by Captain Parlelle of the regular army. In this 
contest he shot at 200. .100. 400, .'.00 and 600 yards, and 
led the score for each distance. 

The major has been in demand, too, for exhibitions of his 
"kill before popular audiences. In company with his brother 
W. O., he has often appeared in lightning and fancy drill 
' xi'rcises, which have led to tempting offers from the vaude- 
■ lUe stage. He enjoys all athletic and other outdoor sports, 
and engages in them frequently through his membership in 
several of the leading clubs and social organizations. AU 
that is manly and elevating in physical development, all that 
IS beneflcial and improving in citizenship, all that contributes 
to the expansion and inlluence of the business interests of 
his eommunity, ami all that raises the moral and intellectual 
standard enlists his cordial support, and he is esteemed for 



broad, enterprising and productive public spirit, busineM 
ability and genuine worth. 



WILLIAM WATTS FOLWELL. LL. I). 

. The character, services and career of Ur. William W. Folwell 
are best indicated in the comprehensive, highly honorable and 
very expressive title of "Educator." His whole manhood has 
been given to teaching in various ways, and the world is 
better and wiser because of his activities in this useful line 
of endeavor, while hundreds of men and women are living in 
a more exalted and invigorating moral and intellectual atmos- 
phere because of intercourse with him either directly in the 
class room or more remotely through his numerous addresses 
and writings on questions of present moment and enduring 
vitality and importance. 

Dr. Folwell was born at Romulus, Seneca county, New 
York, on February 14, 1833. He was graduated from Hobart 
College, Geneva, New York, in 1857, and received the degree 
of LL. D. from that institution in 1880. In 1857 and 1858 
he was a teacher of languages in Ovid Academy, New York, 
and from 185H to 18G0 aiijuiut professor of mathematics in 
Hobart College. In 1860 and 1861 he was a student in Berlin, 
Germany, and from 1862 to 1865 a Union soldier in the 
Fiftieth New York Volunteer Engineers, in which lie rose 
from the rank of first lieutenant to that of major and brevet 
lieutenant-colonel. 

After the close of the Civil war the colonel engaged in 
business in Ohio for four years, during the last one serving 
also as a profes.sor in Kenyon College at Gambler in that 
state. In 1869 he was elected president of the University 
of Minnesota, and he held that position with renowned credit 
to himself and great benefit to the institution until 1S84. a 
continuous period of fifteen years. At the end of that period 
he resigned the presidency in order to gratify his strong desire 
for classroom work, and took the chair of political science in 
the University, which he continued to occupy until 1907, 
when he severed his connection with the institution for the 
purpose of engaging more extensively in literary work. 

Dr. Folwell's ability and high character received early and 
continuous recognition in this state in the most extensive 
and creditable way. In 1876 he was Centennial Conimi.ssioner 
for the state. From 1882 to 1892 he was president of the 
Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts. For eighteen years from 
1889 he was a member of the eity park hoard, and from 
1894 to 1901 its president. He was also chairman of the 
State Board of Correction and Charities from 1895 to 1901. 
and president of the Minneapolis Improvement I^eague from 
1902 to 1905. In 1892 he was acting president of the 
American Economic Association. In 1883 he passed hia 
examinations and was admitted to the Hennepin county bar. 
On March 14. 1863. he was married in Buffalo, New Y'ork, to 
Miss .'Jarah Hubbard Heywood. 

Valuable as his services have been in other lines of endeavor. 
Dr. Folwell is best known and most highly esteemed for 
what he did to establish the University of Minnesota and 
promote its growth. The University was most fortunate in 
securing such a man for the period of its organization. At 
the time of his election to the presidency the .\merican 
university as it is today was unknown. He looked into the 
future and determined to make the Minnesota institution ■ 



320 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



university in fact, and planned to make it also a part of a 
system of general public instruction for the state. Bom and 
reared on a farm: a graduate of a good college; with his 
education supplemented by study and travel abroad and his 
professorships at Hobart and Kenyon; with four years' service 
in the Civil war — with the benefit of all these broadening 
influences, he came to Minnesota at the age of thirty-six, 
young enough to be full of energy and initiative, and not old 
enough to have lost any youthful enthusiasms or sympathies. 
He put all his resources into his work here, and he started 
the University on a broad and firm foundation on which it has 
grown to its present magnitude, power and usefulness, an 
inevitable result of the wisdom of his plan. 



FRED BEAL SNYDER. 



Fred Beal Snyder, prominent member of the Minneapolis 
bar and well known citizen of the state, is a native of this 
city, born February 21. 1859. His father. Simon P. Snyder, 
was a native of Pennsylvania and traced his ancestry to the 
old Dutch family of Schneiders who figured in the colonial his- 
tory of that commonwealth. His mother was of Scotch 
lineage, a descendant of the houses of Ramsey and Stephen- 
son. Simon P. Snyder came to Minneapolis in 1835. and lived 
for a time in the first house erected in the village, known as 
the Colonel Stevens house, which was built in 1849 on the 
present site of the Union station. The birth of Fred Beal 
Snyder, the second son of the family, occurred in this historic 
edifice. He received his early education in the village schools 
and after completing his course of study there, entered the 
University of Minnesota, where his career was marked by the 
success and ability which have attended all his activities. 
In recognition of his attainments in scholarship he was 
elected to the honorary society of Phi Beta Kappa. He is also 
a member of the Chi Psi fraternity. After graduating from 
the University in 1881 he secured a position in a book store, 
receiving for his services a weekly compensation of $4.00. At 
this time he began to prepare himself for the legal profes- 
sion, finding time from his duties as a clerk to study law in 
the office of Lochren, McNair & Gilfillan. He later continued 
his studies with the firm of Koon. Merrill & Keith and was 
admitted to the bar in 1882. His first practice was in partner- 
ship with .Judge .Jamison, a connection which was maintained 
from 1882 to 1889. His legal career has been characterized 
by a steady and substantial growth, and his standing at the 
bar for integrity and truth is unsurpassed. He has been 
identified as attorney with many of the important cases of 
the state, winning particular distinction in that of the State 
vs. Pillsbury in which he overturned a provision of the city 
charter relating to special assessments for local improve- 
ments and in his defense of the Torrens Land Law, of which 
he was the author, in the suit of the State vs. Westfall. 
Mr. Snyder has rendered conspicuous service to his fellow 
citizens in many positions of public trust and honor where 
his influence and energies were persistently devoted to the 
best interests of the public. He was elected alderman in 
1892 and for four years was president of the city council. 
By virtue of this office he assumed leadership in the con- 
troversy between the city and the Minneapolis Gas & Light 
company and it is to his untiring effort at this time that 
the public owe the reduction in the rate of gas rent and 



the authorship and passage of the ordinance creating and 
regulating the otlice of gas inspector. In 1896 he was called 
upon to represent the university district in the legislature 
and after serving as a member of the House for two years 
was elected to the Senate for a term of four years. He de- 
clined reelection to a second term as senator. As a member 
of the two legislative bodies of the state he displayed his 
usual administrative ability and capacity for public service 
and was actively identified with the work of law making, 
introducing the bill increasing the annual revenue of the 
state university, the board of control bill and assumed the 
fight for the bill for the increase of the gross earning tax 
from three to four per cent in the Senate. The probation 
law for juvenile ofi'enders was introduced and passed by him. 
Mr. Snyder was married, September 23, 1885, to Miss Susan 
M. Pillsbury, daughter of the late Ex-Governor John S. 
Pillsbury. Mrs. Snyder died in 1891, leaving one son, John 
Pillsbury Snyder. Mr. Snyder contracted his second marriage 
February ^, 1896, with Miss Leonora Dickson of Pittsburg. 
They have one daughter, Mary-Stuart Snyder. Mr. Snyder 
is a Republican and holds membership in the principal social 
clubs of the city. He is a member of the board of regents 
of the University of Minnesota. He was one of the organizers 
of Civic & Commerce Association of Minneapolis. He drafted 
its constitution and was its first secretary. The association 
has done much to advance the general growth and prosperity 
of Minneapolis along all lines of commercial and moral 
progress. 

His favorite recreation and pleasure is found in the attrac- 
tions of out door life and he spends much of his leisure time 
at his attractive home at Lake Minnetonka. Mr. Snyder 
attends St. Mark's and has been a member of its Board of 
Vestry for the past three years. 



CHARLES STEVENS FAY. 



Although but seven years a resident of Minneapolis the 
late Charles S. Fay. who died January 1, 1905, made a deep 
and lasting impression on business circles by his superior 
capacity and enterprise as a business man, and upon the 
community in general by elevated manhood, cordial interest 
in local affairs, highly useful citizenship and genuine worth 
in all public and private relations. 

Mr. Fay was a native of New England and exhibited in 
his successful career the salient elements of character which 
distinguish that section of the country. He was born at 
Walpole, New Hampshire, July 17, 1849. When he was six 
years old his parents, Oliver and Deborah (Perkins) Fay, 
removed to Stoughton, Dane county, Wisconsin. The father 
was a farmer there some twelve years, when he changed his 
residence to Osage, Iowa, where both he and his wife passed 
the remainder of their days. 

Charles was educated in the district schools and by instruc- 
tion at home, ever anticipating an early start in business 
for himself. At nineteen he joined M. A. Sprague in the 
management of a retail lumber yard at Osage, four years 
later starting a yard at Rockford, Iowa, in partnership with 
a Mr, Emerson. The railroad having just been completed to 
that town, the business of the firm was active and prosperous. 
At the end of one year Mr. Fay bought his partner's interest, 
anil continued the ownership until his death. He also owned 



IIISTOUV OF .MIXNEAI'OLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



:J21 



one at Xortliwuud, Worth county, Iowa, aud with lii» brutht-r, 
E. P. Fay, ac<|iiiri'(l and opi-rutfd one at Osage. 

Mr. Kay came to Minneapolis in .luly, 1898, to secure better 
educational advantages lor his children. Soon alter he formed 
a partnership with W. I). .Morrison in the wholesale lumber 
trade. This partnership lasted several years and did an 
e.\tensive and prulitable business. Late in 1<J04 Mr. Fay 
formed a partnership with William Moss, a nephew. An 
office was selected and furnished, and all the arrangements 
necessary for starting the business were made, when the 
premature death of Mr. Fay ended the operations. 

After removal to .Minneapolis he continued to do the buying 
for his yards in Iowa, though they were operated by managers 
and have since passed to other hands. In addition to his 
lumber business he had interests in banks in Rockford, Mason 
City and Garner, Iowa. He became the largest stockholder in 
the Mason City bank, owning a controlling interest. His 
holdings in the bank at Rockford are still retained by his 
family. 

In political affairs Mr. Fay was an ardent Republican and 
a worker for the success of his party. During his residence 
in Iowa he was of prominence and inHuenee in party councils 
frequently serving as a delegate to conventions. But his 
activity in politics was all expended in the interest of friends 
and for the good of his party, never seeking or desiring 
political honor for himself. He was of religious convictions 
and while not a member of any religious organization, was a 
regular attendant of Westminster Presbyterian church. In 
business matters he was precise, living up to all contracts and 
engagements to the letter. 

August 20. 1S75, he married Miss Mattie L. Lyons of Ro<?k- 
ford, Iowa, whose parents moved to that state from Ohio 
before the Civil war. Mrs. Fay was zealous in temperance 
work in Iowa, and in Minneapolis is an ardent church and 
women's club worker. The family are three daughters. Opal 
S., a graduate of Central High School, is tlie wife of Paul R. 
Trigg, a lumberman at Lewistown. Montana. Adra M., who 
is a graduate of both Smith and Simmons colleges, is an 
assistant in the Minneapolis public library, and Lucille G. is 
a student in St. Mary's School at Knoxville. Illinois. 



to enlarge his store from time to time to provide for the 
increasing demands. Since his retirement the store i» con- 
tinued by his son, George H. Filbert. When he began the 
old credit system was in vogue, and he lost considerably by 
trusting too freely. Dut he also had agreeable experiences 
and proofs of the real integrity of men, when some oj bis 
debtors paid him in full, years afterward, one even insisting 
ou paying compound interest. Lae StalFord and Clinton Mor- 
rison were among his first ac(|uaintances and customers, an|i 
as they became warm friends continued to deal with him until 
his retirement. 

Mr. Filbert was popular as a merchant and as a man. but 
steailfastly refused all solicitations to lie<-ome a cumiiilate for 
membership in the city eoiuicil or other ollicial positions. His 
business was enough to keep him occupied, and he gave that 
his whole attention. But he never neglected the duties of 
citizenship, and was and is always warmly and helpfully 
interested in the progress and development of the city. 

Se|)tember 21. 1867, Mr. Filbert was married in Lyons, 
France, to Miss Marie C. Gleyre, a niece of the great French 
idealist painter of Swiss nativity, Charles Gleyre, and who 
honored the occasion with his presence. His paintings are 
exhibited in the Louvre, Paris, and in many other leading 
art galleries. Mr. and Mrs. Filbert are members of the 
Church of the Redeemer. He was made a Freemason in 
Minneapolis Lodge \o. 19. but his business being so exacting 
he never became an ardent Lodge worker, although always 
deeply interested in the fraternity. 

The children born and reared in the Filbert household number 
four (laughters and two sons. Matilda is the wife of Carl V. 
Lachmund, and they are residents of Portland, Oregon. Ida 
is the wife of Frank Ci. .lordan. a Minneapolis commission 
man. Alice L. married W. .1. Filbert, who is now controller 
of the I'nited States Steel Corporation in New York city. 
He is a grandson of Mr. Filbert's father's youngest brother, 
who came to the United States many years ago but was lost 
sight of, and the family connection was learned only through 
accident. Gertnide is living at home with her parents. George 
H. is proprietor of his father's old store, and Paul C. is 
with the Steel Corporation in the plant at I>orain, Ohio. .\ll 
the children were given high school and other eilucational 
advantages, which all have justified. 



CHRISTIAN FILBERT. 



Mr. Filbert was bom in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, Feb- 
ruary 16, 1841, where he was reared and educated, acquiring 
a complete speaking and writing knowledge of French, and 
also some ma!,tery of English. When he was about sixteen, 
he Went to France spending ten years in Paris and Lyons, 
coming from the latter city to this country in 1867. 

He became a bookkeeper for three years in Illinois where 
he was advised by a friend, Thomas (Jreen, to come to Min- 
neapolis. Mr. (Jreen was a nephew of Hugh and Thomas 
Harrison, and through his inlluence tlio.se gentlemen gave the 
newcomer credit fur lumber with which to build his grocery 
store. On what is now Third avenue south there were then 
but an old shack and Dorilus Morrison's residence, and though 
the region was sparsely populated, its trade was sullicient to 
make his business profitable from the start. 

He handled dry goods, cirugs, hardware, groceries, and almost 
everything that was called for in an ordinary country store. 
He remained on that site for thirty-five years, being compelled 



GEORGE A. FISHER. 

I 

For twenty-eight years continuously George A. Fisher, 
president of the Fisher Paper Box company, has been engaged 
in the same business, having therefore abundant opportunity 
to prove his business capacity. 

He is a native of Rutland. Massachusetts, where he was 
born .lune 21, 1866. He was there reared, and at seventeen, be- 
coming a resident of Minneapolis, arriving April 1.1, 1883. 
He was employed two years in a hardware store, and was eight 
years an employe of the Frank Heywood Paper Box i'o. In 
18'.):i, he founded his present business on a small stale. The 
output of his factory has increased a thousandfohl and is 
constantly growing. 

The business was incorporated in 1900. with a capital sttK-k 
of $12,(100. It now occupies all of a three-story brick build- 
ing, with 63 feet frontage on First street, is 162yt feet deep, 
containing 3-1,000 square feet of floor space. Mr. Fisher 



322 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



owns the building and gives personal attention to every detail. 
He employs some fifty-four persons and manufactures a 
large variety of paper boxes, nearly all made to order and 
for local demand. The plant is equipped witli the most 
modern appliances. With no desire for place or office he is 
a careful student of social and economic que.stions. 

In public affairs he takes a helpful interest, being a zealous 
working member of the Joint Improvement Association of 
which he served as president two years, and is now chair- 
man of its municipal market committee. He was a member 
of the committee which took the initiatory steps toward 
giving Minneapolis a new city charter, many of his ideas be- 
ing embodied in the document recently submitted. He is an 
advanced thinker, and has given the matter of municipal 
markets thoughtful consideration and investigation, being 
convinced of the advisability of having such operated by 
the city. 

No matter of public betterment but finds in him a co- 
worker and sympathetic supporter. 

He is Past Noble Grand of North Star Lodge, Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, and has been representative to the 
Grand Lodge. Although not strongly inclined to sports, he 
occasionally devotes his vacations to fishing trips. In 1896, 
he was united in marriage with Miss Anna Litera, of Min- 
neapolis, a native of Minnesota, of German parentage. They 
have two children, Alvin M. and George Lee. The former a 
student in the East High School. 



COL. FRANK MELVILLE JOYCE. 

Col. Frank Melville Joyce, who died in Minneapolis July 22. 
1912, was for eighteen years one of the prominent and success- 
ful business men and useful citizens of this community, and 
made a record in all the essentials of elevated manhood and 
sterling citizenship that is creditable alike to him and the 
locality in which it was wrought out, and is remembered with 
such warm and general commendation. He became a resident 
of the city in 1894, and from then until his death maintained 
his home here. 

Colonel iToyce was bom in Covington, Fountain county, 
Indiana, March 18. 1862. His father was the eminent Metho- 
dist Episcopal clergyman, Bishop Isaac W. Joyce, and his 
mother, before her marriage was Miss Carrie W. Bosserman, 
of La Porte, Indiana. This was her native state, but She was 
educated in Baltimore, Maryland. She died at the home of 
her son Frank in Minneapolis in 1907, after a life of great 
activity, filled with incident and adventure experienced in 
many sections of this country and a number of foreign lands 
widely separated in space and in the manners, customs and 
languages of their people. 

Colonel Joyce, the only child of his parents, passed his early 
years in his native state. He attended public schools in La- 
fayette, but completed his preparatory work by a special course 
of study in Baltimore. In 1877 he entered the institution of 
learning at Greencaetle. Indiana, which was then known as 
Indiana Asbury University, but is now Tie Pauw University. 
He was graduated from the academic department of this uni- 
versity with the degree of A. B. in 1882. and later the degree 
of A. M. was conferred on him by it. During his university 
course he was prominent in all lines of college activity, and 
one year won a gold medal for proficiency in mathematics. He 



was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and for some 
time after leaving the university published the fraternity 
magazine and also issued the fraternity song book, which was 
used for a number of years. 

After liis graduation Colonel .Joyce located in Cincinnati, 
where he became teller in the Queen City National Bank. He 
served in that capacity until 1888, when he was appointed 
agent of the Provident Life and Trust company. Two years 
later he began work in Cincinnati for the Mutual. Benefit Life 
Insurance company, remaining in the employ of the company 
in that city until 1894. It was during this period that he 
received his title by appointment on the official staff of Gov- 
ernor McKinley in 1892. A military title and the duties it 
indicated were not, however, entirely new to him. While at 
De Pauw he was a cadet major in the military department of 
the university, and as such organized and trained the famous 
"Asbury Cadets," a company which won many first prizes in 
interstate competitive drills. 

In 1894 the JIutual Benefit Life Insurance company assigned 
Colonel Joyce to duty as its state agent for Minnesota, the ter- 
ritory included in the agency being this state, the two Dakota* 
and a part of Wisconsin. He then took up his residence in 
Minneapolis, and during his life in this city he was active in 
all matters affecting the interests of the public. He was par- 
ticularly zealous in connection with the movement for good 
roads, and made several trips to Washington, D. C. to aid in 
furthering its advancement. He was president of the Auto- 
mobile club and a potential factor in the building of its present 
beautiful club house on the Minnesota river. He was also 
president of the State Automobile association for a time, and 
served as secretary and afterward as president of the Apollo 
club. He was also a member of the Minneapolis and Commer- 
cial clubs, a Knight of Pythias and a thirty-second degree 
Freemason. While living in Cincinnati he was Captain of the 
Light Artillery of that city, serving during the famous court 
house riots, and for a number of years was president of the 
Northwestern Beta Theta Pi Alumni Association. 

Colonel .loycp was ever greatly interested in the work of 
the church, and gave liberally toward its support. When it 
became necessary to purchase a new organ for the Joyce 
Memorial church he gave one-half of the amount. During the 
general conference held here in 1912 he served as chairman of 
the entertainment committee which secured hotel atecommoda- 
tions for over 831 people and each one felt that they had 
received special attention. 

Colonel .loyce was married in 188.S to Miss Jessie Birch, of 
Bloomington. Illinois, who was his classmate at De Pauw 
University. It was their custom to attend the reunion of 
their class at the university every two years. The last one 
they attended wa.*: the thirtieth and took place in 1912. only a 
short time before his death. His widow and their four chil- 
dren. Arthur Reamy. Carolyn. Wilbur Birch and Helen, survive 
him and still have their home in Minneapolis. 



EDWARD CHENERY GALE. 



A scion of old Engli.sh families, members of which settled 
in this country in early Colonial days, and whose representa- 
tives have dignified and adorned American citizenship since 
in many places and lines of useful endeavor. Edward C. Gale, 
one of the successful and prominent lawyers of Minneapolis, 



HISTORY OF MIXNEAl'OLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



32;} 



has wi'll iiplic-lil tlio iiiunlioud and traditions of lii» ancestors 
in his own daily lilv and business career. Richard (iule, the 
progrnitor of the American brunch of the family, emif;ratcil 
from Kngland to Musmu-husi-tts in 1636 and took up his 
residence at Wiitertown in that state. One of his descendants 
was Siiniiifl f. (Iiile, who w«» the father of Edward V.. and 
who became a resident of Minneapolis in 1H57. .Samuel C. 
Gale was educated for the bar but early in his manhood 
turned his attention to the real estate business, and in that 
and the civic life of this community he has long taken 
an active and serviceable part. 

Edward C. Gale was born in .Minneapolis on August 21, 1862. 
He attended the public schools of this city and was grad- 
uated from the high school in 1878. He then attended the 
luiversity of Minnesota for two years. At the end of 
that period he entered Yale University, from which he was 
graduated in 1884. After passing a year abroad he studied 
law in the office of Messrs. Shaw & Cray, Minneapolis, and 
subsequently received the degree of A. M. from the Law 
School of Harvard University. He has been actively engaged 
in the practice of his profession from the time of his admis- 
sion to the bar. and has reached an honorable position in it 
anil in the regard and conlidence of the bench and bar and the 
citizenship of Minneapolis generally. At the present time 
(19141 he is associated in practice with Fred B. Snyder in 
the law linn of Snyder & Gale, which has high standing and 
a large business. 

Mr. Gale is a director of the Minneapolis Society of Fine 
Arts, of which he has been president. He is also treasurer 
of the Minneapolis Academy of Sciences: a director of the 
Minneapolis I'ubliC Library Board, a member of the Muni- 
cipal -Art Commission of Minneapolis. President of the Hen- 
nepin County Sanitoriuni Commission, and active in many 
other movements which make for the better things in life, 
civic and general as well as individual. But while his taste 
is es.oentially aesthetic and leads to the higher walks in 
artistic and intellectual development, he by no means neg- 
lects the plain, practical things of life, but is always attentive 
to the voice of duty in reference to what is demanded of 
good citizenship. 

On .lune 28, 1892, Mr. (Jale was united in marriage with 
Miss Sarah Pillsbury. a daughter of former Governor John 
S. Pillsbury. They have one child living, their son Richard 
Pillsburv Gale. 



CHARLKS GLUEK. 



Mr. Gluek is a native son and entirely a production of the 
great Northwest. Me was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 
on .lune 6. 1860, and obtained his academic education in the 
public schools of this city. He was also specially prepared 
for business by a thorough course of instruction in one of the 
Minneapolis business colleges. He is a son of Gottlieb and 
Caroline ( Koell I (JIuek. the former a native of Germany and 
the latter of the same country. The father came to the 
United States in 1854. and for a time lived in Philadelphia. 
From there he came to Minneapolis in 1855, and here he 
passed the remainder of his life, which ended in this city in 
1880. He founded the brewery that bi-ars his name, and which 
his Bong, with all the enterprise, business capacity and pro- 
gregsiveness that he possessed, have developed to such large 



proportions, its annual output being now more than 150,000 
barrels. 

Charles Gluek bi'gaii the work that has occupied him and 
engaged all his time and energies to the present day under 
his father's direction in the brewery. With the thoroughness 
that he displays in everything he undertakes, he gave him- 
self at once to a close and exhaustive study of the brewing 
industry, and continued this until he became completely mas- 
ter of it in every detail. His studious attention to all its 
requirements is still kept up, and through this he has been 
able to introduce nuiny improvements in the management 
and workings of the brewery, and keep its products abreast 
of the times in ([uality, superior excellence and extending 
popularity. 

The business was incorporated as the Gluek Brewing com- 
pany while Mr. Gluek of this sketch was still a very young 
man. and he was at once elected vice president of the new 
company, an oflicial relation to it that he has held ever 
since, much to the company's advantage and his own in 
giving him opportunities for varied and extensive usefulness 
to the community in which he lives and carries on his busi- 
ness. He manifests a deep interest in the welfare and sub- 
stantial progress of that community, and his cfTort.s in this 
behalf are always practical, guided by good judgment and 
applied with energy. The people of Minneapolis look upon 
him as one of their best and most progressive and public- 
spirited Citizens. 

Mr. Gluek is also vice president of the German-American 
Hunk and the St. Andrews Hospital association of Minne- 
apolis. He is a leading member of the Cliamber of Com- 
merce and belongs to the Athletic club and several of the 
other social organizations in the city. Fraternally he is 
afliliated with the Benevolent, Protective Order of Elks, hold- 
ing his membership in the lodge of the order in his home 
city. On December 8, 1888, he was united in marriage with 
Miss Mary Thielen. and by this union became the father of 
three children. Carl G.. Emma C. and Alvin G. Their mother 
died while they were still young, and the care of rearing 
them devolved largely on their Tather. He has been faith- 
ful to duty in this work, as he is in every relation of life and 
every public, business and private capacity. 



HON. PARIS GIBSON. 



Although I visited the Falls of St. Anthony in 1854. T did 
not establish my residence in Minneapolis until the spring of 
1858 when I formed a co-partnership with William W. East- 
man, a man of high character and one of the ablest business 
men I have ever met. Soon after I became associated with 
Mr. Eastman in business, we secured a site for a flour mill 
from the Minneapolis Mill Company who had just concluded 
the construction of the wc^t side dam which made connec- 
tion with the east side dam of the St. Anthony Falls Water 
Power Company near the centre of the river and about 80 
rods above the crest of the falls. 

During the year 1858 we secured plans for a merchant Hour 
mill of 300 barrels daily capacity and comnienceil its con- 
struction. The following year we completed this mill, nam- 
ing it The Cataract Flour Mill, and commenced making tlour 
in Septemlx-r. This, tlie first merchant Hour mill built in 
.Minneapolis, marks the iH'glnning of business prosperity in 



324 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



that city following the financial panic of 1857. The building 
of the Cataract Mill also marks the beginning of wheat rais- 
ing immediately tributary to Minneapolis. 

Immediately following the building of the Cataract Mill, 
Kastman and (iibson began the manufacture of flour bar- 
rels, the first ever made in that region, and soon after com- 
menced the shipment of flour to the Atlantic seaboard. Our 
transportation line from the mill to our eastern markets was 
as follows: Teams from Minneapolis to St. Paul; Steam- 
boats from St. Paul to LaCrosse; Milwaukee Railway, then 
just completed, from LaCrosse to Milwaukee: Lake boats to 
ButTalo; thence by railway lines to various markets. 

It will interest those who may read this narrative to know 
that James J. Hill, now the acknowledged chief among railway 
financiers and builders of the world, then a young man, checked 
off the flour from teams at the steamboat wharf in St. Paul. 

In 1862-3, influenced by the wide-spread boom in wool and 
woolen goods then prevailing throughout the country, we built 
the North Star Woolen Mill, .\fter its completion John De- 
Laittre was admitted to the firm and the mill was employed 
in the manufacture of miscellaneous woolen goods. Eastman 
and DeLaittre having sold their interests to Alexander Tyler 
and myself, the mill was subsequently employed chiefly in 
the manufacture of fine white blankets, sleeping-car blankets 
and Indian robes, its fine blankets having attained a nation- 
wide reputation. 

The failure of Gibson and Tyler in 1876, largely the result 
of the panic of 1873 and the depression in woolens that fol- 
lowed, ended my career as a manufacturer in Minneapolis. 

It is due to the memory of William W. Eastman and it is 
but justice to myself that I should state that, in building 
and putting in operation the Cataract Flour Mill and the 
North Star Woolen Mill. Eastman and Gibson placed founda- 
tion stones on which rest much of the remarkable industrial 
development of Minneapolis at this time. 



CHARLES DEERE VELIE. 



Mr. Velie is a native of Rock Island, Illinois, where he was 
bom on March 20, 1861. He is a son of Stephen Henry and 
Emma (Deere) Velie, the latter a daughter of John Deere, 
the founder of the Deere implement business, and the second 
man to engage in it on a large scale in this country, his works 
being located at Moline, Illinois, Tiie father, Stephen H. 
Velie, was one of the largest stockholders in the firm of 
John Deere & Company and tor many years its secretary and 
treasurer. 

Charles D. Velie was educated at the public schools in 
Moline, Illinois, and the excellent McMynus academy in 
Racine, Wisconsin, He also had the advantage of a special 
course of instruction in mine engineering at Columbia I'nivers- 
ity in the city of New York. His first business engagement 
was with his grandfather's firm, and in 1883 he came to 
Minneapolis to serve that firm as assistant superintendent of 
the Deere & Webber company's warehouse in this city. The 
next year he acted as bill clerk for the company ami trimi 
1887 to 1889 as one of its traveling salesmen. In the year 
last mentioned he took charge of the sales department of 
the D. M. Seckler Carriage company at Moline. Illinois, in 
which capacity he served the comjiany well ami wisi'ly until 



1892. The next year he was elected vice president of the 
Deere & Webber company in Minneapolis, and this position he 
has filled acceptably and with great advantage to the company 
ever since. He is also a director of the John Deere company 
in his old Illinois home, the city of Moline, and occupies the 
same relation to the Northwestern National Bank of Minnea- 
polis, the Velie Carriage and Motor Vehicle company and the 
John Deere Wagon company. 

Mr. Velie understands his line of business thoroughly all 
the way through, and is devoted to it. All the companies 
he is connected with are flourishing, have a strong hold on 
public confidence and regard and have built up large and 
active operations. He has been of great service to them in 
helping them to the high position and extensive business they 
enjoy. But he has not ignored or neglected the civic, educa- 
tional and social forces of his home community, but has 
given them valuable aid in many ways and been eamest and 
helpful in his support of all good agencies for progress and 
improvement at work in that community. 

One of the means of improvement with which he has been 
most prominently and serviceably connected is the Boy Scout 
movement. Hennepin Council of Boy Scouts was organized in 
October, 1910. Mr. Velie was its first treasurer, and has held 
that office ever since. But in addition to acting as treasurer 
of this Council he has ben earnestly interested in the move- 
ment from its inception and has supported it generously. 
Through his liberality and financial backing Hennepin Council 
has been able to have Ernest Thomas Seton, Chief of the 
Boy Scouts of America; Lieutenant Robert Baden-Powell, 
Chief of the Boy Scouts of England; James E. West, Chief 
Scout Executive of New York city, and other men high up in 
the movement, visit Minneapolis, thereby giving the local 
Council a high standard for the guidance and government of 
its activities and the whole movement in this locality a strong 
impetus for greater progress. 

Mr, Velie's felloAv members of the executive committee have 
been encouraged by his interest in the Scout movement and 
his enthusiasm for its advancement to continue their efforts 
for the proper training and incidental enjoyment of the boys 
of this city, and to raise the necessary funds to maintain a 
h>cal Scout office, with a paid executive in charge aside from 
the regular expenses, a large part of which has been provided 
for by his generosity. The Scout camp is located on a part 
of his land on Maxwell's bay, Lake Minnetonka, not far from 
his summer home, and he has taken great pleasure and gone 
to considerable expense in making the place an ideal one for 
a boys' camp. Without Mr. Velie there would be no Boy 
Scout Movement in Minneapolis, and his name will always be 
remembered and revered in connection with this greatest of 
all undertakings for the recreational education and citizenship 
training of the Boy Scouts of America. 

Mr. Velie is an active member of the Minneapolis, Com- 
merciitl and Minikahda clubs, and takes an earnest interest in 
their welfare and all their activities. He seeks his principal 
recreations in farming, golfing and horse back riding, to all 
of which he is ardently devoted. He was married in Minne- 
apolis on December 12, 1900, to Miss Louisa Koon, a daughter 
of the late Judge M. B. Koon. They have four children: 
Charles Koon, aged twelve; Josephine, aged nine; Grace, aged 
seven, and Kate aged two. The parents are members of the 
Congregational church and take an active part in all the 
good work of the branch of it to which they belong. Their 
comfortable and popular home is at 225 Clifton avenue. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND IIKNNKIMN COINTV. MINNKSOTA 



UJfj 



TOANCIS A. «;R().ss. 

Francis A. (Jross. president of the Ci-rinan Aiiu-rieun Hunk 
of Minnt'Uixilis. is a native of Hrnnopin county, Minnesuta, 
born in Medina township on OcIoImt 10, 1870. He is a son 
of Mutliias and Mary (Lenzeni Uross, residents of Miiine- 
apoli». wliere tliey located when Kraneis was alxnit one year 
old. Kor .•some years the father was enj!aj|;ed in the ;;rocery 
trade in this city, but lie is now a real estate dealer of 
proniinenre. He was born in (ierniany and brought to this 
country when be was but two years old. He grew to inan- 
hoo«l in Wisconsin and moved to Minnesota in 18fi8. He is 
now seventy years of age, and nearly fhree-tifths of his life 
has been passed in Minnesota, and all but three years of that 
imrtion in Minneapolis. 

His son Francis obtained his education in the public and 
parochial schmils in Minneapolis, and at St. John's University 
in Stearns county of this state. As a boy he clerked in his 
father's grocery, doing good and faithful work there, as 
he has done in every situation he has ever occupied. At the age 
of nineteen he entered the employ of the German American 
Bank as a messenger, and he showed such aptitude for the 
business that he was soon appointed collection teller. From 
this position his rise through the offices of paying teller, 
receiving teller, assistant casliier and cashier to the presi- 
ilencv of the bank was rapid, steady and well deserved. He 
never had to ask for a promotion. The directors of the bank 
were always ready to advance him to higher and greater 
responsibilities in their service when they had opportunity, 
for he was true and faithful in every position, and his useful- 
ness increased as his duties became more elevated and en- 
larged. 

Mr. Gross has taken great and very helpful interest in 
public affairs in the city of his home, but not as a political 
partisan. He has never held a political oilice and has never 
desired one. But he has been eager to promote by every 
means at his command the substantial and enduring welfare 
of the city and the bi'st interests of all its residents through 
good local goveniment, general progress and improvement and 
the aid <if every agency at work in the community for its 
' betterment mentally, morally, .socially and materially, and 
he has never withheld his support from any undertaking in 
which the good of his locality has been involved. 

When the North Side Commercial Club was organi/.eil Mr. 
Gross, who had l)een one of the most active men in bring- 
ing it into being, was elected its first president. He has 
been zealous in his support of it ever since, and has had a 
strong induenee in directing its course and management. 
He is also active in the Royal Arcanum, and has served 
as Regent of his organization in the fraternity. In addition 
he lielnngs to the Catholic Knights of America anil the Benevo- 
lent Protective Order of KIks. an<l is president of the Twin 
City Hankers club. The bank of v\'hich he is president has 
made great progress in its business under his management, and 
every other institution with which he has been or is con- 
mrted has felt the quickening impulse of his active mind 
:>nd skillful and ready hand. 

On OitolM'r !i. 1H'.I3, Mr. Gross was married to Miss Ida 
K. IliiiTfeiiing. a daughter of Captain Martin Biierfening and 
granildaughter of Frederick Weinard. a pioneer who came to 
8t. Anthony in 1854. Four children have been Imihi of the 
union, and all of them are living and still meinlx'rs of the 
parental familv circle. Thev are Roman B.. Francis B.. 



.Marie I!, and Carl li. The family has a pleasant and attrac- 
tive home, which is a popular resort and a center of retined 
scH-ial enjoyment and gracious hospitality. 

-Mr. Gro.s8 has served as a member of the city park board 
and the city water commission. He has also been a memlier 
of the city charter commission. These positions came to him 
without solicitation on his part, and his ap|)ointinent to them 
was based on no political services or considerations of a mer- 
cenary character, but was made solely because of his cap- 
ability to till the places ably and Serviceably and the certainty 
that he would perform the duties belonging to them wisely 
and efliciently. His course in each position fully justified the 
coutldence of the appointing power and fulfilled the expecta- 
tions of the people in every respect and in full measure. 



P. B. GETCHELI.. 



Among the men engaged in the grain comiiiission business 
on a large scale and with eminent success. I'. H. (Jetchell of 
the Getchell and Tanton Company. 907-908 Chamber of Com- 
merce building, holds high rank as far-seeing operator and 
judicious manager. He is also of inlluence in public affairs; 
and, as ahlerman from the Tenth ward, is giving excellent 
service. 

Mr. Getchell was born in this city February 14, 1871, and 
is the son of 1). \V. and Mary (Laveryi Getchell, the former 
of Maine and the latter of Ireland, bvit partially reared in 
New York. Both came to Minneapolis with their parents, 
Mrs. Getchell in 1854 and her husband in 1856. P. B's grand- 
father was a lumberman, also owning lands and operating a 
llouring mill. He prospered and was making headway toward 
a comfortable estate, when death stopped his activities when 
his son D. W. was a lad of about eight or nine years. 

Peter Lavery. the mother's father took up a claim on the 
East Side, on a part of which the plant of the Minneapolis 
Sash and Blind company now stands. He died on his farm 
at the age of eighty-four. 1). W. Getclu-ll for many years 
after age was janitor of the piiblii' schools on the Fast Side. 
He was also a soldier serving three years in the First .Min- 
nesota Infantry and one year in Hatch's battalion, having 
enlisted at the age of sixteen. He now is Corporal of Chase 
Post, Grand Army of the Republic. 

He is about seventy years old. and is one of the oldest 
temperance men in the community, having been a member of 
the Father Matthew ScN'iety in St. .Anthony de Padua Catholic 
church. They had twelve children, eleven of whom reached 
maturity. Kight are living ami live are residents of .Min- 
neapolis. 

P. B. Getchell alteniled the common scliools and high school, 
although at sixteen lie became connecteil with the grain 
trade as an errand boy; and. from that humble beginning 
steailily worked himself up, by industry, cajiacity and strict 
attention to business. He was in the employ of the \'an 
Dusen-Harrington Company thirteen years, five as inspector 
and eight as bookkeeper. Subsequently he became manager 
for Woodend & ( ompaiiy. and later filled the same position in 
till' Spencer-iJiaiii Company. 

In 1907. in association with A. G. Tanton and F. C. Lydiard, 
he formed the (ietchell-Tantoii Company to conduct a general 
grain commission business. He is also vice president of the 
Hoppeiirath Cigar Company, which ■•mploys thirty-live men at 



326 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



its factory at 208 Twentit'th avenue north, and is connected 
with other institutions of importance in industrial, commercial 
and mercantile activities among them the North Side Com- 
mercial club. 

In 1910 Mr. Getchell was elected alderman from the Tenth 
ward. He is chairman of the committee on sewers and a 
member of the committees on public lighting, health and 
hospitals. In the movement to check the violations of law 
by cafes and rooming houses, and bring about better moral 
conditions he has been active, his work in this behalf pro- 
ducing good results. Mr. Getchell is a pronounced regular 
Republican. He was married in 1895 to Miss Ida Wolsfield 
and has three children: Grace Catherine, Virna Agnes and 
Frank Benjamine. The parents are zealous members of Ascen- 
sion Catholic church. 



DORANCE DORMAN GREER. 

The Dorman family in Minneapolis originated with Ezra 
and Chloe Dorman, who emigrated from near the city of Quebec, 
Canada, to Galena, Illinois, in 1840; and, in 1854 settled at 
St. Anthony Falls, where they passed the remainder of their 
lives. The former was past eighty when he died, and his 
widow survived him a number of years, being eighty-nine 
when she passed away, and, at the time probably the oldest 
member of the old First Universalist church. During her 
residence in this community she became one of the most 
widely known women on the East Side. "Mother Dorman" 
or "Grandma Dorman" was the familiar name by which every- 
body called her; and, she was regarded as one of the most 
intelligent and benignant ladies in the city. Her interest in 
others and her activity in their behalf carried her into the 
homes and hearts of all the people of the earlier days, and her 
name is still enshrined in grateful recollection as a synonym 
for all that is good, generous and helpful in womanhood. 

In company with his son Dorian B., Ezra Dorman built 
the Dorman block in St. Anthony, in which Dorian conducted 
one of the lirst banks. His death in 1864 was directly traced 
to an accidental gun shot wound in the right lung, which he 
received while hunting. His sister Delia married in Canada, 
becoming the wife of Dr. Rankin, and did not see lier parents 
or the other members of the family for sixteen years. But in 
1856 she joined them in St. Anthony and purchased property, 
which is now the home of Mrs. Josiah Chase. 

Another daughter of the family was Dorinda, who married 
Judge Norton H. Hemiup, a lawyer and the first probate judge 
of Hennepin county. Dorian B. Dorman married Anna P. 
Hemiup, a sister of the judge. She survived until February, 
1903, and had two children: Mary, married Allen J. Greer 
of Lake City, Minnesota, who was one of the state's ablest and 
mo.it influential educators and lawmakers. For some years he 
was county superintendent of the public schools in Wabasha 
county, and later, as a member of the State Normal School 
Board, was instrumental in securing for the State its present 
higlily creditable system of normal schools. He was an early 
graduate of the State University and the first alumnus of 
that institution to become a member of the State Legislature. 

This gentleman served twelve years as a legislator, four in 
the House of Kejiresentatives and eight in the Senate; and, 
was not only tlmrouglily informed on all public questions, but 
took advanced ground in reference to every matter of legisla- 



tion affecting the welfare of the people. He labored un- 
ceasingly and effectively for the betterment of social, religious 
and educational conditions in Minnesota, and was a strong 
force in promoting improvements of every kind. Removing to 
Monrovia, California, he died in that city in 1905, at the age 
of fifty-one. His widow and their son. Doranee Dorman 
Greer, now reside on the Dorman Addition to Minneapolis. 

Doranee H. Dorman, the son of Dorian B., died September 
17, 1909. He was connected with many interests in the 
city, and platted Dorman's Addition, a tract which lies along 
the Mississippi river north of Lake street, and which his 
father purchased fifty years ago. He was widely known in 
fraternal circles, especially in the Order of Elks, in which he 
was prominent and was a charter member of Minneapolis 
Lodge No. 44, B. P. 0. E. He served this Lodge for a time 
as its Exalted Ruler, and was secretary of the committee 
in charge of the erection of the new Temple, selecting the 
site and devoting arduous efforts to secure a new home for 
the Lodge, which, however, he was not destined to see com- 
pleted. He died a bachelor, 

Doranee Dorman Greer, the son of Allen J. and Mary 
(Dorman) Greer, was born in Lake City, Minnesota, October 11, 
1883. He obtained his academic education in the schools 
of his native place and was graduated from the law depart- 
ment o'f the State University, a member of the class of 1904. 
For a time he was associated with .John S. Crosby in the 
real estate and insurance business, with offices at the corner 
of Lake street and Twenty-seventh avenue south. He is now 
actively interested in the extension, improvement and disposi- 
tion of the above mentioned Dorman's Addition to Minneapolis. 
He is a Scottish Rite Freemason with membership in the 
branch of the order working in Duluth. His wife, whom he 
married in 1908, was Anne Frances Alexander, of Lake City. 
They have one child, their son Allen .James Greer. 



JOHN FINLEY WILCOX. 



The phenomenal growth, and sturdy healthy development of 
the once straggling village on the frontier, which has now 
become the beautiful City of Minneapolis, makes it one of 
the most interesting communities in this country. 

The present magnitude, its state of physical improvement, 
its superb park system; at present only in its infancy as 
regards the future possibilities, are startling to contemplate 
and are exemplifications of the progressiveness and enterprise, 
a.s well as the appreciation of natural beauty and love of 
their home city, so characteristic of the American people. 

Located U])On the magnificent Mississippi River at an 
advantageous point, nature's tremendous physical forces have 
been harnessed and controlled, and in a great measure these 
gifts of nature, reluctant to submit to hand of nian, have 
been directly responsible for the possible gigantic volume, 
and great number of industrial and business enterprises, many 
of which have sprung up as if by magic and have become 
leaders of their kind in the entire world. 

Abreast of the business development ami the linanrial 
solidity of Minneapolis, education and art have prngn'ssed 
hand in hand. The early residents while conscious of the 
financial and physical development of their city, were not 
blind to the responsibility, of the care of Civic virtue, the 
moral and educational duties entrusted to them; and it !■ 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



327 



with pridf and uppreciatioii timt tlie present >;i'iieratioii point 
to the school system ot Minneapolis, tlio L'nivfrsity. the 
various public institutions which are the direct result ol that 
sturdy indomitable spirit, the high ideals, and comprehensive 
duty and the activity lor the futurowhich has characterized 
50 many of the men who were the builders of Minneapolis. 

Among the men of Minneapolis who have built up great 
industries and made them serviceable to the community on a 
broad scale, few, if any. have been more muc<i'.-»iuI. and none 
have a more eoniniendable record tluwi .l<ilin Kiiiley \Vilco.\ who 
for nearly fifty years has been actively engaged in the manu- 
facturing business, a potential force in many other agencies, 
and a strong, loyal, untiring, yet modest worker for the 
best advancement and improvement of Minneapolis. 

In the fifty years of his business activity, he has at all 
times engaged in some busint^ss of magnitude and nothing 
to which he has given severe attention has failed- to respond 
to his quickening brain and strong, determined hands. The 
constructive tendency was manifest early in his youth, and 
throughout his career, his capacity and energy, tempered by 
kindness and con-ideration for others, his unselfishness and 
tenderness in his family, have brought with his success con- 
gratulations from lall and envy from none. 

As evidence of the close relationship of those with whom 
he has been associated in building the industry of which he 
\a at the head, and the loyalty, love, and trust which 
his employees have for him. it is a noteworthy fact that 
nearly thirty of his proent enipliiyees liavi- occupied their 
present positions for as many years, and an annual dinner and 
sojourn to his beautiful country home where these employees 
are entertained, old tales retold, reminiscences indulged in, 
is indicative of the happy relation, and sincere bond between 
employer and employee. 

Mr. Wilco.i: was born at .Middlebury. Ohio, on January 4th, 
1847, the town being now a part of Akron. Ohio. He is a 
son of David (J. and Hannah C. (Whitnev) \Vilco.\. the former 
a native of the state of New York and the latter of Salisbury, 
Ohio. The father moved from his native state of Ohio when 
he was but fourteen years old. and eventually became a 
manufacturer of sash, doors and kindred products of tlu- 
wood worker's skill as a member of the firm of Weary. Snyder 
and Wilcox. He illid In Bulfalo. X. Y. at the a;;e of eighty- 
four. 

John K. Wilcox was educated in the public scliools of 
Akron and at Dennison University, (iranville, Ohio, where he 
pursued the Scientific Course. In ISfiT. a few months after 
leaving school, he came to .Minne.sota and located in Minne- 
apolis. Being capable in the industry conducted by his lather, 
he entered the employ of Wheaton. Reynolds <t Francis, a firm 
engaged in the same line, soon after his arrival. Mr. Francis 
rt'tire<l from the firm in 1H71. and at that time Mr. Wilcox 
was taken in in his place, the lirm name being changed to 
Wheaton, KeynohU & Company. In 18H.') he ilisposed of his 
interest in the concern to his partners and started in business 
alone as John K. Wilcox, manufacturer of wood specialties, 
and in this line of production he has ever since been occupied. 
His own plant, which has now been in continuous operation 
for twenty-eight years, was started on a small scale and has 
been built up by his enterprise, progressiveness and line lnisi- 
ness capacity to great proportions. He has given it unceasing 
attention and has kept his eye open to its needs and the 
requirements of the market wisely ond with excellent judg- 
ment, his aim being to make every ounce of its power count 



to its expansion and his own advantage. In this aim he liaa 
succeeded admirably, as the industry over which he presides 
with such mastery amply testilicB. 

During the long period of its growth and development, 
however, he has been assiduous also in his efforts to advance 
the general interests of his community and the abiding welfare 
of its residents, never wiihhohling liis han<l when a public 
need required its aid, and never stopping to consider the 
personal sacrifice or inconvenience to himself the service 
might involve. In the earlier days of his residence in the 
city he was a member of the Cataract Volunteer Fire Engine 
Company, and always "ran with the machine" when duty 
called liini to do so. When the company was taken over by 
the city as a part of its paid tire department he discontinued 
his connection with it. 

Mr. Wilcox has taken an active part in the direction of 
public affairs, but only for the general good, and never for 
personal advancement or the gratification of a personal 
ambition. For he has never held a political ollice, although 
he stands high in the Councils and regard of the Republican 
party, of which he has always been a member. In church 
afliliation he is a Cougregationaliat and in fraternal relations 
a Freemason of the Thirty-second degree in the Ancient and 
Accepted Scottish rite. He is also a member of the Minneapolis, 
Athletic, Minikalida and T/afayette clubs, and a valued 
contributor to their needs and general welfare. 

On June 13th, 1871, Mr. Wilcox was married to Miss Kmma 
E. Clement. They have five children, Harry E., President of 
the H. E. Wilcox Motor Company, Dr. Archa E., Surgeon of 
Hillcrest Hospital. Myrtic E., who is the wife of Dr. Walter 
T. Joslin, Ralph D., who is connected with his father in most 
of his business enterprises, and Beatrice E., who is still a 
member of the parental family circle. 



WILLIAM DANIEL GREGORY. 

Mr. Gregory has long been an influential factor in the in- 
dustrial life of the Northwest, and one of the leading millers 
and lumbermen of Minnesota. 

He was born in Maumec, Lucas County, Ohio. March 22, 
1855, the Son of a pfiygician in active practice in that town. 
His opportunities for education in the public schools were 
limited, but he had excellent training in the practical school 
of experience. At the age of 17 he entered a flouring mill 
as a workman, and there he became a complete master of 
the milling business and the grain trade in which he has been 
engage<l during the subsequent years of his life. 

For some years after acquiring his trade Mr. Gregory waa 
associated with George W. Reynolds, one of the oldest millers 
in Northern Ohio, in milling and grain operations in Toledo. 
In 18,'I4 he came to Minneapolis and united with Samuel S. 
Linton in a grain Arm, from which has grown that of the 
present Gregory, .lennison &. Company of Minneapolis, and 
Gregory, Cook «t Co.. of Duluth. The Minneapolis firm has 
its offices in the Flour Exchange Building, but were for a 
number of years in the old (liamber of Commerce. William 
I). Gregory is senior member of this Arm. It owns the Mid- 
way Elevator, with a capacity of L.'IOO.OOO bushels. He is 
president of the Powers Elevator fonipany. which operates 
.').! elevators and 23 lumbiT yards in the Northwest. He Is 
also pre>tiilent of the Ilulufh Cniversal Milling Company 



328 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



and secretary of the Commander Mill Company, wliicli has 
mills at Montgomery and Morristown, Minn. 

He has ever been active in helping to promote the welfare 
of his home city and is a member of the Chamber of Com- 
merce and the Civic and Commerce Association of Minne- 
apolis and the Board of Trade of Duluth. He also belongs 
to the Commercial, Minikahda, and Lafayette Clubs of 
Minneapolis. 

October 28, 1889, Mr. Gregory married Miss Xellie Sowle, 
a (laughter of L. T. Sowle, of Minneapolis. They have one 
child, a son, named Lawrence S. Gregory, who is with Gregory, 
.Jennison & Company. Mr. Gregory is a Republican and firm 
in his faith. But he has never been an active partisan or 
sought or desired a political office. His fellow-citizens look 
upon him as one of their most useful, creditable and repre- 
sentative citizens. 



JONATHAN T. GRIMES. 



Mr. Grimes was born at Leesburg, Loudoun county. Virginia, 
on the 10th of May, 1818, and was a scion of staunch English 
stock. The original American progenitors of the Grimes family 
were adherents of King Charles I of England, and under tlu' 
turbulent conditions in tlieir native land they sought a home 
in America, having established their residence in Virginia 
about the year 16-10. The name became prominently identified 
with colonial affairs in the Old Dominion and its representa- 
tives in the early and later periods were largely engaged in 
agricultural pursuits, as successful planters. One of the 
family was a distinguished clergyman of the English or 
Protestant Episcopal church. George Grimes, father of him 
to whom this memoir is dedicated, was a prosperous planter 
in Virginia, but was not a slaveholder, his wife, who was 
birthright member of the Society of Friends, having had 
conscientious scruples against the holding of human vassals, 
(ieorge Grimes passed the closing period of his life in Indiana, 
where he joined his son Jonathan T.. of this review, about 
the year 1843. He had given valiant service as a soldier in 
the war of 1812. 

•Jonathan T. Grimes was reared to maturity in the historic- 
old state of Virginia and received the advantages of the 
schools of the period. At the age of twenty-one years he 
severed the home ties and set forth to seek his fortunes in 
the west. This was about the year 1840 and he traversed 
portions of both Indiana and Illinois, in which latter state he 
visited both Chicago and Springfield. He finally purchased a 
tract of land near Terre Haute, Vigo county. Indiana, where 
lie continued to be actively engaged in agricultural and 
liorticultural jiursuits until 1S5.5, when he came to Minnesota, 
this change having been made principally because he found 
it expedient to obtain different climatic conditions. He was 
most favorably impressed with the advantages and opportun- 
ities here offered and in the following year he established 
liis residence in Minneapolis, his original home having been 
a modest house on the block between First and Second avenues 
and Fourth and Fifth streets and near the site of the ])resent 
Niirthwestern National Bank, About three years later Mr, 
lirimes bought a tract of land west of Lake Harriet, ami 
his old homestead, a substantial building erected by liini. is 
still staniling and in an excellent state of preservation. It 
is lecated on Forty-fourth street and is owned and occupied 



by his son Melvin. When he purchased this property that 
section of .the city was represented in farm land and was 
but little improved. On his farm Mr. Grimes initiated the 
development of a horticultural business, by establishing the 
Lake Calhoun Nursery. He remained on this homestead about 
a quarter of a century and made the place one of the leading 
nurseries of the northwest. As a pioneer in this field of 
industry he was a contemporary and personal friend of Colonel 
Stevens, Wyman Elliott and others who became prominent 
and influential in this line of industry. Mr. Grimes introduced 
and tested many new varieties of fruit, flowers, ornamental 
shrubbery, etc.. and he was a recognized expert and authority 
in his chosen vocation. He supplied shrubbery and flower? 
to nearly all of the old homes in Minneapolis and became also 
a successful fruit-grower. Mr. Grimes served as president of 
the Minnesota State Horticultural Society, and when vener- 
able in years he and other pioneer members of this organiza- 
tion were photographed in a group, the depicture being retained 
as a valuable and interesting historical souvenir. In this 
group appear also the pictures of Messrs. Stevens and Elliott, 
previously mentioned in this paragraph. 

Mr. Grimes passed the last twenty years of his life in 
Minneapolis, where he lived virtually retired, though he never 
abated his interest in the practical affairs of the day, his 
mental ken being wide and his judgment of mature order. 
The closing period of his long and useful life was passed in 
a home at 3209 Nicollet avenue, and there he delighted to 
greet and entertain his host of loyal and valued friends. Mr. 
Grimes, with the rapid expansion of the city, platted a 
portion of his old homestead farm into residence lots and he 
gave to this addition the name of Waveland Park. Later the 
Grimes Homestead addition was |)Iatted. and the section is 
now one of the most attractive residence districts of the 
Minnesota metropolis, Mr, Grimes suggested the line of the 
old motor railway that traversed his farm and on the same 
Grimes Station was named in his honor. This line has since 
been developed into the effective interurban service of the 
Minnetonka electric line. As a young man Mr. Grimes served 
several terms as county commissioner and as a citizen he was 
at all times loyal, progressive and pulilic-spirited. He was 
uncompromising in his allegiance to the Republican party 
and gave active service in the promotion of its cause. Both 
he and his wife were devout members of the First Presbyterian 
church of Minneapolis, in which he held the office of elder. 
The names of both are held in enduring honor in the state 
that long represented their home ami of which they were 
pioneers. 

In Sullivan county, Indiana, on the 20th of September, 
1843, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Grimes to Miss 
Eliza A. Gordon, who was born in Warren county, Ohio, on 
the 12th of July, 182G. The ideal companionship of Mr. and 
Mrs. Grimes continued for more than half a century and 
was severed only when the devoted wife and mother was 
summoned to eternal rest, on the loth of November. 1902, 
her husband surviving her by only three months, passing 
away Feb. 10. 1903, so that in death they were not long 
divided. Mrs. Grimes was a daughter of John Gordon, and 
the latter was a son of George (lordon, of Carlisle, Pennsyl- 
vania, who served as a gallant soldier in the war of the 
Revolution, in which he participated in the Canadian expedi- 
tion under General Ethan Allen. 

Mr. and Mrs. Grimes became the parents of eight children, 
and concerning the six surviving the honored parents the 



HISTORY OF .MIXXHAI'OLIS AND II KWHl'IX rOFNTY, MINNKSOTA 



329 



follo» ill).' l>ri<'l ii'ioiil in ),'ivi-ii: Kilwanl K. i;. a if|)rc>,.'iitiitivf 
agriculturist near Niirthficld. Riio county, Miiini'sota; Melvin 
remain!! in tlio old liomustcail. as has previously Iwon noted 
in this context: tJeorge S. is an able lawyer and is one ol 
the prominent members of the Minneapolis bar: Klla is the 
wife of Kred Eustis. who is enftaped in the real-estate business 
in Minneapolis: and Mis>es Kmnm K. and Mary A. (irimes 
maintain their home at '^'^^•< I'ir-t Avenue, South, in Min- 
neapolis. 



JAMES L. GARVEY. 

James L. liarvey, of Minneapolis, before his di^ath was one 
of the few remaining links connecting the present advanced 
development and elevated civilization of this city with the 
formative period of its pioneer days, and was revered by all 
the people of the community as a patriarch anionp them. 
He located on a farm in the neighborhood of the village in 
May. I8j,s. and died at 1U37 James avenue south, in the heart 
of the city, on February 23. 1SH2. after a residence here of 
fifty-four years and at the age of seventy-nine. 

Mr. Garvey's history is therefore a very interesting one, 
and cannot but be striking even in the brief reconl of it 
presented in these pages. He was born in Holton, Maine, on 
February 2, IS.13, and grew to the age of sixteen in his native 
place. In 1849 he heard and heeded the siren voice of Califor- 
nia proclaiming her boundless wealth of golden treasure, and 
went to that then far distant state by way of Cape Horn, 
Nine years were passed by him in the modern Eldorado, 
during which he sought diligently for the buried treasure, 
but was only moderately successful in fimling it. 

In 1858 he determined to return to his family and made 
the long journey back. During his absence, however, his 
mother and the rest of the nine children in the family had 
come to Minnesota and located in what is now Minneapolis, 
being guided hither by Mr. Garvey's older brother Christopher. 
Christopher passed the remainder of his days and died on 
what is now Lyndale avenue, although he was well out in 
the country when he took up his residence there. The mother 
lived to a good old age, and also died in this city, making her 
home with her son James until after his marriage. 

James L. Garvcy bought a farm in the early ilays soon 
after his arrival in this region, around the priseiit intersec- 
tion of Lyiidale avenue an<l Forty-eighth street, and on Sep- 
tember 9 was united in marriage with Miss Laura E. 
Richardson, a <laughter of .Jesse N. and laicy \V. (Nason) 
Richardson, the former a native of Halifax, Nova .Scotia, and 
the latter of the state of Maine, town of Crawford. The 
father was brought to Maine when he was but four years of 
age by his parents. They located at Crawford, Washington 
rounty. in that state, and there he grew (o manhood ami 
was nuirrieil. lie brought his family to Minnesnta in is.'id. 
reaching St. Anthony on November '.i. 

The partv of emigrants from .Maine with whirli he came 
numbereil fifteen, there being three families among them: 
Nathaniel Grover. his wife and child: John ISrow ii and his 
wife: and .1. N. Richardson, his wife and two children. Ilethia 
Hanscomli, one of the young ladies in the party, married 
Joel Nason and moved with him to Wisconsin, where she has 
since died. Emily Nason. a sister to the mother of Mrs. 
Garvey. became thi- wife of W. II. To«nsend. an oldtiiiie 



lumlierman, ami pasMil the rest of her life in Minneapolis. 
There were several utlii-r young persons in the party, but of 
the whole number of (ifteen Mrs. Garvey is the only one now 
living. She has vivid recollections of the incidents of the 
trip from Machias, Maine, to St. Anthony. It consumed two 
weeks and three days, anil was not made without many 
adventures and some hardships and privations. 

Mrs. Garvey's father. Jesse N. Richardson, was one of the 
early lumbermen of this locality, and worked in the business 
for Mr. Russell. In 1853 he pre-empted 160 acres of land, 
including a part of what is now (.'hicago avenue, although 
when he took possession of his home it was two miles and a 
half from his nearest neighbor. He built a little cabin on his 
land and lived in it in constant fear of the Indians, whose 
outbreaks were fre<iuent a little farther west. The Catholic 
Orphans' Home stands on a part of the old place. In 1873 he 
opened a store at what is now the junction of Lyndale avenue 
and Fifty-second street, and this he conducted until he died 
on November 25, 1904. age<i eighty-three years. His widow- 
died on February 2, 1907. aged eighty. 

They had five children: Laura, who is now .Mrs. Garvey: 
Adriana, who died in 1850, soon after her arrival in this 
state; Thomas A., who was born on the Hennepin county 
farm and is still living in Minneapolis; Walter W., who died 
at the age of fifteen, and Arthur L.. who was a partner of his 
father in the store, and who is still living in this city. 
He tared for his parents until they died, his wife, whose 
maiden name was Anna Rohan, becoming very devoted to 
them and giving them as much attention as she could have 
given her own father ond mother. 

After his arrival in this part of the country Mr. (larvey 
worked for Oorilus Morrison, driving ox teams to and from 
the woods. He was head teamster and had charge of all the 
teams owned anil u.sed by Mr. Morrison. At the time of his 
marriage he had fifty or sixty acres of his land cleared and 
under cultivation, his mother and two sisters living with 
him and looking after the household affairs until his mar- 
riage. He continued to own, cultivate and improve his farm 
until 1866, when he .sold all of it but twenty acres, where 
Lyndale avenue and Forty-eighth street now intersect, which 
he retained and occupied until a year before his death, passing 
nearly fifty-five years on tln' land whiih he took up from 
the wilderness. 

Mr. Garvey employed his time and energies mainly in llie 
management of his farm, although at times he was ehorrn 
to fill township ollices and drawn into participation in oilier 
public affairs. He was very fond of fine horses and raised 
numbers of them, and as one of the leading farmers of the 
neighborhood, he was of great assistance to William King, 
whose farm adjoined his. in the management of the fair of 
(he early days. 

Five children were born in the Garvey family, all of »hoin 
are living. They are: Cora H., now the wife of Eugene 
Fogg of Minneapolis, a railroad boarding contractor: Florence 
M., who is one of the older teachers in the city and is now 
employed ill the llreiner sehool; .lames .1.. who taught manual 
training in the Central High school (en years and is now in 
charge of the same department of instruction in the high 
school at Oak Park. Illinois, and also an architect in active 
practice: Uiura K., who is living at home with her mother, 
and Arthur W., a real estate deah'r. who is handling the 
"Garvey Rustic I»ilge." a part of the old family homestead 
^t l.ynsilah- avenue ami For(y-eighth street, which has hei-n 



330 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



platted as an addition to Minneapolis. Mrs. Garvey has 
always shared her husband's interest in the welfare of the 
community and has long taken an active part in its fraternal 
life as a member of the Territorial Ladies' association and 
of Palestine Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star. Her resi- 
dence is now at James avenue south. 



HENRY DOERR. 



Connected in a leading and serviceable way with a number 
of industrial, mercantile and financial enterprises, but chiefly 
known far and wide as the head of the firm of Winecke & 
Doerr, wholesale cigar merchants, and as president of the 
Minneapolis Drug Company, Henry Doerr has won an honor- 
able place among the enterprising and far-seeing business men 
of the Northwest and in the regard of the people wherever he 
is known. 

Mr. Doerr was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Septem- 
ber 15, 1853. He is a .son of Valentine and Caroline Doerr, 
names well and favorably known in the Wisconsin metropolis. 
The father was the owner and proprietor of a hotel in La 
Crosse, Wisconsin, but tlie son passed the early years of his 
life in Milwaukee, and in that city he obtained his education, 
attending the Milwaukee Academy. He sought no higher 
walks in the great field of schola.stic attainments, but im- 
mediately after leaving the Academy began his business 
career with the determination to make it as conspieiously 
successful as possible, discarding all half-way or common place 
achievements. 

The first adventure in tlie <loniain of business, was as the 
proprietor of a cigar store, which he started in 1873. Be- 
fore that, however, he had been employed for a time by a 
wliolesale Minneapolis cigar house, and in its service he ac- 
quired his elementary knowledge of the business in which he 
has ever since been mainly engaged. Starting in business in 
partnership with Henry Winecke, and for many years there- 
after the lirm of Winecke & Doerr was one of the best known 
in the tobacco and cigar trade, as it is now, its operations 
being both wholesale and retail. 

Mr. Winecke died in 1901. and at that time Mr. Doerr be- 
came full owner and manager of the business, including the 
wholesale department and a number of retail stores the firm 
had established in Minneapolis. St. Paul and other places. But 
the firm name has never been changed, and the retail stores 
are still conducted under it, although they are now a cor- 
poration and operated under a general manager. 

In 1907 the wholesale department was consolidated with 
the Eliel-.Jerman Drug com])iUiy under the name of the Minne- 
a|)olis Drug company, with Mr. Doerr as president, a position 
which he now occupies, and its affairs are flourishing and its 
business is expanding in volume and value. 

Mr. Doerr has extensive interests outside of the drug and 
tobacco business, and he commands them to the same success 
and progress he has won in that. He is secretary and treas- 
urer of the Salzer Lumber company, which operates a num- 
ber of country lumber yards; president and treasurer of the 
Minneapolis Ornamental Bronze and Iron company; the vice 
president and one of the directors of the German .\merican 
Bank of Minneapolis: a director of the Minnesota Loan and 
Tnist company, and one of the trustees of the Hennepin Sav- 
ings Bank. In all of these institutions his influence is strong 



and very helpful, and his business sagacity is valued in a 
liigh degree. He belongs to the Minneapolis, Athletic. 
Minikahda, Lafayette and Automobile clubs, and takes an 
active part in promoting tlieir welfare. He is also a member 
of the Masonic order, and the fraternity has his very cordial 
and serviceable support, as well as his loyal devotion to its 
principles and teacliings. In political relations be is a Repub- 
lican, but he has never sought a public office either by elec- 
tion or appointment. 

Mr. Doerr was married on January 24, 1882, at La Crosse. 
Wisconsin, to Miss Sarah L. Scharpf. They have three chil- 
dren, their sons George V. and Henry Doerr, Jr., and their 
daughter Clara L. The famih- is of German origin, Mr. 
Doerr's father, Valentine Doerr, liaving left Darmstadt, the 
place of his nativity, and come to this country in 1840, lo- 
cating in Milwaukee, where he died some years ago. The 
mother was born in Hanover. Germany. All the members of 
the family are highly esteemed in social circles and all 
exemplify in an admirable degree the best traits of elevated 
and patriotic American citizenship. No man in Minneapolis 
stands liigher in public regard than Mr. Doerr and none is 
iiioie worthy of liigh standing and general approval. 



LIEUTENANT-COLONEL WILLIAM GERLACH. 

Colonel Gerlach is well known and honored in Minneapolis 
and throughout tlie State. A sketch of his personal history 
prepared by himself, but not for publication, follows: 

I was born November 15, 1835. at Schotten, a small city 
located in the Bird Mountains, province of Ober-Hessen, grand 
ducliy of HeSse- Darmstadt, Germany, where my father, in 
government service as collector of internal revenue, was then 
stationed. When I was five years old father was transferred 
to another district, and we moved to Alsheim, province of 
Khein-Hessen. Here in due time, having passed my sixth 
birthday, I was sent to the public school and continued to 
attend it for the next five years. On the eve of my eleventh 
birthday father died. My mother, being in poor health, 
made her home with a married daughter, and I was sent 
to a boarding school at Gau-Odernheim kept by Rev. R. Rau, 
a clergyman of the German Reformed church. Our classes 
consisted of seven pupils, five boys and two girls, and the 
course of instmction wav; shaped, with the addition of music, 
to prepare us for the gymnasium, the preparatory school for 
the University. We atte'nded in winter some of the classes 
in the public school, but our regular instruction at the par- 
sonage was conducted by Mr. Rau. assisted by a young clergy- 
man (candidate), a graduate of the University of Utrecht. 
Holland. Our bodily needs were jirovided for under the super- 
vision of Mrs. Rau. a kind lady, but a rigid disciplinarian. 
Our fare was plain and wholesome, but would appear rather 
hard to some of the growing generation now. Nevertheless, 
I have often had reason to be grateful for the training I then 
received, especially after I entered the army here, and served 
where luxuries were not too plenty. 

Shortly after my confirmation (fourteenth year), I left 
the parsonage, going to Darmstadt, where I entered the poly- 
techinc school to qualify for a university course. Mother now 
took up her residence there too, and I once more had a home. 
A sister tliree years older than myself, unmanied, was n 
pleasant companion. The youngest of six children, we were 




,^^£^^i>cy Xj^^^^ 



^ct^<^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



331 



thr only oiifs at limiir. I ri'inained at school in Darmstadt 
up to my sevontwiith year, intending to enter tlie university 
as snxin as I reached the |iio|«t aj;e. eighteen, and to take 
up the study of law. 

Meanwhile, however, a lirother who had emigrated to the 
L'nited States kept urging my mother to have me come to 
him in New York, where I would have better prospects in 
life than would be before me after completing my studii'S 
in Germany, and after graduating at the university, when 
I would have to go on a waiting list for a government posi- 
tion, probably. He promised to provide for me until I should 
be able to make by own living. Mother accepted his offer, 
and I was sent to America. On arrival I was received in 
my brother's family, and he put me as an apprentice in a 
lithographic establishment, his own line of business. I went 
to work with a will, taking up the study of Knglish in my 
spare time, boon I adapted myself to the ways of a new- 
world and intidentally acquired some of the American no- 
tions of independence and democracy. 

It was well I did. My sister-in-law not approving of what 
my brother did to assist me, my position in her family 
be<-anie unbearable. I cut loose, confident that a young man 
not afraid of work could make his way. I was fortunate in 
finding employment in a large bakery. My new master, Mr. 
M. Wentworth, was a gentleman from Maine. The members 
of his family were most estimable persons, and I found a new 
home. My educational qualifications enabled me to give 
Mr. Wentworth mu<li as.'*istance in his olTice, and I spent 
my evenings helping the children with their lessons. I was 
content and deriving much benefit from my association with 
• truly cultured .American family. The close- indoor em- 
ployment, however, undermineil by health, and. admonislied 
by the physician whom I consulted, that I must get out of 
town if I wished to live long, I was forced to contemplate 
s change in my occupation. With my (ierman ideas of mili- 
tary life, I conceived the plan of going into the United States 
army for a few years. Mr. Wentworth tried to dissuade me. 
but when he found me persistent, remarked that he had no 
doubt I would get along anywhere, and I enlisted for five years 
on February 26, 1856. 

Sent to a recruiting depot on Governor's Island, it appeared 
to me for a time that I had made a mistake. My associates 
were not, as a whole, of a congenial class. Restless, hard 
drinkers, many had drifted into the service; running amuck 
of discipline, they became desperate, and deserted. As I 
looked about me I became convinced that, after all, it was 
not a forlorn hope for me. I paid close attention to my 
duties. Assigned to a company in the Kourth .Artillery, then 
en route to Floriila, I attracted the attention of my superiors. 

With the kind good will of my Captain. .Tohn P. McCown, 
later a Major General in the (nnfederate army, my posi- 
tion in the service was de<iile<lly pleasant. During my first 
year in the company, as we were then engaged in a hard 
campaign under General W. S. Harney against a hand of 
Sominole Indians led by "Killy Bowlegs." who obstinately 
refused to join the remainder of the tribe in the Indian 
Territory, I saw harder service than it ever after became my 
lot to encounter iluring my active army career. Chasing 
Indians through the Kvergladc-s. up and down rivers, through 
nwamps and dense forests; never certain w-hcn we should be 
fired on by an invisible enemy from ambush; hungry often 
»nd thirsty, we worked for ten months. In all this period 
*<• had one fair glimpse of an enemy and open shot at him. 



Thoroughly familiar with the ground, the Indians, while bit- 
ting us hard, always umnaged to escape an engagement; 
and it was only by keeping them always on the move that 
General Harney and his Successors, when he was sent t« 
Kansas in 1S5T, succeeded in tiring them out and forcing 
their final surrender. Fever and mosquitos were worthy 
allies of the redskins. As an example of the wear of such field 
service, I will only state here that of the eighty-seven strong 
men we had when starting for Florida, in October, 1856, we 
mustered forty-four men at Fort Leavenworth in December, 
1857. We bad been sent from Florida to bleeding Kansas on 
account of border troubles in the fall of 1857. Other com- 
panies fared even worse. 

In the winter of 1857-58 a large number of troops of all 
arms bad been concentrated at Fort Leavenworth in prepara- 
tion for the start to Utah on account of Morman troubles as 
soon as grass growing would permit the march of reinforce- 
ments for the expeditionary force then wintering at Fort 
Bridger. An exigency of the service caused the relief of Cap- 
tain McCown from duty with his company, and he was directed 
to proceed to Fort Kearney, Nebraska Territory, to assume 
commanil of the post. The company, unmindful of the hard- 
ships incident to a 300-mile march across the plains in winter, 
begged the captain to take it along. General Harney, in 
command of the department at the time, remembering our 
good service in Florida, permitted the transfer. 

Starting from Fort Leavenworth in February we reached 
Kearney March 6. 1858, after encountering some very severe 
storms en route. On the last day of February we neces- 
sarily covered • thirty-three miles, facing a bli/.zard which 
started about an hour after we left camp in the morning. 
While we might have camped and melted snow, there waa 
not a particle of fuel in sight until w-e reached a cottonwood 
grove on a little stream about dark. Nevertheless, we 
reached o\ir new station in good condition. Kearney then 
was the first point in the line of communication between 
Leavenworth and Salt Lake. Located shortly after the 
Mexican war, garrisoned by Company 1, Sixth Infantry, 
in the Pawnee country, it increased in importance when it 
became, in 1857, a supply and refitting station for troops 
en route to Utah, and in 1858 and 1859 it was materially 
enlarged, a garrison of artillery, serving as infantry, and 
one of cavalry being sent there. 

With our arrival at Fort Kearney commenced one of 
the most pleasant periods of my service. Pawnees were 
friendly, and they looked to the troops for protection 
against incursions of both Sioux Imlians from the north 
and Cheyenni's and Arapahoes from the south, who. al- 
though they were not hostile, as far as troops were con- 
cerned. ha<l the habit of seniling war parties into the Pawnee 
territory to replenish their stock of horses. The prairies all 
summer were covered with herds of bufTalo, antelope were 
plentiful, and by going south alM^ut forty miles to the Re- 
publican Fork of thi' Kansas river, we could find a supply 
of wild turkeys, deer, and grouse for our Thanksgiving and 
Christmas dinners. Our duties »-ere light. There was plenty 
of time for hunting, and to mo lots of leisure for study. 
An exvellently selected company library, rich in works on 
.■Vraerican history, supplemented by my captain's store of 
standard w-orks. enabled me to take \ip, under his kind 
<lirection. a thorough course of reading. 

The company remained at Kearney until late in the summer 
of 1S59. when the establishment of inland artillery schools 



332 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



caused a concentration of the Fourth Artillery at Fort Ran- 
dall, Dakota Territory, and Fort Ridgely, Minnesota. We 
marched then across the country, due north, about 200 
miles, from the Platte River Valley, at Kearney, to Fort 
Randall, on the Missouri river. The country we then trav- 
ersed, crossing the South, North, and Loup forks of the 
Platte and the Elkhorn river, was at the time a complete 
wilderness. 

Conditions did not change much, as far as I was person- 
ally interested, after our arrival at Randall. Now com- 
pletely satisfied with my army life, and with prospects of 
substantial promotion ahead. I re-enlisted when my first 
period of service was about to expire, December 26, 1860. 
Changes, however, were soon to come which bade fair to 
upset all my hopes. Secession raised its head; the regu- 
lar army was demoralized by the resignation of numberless 
officers born in the South. Among these was my captain. 
Other officers were transferred to other regiments and fields. 
The colonel of the Fourth Artillery, who had taken an in- 
terest in me, died. 

Without friends in position to help me; unable to get 
even East into active service; my company without officers; 
left at Fort Randall for the time. I finally passed examina- 
tion for appointment as hospital steward in the United 
States army. Here again hard luck seemed to pursue me. 
Although I Secured the appointment I sought, a responsible 
noncommissioned staff position, I was ordered not to a 
field army, as 1 had desired, but sent on to the Plains, to 
my old station. Fort Kearney, Nebraska. All my efforts 
to get a change, made for years, were ineffective. This 
was partly due to the necessity of having a perfectly compe- 
tent man at Kearney, which was soon garrisoned by volun- 
teer troops; and furthermore, because when the latter came, 
and Indian troubles became serious, my experience in that 
line of work, to which was added my perfect knowledge 
of the country, gained during my previous service there in 
1858 and 1859, caused me to be sent into the field to assist 
officers in command of detachments. 

Ordered Eastward at last, I was placed on duty at the 
large general hospitals at Keokuk and Davenport, Iowa. 
The war closing soon afterward, I managed to get back 
to Fort Randall, Dakota. Then I was transferred to a 
larger post, new Fort Sully, on the Missouri above Fort Ran- 
dall. I finally applied for examination to determine my 
fitness for a commission. Ordered before a board at Fort 
Sully, the record of the examination, added to my service 
record, resulted in my appointment as second lieutenant of 
infantry. Ordered to my regiment, the Thirty-seventh In- 
fantry, I served at Fort Dodge, Kansas, until ordered to 
New Mexico in the fall of 1867. 

Busily engaged as quartermaster in the retonstruction 
of Fort Stanton, when the army was reduced in 1869. I was 
retained in service and transferred to the Third Infantry. 
This brought me back to Kansas. Routine duty kept me 
busy at Fort Larned and Leavenworth until, in 1S74. my 
regiment was suddenly ordered South, first to Holly Springs. 
Mississippi, and from there scattered to various stations 
in Louisiana. A period of very disagreeable duty, political 
rather than military, now followed until 1877, when late 
in the fall the Third Infantry was ordered to Montana. 
I was away on leave then, the first indulgence of the kind 
of any duration I had enjoyed during my service, and was 
over in Germany. Returning too late to take my family 



across the Rockies to my Montana station, I was ordered 
to duty at Fort Steele, Wyoming, and held there until May, 
1879, when I joined my company in Montana. Appointed 
quartermaster of the regiment in 1898, I came with it to 
Fort Snelling. Promoted to captain in 1890, I joined my 
company at Fort Meade, South Dakota. Left without a com- 
mand by the skeletonizing of two companies in each in- 
fantry regiment of the army. I was detailed in 1890 for 
duty as chief ordnance officer in the Department of Dakota, 
and to command the ordnance depot (lower post) at Snelling. 

Upon the breaking up of the ordnance depot in 1894 I 
returned to my regiment, and I then served as company com- 
mander at Fort Snelling to the beginning of the Spanish- 
American war. Selected to remain in charge of the post 
when the regiment went to C\iba. I continued in command 
until the troops returned. Again, when the regiment was 
ordered to the Orient, I was detached by War Department 
orders and left in charge of the post. Anxious to go with 
the Third Infantry to the Philippines, the need of an officer 
versed in administrative work, and the nearness of my 
retirement by age, caused my wishes to be disregarded. 
Promoted to major soon afterward, I remained at Snelling 
to the date of my retirement, November 15, 1899. 

At the date of my retirement I had to my credit almost 
forty-five years of active service, and, I am proud to say, 
service without a blemish, as the records will show. Since 
then I have added over ten years of active work, on duty 
under War Department assignment with the organized militia 
of Minnesota. During this period I have received a new com- 
mission giving me the grade of lieutenant colonel for war 
service, 1861 to 1865. 

Often now, as I sit in my den — army slang for study — 
with a brave and noble wife, who, since 1862, has shared 
my service, hardships and honors too. I review my army life. 
The form of many a comrade true, who having done his 
duty well, answered the last roll call, at home or on the 
battlefield, arises before me, and ray eyes turn moist. 

But I am content, and grateful to Providence that as a 
member of our little regular army I was permitted to do duty 
in the advance guard, picketing the danger line on our inland 
frontier, thus enabling the hardy ])ioneers and railroad build- 
ers to conquer a vast wilderness. To them belongs the honor 
for the development of our national greatness. Tliere is 
still more glory for them if hand in hand the farmer and 
railroad king continue their work. The army's task is nearly 
done. 

In closing this sketch I cannot help calling attention to a 
peculiar phase of my service career: In the army for life, 
sworn to defend the flag, the symbol of our nationality, bom 
in a foreign land, free from State or other local attachments, 
my political ideas have been always eminently national. My 
military training has taught me the value of team work in 
all that concerns measures for the maintenance of our 
national integrity. Here there should be no party lines or 
State intirests. Every American should realize that his most 
exalted duty is the defense of his country against all oppo- 
sition, foreign or domestic. Popular traditions and feeling 
will ever oppose the maintenance of a large permanent army; 
nevertheless, prudence demands that we be prepared for war. 
Should we be forced to take up arms we would (]uickly find 
that a national army alone can fight our battles. Let us, 
therefori', foster our militia organizations. There should be 
no prejudice against them by labor unions or others. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



333 



Those arc tlie reasons » liy 1 am still on duty «lii-ii with 
propriety I could take a rest, for the few yenrs or days 
which yet remain to me, amply provided for by a liberal 
goTemment. 

Col. (Jerlncli is remarkably well preserved. In November. 
191.1. he was operated upon for a serious trouble at St. 
Joseph's Hospital, St. Paul. A short time after the operation 
I hiriu'e niimlH-r of physicians, members of the Ramsey County 
Medical Association, in attendance upon their annual clinic, 
lanu- into his presence. Despite his weakness from the opera- 
lion and the intirniity of his 78 years, the old soldier raised 
liini-self from his stretcher and gave his visitors a full mili- 
tary salute. 



CHARLES M. GODLEY. 



Charles M. Godley, an old-time merchant of Minneapolis, 
but for some years now retired from business, was born 
August 27, 1838, at Harrison, Ohio, and there reared to 
nanhood, educated, and prepared for his useful career and 
lelpful citizenship. He is a son of John and Mary (McHenry) 
jodley, who were pioneers in Minnesota, as their parents 
^•ere in Ohio. .Tohn Godley's father removed his family from 
S'ew .Jersey by team to Ohio in the early existence of that 
State; but .John Godley moved his family to its new home 
n Minnesota by steamboat down the Ohio and up the Mis- 
lissippi to Minneapolis, arriving in this city May 1, 1862, 
Jis household comprised thirteen persons and he had not 
inly their goods but a stock of dry goods and several horseVi, 
r'rom Dubuque the voyage was completed on the famous old 
iteainer "Northern Light," when she was making her first 
:rip up the river that year. On arriving in Minneapolis 
Itr, Godley and his family were the first guests of the Nicollet 
Jouse, which had just been opened by "Mace" Eustis, although 
t was not really ready for occupancy. 

A few weeks after his arrival the elder Mr. Godley opened 
I dry goods store on Bridge Square, at the corner of Second 
street. Two of his sons, Charles and Philip, were associated 
ffith him, Augustus, another son. went to a farm in Brooklyn 
>nter, which he occupied and cultivated until his death, in 
1877. Still another son, George Godley, went back to Ohio, 
»here he is still living. The father passed his last years on 
he farm of his son Augustus, at Brooklyn Center, and there 
le died, also in 1S77. He was an old State Rights Democrat 
iBd a zealous supporter of President Pierce, and being a lluent 
ind resourceful public speaker, he rose to prominence and 
nfluence in the political affairs of this city. He was also an 
kttendant of the Westminster Presbyterian church, which all 
;he members of his family who were living in Minneapolis 
ittended. 

Philip and Charles Godley gave up merchandising in 1807. 
Philip then became a commercial tourist for thirty years. 
3e <lied in 1898 or 1899. 

Charles M. Godley has lived retired from all active i>ursuits 
'or many years. He is the only member of all the family 
»ho is or ever has been a Republican, He has been an active 
forking member of Westminster Presbyterian church from 
roung manhood. 

On .lune 18, 1867, Mr. Godley was married in Minneapolis 
lo Miss Ella Scrimgeour. a native of Connecticut and a 
lescendant of old Scotch ancestry. She was a member of the 



first class graduated from the old Union School, in 1862. Her 
father, E, J. Scrimgeour, came to Minneapolis in 1855 and 
bought land at the intersection of Fourth street and Second 
avenue north, where he and David Morgan built houses on 
opposite corners. He engaged in the grocery trade here in 
partnership with I, F, Woodman, at Washington and Second 
avenues south. Mr, Woodman built Woodman Hall, of early 
days, and the St. James hotel. 

Mr. Scrimgeour was afterward associated with B. S. Bull 
in the grocery trade at the corner of Nicollet and Washington 
avenues, and while conducting that business died suddenly 
in the spring of 1865; the direct cause of bis sudden demise 
was supposed to have bei'U the assassination of President 
I..incoln, whom lie warmly admired. His widow survived liim 
many years. They were among the organizers of the Wesley 
Methodist Episcopal church, and Mr. Scrimgeour supplied the 
lumber for the church building, at Third avenue south and 
J'ourth street, the first church of that denomination erected 
in Minneapolis. He was, to the end of his life, one of its 
trustees and class leaders, 

Mr. Scrimgeour had three children, viz: Mrs. Godley; her 
sister Helen, widow of the late .John Horton, and who resides 
at 2015 Aldrich avenue south, and David Scrimgeour. The 
last named was for more than twenty years one of the lead- 
ing grain dealers in this city and one of the most active 
members of the Chamber of Commerce. He died suddenly 
August 13, 1913. 

Charles M. Godley and his wife have two daughters, Mar- 
garet and Florence, both of whom are school teachers. All the 
members of the family belong to Westminster Presbyterian 
Church ; the daughters represent the third generation of the 
family connected with that congregation, Mr. and Mrs. God- 
ley are still well known throughout the city and highly 
esteemed by all classes. 



ARD GODFREY. 



The oldest house now standing in Minneapolis, and which 
has been carefully preserved, was erected by Ard Godfrey 
in the fall and winter of 1848, and is now one of the places 
of interest to every person interested in local history. It 
was moved to its present location at the old Exposition 
building by the Hennepin County Territorial association, 
while it was originally built some 200 feet back from .S. E. 
Main street on quite an elevation, and was later moved to 
Prince street. 

Ard Godfrey was born at Orono, Maine, .Jan. 18, 1813, and 
there grew to manhood learning thi' trade of millwright 
under his father, born in 1777, an exti'usive contractor and 
builder of mills as well as being an owner ami operator. 

He was named for his father and his mother was Catherine 
Gaubcrt, the daughter of .Vnton Gaubert, born in 1779, one of 
the Huguenot emigrants, who came to America, leaving ex- 
tensive estates in Paris, 

At eighteen .\rd was given his time, and was placed by 
his father in charge of the erection of a large mill, having 
about one hundred men under his supervision. He also in- 
vested in a schooner, which, however, was lost on its maiden 
voyage, causing him a severe loss. 

In October, 1847, he arrived at St. Anthony, having been 
employed by Franklin Steele to build the contemplated mill. 



334 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



and expecting to find the dam well toward completion. But 
little more than some preliminary work was done, and he 
was put in charge of both dam and mill. During the winter. 
Anson Northrup hauled the plank for the dam from a mill 
on the St. CroLs river, and the following year both dam 
and mill were completed, the first lumber sawed being used 
by Godfrey in the building of his own house above mentioned. 

He had become a partner both in the water power, the 
mill and the town site, and continued in personal charge of 
the mill until he sold out all his interests and, in 1853, 
removing to a claim at Minnehaha, his house standing on the 
site of the present Woman's Building of the Soldiers' Home. 
Here the greater part of his life was passed, but a few years 
toward the close being at Minneapolis, where he died Oct. 
15, 1894. 

He also built two mills on Minnehaha creek near its mouth 
BO that logs were supplied direct from the river. The saw- 
mill was burned, as was the flour mill later, not in fact till 
after he had disposed of it. 

He had been actively identified with almost every move- 
ment of the early days in St. Anthony. He was the first 
Postmaster. His commission, dated April 10, 1850, and signed 
by Jacob CoUamer, the Postmaster General, is still in the 
hands of his son. 

He was one of the charter members of Cataract lodge of 
Masons, the lodge being organized in his house, and for lack 
of a sufficient number, his wife was requested to act as 
Tyler of the lodge. 

Judge E. B. Ames had come from Illinois, as organizer, 
this territory being in that jurisdiction. The boat came to 
Stillwater, and the Masons there appealed to Ames to or- 
ganize their lodge I)efore coming to St. Anthony, which was 
done, thus blasting the hopes of the local members to make 
Cataract lodge number one in Minnesota. 

Mr. Godfrey was married to Harriet N. Burr in Brewer, 
Maine, Jan. 31, 1838, who died .June 24. 1896. Their family 
were seven children, five of whom now survive. They are 
Abner C, who for some years has been a theatrical manager, 
and who is well known in connection with fraternal work 
in several orders, his greatest activity being with the Knights 
of Pythias, of which he is Past Grand Chancellor. Harriet 
R. is a well known teacher and first white daughter bom in 
St. Anthony, May 30. 1849. late president of the Territorial 
Pioneers. Women's Club. Martha A. is a maiden lady. Mary 
is Mrs. C. 0. Parsons of Milwaukee, and Minnie, her twin 
sister, is the wife of D. W. Ham. The eldest daughter, Hcleri^ 
married Mark T. Berry and died at Los Angeles in 1902. 
Sarah Catherine died in 1881 the wife of John E. Osborne. 



HARRY B. WAITE. 



all has come to be a power in business circles in this part of 
the country. 

Mr. Waite was born in the city of Chicago on .July 23, 1865, 
and is the son of Henry -J. and Ann (Ellis) Waite. Not long 
after his birth the family moved from Chicago to Marseilles, 
Illinois, and there he began his academic education in the 
public schools. He came to Minneapolis in 1880. and in order 
to complete his education attended the Central high school 
in the city. Early in life he made up his mind to be a phy- 
sician, and after his graduation from the high school began 
the study of medicine in the Minnesota College Hospital, an 
institution of medical instruction then in charge of the most 
prominent physicians and surgeons of the Northwest. Mr. 
Waite completed'his second year's course in the medical school, 
but by the time he did this he had learned to look at the 
world in a different light, and instead of becomin* a profes- 
sional man he decided to go into business, and chose the 
lumber trade as his line because of the large opportunities 
offered in it by the rich pine forests of this state. 

From his entry into industrial and mercantile life Mr. 
Waite had made rapid and continuous progress, working his 
way up, step by step, from a small beginning to his present 
eminence in the business which has engaged his attention. 
The H. B. Waite Lumber company has its headquarters in 
Minneapolis, and for some years confined its operations to 
country tributary to this city. But of late it has extended 
its scope to the Pacific Coast and has correspondingly in- 
creased its activities and productiveness. 

Within the last few years Mr. Waite has also become con- 
nected with a number of business organizations outside of this 
city and state. He is president of the Waite Mill and Timber 
company, which is one of a number of organizations in the 
Puget Sound region in which he has extensive interests and 
to which he is giving a considerable part of his time. He has 
interests also in other parts of the Farther West and in some 
business institutions nearer home. 

Mr. Waite has always taken a sincere interest in the public 
affairs of his home community, and given his support to all 
agencies at work for its good and the welfare of its residents. 
For some years he was a member of the Minnesota National 
Guard as a private in Company I, and while in no degree a 
politician or aggressive partisan, he has never neglected the 
duties of citizenship, but has always done all he could to aid 
in securing the best attainable government and administra- 
tion of affairs for his city and state. 

Mr. Waite's social activities include membership in the 
Minneapolis, Minikahda, and Lafayette clubs, and his religious 
afiiliation is with the Episcopal church, of which he and hi? 
family are regular attendants. In 1891, he was united in 
marriage with Miss Luella Lichty, of Waterloo, Iowa. They 
are botli highly esteemed in social life and active aids in ill 
good works undertaken in the city. 



Almost from the dawn of his manhood Harry B. Waite has 
been prominently connected with the lumber industry of 
Minneapolis and one of the leading factors in developing and 
expanding it to its present colossal proportions, and since 
1895, when he founded the H. B. Waite Lumber company, he 
has devoted his energies to building up the interests and en- 
larging the business of that corporation, of which he has been 
the president and active manager from the beginning of its 
history. He has been connected also with other industrial 
and mercantile agencies, here and elsewhere, and through them 



JOHN T. McGOWAN. 



John T. McGowan, president of the McGowan Mahoney In- 
vestment Company, engaged in his present business in 1889 
when he purchased the insurance business of R. W. Cummings, 
which was established in 1852. He was formerly associated 
with Henry C. Schultz, who was succeeded after his death by 
John Mahonev, who has also since died, a sketch of wboB 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



335 



U in tliia work, together having built up a business in real 
estate, loans and insurance which places their company among 
the local leaders in this line. In 1912 they incorporated under 
the above name and took their two sons. Thomas J. McGowan 
and James W. Mahoney into business with them. 

Mr. McGowan's busincs!! capacity, public spirit and ele- 
vated citizenship 1ms won for him universal estocra. 

He was born in Minneapolis April 6, 1864, and is the son 
of Thomas and Catherine (Murphy) McGowan, natives re- 
spectively of Leitrim and Fermanagh Counties, Ireland. They 
were married in Minneapolis in 1S60. the father landing in 
New York in 1S50, and having become a resident of this city 
in 1S53. lie was a stonemason and helped to build many of 
the earlier houses in St. Anthony and the newer town on the 
west side of the river. lie became a building contractor and 
owner erecting a number of stores and dwelling houses in 
St. Anthony. He died in February. 1894, aged seventy-nine, 
9ur>"iving his wife seventeen years, she having died in 1879. 
They were among the original members of the old Catholic 
church of St. Anthony de Padua and devout and serviceable 
to the parish in their loyalty and conservation. He was a 
staunch Democrat and an active and effective worker for the 
success of his party, seeing in its principles the best security 
for the rights and welfare of the whole people. They were 
the parents of three children, Michael, who died in child- 
hood. Peter P. has been connected with the police depart- 
ment lor fourteen years. The)- were educated in local 
parochial schools and at the Eastern High School and the 
Minneapolis Academy. John T. also devoted one year to 
study in the law department of the University. 

Mr. McGowan lias been in his present line of business 
since 1889, the present firm being the successor to the R. W. 
Cummings insurance agency, one of the oldest in the city, 
formerly operating chietly on the East Side. The business 
has grown steadily from year to year until it ha.s become 
one of the leaders in its line. It handles its own properties, 
including both business, residences and farm lands, 

Mr. MoGowan has long been an active participant in public 
alTairs. He served from 1888 to 1892, as ahlerman from the 
First ward, being elected when but twenty-four years of age. 
During his service the street car system was electrified, the 
tracks of the Great Northern Railroad were bridged, the first 
work of this kiml done, and other important projects of 
improvement were carried into elTect. He served on all the 
committees which had these matters in charge, although of 
39 aldermen there were but four Democrats in the council. 
He was instrumental in securing the introduction of sewers 
in the First ward, which began at that time, and it was 

chiefly through his persistent ellorts that tl ight-hour 

workday for city employes was adopted. In l.sito he was 
elected to the state senate from a district composed of the 
First and a part of the Third Wards, He served three terms 
in the senate, during eight years of which he was the 
only Democratic member from Hennepin county. At his first 
election he received a handsome plurality, at his second his 
plurality was three times as large, and the third time he 
was chosen without oppuMition, the Republicans declining to 
put up a candiilote, thus paying a high tribute to his legis- 
lative ability. 

He ever stood for better conditions for the working people, 
oecoming known everywhere as the laboring man's senator 
and advocate. During his first term in the senate he intro- 
duced a bill providing for an eight-hour day in all state 



work, which was fought very hard by the country members 
and only became a law after two sessions of hard work on 
the part of Mr. McGowan and other advocates of the eight- 
hour movement. He also introduced a resolution embodying 
the principle of compensation for workmen injured in the 
course of their employment, his prevision and perception 
being sustained when in I'.tlS the Bame i<iea8 became a law. 
He has served as a delegate to numerous conventions and baa 
taken an active part in party councils and campaign work. 

Mr. McGowan is a member of St. Anthony de Padua Catho- 
lic church, in which he was baptized, and the one in which 
he was married in 1886 to Miss Julia Crosby, a native of 
Minneapolis and daughter of Michael Crosby, another one of 
the oldest families. She died in 1901. leaving one son, 
Thomas, who is now a member of the Mciiowan. .Mahoney 
Investment company. In 1909 Mr. McGowan married Miss 
May Healey, a daughter of .Tames and Julia Healey, also old 
residents of St. Anthony. 

They have a son Edison James Bryan. Mr. McGowan is 
connected in fraternal relations with the Knights of Colum- 
bus, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. He also belongs to the New Athletic 
and the Minneapolis Boat clubs, the Fraternal Order of 
Eagles, the Loyal Order of Moose and the Real Estate 
Board and has always been considered a leading and very 
popular re[>resentative of the Irish-.American race in the 
State of Minnesota. Mr. McGowan retired from active poli- 
tics in 1910, and while he has been urged many times since 
to become a candidate for some important state or city office, 
he declares that he has no more desire to hold n public office 
and could not be induced to accept a nomination or election. 



SYLVESTER SMITH CARGILL. 

Late president of the Victoria Elevator Co., and one of 
the most successful and best known grain men of the north- 
west, was born at Port JelTcrson, Long Island, Dec. 18, 1848, 
and died Dec. 20, 191.T, just entering his B6th year. 

His father was Captain Wni, D, Cargill, a native of the 
Orkney Islands, Scotland, and his mother Edna Davis of 
Long Island. Captain Cargill was a vessel owner and master, 
engaged for several years in the coast-wise trade. The 
mother, desirous that her sons should not follow in the 
father's career, wished to get away from the attractions of 
the ocean, and in 1855 they moved to a farm near Janesville, 
Wisconsin, where Sylvester grew to manhood. He attended 
the public schools in Janesville and finished his studies in 
Milton College at Milton Junction. His entire business life 
was devoted to dealing in grain: he was connected with his 
brother, W, W. Cargill, at Delavnn, Minnesota, for four years, 
when he began independently, securing an elevator at North- 
wood, Iowa, extending his operations until he had elevators 
at various points on the M, A St. L. ami Central Iowa 
railroads. 

In August, 1882, he moved to Albert I^ea, still extending 
his business until, in 1885, he decided to become more closely 
identified with grain men at Minneapolis, the center of the 
grain trade. In company with G. C. Bagley. he organized 
the Bagley A Cargill Grain Co., incorporating his own eleva- 
tors as a part of the business. They erected elevators on 
the line of the Hastings and Dakota railroad, having terminal 



336 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



facilities in Minneapolis, and thenceforth Ixe became an im- 
portant factor in the Chamber of Commerce. Four years 
later he sold his interests to his partner, intending to retire 
from the trade, but impelled by his thorough knowledge of 
the business, and its attraction for him, he was in the har- 
ness again within a few months, and there remained until 
the summons came for tinal rest. In Oct., 1889, he organized 
the Victoria Elevator Company, of which he was the presi- 
dent, with A. E. Benedict as treasurer and W. T. Spencer, 
secretary. Terminal Elevator "R" was erected, with a 300,000 
bushel capacity, which was later increased to half a million 
bushels. 

A line of 32 elevators were finally acquired on the Great 
Northern, Soo, Northern Pacific, and Milwaukee railroads in 
the Dakotas and Montana, the Victoria Elevator Company 
becoming widely and favorably known among grain growers, 
shippers, millers, and dealers. For more than twenty-four 
years Mr. Cargill continued at the head of this organization, 
giving to every extension and expansion his personal atten- 
tion, and witnessing at the last, one of the most successful 
years, the grain handled at this time, exceeding three million 
bushels. With thought and energy concentrated upon the 
one line. Mr. Cargill knew the grain trade as few men know- 
any one business, his success being commensurate with the 
devotion and attention bestowed. 

For a time he was a director in the Minnesota Loan and 
Trust Company, but his preference was in the line in which 
he had so many years of successful training and experience. 
Politics did not attract him, and though a Mason, he was not 
an ardent fraternity man, choosing rather the comforts and 
enjoyments of domestic life. If not in his ollice, it was safe 
to say he could be found at his lionic He had traveled 
considerably, spending one summer in Alaska and one abroad, 
but his fondness for out-of-door life led him to spend much 
of his leisure enjoying the recreation afforded by our numer- 
ous lakes, prairies and woods, enticing the finny inhabitants 
of the one or hunting the fowl or small game of the other. 

For many years he was a trustee of the First Presbyterian 
Church, where he was a regular attendant, seldom a Sunday 
passing when he was not in his accustomed place. 

He leaves a wife and three children. His wife was for- 
merly Miss Elizabeth Murphy, of (5sagp. Iowa; the chilihcii 
are Robert G., Samuel S., and Helen Louise. 

While few men in Minneapolis enjoyed a wider acquaint- 
ance, the circle of really warm, close personal friends Wiis 
small, but for those few the warmest attachment existed, ami 
many of his most enjoyable hours were passed with those 
friends at his own billiard table. 

It was while awaiting the coming of some of those friends 
to participate in such a game that the summons came to 
him, without premonition, to leave all he had heretofore 
known and loved and to enter upon another sphere of action 
in closer relation to "Him who doeth all things well." 



LOUIS GLUEK. 



Louis was born there on September 21. 1858. Gottlieb Gluek, 
the father, early established himself in the brewing business 
in the part of the city which is now known as North East 
Minneapolis, and thiee of his sous, including Louis, have 
continued in the business established by their father. When 
the father died, in ISSl, the Gluek Brewing company was 
firmly established on a thriving and satisfying basis. It has 
since been developed by the sons of Gottlieb Gluek as the 
Gluek Brewing Company into one of the largest and most 
successful concerns in the Northwest. 

Louis Gluek, like his brothers, was educated in the Minne- 
apolis public schools and was early apprenticed to the brew- 
ing business. Through a close association with his father, 
who was an expert chemist in his line, and who knew the 
brewing business on a thoroughly scientific basis, his son soon 
became head of the manufacturing department. When his 
father died he took his place at the head of the company, and 
when the company was later incorporated into the Gluek 
Brewing Company he became the president of the concern, 
which position he has held ever since. 

The historical significance of this great brewing company 
is something of which to take into account. Being established 
as early as 1857, it is the oldest of its kind in the city and 
one of the oldest business concerns of any kind in the state 
of Minnesota. For fifty-five years it has been owned and 
operated by the same family and has been continuously pros- 
perous and successful. The industry and conservatism whith 
made Gottlieb Gluek one of the most trustworthy and reliable 
ilinneapolis business men are dominant characteristics in his 
sons, and they, too, have the respect and trust of their fellow 
business men. 

Louis Gluek is democratic and social in his tastes. He is a 
member of the I. O. O. F., the B. P. O. E., and the Knights of 
Honor. He takes an active part in civic affairs, and is ex- 
tremely generous with his time and with his money in anything 
that makes for the betterment of the state or the city. He has 
never taken any active part in politics and has never aspired 
to any political honor. He is a Democrat and earnest in his 
convictions. 

Mr. Gluek finds but little time for recreation. His fad 
is liis beautiful farm located near Minneapolis. Here he finds 
in tlic management of this his pleasure. In fishing and 
liunting he finds his real rest from work. 

Mr. (ihu'k was married in 1893 to Miss Laura Giesmann. 
Miss Giesmann was a St. Paul girl. 



HOWARD M. DeLAITTRE. 



Louis Gluek is the son of Gottlieb and Caroline (Foell) 
Gluek. who brought to the West from their home in Germany 
the thrift and industry which did so much, through example 
and by their enterprise, to build for the state and for the city. 
They came to St. Anthony in the early days and their son 



The president of the Bovey-DeLaittre Lumber Company and 
of the Chinook Timber Company is known and honored as one 
of the substantial and representative business men of Minne- 
apolis and as a citizen whose civic loyalty and progressive- 
ness have made him an influential figure in furthering the 
general advancement and prestige of the Minnesota metrop- 
olis. Mr. DcLaittre became vice-president of the Bovey- 
DeLaittre Lumber Company at the time of its organization, 
nearly thirty years ago, and he retained this executive posi- 
tion until .January 1. 1913. when he succeeded his cousin. John 
DeLaittre. in the presidency of the corporation. He has thus 
been most prominently and closely identified with the lumber 
industry in Minnesota and he is one of the representative men 





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lIlSToKV OK MI.WKAI'OLIS AND HENNEPIN COINTY, MINNESOTA 



337 



of airairs in the state that ha8 long been hiii home. He is 
president ol the Chinook Timber Com|mny. whieh hohls ex- 
tensive mill valiiabli' traet^i ut' tinilMT litnil in Orc^'un; iinil is 
a direetor ol tlu' Merchants i Mechanies Hank of Minneapolis. 
The Chinook Timber Company has its head<|uurters in Minne- 
apolis, and is holding large tracts of Orefton timber for futnre 
use. Mr. DeLaittre is a practical lumberman, with bruail and 
varied experience in connection with all details of the in- 
dustry, an<l through bis well ordered endeavors he has 
achieved success. He is one of the well known citizens of 
Minneapolis and here his circle of friends is coincident with 
that of bis acquaintances, so that there are many points 
which render specially consonant his recognition in this his- 
tory of his home city. Aside from the connections alreaily 
noted. Mr. DeLaittre is a director of the Diamond Iron Works, 
of North Indianapolis, where he is also a stockholder of the 
Camden Park .State Bank. 

He claims the old Pine Tree state as the place of his na- 
tivity and is a representative of staunch Xew KngUind stock. 
the lineage being traced back to French origin and the family 
having been founded in America many generations af;o. He 
was born at Ellsworth, the judicial center of Hancock county, 
Maine, on the 6th of September, 1845. ami was reared and 
educated in his native state, where he gained his initial ex- 
perience in the lumbering industry, his father having been 
identified with lumber operations in Maine and the son hav- 
ing been virtually reared in the lumber woods on Union river, 
that state. 

In 1869, when twenty-four years of age, Mr. DeLaittre 
came to Minnesota, and Minneapolis his destination. He en- 
tered the employ of the lumber firm of Eastman. Bovey & 
Company, the interested principals of which were William W. 
Eastman, .John DeLaittre and Cliarles A. Bovey. He as- 
sisted in the company's logging and mill work and when the 
concern was reorganized, under the title of Bovey, DeLaittre 
A. Company, he became vice-president of the corporation, the 
title of which was later change<l to the present form. This 
has been one of the most important of the lumbering con- 
cerns of Minnesota, and its operations were conducted upon 
a most extensive scale at the height of the lumber business 
in this state, as shown by the fact that in a single season 
the company cut and manufactured forty million feet of lum- 
ber, all of the logs having been brought to the mills in Minne- 
apolis. In the lumber camps of the company employment was 
alTorded to an average of about one hundred and fifty men 
during the winter seasons, and much timber cutting was done 
by contract also, a large force of workmen being likewise 
employed in the saw mills of the company. For more than 
forty years Mr. DeLaittre was closely and graciously asso- 
ciated with his cousin. .John DeLaittre. in lumbering opera- 
tions, and the two families are still associated in the Cliinodic 
Timber Company. 

.Mr. DeLaittre has met with ability all the exactions and 
demands placed upon him in his peculiarly long and successful 
business career ami has at all times stood exemplar of broad- 
minded and loyal citizenship. He is well fortified in his 
opinions concerning public policies and has been unswerving 
in his allegiani'i' to the Republican parly, as candidate of 
which he was a nii'inber of the .Minnesota state legislature 
for the term of I8U4-5, and six years on the park board of 
Minneapolis. He proved a strong and independent worker in 
the legislature and did all in his power to oppose the free- 
silver policy then advocated by the Democratic party. Mr. 



DeLaittre is not formally identified with any religious body 
but is liberal in his support of the various deiioininatiuns, 
especially the Baptist church. He i» a member of the .Minne- 
apolis Athletic Club, is a thorough and unassuming business 
man, and he has measured fully up to the demands of popular 
approbation, as is shown by the unqualified confidence and 
esteem reposed in him by all who know him. 

In 1873 was .solemnized the marriage of Mr. DeLaittre to 
Jliss Dora Coggins, of Lamoine. Hancock county, .Maine, and 
they have five children, concerning whom the following brief 
record is entered: Jliss Grace N. remains at the parental 
home and is a stockholder in the DeLaittre- Dixon Lumber 
Company; Joseph A. is president of the DeLaittre-Dixon 
Lumber Company, of Minneapolis; Sarah U. is the wife of 
Roy A. Dixon, secretary and treasurer of the DeLaittre-Dixon 
Lumber Company; Kvdyii 1!. leniains at the parental home 
and she likewise is a stockholder of the DeLaittre-Dixon Lum- 
ber Company: and Horace, who is vice-president of the De- 
Laittre-Dixon Lumber Company, is attending the Colorado 
School of Mines, at Golden, where he is a luember of the 
class of 1U14. 



SAMUEL C. GALE. 



Samuel Chester Gale, a resident of Minneapolis for over 
half a century and always one of its prominent, most public- 
spirited citizens, came here froiii Massachusetts, where he was 
born at Royalston in that commonwealth September 15, 1827. 
His grandfather, Jonathan Gale was- a soldier in the War of the 
Revolution. His father, Isaac Gale, died in 1838, leaving a fam- 
ily of ten children. This made dillicult the support of the 
family, and while still a boy Mr. (Jale was apprenticed to an 
uncle, Salmon Goddard of West Moyalston, as a tanner. His 
desire for an education was so keen, however, that at seventeen 
he began to prepare for college. After a hard struggle he was 
able to enter Vale College in 1850, graduating four years later, 
a member of Phi Beta Kappa and chosen class orator at grad- 
uation in a class of 100 members. Mr. Gale spent one year in 
Harvard law school, and then read law with a lirni at 
Worcester. In 1857 he came to Minneapolis, where he con 
tinued his law studies in the ollice of Cornell & Vanderburgh, 
and was ailmitted to practice in 1858. The practice of law not 
being in much demand here in those days. .Mr. Gale opened u 
real estate and loan ollice in 181)0 in partnership with his 
brother, Harlow, the linn name being Gale Jt Co. This rapidly 
grew into a most prosperous business, adding much to the 
development of the growing young city, 

.Mr. (iaie has been an active participant all his life in almost 
every movement looking toward the improvement of the 
city, materially, iiitellei'tually and morally. He was for 
some time th<' president of the Minneapolis .\thi-naeum, 
which was founded in 1800; he was one of the original pro- 
moters of the Public Library, and long a memb<>r of the 
board. He was on the Board of Education from 1871 to 1880. 
He was president of the City Council, chairman of the Build- 
ing Committee of the Minneapolis Industrial Exposition, and 
later on its president. He was also actlvi-ly connected with 
the .Academy of Natural .S(ipnce><. tin- Minneapolis Society 
of Fine Arts, the Board of Trade, ami virtually every organ- 
ized effort toward the inipnivenient and upbuilding of thitt 
city in its earlier days. 



338 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Religiously he has been identified with the Unitarian Church 
and was the chief contributor in the tost of the church 
edifice. 

Mr. Gale was married in 1861 to Miss Susan A. Damon of 
Holden, Mass. They have five children, Edward C. and 
Charles S., and Mrs. David P. Jones, Mrs. Clarkson Lindley 
and Miss Marion Gale, all of this city. 



JAMES B. OILMAN. 



Mr. Oilman, Chief Engineer of the Minneapolis Steel and 
Machinery Company, was born January 38, 1872, in Rose- 
mount, Dakota county, Minnesota. He is a son of James B. 
and Laura C. (Foster) Oilman, of New York and Massachu- 
setts, respectively. His mother came to Minnesota in the 
pioneer days. The father operated a foundry at Dansville, 
N. y., until 1848, when he came to Minnesota and engaged 
in farming in Dakota county. He served three years in the 
First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, returning to his farm, 
until 1880, when he removed to Minneapolis. James B. Gil- 
man completed an academic education in the high school, 
and entering the University of Minnesota for a special course 
in civil engineering, graduated in the class of 1894. While a 
student in the University, he spent part of his vacations on 
the survey of the right of way for the Minneapolis, St. Paul 
& Sault Ste. Marie Railroad as far as Portal. North Dakota, 
thus acquiring valuable experience. Upon graduation he 
became a draughtsman with the Gillette-Herzog Manufactur- 
ing company, and in 1897 was made chief draughtsman, so 
remaining until the company was absorbed by the American 
Bridge company. He continued in the employ of the Ameri- 
can Bridge company as an engineer until 1907. when he 
became chief engineer of the Minneapolis Steel and Machinery 
company, the largest structural steel concern in the West. 
Mr. Oilman's work covers a large field, as the company 
operates throughout a wide territory, giving ample scope for 
the exercise of the highest technical knowledge and practical 
skill. He maintains active membership in and is ex-president 
of the Minneapolis Engineers' club, and is a member of the 
American Society of Civil Engineers. He also belongs to the 
Minneapolis Civic and Commerce association, the East Side 
Commercial club and the Auto club. Fraternally he is con- 
nected with the Masonic order. Although a Republican he is 
not active in political affairs, but takes a serviceable interest 
in general welfare, and is ardent in support of every com- 
mendable undertaking. June 1-1. 1899, Mr. Oilman was united 
in marriage with Miss Alice A. Hayward of Minneapolis. 
They have one daughter, Dorothy. 



JAMES EDWARD OAGE. 

Dealing in grain and managing grain elevators on a large 
scale was the steady and continuous business of the late 
James E. Gage, from the time he began business until death. 
January 28, 1908. 

Mr. Gage was born in Waterloo, New York, April 7, 1849, 
being the son of John and Eleanor (Probasco) Gage, who 
came to Minnesota about 1857 and located on a farm in 
Wabasha county, between Beaver and Minneiska, where they 



passed the remainder of their lives. The father was a railroad 
contractor, as well as farmer, and built several miles of the 
Milwaukee Railroad between Winona and King's Cooley and 
the narrow gauge road to Zumbrota. He took an active 
interest in pulilic affairs, holding several local offices and wag 
for some time representative in the state legislature. 

James E. Gage was educated in the country and at the 
high school in Winona. He served as bookkeeper for his 
father wliile tlie latter was a railroad contractor and then 
became connected with the grain trade in the employ of 
others at Kellogg, near his home. After some experience he 
was taken into the firm of Barnes & Tenny, owners of the 
Northern Pacific Elevator company, and remained a member 
of the firm until its failure in 1895. 

He was .superintendent for this company, with his office at 
Fargo for some years, removing to Minneapolis in 1891. He 
had then been a member of the Chamber of Commerce here 
for a time, becoming familiar with all details of the grain 
trade and acquiring close acquaintance with other leading 
dealers. When the Northern Pacific Elevator company went 
into liquidation in 1895. he, in association with A. C. An- 
drews, organized tlie Andrews & Gage company, which is still 
in operation under the name of the Andrews Grain company. 

This company leased and operated the line of elevators 
belonging to the old Northern Pacific Elevator company fn 
the Red River valley and carried on a flourishing grain busi- 
ness. Mr. Gage was related to this company to the end of 
life, and was wholly absorbed in its management. 

He was a member of the Commercial and Minneapolis clubs, 
in which he felt deep interest, realizing that they were strong 
agencies for good. He was of domestic tastes and warmly 
attached to his home, only occasionally finding relief from 
business in fishing and other outdoor sports. He was ever 
an earnest advocate of good government and the advance- 
ment of the community. But he was no politician or active 
partisan and was never an aspirant for a public office of 
any kind. 

Mr. Gage married at Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, Jan. 1, 1872, 
Miss Rhoba Elizabeth Collier, who was born in Illinois, 
and as a child brought to Wabasha county, Minnesota. She 
is the mother of three children. John Charles is in the grain 
trade witli the Consolidated and International Elevator com- 
pany, of Winnipeg. Gertrude married George Caplin. of 
Minneapolis, and died soon afterward. .Joseph Probasco is 
a grain man and a member of the Chamber of Commerce. 

Mrs. Gage was the first guest to choose ajiartments in the 
Leamington hotel, where she has since maintained lier home. 



M. J. SCANLON. 



Mr. Scanlon was born on August 24th. 1861, near Lyndon, 
Wisconsin, and is a son of M. J. and Mary E. (McDonnell) 
Scanlon. He obtained his education in the district schools 
and at the high school at Mauston, a neighboring town, from 
which he was graduated in 1879. For several years he taught 
school during the winter inonths and worked in the summer 
niontlis, as a means of preparing himself for higher and 
broader usefulness. 

In 1881 he entered the Law Department of the University 
of Wisconsin, at Madison, with a view to making the legal 
profession his work for life. But he soon found that his bent 




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IIlSToKV ()K MIXNKAI'OLIS AND, HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



339 



wits ill anotluT iliii'ctioii, anil with iluiractoristio readiness of 
decision, he abandoned thi' study of hiw bj'fore bein}; adniitteil 
to the bar. In the autumn of 1SS4 he went to Onniha. Ne- 
braska, and wliilc there he decided to take a course of lipecial 
training in a business college. This course was completed in 
the sprint: of ISK5 and he immediately entered the employ of 
the K. S. Newcomb Lumber Company, one of the subsidiary 
corporations of the then <;reat lumber lirni nl S. K. Martin 
Lumber Company, as bookkeeper. 

Mr. Scanlon remained with this company four years, rising 
by rapid promotion until he was given charge of the pur- 
chases and sales of the company, which brought him in close 
touch with the leading lumber manufacturing concerns of the 
North and South. 

On March 1. 1SS9. he resigned his position with the Xew- 
comb Lumber Company to become secretary of the C. H. 
Ruddock Lumber Company of Minneapolis, who were then 
manufacturing lumber on a large scale in the Northwest. In 
the fall of 1890. this company decided to close up its Minne- 
apolis business and purchased a large tract of cypress timber 
lands in the vicinity of Xew Orleans. The Ruddock Cypress 
Company was organized and Mr. Scanlon was made secretary 
of the company, with headquarters at Xew Orleans, in charge 
of sales and credits. The climate of Louisiana did not agree 
with his wife's health, so he disposed of his interest in the 
Ruddock Cypress Company and returned to Minneapolis in 
March, 189S. 

liy this time he had acquired a knowledge and command 
of the lumber business that made him feel that he should 
go into it on his own a<?count. He prganized the .Scanlon, 
Gipson & Company to do a jobbing business, buying stock in 
Minnesota and Wisconsin and selling it to the trade tributary 
to Minneapolis. During the autumn of 1894 the forests of 
Minnesota and Wisconsin were devastated by fire and a great 
deal of valuable timber was fire killed. In Xovember of that 
year the firm name was changed to Scanlon-Gipson Lumber 
Company and the well known firm of Brooks Elevator Com- 
pany became interested in it. The new company acquired a 
large tract of partially fire killed timber in the vicinity of 
Nickcrson. Minn. Mills were built immediately 'which were 
operated day and night, winter and summer, manufacturing 
fifty million feet annually for many years. The trade of the 
company was large from the start and, in order to take care 
of it, the company bought the lumber business of H. F. Brown 
of Minneii|polis. in the spring of 1896, which gave it a whole- 
sale yard with splendid shipping facilities, which enabled it to 
take care of its rush order business promptly. The Minne- 
apolis yaril did a business of sixty million feet annually until 
190.5, when it was discontinued on account of the company's 
timber lieinp exhausted and it being impossible to secure logs 
from other sources to stock the mill. 

In 1S98 the company found it necessary to build another 
mill to take care of its constantly increasing business. A 
large body of timber was purchased in the northern part of 
the state and a double band mill was erected at Cass Lake, 
with an annual capacity of forty-live million feet. Within 
the next few years, the firm became so well and favorably 
known ami its trade so great, that they found it necessary 
to manufacture more lumber to take care of it. To accom- 
plish this, the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company was or- 
ganized in 1901, with a paid up capital of $1,750,000.00. Im- 
mediately after the formation of the company, it built an 
immense five hand and gang saw mill at Scanlon, Minn., with 



a daily capacity of 000,000 feet. This was probably one of 
the tiuest and best arranged saw mills in the country. For a 
number of years it held the world's record for output, being 
upwards of one hundred million feet annually. In order to 
insure a supply of logs to the company's mills at Nickerson 
and Scanlon, the M. &, X. W. Railroad Company was or- 
nized. It built seventy-tive miles of standard gauge railroad, 
on which was hiid heavy steel and the equipment was extra 
heavy, and modern in every respect. While the road was built 
largely to take care of ]>rivate business, still it did a large 
general commercial business. Jlr. Scanlon is vice president of 
the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company and the M. &, N. W. 
Railroad Company and these corporations furnish scope for a 
considerable part of his time, energy and enterprise 

Sir. ."^canlon has always been a man of great business am- 
bition and broad views with reference to his line of trade. 
His several companies were manufacturing upwards of 2.50 
million feet per year and, with the rapid disappearance of 
timber in this state, local conditions and requirements be- 
came too contracted to satisfy his demands, and in 1905 he 
turned liis attention to tlie great forests of yellow pine timber 
of the South. Another company, known as tln' lir<M)ks- 
Scanlon Company, with a ])aid up capital of $1,500,000.00. was 
organized. This company acquired a vast area of virgin long 
leaf yellow pine timber in Louisiana. It also purchased the 
mills and timber of another company at Kcntwood. La., and 
immediately built a new double band and gang mill at the 
same point, which gives the company an output of about 
130,000,000 ft, per year. The company's plants are the most 
modern and complete plants in the South and are a source 
of considerable pride to the company. In addition to lumber- 
ing, the company is carrying on turpentine operations on a 
large scale. The output of the mills and turpentine orchards 
are sold to the foreign and domestic tradi' and enjoys a high 
reputation. The Kentwood & Eastern Railway Company, with 
its sixty miles of road, and equipment, performs a function 
for the Brooks- .Scanlon Company similar to the M. 4 N. W. 
Railroad Company for its allied concerns in the Northwest. 

Mr. .Scanlon is president of the Bahamas Timber Company, 
Limited, of Wilson City, Abnco Island, the Bahamas. This 
company owns vast tracts of very valuable pitch pine timber 
in the Bahamas. It owns and operates an up-to-date saw 
mill plant with all modern appliances, at Wilson City, and 
markets its output through its own distributing yards in 
Cuba, 

He is also vice president of the Brooks-Scanlon-O'Brien 
Company, Limited, Vancouver, B, C. This company owns a 
splendid bo<ly of timber in Western Canada and is logging and 
nuirketing it at the rate of fifty to sixty millions per year. 

Mr, Scanlon recently organized and is president of The 
Cottonwoo<l Lumber Company, of N'ancouver, This company 
has built a modern plant ut DeRoche, which is completed 
and in operation. It enjo_\-s the ilistinction of iM'ing the 
only mill on the I'acitie Coast that is engaged exclusively in 
the nianufa<'ture of cottonwood lumber. 

In addition to his interests in operating lumber companies, 
Mr. Scanlon is heavily int<-rested in and a great believer in 
standing timber. He is president of the Central Floriila Lum- 
ber Company, which owns 1 10.000 acres of timber land in 
Florida; president of the Brooks- Robertson Timber, and 
Oregon Timber Company, large owners of pine timber in 
central Oregon: president of th<' .Vinerican Timber Holding 
Company. North American Timber Molding Company, .lohnson 



340 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Straits Lumber Company and Brooks Timber Company, all 
large owners of timber on the Pacific slope. In 1909 he or- 
ganized and became vice president of the Powell River Paper 
Company, with a paid up capital of $3,500,000.00. The com- 
pany purchased timber land on the Pacific Coast and a mag- 
nificent water power at Powell River, B. C, and immediately 
began the construction of a newsprint paper mill at Powell 
River, which wa.s completed and put in operation in May, 
1913. This plant is the largest newsprint paper mill in the 
world. The buildings are of reinforced concrete throughout. 
the machinery is of the latest design and the best money 
could buy. In fact, the whole plant is said to be the last 
word in paper mill construction. This company enjoys the 
distinction of being the only paper company that owns a 
perpetual supply of pulp timber for its plants. 

Mr. Seanlon, as above statements indicate, is the active 
head of a combination of lumber, paper and timber interests, 
whose business ranks with that of the leading firms of the 
country. He is also a citizen of elevated character, very 
public spirited and any undertaking for the improvement or 
advancement of educational, social or moral interests always 
received his hearty support. In politics he is a Democrat, in 
religion a Catholic. Socially he holds memberships in the 
Minneapolis, Minikahda and Lafayette Clubs. He was mar- 
ried in Minneapolis on November 26th, 1890, to Mrs. Sarah 
W. Heiikle, formerly Miss Sarah W. Plummer, of Prairie du 
Cliien, Wisconsin. They have three children, Helen M., Bonnie 
W. and Robert H. 



ORLANDO CROSBY MERRLMAN. 

For a continuous period of almost fifty years a resident 
of Minneapolis, and during all the time earnestly, intelligently 
and effectively engaged in promoting the welfare and progress 
of the community, the late Orlando Crosby Merriman was 
one of the city's best known, most highly esteemed and most 
serviceable citizens from the time of his arrival here in the 
spring of 1859 until hi.s death on August 2d. 1906, at the age 
of seventy-nine years, his birth having occurred on July 27, 
1837, at Somervillc, St. Lawrence county. New York, where 
he grew to manhood and began his education. 

At the age of eighteen Mr. Merriman entered the Wesleyan 
Seminary at Oouvemeur in his native county, which was one 
of the best schools of its class in that day. After complet- 
ing the course of instruction in this seminary he passed four 
years working at haying, harvesting and other farm labor 
in the summer and teaching in the winter. When he was 
twenty-three he began the study of law under the direction 
of Charles Anthony, a prominent lawyer at Gouverneur, New 
York, and on April 3, 1854. he was married to Miss Rosannah 
Herring, itnd they came at once to .Janesville, Wisconsin, 
where Mr. Merriman formed a partnership for the practice 
of law with former Lieutenant Governor .Tohn E. Holmes, of 
Jefferson. Wisconsin. He received substantial assistance from 
.lohn M. Berry, a lawyer at .Janesville, later for twenty-three 
years a justice of the supreme co\irt of Minnesota and for 
several Mr. Merriman's neighbor in St. Anthony. Besides 
practicing law at Jefferson, Wisconsin, Mr. Merriman served 
as postmaster, superintendent of schools and in other public 
positions there until the spring of 1859, when he moved to 



St. Anthonj' and at once began the practice of his profession 
in that village. 

Mr. Merriman was elected mayor of St. Anthony in April, 
1861, just a week before the bombardment of Fort Sumter 
began. He took a great interest in the sectional conflict of 
which this was the beginning, and assisted very earnestly in 
enlisting volunteers for the defense of the Union. In April, 
1863, he was re-elected mayor, and in August of that year 
enlisted as a private in Company B, Sixth Minnesota Volun- 
teer Infantry, of which he was soon afterward elected cap- 
tain. Without waiting to be mustered into the sei-vice of 
the United States the regiment hurried to Fort Ridgley to 
assist in defeating the Sioux Indians, who were on the war 
path and had beleaguered the fort. The force took part in 
the battles of Birch Coulee, Wood Lake and other engage- 
ments and marches in the various campaigns of 1862, 1863 
and 1864. 

In June, 1864, he resigned his commission in the army and 
formed a law partnership with Judge William Loehren, and 
he also continued to serve as mayor of St. Anthony the 
greater part of the tiiue until 1867, when he became treasurer 
and general manager of the Mississippi and Rum River Boom 
Company. This position he resigned in 1870 and entered the 
firm of L. Butler & Company, in which he was associated with 
Dr. Levi Butler, T. B. Walker and James S. and Leonidas M. 
Lane. They erected a large and well equipped mill at the 
east end of the Water Power company's dam, and produced 
all kinds of lumber, carrying on an extensive wholesale trade. 
Later Mr. Jlerriman was the head of the firm of O. C. Merri- 
man & Company and a member of the firms of Merriman, 
Barrows & Company and Merriman & Barrows Brothers, 
finally withdrawing from the lumber industry near the close 
of 1891. A sketch and portrait of his old partner, Fred H. 
Barrows, will be found elsewhere in this work. 

For a number of years after leaving the lumber companies 
Mr. Merriman was the cashier and one of the directors of 
the Commercial Bank, and before this he was a director of 
the Northwestern National Rank for a dozen years or longer. 
He was at all times energetic and zealous in the service of 
the State University, devoting time and labor as weU as 
money to making the great institution a success. In 1864 
he was named on a special commission, with Governor John 
S. Pillsbury and John Nichols, to Sell lands and pay the 
debts of the Universi,ty. In December. 1867, the commission 
reported that the debts had been nearly all paid from the 
sale of less than 12.000 acres of land, a feat of such magni- 
tude and unexpected promjitness of execution that it won 
the universal approbation of the people of the state. When 
the commission began its work the University was in a very 
bad way financially. A large wing, erected in 1856 or 1857, 
had never been used, and no payments had been made on 
the bonds issued to build it, or the interest on them, whith 
was at the rate of 12 per cent. The debt had become very 
large and its liquidation required action by the legislature. 
To its payment in the manner narrated nuist be ascribed all 
the subsequent success of the University. 

While Mr. Merriman was not regarded by his friends and 
acquaintances as a politician, as he never took part in polit- 
ical contests and avoided public office as much as he could, 
nevertheless, being a man of broad public spirit and decided 
views on all subjects of public interest, he tould not wholly 
refrain from taking part in political activities. He was a 
Democrat of the strict Jeffcrsonian school and his counsel was 




(p^.. 



t:klyOuz^ t 



HISTORY OF MINNEAI'OLIS AND HEXXEPIX COINTY. MINNESOTA 



341 



highly vnliuil by lii» party u^sociatcs. They iiinde him their 
candidate lur i^tate ssenator iiiid fur congreHsniaii, but us he 
livud ill a 8tioii{.' Kepublii-iin district tliere was no chance of 
his election, altliough he did greatly reduce the vote of his 
opponents. In 1875. after the consolidation of St. Anthony 
and Minneapolis, he was unanimously elected mayor of the 
Consolidated city. He was also for three temvs secretary of 
the lirst board of nine regents of the University, a member 
of the board of directors of the K.\position of IHill. and was 
chosen a member of the lirst park commission, but declined 
to serve on it. 

Mr. Merriman was liberal in religious matters. He was a 
member of the tirst Universalist society in St. Anthony, and 
in 18S1 helped to found the lirst Lnitarian church society in 
Minneapolis, being a trustee from the beginning of its his- 
tory and president of the board for a number of years. He 
was a regular attendant at its church services, a liberal con- 
tributor for its welfare, and was highly esteemed by all its 
members, as he was throughout the city. He was not, how- 
ever, a sectarian, but broad in his charity, tolerant in his 
views and sympathetic in his feelings for all sects and all 
persons, and helpful in his aid of all good agencies working 
for better conditions. 

In fraternal life he was an attive and zealous member of 
Darius Commandery, Knights Templar, and also of the Mili- 
tary Order of the Loyal Legion. In 1898 he was appointed 
referee in bankruptcy, which olhce he held until his death, 
and was then succeeded in it by his son. Orlando C, Jr., who 
held it four years. He lived at the present home of his son 
Orlando, 927 Seventh street southeast, from 1881 until his 
death. His widow survived him nearly six years, dying on 
February 26, 1912. Four of their children are living, Orlando 
Crosby, Jr.. John ITerring. Frances Frederika (Mrs. F. G. 
•lames, of Virginia! and Harry. The general esteem in which 
Captain Merriman was held in the community was feelingly 
expressed in a preamble and set of resolutions unanimously 
passed by the city council a few days after his death. 



CH.-VRLES A. IK H F.MAN. 



Charh's A. HolTinan was born in I'ittsburg. Pennsylvania, 
on June 6. IK.IS, the son of Dr. .lohn Frederick and Dorothea 
(HassensteinI Hotrman. natives of Sa.xony. Germany. The 
father was a physician and surgeon in Pittsburg and Cliicago, 
and died in the latter city of injuries received there during 
the great fire of 1871. The mother was the daughter of a 
noble .Saxon family of her name and a descendant of the 
ancient Bohemian kings. Young HolTman was pursuing his 
professional studies as an apprentice to the court physician 
at <'ob\irgGotha. in his native land, and there he became 
acquainted with the mother and their acquaintance ripened 
into dee[i and fervent affection. To separate them her friends 
had him sent to the United States. But the young lady 
followed him to this country, and they were married in 
Pittsburg. The mother survived her husband about ten years. 

In I'll 2 Mr. Hoffman visited Kurope and called at the 
ancient castle of his mother's family at Coburg-Ootha, the 
Frederickschlosse, which is now occupied by the Graetin Has- 



sensteins. In the gallery ol tliat castle he saw the portrait 
of his mother. He also made a visit t<i the old Kohemian 
castle of Hassenstein, which was built in 1480. twelve yi^ars 
before Columbus discovered America, but which is still stand- 
ing and in an excellent state of preservation. Its walls ion- 
tain tablets commemorating visits to the castle by Martin 
Luther, the father of the Keforniation, and Johann von 
Goethe, the greatest of all Gernmn poets. Mr. Ilollnian 
brought away with him photographs of all the interesting 
features in and about the castle. 

The Itoliemian name of the family was Lobkowitz, but the 
branch of it which migrated to Saxony during the Thirty 
Years' war t<M)k its name from the old castle of Hassenstein. 
This was only aliout sixty miles distant from the Bohemian 
castle, but that was a long stretch of country in those days. 
In looking up the records of the family Mr. Hoffman was 
pleased to learn that it had given to the world several cele- 
brated opticians and eye surgeons. One of these was Ur. 
Frederick Edward Hassenstein. recently deceased, the real 
inventor of the opthalnioscope, although the invention bears 
the name of his associate. Dr. Helmholtz. Another was Dr. 
Walter Hassenstein, medical adviser of the king of Saxony. 
Their visitor from Minneapolis was received with great kind- 
ness by the gracious Graefin Hassensteins, and presented l)y 
them with the ancient family coat of arms. 

Charles A. Hollman obtained his academic education in the 
schools available to liini, and as a special |)reparation for the 
work to which he had resolved to devote himself, lie passed 
two years at Rush Medical College in Chicago, his intention 
being to be a physician and surgeon. But his medical studies 
were broken up by the great fire, and he turned his attention 
to another field of endeavor. His short stay at the medical 
college had directed his attention to the great need of more 
advanced and .scientific production of optical instruments, 
and the field was fully in line with his inclinations and 
natural endowments. 

In 1881 he came to Minneapolis and founded his present 
business in the Boston block, beginning it on a small scale. 
Sometime afterward, to secure more commodious quarters, 
he moved to the present site of the Leader, and later 
still to Fourth street south, where he remained eight years. 
In 1887 he changed his location to 624 Nicollet avenue, and 
in 1911 bought the building at 814-816 on the same street 
in wluch he now conducts his business, and where he occupies 
three floors and employs thirty skille<l wiukuien. He also 
has considerable detail work of his manufacturing done at 
another shop near his home, and yet finds his facilities heavily 
taxed to supply the extensive demands of his trade. 

Mr. Hoffman is the inventor of the celebrated Tru-fit. in- 
visible bifocal lense and makes a specialty of manufacturing 
it. Tliis lense is also manufactured in Indianapolis and San 
Francisco under royalties. Its inventor has been granted a 
number of patents on it, as improvements have been made, 
and it has been kept up to the latest developments in optical 
science by his close and judicious study of the subject. It is 
estimated that at least half a million pairs of these lenses 
are now in use. During his tour of Europe in 1912 Mr. 
Hoffman organized a company for their manufacture in 
Germany for the European trade. He is a large importer of 
the renowned crystal glass made in .lena, (lermany, which has 
been found to be the best in the world for use in lenses, and 



342 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



he also exports in large quantities the finished products of his 
factories, including a general line of spectacles, optical goods 
and photographers' supplies. In addition he is largely en- 
gaged in making up specialties from prescriptions of oculists 
and opticians all over the Northwest, and from many in other 
parts of the country. 

In the public affairs and social and fraternal life of his 
community Mr. Hoffman takes an earnest interest and an 
active part. He is a member of the Minneapolis Commercial 
club and several other business or social organizations. He is 
also one of the charter members of Ark Lodge Xo. 176. 
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and has advanced to the 
thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite branch of the frater- 
nity. He was for years a director of the old Germania Bank 
and is now a stockholder in the Metropolitan National Bank. 
In fact, he is connected in a serviceable way with almost 
every phase of the multiform life and activity of his home 
city and manifests great enterprise and breadth of view in 
helping to promote its welfare and that of its residents in 
every way available to him. 

On March 10, 1876, Mr. Hoffman was united in marriage, 
in Chicago, with Miss Mary E. Mueller, a native of Germany. 
They have tour sons, Walter F., Arthur C, Ralph M., and 
Stuart Victor. Walter is an oculist in Seattle. Washington. 
Arthur C. is one of the members of the C. A. Hoffman com- 
pany. Ralph M. is a mechanical engineer and associated 
with a company which manufactures elevators in Vancouver, 
British Columbia; and Stuart Victor is a student in the 
West Side High School. 



KLBRIDGE CLINTON COOKE. 

President of the Minneapolis Trust company, is a native 
of the state of Illinois, where he was born in 1854, and a son 
of .Joseph Clark and Amy (Wade) Cooke. He began his 
academic education, like most other American boys, in the 
public schools, continued it at Norwich Academy in the city 
of Norwich, Connecticut, and completed it at Vale University, 
from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts in 1ST7. After a due course of preparation in the study 
of law he was admitted to the bar and began his practice in 
Norwich, Connecticut, in 1879. He was elected city attorney 
there in 1881 and held the office until 1883. At the close of 
his official term he moved to Bismarck in what was then the 
territory of Dakota but is now the state of North Dakota. 
He at once founded the Northern Pacific Bank at Mandan in 
that territory and was clmsen its president. He also prac- 
ticed his profession in tlic territory until 1886. and made 
gratifying headway in it. 

In October, 1886. .Mr. Cooke changed his residence to Minne- 
apolis, and here he has ever since resided. Prior to coming 
to this city he formed a partnership with George P. Flanncry 
under the firm name of Flannery & Cooke, which was started 
in business in 1884. The firm has a high reputation in the 
profession, stands well with the courts, and its hold on tho 
confidence and regard of the public is strong and well sus- 
tained. Its practice is general, covering the whole field of 
legal procedure, and in every branch of its business it has 
been and continues to be very successful. And its members 
well deserve their success. They have an extensive and ac- 
curate knowledge of the law, both as written in the books 



and as interpreted by the courts, and are skillful in applying 
their knowledge and forcible in advocating their views in any 
case. They are also diligent and zealous in looking after the 
interests of their clients, leaving no effort untried to win for 
each in litigation everything he is entitled to. 

In addition to his law practice Mr. Cooke has other inter- 
ests which occupy a part of his attention and are the better 
for it. He is president of the Minneapolis Trust company, 
and is also president of the Real Estate Title Insurance com- 
pany of Minneapolis, treasurer of the North American Tele- 
graph company, and a director of the First National Bank of 
Minneapolis. He has long been active in the social life of 
the city as a member of its Minneapolis. Minikahda and La- 
fayette clubs, and also belongs to the Yale club of New York 
city and the Hokanide Gun club. Mr. Cooke was married in 
Norwich. Connecticut, in 1883. to Miss Isabella Boies Turner. 



SAMUEL HASTINGS. 



Mr. Hastings is a leading contractor in furnishing cut 
stone for biiildings, employing five or six cutters and ten to 
twelve workmen in all regularly. He furnished the stone for 
the Minneapolis club house, the Blake school at Hopkins, and 
many other important buildings, having all the business in 
his line that he can attend to because of his reputation as 
an artist and high class workman and his upright and 
straightforward business methods. He was born in Glasgow, 
Scotland, on October 6, 1871, and in 1883 came with his 
parents, Thomas and Mary S. Hastings, to Minneapolis. 

The father, who died here in 1907, was one of the best 
known and most highly esteemed Scotchmen in the city. He 
founded the business now carried on by his son, being an 
expert in cut stone work, but conducting business as a con- 
tractor both in Glasgow and here. He gained wide reputation 
also as an expert curler and an enthusiastic devotee and pro- 
moter of football, and was instrumental in organizing the 
Thistle club of curlers, the first in Minnesota, and personally 
made the curling stones used by it in its games. These were 
eight in number and cut from a "nigger-head" boulder picked 
out of the chute when the water power canals were dug. 
Now all the stones used in the games in this locality are 
imported from Scotland, and Samuel Hastings is one of the 
leading importers of them. 

The first curling games in Minneapolis were played on a 
lake in Central park in the winter of 1883. In the winter of 
1886 the elder Mr. Hastings won first trophy at the ice palace 
in St. Paul. The game soon aroused active interest through- 
out the Northwest, and at this time (1914) there are several 
clubs in all the leading cities. Minneapolis' has about 100' 
players. 

Mr. Hastings gave his son Samuel excellent training in his 
favorite games, and for twenty-five years the latter has been, 
a leading player in all the important events in this part of 
the world. He has usually acted as captain or "skip" of his 
team, and has led it to victory in many hotly contested 
battles, in which it has earned honors of high distinction. 
Among the trophies which he has helped to win were those 
captured in Milwaukee, the St. Paul curling prize, the St. 
Paul .Jobbers' prize, the Northwestern, the Duluth Jobbers'' 
and the Caledonia at Winnipeg, the last named being secured 
in an international tourney. He has been playing since he- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNKIMN C'OINTV, MINNESOTA 



343 



was fourteen years old, and his skill in the game is every- 
where recognized, no name being more familiar or standing 
higher in curling eireles than his. He is a menilier of the 
board of directors of the Minneapolis Curling club, and the 
"skip" of its team. 

Mr. Hastings was for years also a leading member of the 
Thistle Football club. He is president of the Tenth Ward 
Commercial club and a member of the St. Anthony Commercial 
club, the Architectural club, the Builders' ICxchange, the 
Clan Cordon, and numerous other organizations of a social 
and helpful nature. In November, 1896, he was married to 
Miss (Jrace Gardner, a native of Minneapolis. They have had 
six children, one of whom, Grace M.. died in infancy. The 
five who are living are Thomas Edward. William Samuel. 
Winfield Francis. Margaret Mary and Harry. 



NF.WTON F. HAWLEY. 



During the last seven years he ha.s been the treasurer and 
active manager of the Farmers and Mechanics' Savings Bank 
of Minneapolis, and the institution has made steady and 
substantial progress under his skillful guiding hand and 
excellent judgment in the management of its alTairs. 

Mr. Hawley was born at Springdale, Iowa, on November 28, 
|s,v.l, and is a son of N. J. and Delia (Canfield) Hawley. He 
attended the common school and afterward the high school 
at Tipton, Iowa, and then completed his academic education 
at Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, from which he was grad- 
uated with the degree of A. B. in 1879. He received his 
Master's degree in 1882. After leaving college he studied 
law, and in 1884 was admitted to practice in Minneapolis. 
His first association in professional work was with Wni. .1. 
Ilahn under the firm name of Hahn &. Hawley. A little while 
afterward Henry C. Belden was taken into the firm and its 
name became Hahn. Belden & Hawley: and still later >Ir. 
Hahn retired from it and Robert .lamison became a member, 
whereupon the name was changed to Belden. Hawley & 
Jamison. 

Mr. Hawley continued in the active practice of his pro- 
fession until .January 1, 1906, when he was elected one of the 
trustees of the Farmers and Mechanics' Savings Bank of 
Minneapolis, and was chosen secretary and treasurer of the 
board. This made him the managing olTicer of the institution, 
and all its business has been largely under his direction ever 
since. He has given the affairs of the hank the most careful 
and judicious attention, managed them with enterprise and 
good judgment, omitting no elTort possible on his part to 
advance its interests and those of its officials and patrons, 
and has moved it forward in progress at a steady and well 
maintained pace. The bank is now everywhi're regarded as 
one of the best, soundest and best managed of its class in 
the country, and its business has grown to large pnipurtinns. 

Mr. Hawley has also taken an earnest interest and an 
active part in public affairs, especially in the domain of good 
government and public education. For years he has served 
as one of the tnistees of Iowa College, his .Alma Mater, and 
Was a member of the Minneapcilis hoard of eilueation from 
1899 to Kin.-,. He also serv.Ml on the .liarter .■ommiision of 
1898 and again on that of ignii. In politics he is a Kepuh- 
lican in national ami state atTairs, but in local elections he is 
entirely independent of partisan considerations, and looks 



only to the substantial and enduring welfare of the com- 
munity in the bestowal of his sutfrage. 

The study of social and municipal questions hag always 
been one of great interest to .Mr. Hawley, and he has given 
it a great deal of attention. His tendency in this direction 
has led him to become u member of the American Academy 
of Political and .Social Science, the National Municipal League, 
and other organizations of similar character formed for the 
purpose of developing and illuminating the line of thought to 
which he is devoted. The social life of his community has 
also had his active and helpful attention for many years 
through bis membership in the Minneapolis, Commercial, 
Minikahda and Six O'clock clubs, in whose welfare he takes 
great interest. 

On September 5, 1884, Mr. Hawley was married in Minne- 
apolis to Miss Ellen M. Field. They have two children, their 
sons Robert and Douglas. Robert is superintendent of the 
Gas Traction company and Douglas is a student at Cornell 
University. All the members of the family attend Plymouth 
Congregational church and take an active part in all its 
works of benevolence and service to the community, aiding it 
in all its undertakings, and helping to direct its forces into 
the best channels for usefulness and the largest benefits. 



FRANK HEYWOOD. 



Frank Heywood is a member of the Miimeapolis board of 
aldermen, as one of the representatives of the Eighth ward, 
and is a valued factor in the administration of the municipal 
government. He is president of the Heywood Manufacturing 
Company, a substantial concern which controls a large and im- 
portant businesij in the manufacturing of envelopes ami paper 
boxes, as well as in the conducting of a well appointed printing 
establishment, and he is also president of the Rockford Paper 
Box Board Company, one of the representative industrial 
corporations in the city of Rockford, Illinois. 

Mr. Heywood is a native of New England, that gracious 
cradle of much of our national history, and is a scion of 
staunch colonial stwk. He was born at Rutland, Worcester 
county, Massachusetts, on the 8th day of .luly, 1857. and is 
a son of C. R. Heywood and ."^arah S. (Brown) Heywood. The 
father passed the closing years of his life at Rutland, he 
having devoted the major part of his active career to the 
lumber business. Frank Heywood gained his rudimentary 
education in the public schools of his native village and sup- 
plemented this <liscipline by a course in the historic I'hillips- 
Andover Academy. In 1SS2. as a young man of twenty-five 
years, Mr. Heywood becami' a resident of Minneapolis, where 
he engaged in the manufacturing of paper boxes, umler the 
firm name of F. Heywuod A Company. He brought to bear 
his best energies in the development of the new enterprise, 
and the same grailually and surely expanded in scope and 
importance, with the result that in 189fi it was found ex- 
pedient to incorporate the business, under the title of the 
Heywood Manufacturing Company. This corporation now 
bases its operations on a capital stock of one hundred thou- 
sand dollars, and the well eiguipped plant has been maintained 
for the past seventei'n years at 421) and 428 Third street 
north, where employment is now given to a corps of three 
hundred persons, including a large number of skilled artisans. 
In addition to the departments devoted to the manufacturing 



344 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



of envelopes and paper boxes, the printing department is 
maintained at a high standard, its operations being in the 
printing on stock manufactured in the other two departments 
of the business and general printing. The company controls 
a substantial and prosperous trade, centering in Minneapolis 
and St. Paul, but extending also throughout the territory 
normally tributary to Minneapolis as a distributing point. 

Mr. Heywood, as may be inferred from his preferment as 
an official of the municipal government, is one of the repre- 
sentative and honored citizens of the Eighth ward, where his 
attractive residence is located at 3316 Third avenue south. 
Mr. Heywood was one of the most active and valued mem- 
bers of the West Side Commercial Club and served two years 
as its president. This position he resigned in 1910, when he 
became a candidate for alderman from his ward. He has 
proved a most zealous and progressive worker in the city 
council, and he served two years as chairman of committee 
on railroads. On the board of aldermen he is now chairman 
of the committee on power and crematory. Though he is a 
staunch Republican in his political allegiance he is broad 
and liberal in his views and places the good of the city above 
mere partisan dictates. For the past eight years Mr. Hey- 
wood has been president of the Rockford Paper Box Board 
Company, which has built up a large and prosperous business 
in the manufacturing of paper-box board, wall board and 
similar products. He has attained to the thirty-second de- 
gree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry and is 
also affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of 
Elks and the Royal Arcanum. Mr. Heywood finds his chief 
recreation through his indulgence in sports, afield and atloat, 
and is an adept in the arts of hunting and fishing, in the 
latter of which he has gained many fiiie trophies through his 
skill as an angler, though he is willing to wear his piscatorial 
honors with a modesty that is somewhat anomalous under 
such conditions. 

In the year 1886 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hey- 
wood to Miss Blanche A. Merrill, of Lansing, this state, and 
they have two children — Hazel and Ruth. Mr. and Mrs. Hey- 
wood hold membership in the Fifth Avenue Congregational 
church and are popular in the social activities of their com- 
munity. In addition to their attractive residence in the city 
they maintain a pleasant summer cottage at Lake Minitonka. 



WALTER L. BADGER. 



Mr. Badger is a native of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where 
his life began on May 27, 1868. His parents, George A. and 
Harriet E. (Hastings) Badger, were born and reared in 
Massachusetts and descended from old New England families. 
The place of their nativity was Amherst in the Bay State, 
and there the father was educated and prepared for business. 
After reaching his maturity he engaged in the lumber trade 
in association with his father, whose name, also, was George. 
He died in 1902. 

His son Walter began his education in the public schools 
of Oshkoah, Wis,, which he attended until 1878, when he 
came with his parents to Minneapolis. Here he again attended 
school for three years and. then left school to begin his busi- 
ness career. He started as office boy in the real estate 
business in this city. In 1886 he started a real estate office 
of his own. Four years later he gave up his individual enter- 



prise, although he was succeeding in it, and became a member 
of the firm of Corser & Company as a special partner. In 
1896 he left the &-m and again embarked in business for 
himself. In 1912 he incorporated his firm as the Walter L. 
Badger Company. Frederick T, Krafit and Edson J, Kellogg, 
both of whom had long been with him, became members of 
the firm. The firm ranks as one of the leading firms in their 
line, and can always be found on the conservative side of 
matter^. He buys and sells real estate extensively, and is 
recognized as a man of excellent judgment in the business and 
an authority on all phases of it. He makes a specialty of the 
management of large estates and office buildings, and has 
built up an extensive and very active business in this line 
as well as in real estate transactions, representing a large 
body of Eastern clients in property interests here. 

Mr. Badger is sometimes called the "Father of Seventh 
Street," for he undertook the task of making a good retail busi- 
ness street out of it when it was lined with houses and every- 
body thought it necessary to be on Nicollet Avenue in order to 
do any business. He backed up his faith by building business 
blocks there before tenants were secured, and in many cases 
gave free rent until firms could get started. It was only a 
short time after this when retail firms were awake to the 
future of this street, and today it is in competition with 
Nicollet Avenue, When Mr. Badger secured the first property 
there about thirteen years ago, and he paid $225 per foot, 
today that same property would bring $3,500 per foot, and the 
future of this street is unlimited. 

Throughout his career Mr. Badger has been at all times 
earnestly and helpfully interested in municipal reform, good 
government and general public improvements. He is ardent and 
loyal in his devotion to Minneapolis, and always ready and 
willing to aid any project that will make it a better and 
more pleasant place to live, and impelled by this spirit, he 
takes an active part in everything designed to promote its 
welfare in any way. In politics his abiding faith and allegiance 
are given to the policies and candidates of the Republican 
party, except in local matters when he never hesitates to split 
his ticket when occasion requires it. but he has never, himself, 
sought or desired a political office. 

His religious connection is with the Plymoiith Congrega- 
tional Church, of which he is a regular attendant, and in 
wliose affairs he takes an active part. Socially he holds 
membership in the Minneapolis Minikahda and Athletic Clubs, 
and fraternally he belongs to the Masons. 

In October, 1890, Mr, Badger was united in marriage with 
Misa .\nna Dawson, of Keokuk,' Iowa, a daughter of .lames 
and Rosa (Hammel) Dawson, Two children have been liorn 
to Mr, and Mrs, Badger, their sons Lester R. and Norman D., 
the former of whom is living and still abides with his parents. 



CHARLES MURGAN HARDENBER(;H. 

Charles Murgan Hardenbergh. ex-president of the National 
Milling company and eminent citizen, was a native of New 
.Jersey, born at New Brunswick. January 4, 1833. After 
completing his collegiate training in Trinity college at New 
Haven. Conn., he entered a ship chandlery wli^-re he perfected 
himself in the trade of a shipwright. In 1863 he came to 
Minneapolis and established the Minnesota Iron works and 
continued to be an important factor in the prominent manu- 




^^£&T-^ /^<2-<^^ 



HISTOHV OK .MI\.\E.\I'()I,1S AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



■.i4'i 



faeturinj.' ami li\isiiu'!>s iiiti-rcsts of the city. Hi- liuilt the 
Crown KolliT mills in 1S79, which wi-ri- o|>iTiitc'(l by I'hristiun 
BrothtTi* until IM'Jl. when he withdrew from this enterprise 
and, in company with his son. Mr. George Hiirdenbergli. or- 
ganized the National Milling company, of which he was 
president. Mr. Ilardenberjih interested himself in the general 
welfare and progress of the city, gave valuable service as an 
alderman and was a member of the chamber of commerce. 
His political declarations were for the Kepublicnn party. He 
was married in IWilli to Miss Louise l.egas of .Minni'apolis. 
Mr. llardenbergh and his wife were members of the ICpisco- 
paliiin church. 



T. HOMER GREEN. 



The company of which T. Homer Green is the active man- 
ager was founded by him -July 1, 1901, with a capital of 
$300,000 and with himself as president. Karl De Laittre sec- 
retary. .John De Laittre vice president and Charles A. Green 
treasurer. The present officers are: Karl De Laittre, presi- 
dent; T. Homer Green, vice president, and Charles A. Green, 
secretary and treasurer. 

Its business has constantly expanded, now operating in 
Minnesota. Northern Wisconsin, and the Dakotas and is 
recognized as one of the leading wholesale grocery houses in 
the Northwest. 

It occupies ."iO.OOO sijuare feet of lloor space and has sixty- 
five employes, including eighteen traveling salesmen. 

T. Homer Green w^s born at Lynchburg. Ohio, October 27, 
1849. When 16 years old. he went to Illinois, in 1867', rc- 
movTng to Oskaloosa. Iowa, where he embarked in the whole- 
sale grocery trade in IfttSO. Five years later he went to 
Sioux City, where he carried on an extensive business in the 
tame line, until he came to Minneapolis in 1901. 

The active management of this company has devolved 
largely on him from the beginning, although Mr. De Laittre, 
president, was energetic and active until elected alderman. 

Mr. Green is a member of the Minnesota State Wholesale 
Grocers' association, of which he was treasurer for ten years; 
is a member of the Minneapolis Credit Men's association 
and first president and member of the Board of Directors of 
the Northwestern .Jobbers' Credit bureau. 

In 1873, Mr. Green was married to Miss ,Julia A. Casteen, 
of Versailles. Illinois. Their son, Charles A. Green, was 
educated at the L<'land .Stanford University and is now the 
secretary and treasurer of the company. 

Mr. Green is a Knights Templar, a memlier of Ziirah Temple 
and is a zealons member of the Civic and Commerce asso- 
ciation. 



ANURKW TOLCOTT HALE. 

Mr. Hale was born in (Jlastonbiiry. Hartford coiinty, Con- 
necticut, on .July 8, 1820. His father. Henjamin Hale, was a 
direct descendant of Samin-l Hale, a member of the Wethers- 
field, Connecticut, c<dony. which was founded in Ki.'Ifi by Kev. 
Thomas Hooker. The mother, whose maiden name was 
Lavenia Tolcott. also Ixdonged to old Connecticut families 
resident in that state from early Colonial days. The late 



Henry Tolcott Welles of Minneapolis, a sketch of whom will 
be found elsewhere in this work, belonged to the same Tolcott 
laniily that she was a member of. 

After completing his education as far as his school facilities 
would permit him to go in it, Andrew T. Hale passeil some 
years in engineering work for the I'niti'd ."states government, 
working under the direction of bis uncle, Colonel Andrew 
Tolcott, who was an army engineer. In this service he helped 
to survey the routes for the New York Central Uailroad, the 
bouMilary line between .Maine and Canaila and the coast at 
the mouth of the Mississippi river. This employment lasted 
from 1835 to 1844. The next three years were passed by 
Jlr. Hale in surveying government land in the Lake .Superior 
region, and in the fifties he was engaged in the produce trade 
in Hartford, Connecticut, and successful in his operations. 

On November 24, 1840, Mr. Hale was united in marriage 
with Miss Irene E. Thayer of Westfield, Massachusetts. She 
survived him forty-three years and six months, passing away 
on .lanuary 1, 1913, in her ninety-first year, while he died in 
.June. 1869. a little less than forty-nine years old. In 1860 he 
changed his residence to Minneapolis, being persuaded in part 
to do this by the advice of an old friend. Rev. Dr. Horace 
Bushnell. 

After his arrival in this city he invested heavily in real 
estate, especially in Davison's Addition to North Minneapolis. 
Mr. Davison was his brother-in-law, and had been associated 
with him in the clothing business under the name and style 
of A. T. Hale & Company. The Center block, which is being 
demcdislied at the time of this writing (May, 19141, was 
built by this firm on what was once a quagmire or "cat-hole" 
between Hennepin and Nicollet avenues. Messrs. Hale & 
Company redeemed this quagmire from the waste and con- 
verted it into a desirable business location, erecting on it 
buildings that have well served their purpo.se until now. when 
the city park board wishes to devote the spa<'e to "The (Jate- 
way" it is constructing. 

Mr. Hale took an earnest interest and an active part in 
many liiu's of usefulness besides his own business. He was a 
director of one of the Minneapolis banks, and in 1865 was 
elected a member of the city school board. During his tenure 
of this oflice the first high school building was reconstructed 
and schools were established in the outlying parts of the city. 
Plymouth Congregational church, of which he was a member, 
was destroyed by fire in May. 1860. and he was one of the 
leading instrumentalities in building the new church, which 
was completed in 186.'t. In adilition. the first formative meet- 
ings toward the founiling anil erection of Carleton College at 
Northfield were held in his parlors, and he serve<l on the first 
board of trustees of that institution. 

Mrs. Hale, his widow, who was well known to the present 
generation of Minneapolitans. ably seconded her husbaml in 
all his educational and philanthropic work, and after his death 
kept up the support and aid he hail planned for Carleton 
College and his similar benefactions. She was the last survi- 
vor of the noble body of excellent women who, nearly fifty 
years ago. formed the organization known as the "Women's 
Cliristian Association," the first iM'nevoIent society of the 
kind Minneapolis ever had; and to the end of her life her 
deepest interest centered in the helpful work this organization 
and the socielies that grew out of it were doing. The Tills- 
bury Home, was benefited by her personal care and devotion 
to its welfare, and it can be truthfully said that no move- 
ment for the betterment of the city of her home in moral. 



346 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



intellectual or religious life was ever without her active and 
effective aid while she lived. 

The life of this noble woman was one of adventure as well 
as of humanitarian endeavors. As a young girl she crossed 
the AUeghanies with her father on a visit to Ohio, at time 
a journey of great magnitude and daring. She also traveled 
on the New York Central Railroad, one of the first built in 
the United States, from Albany, to Schenectady. New York, 
from there to Buffalo on the Erie Canal in the early days 
of that great internal highway, and from Buffalo to and over 
Lake Superior on the fir.st steamboat that ever traversed the 
waters of that mighty inland sea. 

When Mrs. Hale was sixty years old she visited Persia, 
where one of her daughters was a missionary, and in order 
to get at first hand information for the use of the Women's 
Foreign Missionary Society, in which she was an ardent 
worker. On this trip to Asia she also visited Constantinople, 
Athena, and many other highly interesting historical places. 
Only a few weeks prior to her death, when she was jjast 
ninety, she asked that a map of Turkey and Albania be spread 
out before her in order that she might follow with her own 
eyes the progress of the armies in the late Balkan war. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hale were the parents of four daughters. 
Ellen, who is now the wife of E. A. Harmon, resides in Min- 
neapolis. Mary, who devoted her life to the care of her mother, 
is still living in the fine home of the family on Clifton Place. 
Catherine married Dr. .Joseph P. Cochran and went with him 
as the wife of a medical missionary to Uiuma. Persia, where 
she died in 1895, after an absence of seventeen years from her 
native land, and where her husband died in 1906. 



ELLSWORTH C. WARNER. 



Beginning the battle of life for himself in the highly hon- 
orable and useful but humble capacity of a country school 
teacher, and now at the head of a gigantic industry and con- 
nected with financial institutions of great magnitude, Ells- 
worth C. Warner, president of the Midland Linseed Products 
Company, forcibly illustrates, in his strikingly successful 
business career, the possibilities of industrial and commercial 
enterprise, and what can be accomplished by capacity, self- 
reliance, perseverance and pluck in this land of boundless 
wealth and opportunity. 

Mr. Warner was born at Garden City, Minnesota, in 1864. 
His father, Amos Warner, who is still living and is over 
ninety years old, is a native of the State of New York, and 
the mother, whose maiden name was Aurelia Dilley, was born 
in what was then the far western state of Ohio. The father 
was, iii his days of activity, a school teacher, druggist and 
energetic farmer. He came to Minnesota in 1851, a pioneer 
in this state, and took up his residence at Garden City, where 
he still has his home. He has served as town treasurer, and 
is widely known and highly respected by the people of his 
home town and county. The mother is now seventy-nine years 
of age and one of the revered matrons of her long abiding 
place. Garden City. 

Their son, Ellsworth C, was educated in the schools of his 
native place, passing through the common schools and after- 
ward attending the high school there. He began life for him- 
self teaching a country school in the winter months and work- 
ing at various occupations in the summer. In 1855 he was 
appointed register of grain receipts, and was one of the first 



men in the state of Minnesota to fill that position. He was 
attentive to his duties and careful and intelligent in the per- 
formance of them, winning general commendation from all 
classes of persons who had dealings with him; 

But there was that within Mr. Warner which called aloud 
for expression in a larger field of action, and could find it only 
in a business of his own, which he could expand and develop 
to its largest possibilities. In 1887 he resigned the position of 
State register of grain receipts, at $125.00, to accept a posi- 
tion at the bottom with the Mankato Linseed Oil Company, 
at $50.00 per month with promise of more as soon as he made 
good. Two years later Mr. Warner purchased a linseed oil 
mill at La Crosse, Wisconsin, which he sold to the National 
Linseed Oil Company about 1890. He was then employed by 
this company as the manager of its mills at La Crosse, Wis- 
consin, Dubuque, Iowa, and St. Paul. Minnesota, and received 
a very large salary for his services. He remained with the 
company until it was absorbed by the American Linseed Oil 
Company in 1897. 

In 1898 the Midland Linseed Oil Company was organized 
with Mr. Warner as president; E. C. Bisbee, vice president; 
W. C. Stone, secretary and treasurer, and these gentlemen and 
the late W. D. Douglas, directors. Mr. Douglas was one of 
the gentlemen whose heroic death in the great disaster of the 
Titanic thrilled the world. 

The capacity of the Midland Linseed Oil Company in 1899 
was 400,000 bushels of seed a year. At the present time 
(1914) it is 6.000,000 bushels per annum, more than one-fifth 
of all the linseed made and consumed in the United States. 
It is one of the colossal institutions in American industrial 
activity, its products being shipped to all parts of the world. 
It is one of the most successful institutions ever established 
in our city. Its plants are located in Minneapolis, Chicago, 
New York, and are considered the most modern in the world. 
Its success is largely due to its active officers, E. C. Warner 
and E. C. Bisbee. Its present officers are E. C. Warner, presi- 
dent; E. C. Bisbee, vice president; G. F. Piper, treasurer; A. 
L. Bisbee, secretary; A. F. Berglund, assistant Secretary and 
treasurer. 

In 1894 Mr. Warner bought the McGill-Price Printing 
Company in St. Paul and associated with him C. H. McGill 
and Eli Warner of that city in the lithographing, book-bind- 
ing and printing business. The company is now the McGill- 
Warner Company — E. C. Warner, president; E. S. Warner, sec- 
retary and treasurer; C. H. McGill, vice president, and is well 
known all over the Northwest and in other parts of the 
country. It is still located in St. Paul, and is. perhaps, 
the largest and most successful institution of its kind in the 
United States. 

The fiscal institutions of his home city have enlisted Mr. 
Warner's interest and had the benefit of his clear head and 
strong hand for a number of years, and other industries be- 
sides that of making linseed oil have felt the impulse of hia 
Huickening intelligence and enterprise. He is one of the di- 
rectors of the Security National Bank and a stockholder in 
the First National, the Northwestern National and the Swed- 
ish -Xmerican National banks of Minneapolis. He is also sec- 
retary and treasurer of the American Timber and Holding 
Company; president of the Western Finance Company, and 8 
director and member of the executive committee of the Union 
Investment Company, and also a director of the Northwestern 
Fire & Marine Insurance Company. In the management of 
all of these institutions he takes an active jiart and gi^es 
the details of their business his attention. These institutions 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNKSOTA 



347 



arv all located and t-arry on their operations in this country. 
Mr. WanitT hais also extensive interests in the Dominion uf 
Canada, and they, too, receive his careful i)ei"Soiml attention. 
He is president of the Atlas Klevutor Company; treasurer of 
the Canadian Elevator Company; director of the Empire Ele- 
vator Company, and of the Thunder Bay Elevator Company, 
•II in the Dominion of Canada. 

Large and exacting as arc his business engagements and 
interestj*, Mr. Warner has found time to mingle freely and 
serviceably in the social life of his community us a member of 
leveral of its leading clubs, as well as in the general social 
activities of the people around him. He belongs to the Minne- 
apolis Club; honorary member of the University Club; the 
Minikuhda Club, of which lie is president; and the luterlachen, 
Lafayette and Automobile Clubs. He seeks recreation and 
finds relief from the burdens and cares of business in the game 
of golf, of which he is a great devotee. 

Dn .January l.">, IS'JO. Mr. Warner was united in marriage 
with Miss Nellie F. Bisbee. of Madelia, Minnesota. They have 
four sons: Ellsworth B., who is twenty-two years of age; 
Maurice A., who is twenty; Harold A., who is seventeen, and 
^Vendall E., who is twelve. They are all living at home 
with their parents and aid in making up one of the most 
i;''ere8ting and agreeable family circles in the city. The fam- 
ily residence is at ^O.'iO West Ciillumn boulevard, and it is a 
center of social culture and stimulus an<l refined and gracious 
hospitality. All the members of the household are regarded 
s« representative of what is best in the citizenship of A[inne- 
a|>oli8, and are esteemed in accordance with this estimate. 



GEORGE IILIIS. 



The late George Huhn, who was one of the veteran druggists 
of Minneapolis, and for many years one of the most energetic, 
useful and representative men in the city, was a native of 
Germany, born at Oggersheim in the Palatinate, on Xoveniber 
22, IS-IS. He was reared to the age of eighteen in his native 
city and educated there. At that age, in 1853, he came to 
this country and took up his residence in Clevelaml, Ohio, 
where he remained two years. From there he migrated to 
this state and located in St. Paul. The whole of this regicm 
was wild and unpeopled at that time, and Mr. Huhn found 
it agreeable to him, as he was of an adventurous disposition. 

His love of incident and nilvniture led him into the army 
a« a volunteer in 1862, nn<l gave him an opportunity to 
render tin- locality excellent service in assisting to (|uell the 
Indian uprising of that year. After passing one year and a 
half as a volunteer he enlisted in tlie regular army in the 
capacity of hospital steward with headquarters at Fort 
Kidgely, where he remained in the service three years. He 
did not, however, pass the time in idleness or trilling nmuse- 
ments. His leisure was devoted to stuily ami investigation, 
and by the time he was ready to leave the army he had 
.ic-quircd a fair knowledge of medicine and surgery. 

In 1867 he engaged in the drug business in Minneapolis, 
continuing in this line of in.rcaiftile life until I88'.t. He was 
generous to the pioneers in this locality from his native land, 
ministering to their needs as a physician and also as a drug- 
gist, and they^ returned his generosity by patronizing him 
liberally when they had money. He soon built \ip a large 



and active business and became in time one of the most 
successful and progressive of the early merchants here. 

-Mr. Huhn also took a very earnest and helpful interest 
in local public affairs. From 1873 to 1878 he was u mi'iiiher 
of the school board, and when, near the end of his term, tho 
whole school system was reorganized, he was one of the 
most active members of the board in the work of putting 
the improvements into operation. In 1878 he retired from 
the school board because of his election to the legislature 
that year. He was re-elected in 1880, and at the close of his 
term in 1882, was chosen register of deeds for Hennepin 
county, which oflice he held until .January, 1887. 

Among the founders of the German American Bank of 
Minneapolis Mr. Huhn was one of the most prominent and 
enterprising. In 1S8U he was elected president of this finan- 
cial institution, and in that capacity he served it greatly to 
its advantage and his own credit until his death, which 
occurred on October 30. 1903. He was married in 1863 to 
Miss Frederica Nerkwitz. 



WILLIAM DIXSMOKK HALE. 

For forty-six years continuously a resident of Minneapolis, 
and during the whole of that long period active in business 
and public service to the community, William Dinsmore Hale, 
postmaster of the city at this time (1S14| has won the 
regard of the whole people here by his ability, capacity, 
fidelity to every duty and genial and obliging disposition in 
all the relations of life. His residence here has been one of 
peaceful pursuits, but when armed resistance threatened the 
dismemberment of the I'nion he did not hesitate to take up 
arms in its defense, and he bore himself bravely "and creilitably 
through four years and four 'months of the great and sanguin- 
ary war, as he has done in this city amid the ilin and clang 
of industrial activity. 

Mr. Hale is a native of Maine, having been born at Xorridge- 
woek, f>omerset county, in that state on August lt>. 1836, and 
a son of Eusebius and Philena (Dinsmorel Hale, also natives 
of that state. His academic education was obtaineil at Fox- 
iToft ill his native commonwealth and on Long Island, New 
^ork. He came to Mini\esota in IS-lfl, when he whs but 
twenty years old, and, after traveling through the West 
extensively, took up his residence at Cannon Falls in 185<J, 
and there engaged in farming. His interest in the public 
affairs of this state was earnest and serviceable from the 
lirst, and so engageil public attention that he was elected 
enrolling clerk of the state senate in the session of 1861. 

The Civil war began alKiiit the time his term of service in 
the senate expired, and he promptly enlisted in defense of 
the I'nion, and was made sergeant of Company E. Third Min- 
nesota N'olunteer Infantry, and later sergeant major of the 
Regiment. His Regiment served in Kentucky and. Tennessee 
against the renowned Confederate raider. General Forrest, 
anil during this service he was captured, but was soon after- 
ward panded and returned to Minnesota, joining General Sib- 
li'v's I'liinmand in its iiuivements against the .Sjoux Indians in 
tlie s iiT of IS(12 until the outbreak was siippressol. 

This did not, however, end his military service. His n-gi- 
ment returned to Tennessee, in .January. 1863. and partici- 
pated in campaigns on the Tennessee River against \'icksburg, 
Mississippi, aii>l Little Rock. Arkansas. In the fall of 1863 



348 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



he was appointed adjutant and later major of the Fourth 
United States Artillery, and his field of duty was again in 
Kentucky and Tennessee and afterward once more in Arkansas. 
After being mustered out of the army in February, 1866, he 
cultivated a cotton plantation near Pine Bluff, Arkansas, 
during the remainder of that year. 

In January, 1867, he was made agent for the Freedmen's 
Bureau, and in September of the same year came to Min- 
neapolis where for a short time, he found employment in 
the office of the Minnesota Central Railway. Before the 
year was out he became bookkeeper for W. D. Washburn & 
Company, taking the position in December. His worth and 
ability were soon recognized by the company and he rose 
to a high position in its business by successive promotions, 
becoming agent for the Minneapolis Slilling company, then 
newly incorporated, in 1872, and two years later became one 
of Mr. Washburn's partners in the enterprise. In 1879 the 
management of the company's business was placed in his 
hands and he conducted it to the great advantage and entire 
satisfaction of the other members and all who had interests 
in it. 

Mr. Hale has also been connected with other business insti- 
tutions and lias been a valued public official of the Federal 
government for a number of years. He has been secretary of 
the Northwestern Consolidated Milling company since 1895, 
and was secretary, treasurer and one of the directors of the 
Minneapolis & Duluth Raihvay and a director of the Min- 
neapolis & St. Louis Raihvay from 1875 to 1881. He was 
appointed postmaster of Minneapolis first by President Harri- 
son and next by President Roosevelt, by whom he was reap- 
pointed in 1906; and he was again reappointed by President 
Taft. In this position his management of the work has been 
energetic and progressive, and he has made it as successful 
as possible with the crowded space and limited facilities at 
his disposal. He has been diligent in the use of all the 
means at his command to make the service as prompt, complete 
and satisfactory as possible, and has succeeded to a degree 
beyond that which most men would have reached under the 
circumstances. 

Mr. Hale also performed important duties as receiver for 
the American Savings and Loan association from 1896 to 
1901. His father was a Congregational clergyman in New 
England and New York and a member of the prominent 
family of the name in that part of the country. He died at 
Riverhead, Long Island, in 1880. The son was first married 
at Cannon Falls, Minn., in 1864 to Miss Sarah Baker. She 
died in 1868, and in 1870 he contracted a second marriage, 
which united him with Miss Flora A. Hammond of Minneapolis. 
They have four children living. The parents are well 
esteemed in all parts of the city of their home. He is up- 
right and straightforward in all his business transactions, 
faithful and readily responsive to every call of duty in 
his citizenship, and elevated and commendable in all liis 
daily walk and conversation. The people of Minneapolis 
regard him as one of their most useful and representative 
men, an ornament to their community and a fine typo of 
American manhood in every way. 



studio at 1030 Nicollet avenue, after several years of suc- 
cessful business on his own account at 518 Nicollet avenue, 
he was as well prepared for the successful prosecution of 
his art as long, practical experience in it from the ground up 
could make a man of natural adaptability to it. For years 
before that time he had been a close student and an observing 
practitioner of the craft, in every department of its work, 
and had been laying the lessons thus learned concerning it 
faithfully to heart. 

Mr. Hubner was born in Burlington, Iowa, on .luly 17, 1873, 
and began his education in the parochial schools of that cilv. 
He afterward completed the public school course there, but 
started in the business in which he is now engaged at an 
early age as errand boy for the leading photographer in 
that city, with whom he served an apprenticeship of three 
years. He then passed one year in a studio in Baltimore, 
Maryland, and another in Wheeling, West Virginia. From 
Wheeling he changed to Cleveland, Ohio, where he held a 
leading position at good pay for three years. 

In the fall of 1895 Mr. Hubner located in Minneapolis, and 
during the next eleven years was employed in the studio of 
the man who was at the head of the photographing business 
in this city. When his employer died in 1906 Mr. Hubner 
opened a studio of his own at 518 Nicollet avenue. Here he 
was successful from the start, and his business grew so rapidly 
that he was soon compelled to move to larger and better 
quarters. He then took possession of the studio he now 
conducts, which is up to date in every respect and always 
prepared to turn out the best work skill in its line can 
produce, and at rates as reasonable as circumstances will 
allow. 



G. ADOLPH HUBNER. 



When G. A. Hubner, one of the leading photographers of 
the Northwest, took charge of his beautiful and finely equipped 



EDWIN ROSWELL BARBER. 

Edwin Roswell Barber, president of the Barber Milling 
company, one of the most widely and favorably known 
merchant milling corporations in the Northwest, is a native 
of Benson, Rutland county, Vermont, where his life began 
on November 22, 1852. His parents were the late Daniel R. 
and Ellen L. (Bottom) Barber, also natives of Vermont and 
descendants of families domesticated in New England from 
early colonial times. The father was a merchant in liis 
native town of Benson, and proprietor of the principal store 
there, when he was only twenty-five years of age. During the 
next ten years he was so successful in his business that at 
the end of that period he was able to dispose of it at a good 
profit, which aided in swelling the comfortable competence he 
had already accumulated' in his merchandising activity. 

In the year 1855 the father made a prospecting trip through 
the Northwest, and selected the new settlement at the Felb 
of St. Anthony as his future home. The next year he 
moved his family here. He was first associated in business 
with Carlos Wilcox, another young man from the Green 
Mountain State, and together they carried on a real estate 
business which nourished for a time. But the panic of 18S7 
paralyzed all business openftions and the elder Mr. Barber 
found himself with his nu)ney invested in loans and real 
estate from which there were no returns immediately or 
prospectively for an indefinite period. In athc meantime, 
while he was waiting for the springs of enterprise to rise wd 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



349 



flow agiiiii, lie cultivated tracts of land which he owned near 
the village of St. Anthony. 

At the election of 1861 he was chosen one of the county 
commissioners, and the same year was appointed assessor, an 
ollice whicli he held in town and city for eleven years. He 
afterward turned his attention to mercantile pursuits again, 
first in the grocery and later in the dry goods trade. But 
his eyes were always open to the main chance around him, 
and the milling business soon arrested his attention in such 
a way that he determined to devote his energies to that. In 
1871 lie bought the Cataract flouring mill, which was the 
pioneer mill at tlie Falls. Even for that day he found it 
antiquated and inefficient. He therefore laid his plans for 
large operations in his new venture by removing all the old 
machinery from the mill and introducing all the newest and 
most approved appliances and methods known to the industry, 
and tlien, in association with his son-in-law, ,T. Welles Gard- 
ner, lie operated the mill to its utmost capacity and on a 
profitable basis. Mr. Gardner died in 1876, and after that 
Mr. Barber took his son, Edwin R. Barber, the immediate 
subject of this brief review, into the business with him. The 
joint management of the mill by father and son continued 
until the death of the father on April 17, 1886, at the age 
of over sixty-nine years. Tlie management was vigorous and 
progressive. Every effort was made to turn out the best 
possible product, and great care was exercised in every part 
of the work from beginning to end. The flour made at the 
Cataract mill, in consequence of all this studious attention to 
its manufacture, soon won a high and widespread reputation, 
and the sale of it was very extensive, not only locally, but in 
almost all parts of the country. 

Edwin R. Barber was but four years old wiien his parents 
brought him and his sister Julia, afterward married to J. 
Welles Gardner, and now the wife of John Bigelow, to this 
locality. He received his early education in the public Schools 
and later attended the State University, but was not graduated, 
leaving the institution before completing his course of study. 
His reminiscences of his boyhood and youth are very interesting 
in the light of present conditions. He used to shoot partridges 
where the West hotel now stands, and remembers well when 
the site of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad depot 
was an impassable bog, unsightly to look at and wortiiless 
for use. 

After leaving the University Mr. Barber attended a business 
college and had private instructors in modern languages. He 
also gained practical experience in business in the office of 
Gardner, Pillsbury & Crocker in what is now Mill D operated 
by the Washburn -Crosby company, from which he went into 
the office of Gardner & Barber, his father and his brother-in- 
law constituting the firm, in the Cataract mill, wliich he 
entered in 1871. 

From the humble position which he assumed in this mill 
on May 1, in the year last named, Mr. Barber has risen to 
the head of the business, having been connected with it in 
the same establishment continuously for about forty-two years. 
He is president and treasurer of the company over which he 
presides, which is known as the Barber Milling company, and 
was founded in 1859 and incorporated in 1896. In 1876 the 
name of the firm, which was originally Gardner & Barber, 
was changed to D. R. Barber & Son, and when the business 
was incorporated in 1896 it was put under the name by which 
it is now known all over the Northwest, and far and wide in 



other parts of this countr}-, Canada and some lands beyond 
seas. 

In political relations Mr. Barber is a Republican, but he has 
never been an active partisan, although deeply interested in 
the welfare of his party at all times. His church affiliation 
is with the Presbyterian denomination, and the social side of 
his nature finds scope and enjoyment in hLs active membership 
in the Minneapolis, Minikahda, Lafayette and Automobile 
clubs. He is also a prominent member of the Minneapolis 
Chamber of Commerce, and is wamily interested in other 
organizations and all worthy agencies at work in the com- 
munity for the elevation, improvement and enduring welfara 
of its residents. He has always been a zealous advocate and 
promoter of public improvements and an earnest supporter 
of everything that seemed likely to advance the best interests 
of his city, county and state. 

On October 1, 1873, Mr. Barber was united in marriage with 
Miss Hattie S. Sidle, a daughter of Henry G. and Catherine 
(Kurtz) Sidle, natives of Pennsylvania. Mr. Sidle was for 
many years president of the First National Bank of Min- 
neapolis. Four children have been bom in the Barber house- 
hold, and three of them are living: Henry S., who is secretary 
of the Barber Milling company; Katharine S., and Edwin 
Roswell, Jr., who is cashier of the Barber Milling fompaiiy. 
A daughter named Nellie L. was born in 1883 and died on 
December 28, 1888. 

Mr. Barber is modest about what he has done to aid m 
building up and improving the city of his home. But it is 
only just to him to record that he was one of the liberal 
contributors for the purchase of the site of the old Chamber 
of Commerce building and the postoffiee site, and one of the 
most efi'ective promoters of the Minneapolis Industrial Exposi- 
tion and the erection of the Young Men's Christian Association 
building, Westminster Presbyterian church and the Lake Street 
bridge. In connection with the enterprise last named he 
joined with others in paying the interest on the bonds issued 
for the construction of the bridge for three years in advance, 
Hennepin county at the time having insufficient resources to 
assume any more interest bearing obligations. His public 
spirit in these undertakings is expressive of his real character 
and clearly indicates the value of his citizenship. 



THEODORE L. HAYS. 



Mr. Hays is a native of Minneapolis, where his life began 
on March 29, 1867. He is a son of the late Lambert Hays, 
one of the early German settlers of this city, who came here 
with his parents in 1854. He was very active and energetic 
in promoting the early growth and development of the city, 
and to the end of his life pursued the same course with bene- 
fit to the municipality and profit to himself. The son re- 
ceived a public school education and afterward pursued a 
course of special instruction for mercantile life at the Curtis* 
Business College. 

Mr. Hays' first employment was with the Minnesota Title 
Insurance and Trust company in work connected with the 
abstracting of titles. In 1887 he began an active career in 
tlie theatrical business in association with W. E. Sterling, 
they being lessees and managers of the Dramatic Stock com- 
pany of the People's Theater. This theater was built by his 
father, Lambert Hays, and its erection was directed and super- 



350 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



intended personally by himself. In 1890 the house passed 
under the control of Jacob Litt of Jlilwaukee, Wisconsin, and 
its name was changed to the Bijou Opera House. At that 
time Mr. Hays was engaged by Mr. Litt as treasurer for 
the house, but his services in this capacity were of short 
duration, as the theater was destroyed by fire before the end 
of the year. 

Lambert Hays immediately rebuilt the house and his son 
Theodore again superintended its erection. It was reopened 
on April 13, 1891, with Jacob Litt still in control, and for 
many years thereafter it was conducted by him with great 
success, offering combination attractions at popular prices. 
It is still a popular and well patronized house of entertain- 
ment, always in touch with the prevailing taste and present- 
ing for the enjoyment of the public the best attainable per- 
formances in its class. The property still belongs to the 
heirs of Lambert Hays. 

Soon after Mr. Hays became associated with Mr. Litt he 
was advanced to the position of resident manager of the 
Bijou, and in 1896 he was selected also to direct the business 
of the Grand Opera House in St. Paul. Afterward he became 
and remained for years Mr. Litt's general representative in 
the Northwest. After Mr. Litt's death he contiuued to serve 
in the same capacity for the firm of Litt &, Dingwall, and 
he is now, and has been for a long time the secretary and 
treasurer of the Jacob Litt Realty company, the corporation 
that controls the Grand Opera House property in St. Paul. 

Through his connection with the two well known theaters 
mentioned Mr. Hays has become prominent in amusement 
circles in the Northwest. He is united with J. A. Van Wie 
in the ownership and management of the Grand Opera House 
in Grookston, Minnesota, the most modern "one night stand" 
theater in this part of the country, and has interests also 
in other enterprises of a similar character. He is president 
of the Twin City Scenic company, incorporated, one of the 
largest and most successful scene painting institutions in 
the United States. He was one of the organizers of this 
company, which started in a small way, and it has been 
largely through his energy and progressiveness that the 
undertaking has reached its present magnitude and prom- 
inence. 

In the civic affairs of both Minneapolis and St. Paul, Mr. 
Hays has long taken a very active and serviceable part. 
He belongs to the Commercial clubs in both cities, and the 
Association of Commerce in St. Paul as well as the Civic 
and Commerce Association in Minneapolis. The fraternal life 
of his community has interested him too. He is a member 
of the Minneapolis Lodge of Elks, which he has served as 
Exalted Ruler, and which presented him with a life mem- 
bership in recognition of the value of his services in that 
office. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias, the Royal 
Arcanum and the Order of Odd Fellows. For a tinie he was 
a member of the Minnesota National Guard and is a member 
of the Company A. M. N. G. Veterans Association. In 1905 
Governor Van Sant appointed him a member of the Minnesota 
Board of Managers of the Louisiana Purchase E.xposition 
at St. Louis, and he served as secretary of that Board with 
universal acceptability and approval. Mr. Hays is married 
and has one child, his son Theodore Edward. The fiunily 
residence is at No. 2323 Irving avenue south. 



SPENCER S. HARDEN. 

Mr. Harden was born in Gardiner, Kennebec county. Maine, 
on March 12, 1832. He grew to manhood, obtained a common 
school education and learned the carpenter trade in his native 
place. When he was twenty-two he came to Minnesota 
in 1854 to look the country over. After returning to his old 
New England home and remaining there two years, he came 
back here in 1856 to live, and here he passed the rest of his 
days. After his arrival here to stay, Mr. Harden was a partner 
with Mr. Goodale, as building contractors, and ahso became 
associated in business with Mr. Connor, another early con- 
tractor. Mr. Harden's mother, who was a widow at the 
time, came with him and secured half a block of land on 
University avenue between Fifteenth and Sixteenth avenues 
S. E.. and built a dwelling for herself and sons on the corner 
of University avenue and Fifteenth Ave. Her house was 
destroyed by fire, and a new one she built to replace it 
suffered the same fate. She then moved to the West Side, 
and for a few years lived on Sixth avenue south. But 
in the eighties she put up the present residence near the old 
location. Two years later she died in this house at the age 
of seventy-six. She was a devout and consistent Christian 
and an active member of the F'irst Congregational cliurch in 
St. Anthony. 

Spencer S. Harden, after working at his trade for some 
years as a building contractor, accepted an offer from the 
Milwaukee Railroad and took entire charge of the wood 
work done on engines in its Minneapolis shops. He employed 
the men who worked under him without interference from 
the railroad authorities and continued his engagement with 
the company for a period of twenty years, at the end of 
which failing health induced him to return to his farm. 
This was a tract of 266 acres of superior land located on 
the Minnesota river eighteen miles southwest of Minneapolis 
and six miles northeast of Shakopee. 

Besides this farm Mr. Harden owned a number of tenant 
properties in Minneapolis, including the old Hennepin block, 
and twice a week he was in the habit of coming into the city 
to look after his interests here. He looked after his own 
affairs with sed\ilous industry and good judgment, and took 
an active part in local public affairs as a good citizen but 
not as a political pnrtlsan, although he was a firm and faith- 
ful member of the Republican party. He had no inclination 
to fraternal orders or social clubs, and did not belong to any. 
One of his strong likings was for fine trees. He planted a 
large number and great variety on his farm, and took every 
precaution to preserve them all from destruction or Injury. 

Mr. Harden was married in this county on his birthday, 
March 12, 1862, to Miss Lucy M. Carleton. a sister of Frank 
Carleton, of Hennepin county, and Daniel Carleton, who is 
now living in California. Their parents were Robert and 
Nancy (White) Carleton, who came to St. Anthony In 1854 
from near Bath, Maine. The father returned that fall, and in 
1856 moved the family to St. Anthony; sometime afterward 
moved to Jordan, Scott county, Minnesota, and engaged in 
farming there. Mr. Harden's death occurred April 28, 1910. 
Mrs. Harden still resides on the farm in Bloomington town- 
ship. 

Four thildren were born in the Harden household: Walter 
S.. who lives with his mother; Nellie M.. the wife of Grant 
A. Knott, who occupies the old family homestead on Uni- 
versitj' avenue southeast, in this city; Kate C, a physician, 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



351 



who is the wife of Frank C. Helmuth and has her home at 
Wyoming, Minnesota, and Elizabeth C, who married Dr. 
Xaboth 0. Pearce and resides at Cloverton in this state. 
The other old home of the family on University avenue is 
now occupied by the Scandinavian Christian Union Bible 
College, as it has been for a number of years. 

The estate of Mr. Harden (Spencer S.), amounting ■ to 
$60,000, according to the probate record, is incorporated as 
the Harden Realty and Investment company. Of this com- 
pany Mrs. Harden is the president; Mrs. Nellie M. Knott is 
the vice-pre'sident, and Walter S. Harden is the secretary 
and treasurer. Its resources are kept active in an enterprising 
and profitable business which receives careful attention from 
its officers and the other persons interested in its useful 
operations. 



HON. ALEXANDER HUGHES. 

The late Hon. Alexander Hughes, who passed the last years 
of his life in this city, where he died November 24, 1907, had 
a record of public service in peace and war that rendered him 
distinguished, many admirable traits of character cementing 
the warm friendships formed through years of companionship. 
He was born at Brandford, Ontario, September 30, 1846, and 
came as a lad with his parents to Wisconsin. May 22, 1861, 
while 5'et in his fifteenth year, he enlisted at Fall River, 
Wisconsin, in Company B, Seventh Wisconsin Infantry, one 
of the thirty-seven fighting regiments specially mentioned in 
the War Records for valiant service and losses in battle, and 
a part of the celebrated "Iron Brigade." 

He was taken prisoner at Gainesville, Georgia, when slightly 
wounded and caring for his brother, who was seriously 
wounded, but made his escape next morning and assisting his 
brother reached the Union lines. He received a severe wound 
'in the right shoulder at South Mountain; and, at Gettysburg 
a musket ball passed through his cartridge box causing a 
painful injury. At Laurel Hill he received a bullet in his 
right knee and which he carried until 1870, and also two 
slight wounds in a charge on entrenchments at Spottsylvania. 
At Jericho ford of the North Anna he was again wounded, 
more than a year elapsing before recovery. At Gettysburg 
his gallant conduct on the field won a commission, which he 
declined to accept on account of youth. He was discharged 
in October, 1864, and from earliest organization was active 
and prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic, serving as 
the first Senior Vice Commander of the Department of Dakota. 

He was graduated from Spencer Commercial College in 
Milwaukee in 1867, and for a short time was bookkeeper for 
a milling firm at Watertown, Wisconsin. In 1868 he studied 
law at Beaverdam, soon locating at Monticello, Iowa, where 
he was admitted to the bar in 1869. That year he was also 
elected county superintendent of schools and was married to 
one of the county's teachers. In 1871 he moved to Elk Point, 
Dakota territory, and ten years later to Yankton. He was 
an able lawyer, a graceful and forceful speaker and, with 
perhaps one exception, had a larger practice than any other 
lawyer in the territory. In 1873 and 1873 he served as a 
member of the Territorial Council, being its president, from 
1875 to 1877 was deputy treasurer of the territory, and from 
1877 to 1881 was a member and the secretary of the board 
of trustees of the hospital for the insane at Jamestown. 



Mr. Hughes' ability and influence were recognized in federal 
as well as territorial official relations. He was United States 
court commissioner from 1873 to 1881 and was a delegate 
to the national Republican conventions of 1872, 1876, 1880 
and 1896. In the convention of 1876 he was a Blaine 
enthusiast and looked after his interests in the committee on 
credentials. In 1896 he placed McKinley in nomination and 
was a member of the platform committee. Locally he was 
chairman of the Territorial Republican committee in 1878 
and 1879. He was also disbursing agent of the United States 
land office at Yankton from 1881 to 1883, resigning to take 
the office of attorney general, which he held until 1886, and 
he served as adjutant general from 1881 to 1885. 

When the question of the removal of the capital came up 
Mr. Hughes was strongly in favor of the selection of Bismarck 
as the permanent seat of government. He was opposed to 
the division of the territory, and as Bismarck was central he 
believed it would prevent the division. It was largely 
through his influence that Bismarck was selected, was active 
in the long litigation that followed the removal, and is still 
accorded the credit for the retention of that city as the 
capital. He was made chairman of the legislative committee 
to select a site for new public buildings and have them 
erected, serving from 1883 to 1887. To facilitate the work he 
removed to Bismarck, and, being the resident commissioner, 
was in direct oversight of the erection of such buildings. 

He was elected to the Territorial Senate in 1887 and re- 
elected in 1889, during which was chairman of its judiciary 
committee. He was president of the board of education from 
1885 to 1887, city attorney of Bismarck in 1886 and 1887, 
and assistant counsel of the Northern Pacific Railroad from 
1887 to 1901. In politics he was always a staunch Republican 
and a quiet but effective worker for his party, and had cast 
his fii-st vote at the age of sixteen in the army trenches facing 
the enemy. For twenty-six years no other man was so 
potential as he in shaping the public afi'airs and civic develop- 
ment of Dakota. 

In reference to and commendation of the enterprise and 
public spirit displayed by Mr. Hughes, the Bismarck Tribune 
of November 26, 1907, said: "Several years ago he and his 
sons organized a corporation to furnish electric light and power, 
and for this purpose took over plants at Bismarck and Dickin- 
son, North Dakota, and Glendive, Montana, and erected one 
at Fargo. They were also interested in telephone and other 
constructive enterprises." One of his last activities was 
obtaining a park for the residents of Kenwood, in this city. 
For his services in this connection his neighbors gave him an 
expressive testimonial of appreciation. At his death the 
district court at Bismarck passed resolutions full of feeling 
and strong in eulogy, and his neighbors spoke of him in the 
following language: 

"We sincerely sympathize with his mourning and grief- 
stricken family, and assure them that we share with them 
a sense of great and irreparable loss. While we would not 
persuade them from their deep sorrow, we remind them and 
ourselves that to have known Alexander Hughes was to have 
loved him; and that no matter how great may be our present 
bereavement, our loss would have been immeasureably greater 
had we never been privileged to call him friend." 

Mr. Hughes was married at Monticello, Iowa, in 1S70, to 
Miss Mary Higinbothara, a native of Greencastle, Indiana, 
whose father was from Virginia and mother from Kentucky. 
The father was a graduate of Asbury College (now De Pauw 



352 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



University), and died at his post while serving as an army 
surgeon. Mrs. Hughes was educated at the Northern Indiana 
College, South Bend, and was a teacher in Iowa until marriage. 
Her children are: George A., an inventor and manufacturer in 
Chicago; Edmond A., at present State Senator from Bismarck, 
and operator of the electric liglit and power plants there and 
at Dickinson; Frank C, who is in the same line at Glendive, 
Montana, and William V., who is proprietor of oil plant's at 
Beach, North Dakota, and Glendive, Montana. 



BENJAMIN B. SHEFFIELD. 



Extensively engaged in the milling business and as a 
banker, and connected actively in an official way with a 
number of educational institutions of high value, Benjamin B. 
Sheffield has been and is of pronounced service to the people 
of Minnesota in a double capacity directly, as well as generally 
through his interest and activity in connection with tne 
affairs of the state in other lines. There is scarcely a public 
interest which does not enlist his attention and secure his 
aid, and there is none to which he gives attention that is 
not the better for it. 

Mr. Sheffield was born at Aylesford in t^u province of 
Nova Scotia, Dominion of Canada, in 1860, a son of Miledge 
B. and Rachel (Tupper) Sheffield, the former a native of 
Aylesford, Nova Scotia, and the latter of Burwick, N. C 
When he was four years of age he was brought to Faribault, 
Minnesota, where his father was engaged in manufacturing 
flour. He was graduated from the Shattuck school in 1880, 
and at once entered the milling industry, soon alterwarl 
becoming the manager of an extensive business already estal • 
lished. 

In 1896 the Sheffield mill, with whicn he was connected was 
destroyed by fire, and a 2,500 barrell mill was at once erected. 
This Mr. Sheffield operated until 1905. when he sold it. In 
the meantime he had become interested in the Sheffield 
Elevator company at the Minneapolis Terminal, and for 
fifteen j-ears he has had his ofliee in Minneapolis. In 1909, 
in association with W. D. Gregory and W. D. Gooding, lie 
organized the Big Diamond Milling company, the Commander 
Milling company and the Commander Elevator company, of 
each of which he is the vice president. 

In addition he is president of the Shellield Elevator com- 
pany at the Terminal, and he operates a number of grain 
elevators in Southern Minnesota along the Chicago. Milwaukee 
& St, Paul, the Chicago Great Western and the Minneapolis 
& St, Ijouis railroads. His office in this city is in Room 922 
Flour Exchange, where he carries on a very active and extensive 
business, to which he gives his close personal attention. He 
is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and a dealer on 
Change, and has also been connected with the banking business 
as president of the Security National banks at Faribault and 
Owatonna. 

As has been intimated, Jlr. Shellield is deeply and servic<'- 
ably interested in tlie cause of education, general and technical, 
and in two special lines of its usefulness. For six years he 
has been president of the board of directors of the State 
School for the Deaf and Dumb, and also of the board of 
directors of the State ."^cliool for the Blind, both located at 
Faribault. The same board controls both schools, but the 
schools themselves are kept separate. He was a member of 



this board some years before he became its president, and 
has given the institutions over which it has charge a large 
amount of his time and energy, and rendered them, and 
through them, the state very valuable service, to say nothing 
of their unfortunate inmates, in whom he has long felt the 
liveliest and most sympathetic interest. 

Since 1897 Mr, Sheffield has also been a life member of 
the board of trustees of the Bishop Seabury Divinity School 
at Faribault and one of the trustees of the Shattuck school, 
of which Bishop Edsall is president. The late Walter D. 
Douglas, who gave up his life so heroically on the Titantic, 
was one of Mr, Sheffield's associates on the board last men- 
tioned, and was one of its most useful and esteemed members. 

Of the fraternal and benevolent societies so numerous 
among men Mr, Sheffield has membership in but one. That 
is the Masonic order, in which he has taken the rank of the 
thirty-second degree in the Ancient and Accepted Socttish 
rite. In this fraternity he is also a Noble of the Mystic 
Shrine with membership in Zura Temple at Minneapolis. He 
has been twice married, his fiist union in this department of 
life having been with Miss Carrie A. Crossett of Faribault. 
They had three children, their daughters Blanche and Amy. 
The former is a member of the class of 1913 at Smith 
College, and the latter is a student at Stanley Hall, and one 
deceased. After the death of their mother Mr. Sheffield con- 
tracted a second marriage which united him with Miss Flora 
M. Matteson, of Minneapolis, who is still living and presiding 
over his domestic shrine. 

Mr. Sheffield served as mayor of Faribault while a resident 
of that city, and was chosen presidential elector on the 
Progressive ticket in 1912. 



EARLE RUSSELL HARE, M, D. 

Devoted always to his profession to the exclusion of all 
other interests. Dr. Earle Russell Hare has won for himself 
a prominent place in medical associations of the city. 

He was born in Summerfield. Ohio, May 26, 1872, and is 
the son of John W. and Mary Cornelia (Taylor) Hare. 

Dr. Hare received his common school education in the 
schools of Summerfield. Ohio, and those of Kan.sas City, 
Missouri, graduating from the High school of the latter in 
.June, 1890, He next attended the Iowa Wesleyan College 
from which he graduated in June, 1S94. with the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. 

In 1896 he entered the medical Department of the .'^tate 
University of Minnesota and from there he received the degree 
of M. D. in June. 1900, he also served as instructor in the 
departments of Anatomy and Surgery for a period of 14 
years. 

Since receiving his degre of M. D. Dr. Hare has devoted 
himself to the general practice of his profession in Minneapolis, 
and has met with flattering success, enjoying a large and 
steadily growing practice throughout the city. Of late years, 
the greater portion of his time has been given to surgery. 

The Dr. is a member of the Hennepin County Medical 
Association, the Minnesota State Medical Society, the American 
Medical Asstxdation. the Minnesota Pathological Society, the 
Minnesota Academy of Medicine and the Association of 
American Anatomists. 





H 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



353 



♦ 



CHARLES M. HOOPER. 

Charles Mather Hooper was born in the state of New York, 
on the 13th of December, 1845, and died Jan. 30th, 1894. He 
was a scion of honored pioneer families of the old Empire 
commonwealth, within whose borders were born his parents, 
Sanford A. and Mary (Harris) Hooper, with whom he came 
to St. Paul, Minnesota, as a boy, though he returned to his 
native state thereafter for the gaining of educational advant- 
ages. Sanford A. Hooper became one of the interested prin- 
cipals in the development of the townsite of Belleplaine, Scott 
county, and was there a leader in civic and business affairs. 
He became prominently concerned in the development of 
salt works at that place, where he also erected a large hotel 
and a flour mill, and he was one of the foremost and most 
honored citizens of Belleplaine at the time of his death, which 
occurred after he had passed the psalmist's span of three 
score years and ten, his wife having preceded him to the life 
eternal. He was also a successful bridge contractor after his 
removal to Minnesota and assisted in the construction of one 
of the first bridges across the Mississippi river at St. Paul, 
besides doing a considerable amount of other important bridge 
work on this great river, as a government contractor. 

Charles M. Hooper acquired the major part of his early 
educational discipline at Geneseo, New York, where resided at 
tlie time two sisters of his mother, one having been the wife 
of Governor Y'oung and the other the wife of General Wood, 
and both having been intimate friends of the family of the 
distinguished General M. C. Wadsworth. Besides his academic 
training Mr. Hooper completed a thorough course of study in 
a business college, and as a youth he became associated with 
his father's contracting business, as did also his brother, 
Campbell Harris Hooper. After severing his connection with 
this field of enterprise, with which he was concerned only a 
short time, he established himself in the drug business at 
Belleplaine. 

About the year 1885, ilr. Hooper exchanged his holdings at 
Belleplaine for property in Minneapolis, he engaged in the 
real-estate business, in which his operations as a general 
agent attained to wide scope and much importance. His 
father-in-law, John C. Stoever, one of the pioneers of St. Peter 
and Henderson, Jlinn., and a representative man of affairs in 
Minneapolis, had for several years given attention to the 
extending of financial loans on real-estate security, and Mr. 
Hoojier gradually assumed the management of Mr. Stoever's 
large business interests, in addition to supervising his own. 

His political allegiance was given to the Republican party, 
his religious faith was that of the Protestant Episcopal chiu-ch, 
and he was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. He was 
essentially liberal and progressive as a citizen, was an able 
and far-sighted business man. 

On the 17th of April, 1873, was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Hoo])er to Miss Susan Elizabeth Stoever. who survives 
him and who still maintains her home in Minneapolis, her 
attractive and hospitable residence being located at 106 Spruce 
Place. She was born in the state of Massachusetts, and was 
a child at the time of the family removal to Minnesota, in 
1856. Her father, the late John C. Stoever, was one of the 
sterling pioneer settlers of this state, was in active service 
in the conflicts with the turbulent Indians in the early years 
of the Civil war, and served as paymaster for the government 
in connection with military operations in Minnesota at this 
time. He established his residence in Houston county, was 



closely and prominently identified with the industrial and 
civic development of that section of the state and there he 
lived until well advanced in years, when he came to Min- 
neapolis, where he died at the age of seventy-one years, his 
name meriting high place on the roll of the honored pioneers 
of Minnesota. His first wife died when her daughter Susan 
Elizabeth — Mrs. Hooper — was eight years of age, and his second 
wife, whom he wedded in Pennsylvania, survived him by 
several years, — a woman of marked talent and most gracious 
personality. 



PROFESSOR LUDWIG W. HARMSEN. 

While Minneapolis now holds high rank as a center of 
musical culture in its early days it lacked in organizations. 
There was needed a master who could collect, fuse and har- 
monize the musical talent and attainments. 

This master spirit came in 1868 in the person of Pro- 
fessor Ludwig W. Harmsen, who has won wide and apprecia- 
tive popularity and admiration as a composer, performer 
and director in musical events. He was born in Hamburg, 
Germany, December 31, 1839, and had his natural gifts ad- 
mirably trained in that city's celebrated Conservatory. He 
began to take pupils and teach music when he was only 
sixteen years old. 

In 1865, he joined a brother at Atlanta, Georgia, where he 
remained two yeare. being employed as director of the i\Io- 
zart Society. In 1868 he came to Minneapolis and soon be- 
came popular as a teacher and director in the different musi- 
cal societies. 

One exception to the epiiemeral character of the early musi- 
cal organizations was the Harmonia Society formed bj' the 
German residents in the early seventies and Still in vigorous 
existence. It owed a large part of its vitality to the work 
and influence of Professor Harmsen, one of its early leaders. 
Peter Rauen was prominent as an early president and Richard 
Stempf and other well known musicians were also leaders 
in it. Another valuable musical organization, was the Min- 
neapolis Choral Society, which was founded in 1876. George 
R. Lyman was its first president and Professor Harmsen 
its first teacher, leader and director. 

Professor Harmsen was also an important factor in the 
Jlinneapolis Orchestral Union, the Concordia and Maennerchor 
of St. Paul, the Stillwater Maennerchor, the Harmonia Froh- 
sinu and the Liederkranz. He was also the organist of Ply- 
mouth church for ten years and of the Church of the Re- 
deemer for thirteen. In addition to these, Presbyterian 
churches had the benefit of his similar services as had also 
the Hennepin Avenue and Wesley Methodist churches; and. 
he was director of the Concordia Singing Society of St. Paul 
for a continuous period of twenty-si.x years. 

He acquired an enviable reputation as a director of large 
orchestras. He has been highly honored by the lovers of music, 
many testimonials of esteem and regard being bestowed. 
His piano symphony "The Martyr" composed upon the death 
of President Garfield, and dedicated to the American people, 
has won high place among musicians. His compositions for 
choral work have been accorded distinction. "The Singer's 
Course," especially, demanding attention when rendered by a 
chorus of 500 chosen male voices at the Singer's festival at 
Brooklyn. 



354 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



He was mairicil in 1875 to Miss Anna Sauer or Minne- 
apolis. Tliey liave two daugliters and one son. The pro- 
fessor is truly loyal and devoted to the country of his adop- 
tion, but still cherishes a warm and appreciative atfection for 
that of his birth, wliicli he visited in lS6y, and again in 1874. 



LEWIS S. GILLETTE. 



Lewis S. Gillette, long one of the leadinj; business men of 
Minneapolis, and a far more extensive and important con- 
tributor to the growth and improvement of the city than the 
residents of it generally know, was born at Niles, Michigan, 
May 9, 1854. a Son of Mahlon Bainbridge and Nancy Mary 
(Reese) Gillette, and a direct descendant of Jonathan Gil- 
lette, who came to America in the ship "Mary and John" in 
1630 and settled at Dorchester. Massachusetts. He is also a 
direct descendant of Commodore Bainbridge of the United 
States navy, who quelled the piracy of the Barbary States 
on the Mediterranean coast of Africa in 1803. and afterward 
still further di.stinguislied himself in the naval service of his 
country. 

Mr. Gillette's father and grandfather emigrated from West- 
ern New York to Michigan in 1844, and located on a farm 
at Niles on the St. Joseph's river, making the journey of 
nearly 200 miles from Detroit to Niles by team. On this 
homestead Lewis S. Gillette was born May 9, 1854, and his 
brother, George M. Gillette, December 19, 1858. They re- 
ceived their elementary education in the country school eon- 
ducted on the homestead and were prepared for college at the 
high school in Niles. Lewis passed the entrance examination 
for the University of Michigan in the summer of 1872. but 
on account of illness came West, reaching Minneapolis in Sep- 
tember of the same year. Dr. W. W. Folwell, then president 
of the University of Minnesota, and a cousin of his father, 
persuaded the young student to attend the latter University 
for one year at least. 

At the end of that period he expected to return to Mich- 
igan, but he became interested in the progress of Minneapolis, 
then a city of about 18,000 people, and the growth of the 
University, then in its infancy, and remained for the full four 
years' course. He carried a double course through the fall 
college period, and was graduated with the degrees of B. S. 
and B. E. in 1876. A few years later the University con- 
ferred on him the degree of C. E. on account of meritorious 
work in engineering, his first work in this line being done 
while he was at college and under the supervision of Colonel 
Farquahar and Lathrop Gillespie, engineers in charge of Gov- 
ernment work on the Upper Mississippi and the Falls of St. 
Anthony. 

After his graduation in 1876 Mr. Gillette returned to his 
old Michigan home and purchased a farm adjoining that of 
the family homestead. He was married December 18, 1877, 
to Miss Louesa E. Perkins, of Minneapolis. While conducting 
his farming and live stock operations he bought an interest in 
the Niles Chilled Plow Works and became the treasurer and 
manager of the industry. His farm house was destroyed by 
fire about this time, and he then moved to Niles and took 
active charge of the plow works. In 1880 he represented the 
State of Michigan at the Atlanta Cotton Exposition, and 



there he made so great a market for the products of his plow 
company that it became necessary to either double the 
plant or move it to another locality with greater facilities. 

In 1881 James J. Hill offered him the position of assistant 
right of way agent for the Great Northern, then the St. Paul. 
Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway. He accepted the offer, 
moved to Minneapolis and remained with the railroad com- 
pany four years. During this period much of the right of 
way occupied by the road, for which it had never procured 
title, was purchased. This included the line westward from 
the Mississippi, all the old Union depot grounds, the present 
terminal, the Minnesota Transfer and the main line, which 
then extended only to Grand Forks. 

In 18S2, after the purchase of the St. Anthony Falls water 
power by the Hill interests, Mr. Gillette was appointed en- 
gineer and agent of the Water Power Company, and he served 
in this capacity and also as right of way agent of the Great 
Northern until May, 1884. It was largely through his efforts 
that East Minneapolis secured the location of the Exposition 
building. He was chairman of the committee that made the 
purchase of the site, and at the same time the city made hira 
trustee of its properties on Central avenue. He was author- 
ized to sell or exchange these properties and purchase the 
whole water front between the exposition and the east chan- 
nel of the Mississippi. 

In May, 1884, Mr. Gillette bought a one-half interest in 
the Herzog Manufacturing Company, then a small institution 
on the east side of the river. From this date his advance- 
ment and successes were rapid. In 1899 he bought Mr. Her- 
zog's interest in the entei-prise, and the iron works became 
known as the Gillette-Herzog Manufacturing Company. Mr. 
Gillette's knowledge of engineering served him well and his 
company became the pioneer in skeleton steel construction for 
mining and manufacturing buildings throvighout the West .ind 
the recognized authority on that subject. Its work is found 
in every principal city and mining camp from Panama to 
Alaska, and from 1884 to 1900 there was scarcely an enter- 
prise between Chicago and the Pacific coast requiring steel 
work in its construction that did not confer with the Gillette 
company. So enviable was the reputation the operations of 
this company won for the men at the head of it that in 1885, 
Allen Marwel, president of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 
Railroad, offered Mr. Gillette the position of assistant gen- 
eral manager of the Santa Fe system to succeed H. C. Ives, 
deceased. 

In 1895 Mr. Gillette and his associates organized the Min- 
nesota Malleable Iron Company, and conducted its operations 
in North St. Paul at the plant of the defunct Walter A. Wood 
Company, which was afterward sold to the American Grass 
Twine Company. Mr. Gillette was also one of the principal 
organizers of the American Bridge Company. Two years were 
required to procure the options on the thirty-one properties 
that were absorbed by this company and to effect their sale 
to Mr. Morgan after Jlcssrs. Selligman & Harriman had failed 
to underwrite them. At the request of Charles Steele, J. P. 
Morgan & Company and Percival Roberts, president of the 
Bridge Company, Mr. Gillette remained in tharge of all the 
properties, west of Chicago until the company was absorbed 
by the United States Steel Corporation. He then retired and 
made an extended foreign trip accompanied by his family. 

After his return from abroad Mr. Gillette's active mind 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS xVND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



355 



immediately sought new fields of enterprise. He aided in 
founding and building the Red Wing Malting plant, a con- 
tinuously prosperous industry. He also organized and built 
the Electric Steel Elevator, one of the largest of all the 
American terminal elevators and to this day a model. In 
connection with this plant of 3,250,000 bushels capacity, he 
conceived the idea of grouping other industries and induced 
three of those now surrounding it to enter into the project. 
The Russell Jliller ilill, The Spencer-Kellogg Linseed Oil 
Crusher, the Electric Malting plant, the Arelier-Daniels Lin- 
seed Oil plant and the Delmar Elevator are grouped around 
the mammoth central elevator and from it they receive over 
belts, at the rate of 10,000 bushels per hour, the grain re- 
quired for their uses, which is purchased and delivered to 
them by the central company. The anangement is mutually 
satisfactory and profitable, and the large milling companies 
are now copying it on a smaller scale. Prior to his entering 
upon any of the enterprises last enumerated, Mr. Gillette 
received an offer from J. P. Morgan & Co. inviting him to 
take the management of one of that firm's Eastern railroads, 
but as his interests and ties were all in the West he declined 
the offer. 

This gentleman of many powers was for years vice presi- 
dent of the Metropolitan Bank, which was sold through him 
to the Northwestern National Bank, in which he became a 
large stockholder and director. He was also one of the early 
stockholders and directors of the Minnesota Loan and Trust 
Company, and he aided his sons, his brother and J. L. Record 
in establishing the Minneapolis Steel and Machinery Company, 
one of the largest industrial institutions in this state. In 
association with other gentlemen, he purchased the St. Paul 
Pioneer Press newspaper, with its building and printing estab- 
lislunent. The purchasers conducted the business succesfully 
for some years and then sold it profitably to the owners of 
the St. Paul Dispatch. 

Mr. Gillette has always been intensely interested in the 
growth of the State University and aided it on numerous oc- 
casions. It was largely through his efforts and those of F. 
W. Clifford that plans for a Greater University were secured 
and the master mind of CaSs Gilbert was induced to estab- 
lish the type of buildings that should be ei"ected on the 
campus. Since 1887 he has been an extensive traveler. There 
are few countries in the world he has not visited and care- 
fully studied, all the American States are as familiar to him 
as Jlinnesota. His home is full of mementoes of his foreign 
travels which delight his friends and visitors. 

He is also a willing servant in public and civic work, and 
has been prominent for many years on boards having such 
work in charge. After visiting Rio Janeiro and Buenos Ayres 
and seeing the wonderful reconstruction of those cities, he 
conceived that it was possible to do something similar in 
Minneapolis. At a dinner given by Hon. E. A. Merrill, when 
discussing this subject with the late Judge Martin B. Koon 
and General W. D. Washburn, Mr. Gillette related the miracle 
performed in the two South American 'cities. The result was 
the organization of the Minneapolis Civic Commission, which 
was formed for planning the Greater Minneapolis. 

He succeeded the late Hon. Geo. A. Pillsbury as trustee of 
Pillsbury Academy and is active in its service. 

The investment enterprises Mr. Gillette is connected with 
and president of are the L. S. Gillette Company, the Plymouth 
Investment Company and the Chippewa Land and Pasture 
Company of Wisconsin. The clubs he belongs to are the 



Engineers. New York; the University, Chicago; the Univer- 
sity and Minnesota, St. Paul, and the Lafayette, Minneapolis 
and Minikahda, Minneapolis. His religious affiliation is with 
Trinity Baptist Church. He believes that every citizen who 
has lived in a community, shared its prosperity, enjoyed its 
society, benefited by its public service, and gained a compe- 
tence within its borders owes something to that community 
and should pay the debt, and he is zealous in the work of 
discharging his own obligation to Minneapolis. He is an en- 
thusiastic sportsman and has been for ten years president of 
Lake Emily Gun Club. 

Mr. Gillette was married on December 18, 1877, to Miss 
Louise F. Perkins, of Minneapolis, a daughter of George E. 
Perkins, who settled in St. Anthony in 1857. They have two 
sons and three daughters. 

He has for thirty years been one of the state's largest em- 
ployers of labor, and has held the confidence and loyal service 
of his men. He enjoys the enviable reputation of having 
keen foresight and clear perception — is a good judge of men 
— a tireless worker, resourceful and of unquestioned integrity. 
Men of affairs join willingly in any enterprise that he will 
father. Many benevolences and worthy poor enjoy his un- 
ostentatious aid. 



MRS. HELEN F. HANSON. 



A unique position in Minneapolis is that held by Mrs. 
Hanson, proprietor of the Plaza hotel, the leading establish- 
ment of its kind in the city and one that compares more 
than favorably with the best family hotels in other metro- 
politan centers. Mrs. Hanson has not only proved a discern- 
ing and capable executive but has also attained marked 
distinction and popularity as a hostess. She has made an 
enviable reputation in her choseii sphere of endeavor and 
her circle of friends is 'coincident with that of her acquaint- 
ances. 

Mrs. Hanson has been actively identified with the hotel 
business since May, 1901. For five years she was proprietor 
of the Judd House, and since its opening, in October, 1905, 
has officiated in a similar capacity at the Plaza, of which 
she is the lessee. It is essentially modern and attractive, 
being designed by the well known architect, Walter J. Keith, 
who was the chief promoter, and who became the executive 
head of a syndicate of representative local capitalists. Mrs. 
Hanson was one of the stockholders and her ability and popu- 
larity marked her as the one most eligible hostess of the 
new hotel, which ■was completed at a cost of two hundred 
and sixty thousand dollars. She has handled the executive 
affairs with ability making the hostelry one pervaded by the 
true home atmosphere, the while giving the latitude and 
facilities of the first-class metropolitan hotel. The Plaza has 
accommodations for one hundred and twenty-five guests and 
it is a popular center of much social activity. 

Mrs. Hanson was born and reared in the city of Boston, 
and is a representative of staunch New England lineage, as 
was also her husband, the late Charles M. Hanson, who was 
at one time secretary of the Title Insurance & Trust Company 
of Minneapolis. Mr. Hanson likewise was born in Boston of 
a family founded in New England in the colonial era. Mr. 
Hanson was afforded excellent educational advantages, having 
distinctive ability and exalted character. In 1864, a mere 



356 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



lad, he ran away to tender liis services in defense of the 
Union, enlisting in the Massachusetts regiment. In later 
years he perpetuated the memories and associations of his 
military career by affiliation with John A. Rawlins Post, 
Grand Army of the Republic, and in which he was held in 
highest regard. He died on the 39th of January, 1909, at 
the age of sixty-three. Mr. and Mrs. Hanson were parents 
of one daughter. Alma, who is the wife of Dr. Charles B. 
Wright. 



PERRY HARRISON. 



The scion of families distinguished in local history Perry 
Harrison, one of the well known bankers being connected 
■with one of the strongest fiscal institutions in the Northwest, 
has admirably upheld the examples and record of his family 
in a fruitful and useful business career. 

Mr. Harrison was born in Minneapolis, October 11, 1862, 
being a son of Hugh Galbraith and Irene Amelia (Robinson) 
Harrison, an account of whom will be found elsewhere in 
this work. He was educated in the public schools and at the 
Northwestern University Preparatory School. At the age 
of sixteen he began his banking career in a subordinate posi- 
tion, and has steadily advanced until lie is now vice president 
of tlie Security National Bank. 

Mr. Harrison has always taken an earnest interest in local 
affairs, and has contributed to their promotion. He served 
seven and a half years in the First Regiment. Minnesota 
National Guard, becoming lieutenant colonel. He has ever 
been energetic and resourceful, the progress and improvement 
of Minneapolis and Minnesota giving practical aid to every 
undertaking for betterment morally, intellectually, socially 
and materially. 

Mr. Harrison is a Republican, but has never sought or 
desired political office. He is a member of the Minneapolis, 
Long Meadow Gun and Lafayette clubs. In 1887, Mr. Harri- 
son was maiTied at Hokendauqua, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, 
to Miss Miriam Thomas. 



ARTHUR W. HO BERT. 



Arthur W. Hobert was bom at Ottawa, Illinois, August 14, 
1858, and is a son of Edward and Mary E. (Phillips) 
Hobert, both of New York state. The mother dying when 
the son was four years old, he was reared by a step-mother, 
remaining at home until manhood. He obtained a common 
school education, which he svipplemented by night scliool in- 
struction in Chicago, where he learned bookkeeping and was 
employed in the office of Dr. Madison, a dentist, as was 
Mr. Hobert's father. He soon afterward became connected 
with the dental manufactory and supplies establishment of 
S. S. White, as a salesman on the road and in charge of ofTice 
detail. 

He remained with Mr. White until married October 9, 
1883, to Miss Bessie Berry, daughter of William M. and Betsey 
Ann (Godfrey) Berry. She was born at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 
living in Chicago from 1875, there attending the public schools 
as also Miss Grant's noted School. The year after mar- 
riage Mr. and Mrs. Hobert came to Minneapolis. Tlicy have 



two daughters. Helen graduated from National Park Semi- 
nary, at Washington, D. C, and married Ensign Ralph M. 
Jaeger, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and 
then an officer in the navy. He is a son of Luth Jaeger and 
a grandson of Col. Hans Mattson, twice secretary of state of 
Minnesota. Hortense attended the high school two years and 
is now a student at Beeehwood College, Jenkintown, Penn- 
sylvania, where she has given special attention to voice 
cultivation. 

Mr. Hobert was employed one year in building Hillside 
Cemetery, and then, 1891, became superintendent of Lakewood 
Cemetery. He stands high in landscape gardening and is an 
esteemed member of several national associations devoted 
to this branch of enterprise and improvement. The superiority 
of his judgment in connection with the subject is widely 
known, and he has been called to superintend the designing 
and laying out of cemeteries in many different places. His 
residence is near Lakewood Cemetery. 



COLONEL ERLE D. LUCE. 



Promoter and president of the Electric Short Line Railway 
Company and colonel of the First Infantry of the Minnesota 
National Guard; born at Red Wing, the judicial center of 
Goodhue county, Minnesota, on the 20th of May, 1882, and 
is a son of William L. and Nellie B. (David) Luce, the fonnei 
of whom was born in Maine, of staunch colonial stock, and 
the latter of whom was born in Iowa, in which state their 
marriage was solemnized, in 1881, in the city of Burlington. 
William L. Luce is one of the honored pioneers of Minnesota 
and through well directed enterprise along various lines he 
has contributed definitely to the civic anil industrial develop- 
ment and upbuilding of this favored commonwealth. He 
became a resident of Red Wing in 1858 and eventually 
developed a large and important business in the buying and 
shipping of grain, a domain of enterprise in which he gained 
definite precedence and high reputation. He became the owner 
and operator of a series of well equipped grain elevators 
along the line of the Great Northern Railroad and his extensive 
operations had marked influence in the furtherance of progress 
and prosperity throughout a large and imjiortant agricultural 
district of the state. He continued to give tlie major part of 
his time and attention to the grain trade until about the 
opening of the twentieth century, and in the meanwhile, in 
1889, he removed with his family from Red Wing to Min- 
neapolis, in which latter city he has since maintained his 
home. He has been closely and prominently identified with 
real-estate operations within later years and became a 
dominating force in the promotion of the Electric Short Line 
Railway, as he early discerned the groat benefit that would 
accrue to Jlinneapolis through the construction of such a line 
to the west. He is the vice president of the comjiany con- 
trolling the Minneapolis terminal system of the Electric Short 
Line Railway, and president of the company which controls 
tlie line of the system outside of the city, his son, Colonel 
Luce, of tliis review, is vice president, the two separate cor- 
porations having similar corporate titles. William L. Luce 
has given his influence and co-operation in the furtherance 
of legitimate movements for the general good of the state 
of his adoption, and during the long years of his residence in 




^ y^ 




HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND IIEXNP^PIX COFNTY, MINNESOTA 



357 



Minnesota he has maintained secure vantage-jilaee in popular 
confidence and esteem. 

Colonel Luce guined his preliminary etiucation in the public 
schools of his native city and continued his studies in the 
public schools of Minneapolis, where he was graduated in the 
high school as a member of the class of 1903. Scon afterward 
he was matriculated in the law department of the University 
of Minnesota, and in the same he was graduated in 1907, 
witli the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Even at the time 
when he entered the high school Colonel Luce began to 
manifest marked prescience and interest in the matter of 
affording electric interurban facilities connecting Minneapolis 
with the splendid section of country lying to the west, — a 
section not adequately served through the medium of the 
steam railway systems. He entered fully and enthusiastically 
into the splendid conception made by his father in this con- 
nection, and thus he was deflected from the work of the 
profession for which he had fitted himself and was led to 
enter vigorously upon the practical execution of plans which 
he had formulated in the matter of developing the intervu'ban 
electric system which had engrossed much of his thought. 
His law course was taken primarily for the purpose of fortify- 
ing himself for the emergencies and legal technicalities that 
might arise in connection with the prosecution of his ambitious 
plans for the developing of an important public utility, and 
his technical knowledge has proved of great value to him, 
even as he had anticipated. His conceptions of justice and 
equity have been shown to be of high order and this fact 
has gained to him in his enterprise ready co-operation ratlier 
than antagonism. Vigorously and effectively has he handled 
the involved and multifarious details of bringing his ambitious 
purpose to concrete results, and he has shown much circum- 
spection and judgment in securing right of way, terminal 
facilities and other required concessions, as well as in the 
general supervision of the details of survey and practical 
construction work. He has shown splendid capacity in the 
handling of large affairs and the solving of formidable prob- 
lems, even as he has proved himself an able financier. The 
following extracts from an appreciative article which appeared 
in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune of March 25, 1913, will 
afford an idea of the magnitude and value of the enterprise 
which has been fostered and developed under the able super- 
vision of Colonel Luce: 

"A ainner in celebration of the acquirement of adequate 
terminals for the Electric .Short Line Railway was given by 
Colonel Erie D. Luce to more than five hundred Minneapolis 
men and citizens of a dozen towns along the route of the 
railroad, at the Commercial Club last night. Speakers of 
the evening praised the men who have fostered the project, 
anil President Fiske of the Civic and Commerce association 
epitomized the spirit of the occasion when he said: 'As it 
was said in the old days, "All roads lead to Rome," so may 
it be said in the future, "All electric lines lead to Min- 
neapolis." ■ 

"How the road will mean vast wealth to the city in inter- 
change of freight, increased land values to the country, more 
factories here and more produce there, increased population, 
and a steady stream of happy, prosperous, money-making and 
money-spending people in both the country and the city was 
brought out by Douglas A. Fiske. Enthusiasm over the 
greatness of Minneapolis and the far-sighted pioneer spirit 
of Colonel Luce and William L. Luce in their cherished plan 



of making Minneapolis the heart of a great electric railway 
system was evident among the guests." 

Colonel Luce has not only shown himself to be one of the 
most ambitious and resourceful of the vital young promoters 
of his native state but has also attained to marked prominence 
and popularity as a representative figure in the Minnesota 
National Guard. In October, 1898, he enlisted as a private 
in the Fourth Regiment, in which he was promoted corporal 
of Company C on the 18th of October, 1899. On the 20th of 
Ma}', 1900, he was promoted sergeant of Company B, First 
Infantry, and his subsequent rise, through successive elections 
is here designated by rank and date : Second lieutenant, 
February 13, 1901; captain, April 1, 1901; major, June 10, 
1910; and colonel of the First Infantry, July 17, 1911. 
Enthusiastic in all that he undertakes. Colonel Luce has 
exerted great influence in advancing the personnel, the equip- 
ment and the efficiency of his command, as is indicated by the 
honors and attention be.stowed upon the regiment when it 
appeared on the occasion of the inauguration of President 
Wilson, in the city of Washington, where it won merited 
recognition and many plaudits. 

Ill 1912 Colonel Luce effected the erection of the fine 
Coliseum building in Minneapolis, at a cost of seventy-five 
thousand dollars, as well as the erection of the State Audi- 
torium, at a cost of thirty thousand dollars. His loyalty 
to his home city and native state is of the most intense order 
and has been shown forth in other public-spirited undertakings 
than those of which mention has been made in this context. 
He has made judicious investments in real estate, and among 
the.se may be mentioned his interests in the following named 
buildings in Minneapolis: The Phoenix building, Hampshire 
Arms, Netley Corners, Dunsmore House, Forest Court, and 
the Fremont and Franklin Avenue apartment buildings. 

In politics Colonel Luce accords allegiance to the Republican 
party, and he has given eft'ective service as president of the 
Voung Men's Republican Club in his home city, as well as 
chairman of the Hennepin county Republican committee. He 
has attained to the thirty-second degree of Ancient Accepted 
Scottish Rite Masonry, and in this great fraternal order his 
ancient-craft affiliation is with Kurim Lodge, No. 112. Free & 
Accepted Masons. He is president of the Minnesota National 
Guard Association, is an active and valued member of the 
Minneapolis Club, and is affiliated with the Phi Delta Phi and 
Theta Delta Chi college fraternity. The Colonel is still fond 
of athletic sports and during his student days in the high 
school and university he gained excellent reputation as a 
resourceful factor in the contests of the football gridiron. 

On the 8th of December, 1904, was solemnized the marriage 
of Colonel Luce to Miss Hazel Brown, daughter of Clarence A. 
Brown, of Minneapolis, her father being vice president and 
general manager of the St. Anthony & Dakota Elevator 
Company. Colonel and Mrs. Luce have a fine little son, 
William L., who was named in honor of his paternal grand- 
father. 

The family are members of the Trinity Baptist chiircli. 



LEWIS O. mCKOK. 



I'nr some years a grain dealer in Wisconsin, and now a 
biiilihr :ind operator of grain elevators and storage ware- 
houses. Lewis 0. Iliekok was born in Augusta, Illinois, in 



358 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY; MINNESOTA 



1845, being a son of Nelson Hiekok, a native of Vermont. 
After a number of years engaged in farming in Illinois he 
removed to River Falls, Wisconsin, where he continued farm- 
ing until death. Lewis O. Hiekok obtained his early educa- 
tion at the schools in River Falls, Wisconsin. Directly after 
leaving school he located at Glenmont on Lake St. Croix, 
Wisconsin, buying and shipping grain. Mr. Hiekok went to 
Augusta, Wisconsin, on the Omaha R. R. in 1873 and built 
the first grain elevator erected there, also acquiring another 
elevator and handled practically all the grain shipped from 
that station. In 181)0 he built a line of elevators for the 
Northwestern Elevator company on the Great Northern Rail- 
road between Rutland and Ellendale, North Dakota, and 
between Rutland and Aberdeen. In 1891 he built a similar 
chain of elevators for the I'eavey Elevator company on the 
Omaha Railroad, and in 1892 he became the traveling agent 
of the Hubbard & Palmer Elevator company, which operated 
a chain of elevators through Minnesota, Iowa and the Da- 
kotas. During the five years of his connection with this com- 
pany he had charge of the building and equipment of a large 
number of elevators. He then became a regular elevator 
contractor. He built a large one at Kasota, Minnesota, and 
a barley cleaning house with a capacity of 250,000 bushels. 
In 1908 he erected the concrete structure in South East Min- 
neapolis No. 20 together with a frame warehouse. During 
the last five 'years Mr. Hiekok has erected a large number 
of other storage tanks, fire proof warehouses and similar 
structures. 

In 1870, Mr. Hiekok was married at River Falls, Wisconsin, 
to Miss Luella Smitli. They have four children, Harvey M. 
spent two years in the university and then graduated from 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has since 
been associated with his father. Mr. Hiekok belongs to 
Mounted C'ommandery No. 23, Knights Templar, and to Zurah 
Templar, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of 
the New Athletic club. 



never sought or desired a political office. May 18, 1897 he 
was united in marriage with Miss Marie Louise Fitzer a 
native of Minneapolis. They have two children, Sylvia and 
Marion. 



H.\RRY S. HELM. 



Harry S. Helm, vice president and general manager of 
the Russell-Miller Milling Company, has lived in Minneapolis 
for sixteen years. He was born in Byron, Ogle County, Illinois, 
December 17, 1867, and was reared and educated in that 
state. In 1888, he entered the employ of the Russell-Miller 
Milling Company as a bookkeeper in one of its offices in 
North Dakota. He soon afterward became manager of the 
mill at his North Dakota location, and in 1902 was promoted 
to the position of general manager for the company, having 
come to Minneapolis in its service in 1897. 

Mr. Helm's preparation for the battle of life in a schol- 
astic way was extensive and thorough. He attended the 
Rockford, Illinois, High School, also the Beloit Academy for 
a time and finally passed one year in the University of 
Illinois. He was naturally endowed for a business life, 
however, and his inclination led him in that direction. The 
success that has attended his eflforts shows that he has 
developed and applied his faculties judiciously. 

With no desire whatever for public life, Mr. Helm has 
always taken an active and helpful interest in local public 
affairs and in the substantial and enduring welfare of his 
community. The social life of the city has also had his 
earnest support and he is an active member of the Minne- 
apolis, Minikahda, and Auto Clubs of Minneapolis, the Lake 
Pepin Countrj' Club, and the Minneapolis Civic and Com- 
merce Association. In all of these organizations his member- 
ship is valued and he is held in high esteem, as he is in 
business circles in all parts of the city and by the people 
generally, wherever he is known. 



WILLIAM OTTO HARTIG. 



Wm. Otto Hartig was born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1870, 
and is a son of Henry and Marie Hartig, representatives of 
old families. The father was also an electrical contractor, 
and with whom the son first became interested in electricity. 
William attended the local schools and served an apprentice- 
ship as an electrician, serving in all departments. 

At si.Kteen he came to the United States and soon there- 
after reached Minneapolis. For a time he was employed at 
the West Hotel, and subsequently for 14 years was with 
the firm of Vernon Bell, electrical contractors. 

He began his present business in 1900, and wliidi for the 
first year amounted to $3,500, increasing so that for 1912 it 
amounted to $150,000. He did the electrical work in the 
Leamington Hotel, the Deere-Wcbber building, the Powers 
Mercantile company building, the Auditorium of the School 
of the Blind, the Girls' Dormitory of the School for the 
Feeble-minded both at Faribault. Carleton College at North- 
field, Wartlju'rg Seminary at Clinton, Iowa. He has also 
installed the street lighting done by the Publicity Club and 
by the city. He generally has about 100 employes, the 
payroll at times, exceeding $1,500 per week. 

Mr. Hartig is a Republican, but is not a politician and has 



HON. JAMES C. HAYNES. 

The life of the late Hon. James C. Haynes, four times 
mayor of Minneapolis and prominent in the political life of 
the city for twenty-two years, in its early stages, its course 
and its achievements presents an epitome of American life 
in general for most of the men who win distinction and dignity 
and adorn the manhood of the nation, ifr. Haynes was born 
in obscurity, cradled and reared amid the inspiring scenes 
and useful pursuits of rural life, taught from his boyhood 
the value of productive industry through practical application 
to daily duties, and furnished the rudiments of his scholastic 
education at home, never =eeing the inside of a schoolhousc 
until after he was eleven years of age. He grew to manhood 
on his father's farm, extended his education in a public school 
and completed it at good academies, all the time making a 
hand on the farm, as the Civil war was in progress and labor 
was scarce, even in the North, during a part of the formative 
stage of his development. 

Mr. Haynes was bom at Van Buren near Baldwinsville, 
Onondaga county, New York, on September 22, 1848, and 
was a son of James and Eliza Ann (Clark) Haynes, also 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



359 



natives of New York state. The father continued farming 
until after middle life, tlien sold his farm and moved to 
Baldwinsville, where he engaged for some years in the hard- 
ware and lumber trade and operated a canal boatyard on 
Oneida lake. He died at the age of seventy-two. The mother, 
who died in 1909, at tha age of eighty-seven, was a daughter 
of Sereno Clark of Oswego county. New York, a man prom- 
inent in local and state public affairs. He served in the 
constitutional convention held in Albany in 1846 with Charles 
O'Connor, Samuel .J. Tildcn and others who afterward won 
international renown. 

Joseph Haynes, one of the early American ancestors of 
the late mayor, whose home was at Haverhill. Massachusetts, 
was an officer in a New Hampshire regiment during the war 
of the Revolution and active in helping to bring on the 
struggle for independence. He was a member of the first 
provincial congress at Ipswich and Salem, Massachusetts, in 
October, 1774, and aided in framing the resolutions adopted 
by that body for presentation to the Continental congress, 
in which the determined spirit of the colonists for liberty was 
made manifest in every line. 

In 1867 Mr. Haynes of this sketch entered the academy 
at Baldwinsville, New York, and soon afterward he and 
former Attorney General H. W. Childs of this state were 
examined together and authorized to teach in the district 
schools at the same time. During four winters Mr. Haynes 
taught the district school near his old home at $40 a month 
and board, and kept up his studies at the academy. At the 
end of that period he began attendance at the Onondaga 
Valley academy, afterward pursuing a course of instruction 
at Cazenovia seminary. He next studied law in Syracuse and 
Baldwinsville in the offices of good lawyers, and in 1874-5 
took a professional course at the Columbia law school in New 
York city. 

Mr. Haynes was admitted to the bar at a ;2cneral teiin 
of the Supreme Court of New York, held in Buffalo in June, 
1875. During the next three years he practiced his profession 
in association with the law firm of Pratt, Brown & Garfield, 
of Syracuse, and in the fall of 1878 formed a partnership 
with R. A. Bill, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Tlie next year 
Mr. Bill moved to North Dakota and Mr. Haynes came to 
Minneapolis, where he resumed the practice of law, especially 
the branch relating to business corporations. On September 
4th, 1879, he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah E. Clark 
of Skaneateus, New York. Three children were born to them, 
two of whom are living, Ruth — the wife of L. F. Carpenter 
and Dean Clark, both reside in Minneapolis. Mr. Haynes also 
took an active part in business affairs outside of his pro- 
fession, organizing in the Spring of 1883, in company with 
the late Alfred T. Williams, the American District Teiegraph 
company of Minneapolis, of which he was president as long 
as he was connected with it. About 1888 the late Thomas 
Lowry and Clinton Morrison purchased large blocks of .stock 
m the company and continued to be members of its directorate 
until lEToe, when it was absorbed by the American District 
Telegraph company of Minnesota. 

-Although always deeply and actively interested in municipal 
affairs in his home city, Mr. Haynes did not enter politics 
as a candidate for office until 1890, when he was nominated for 
alderman by the Democrats of the Second ward. He was 
elected by a plurality of twenty-three votes, and was the first 
Democrat elected from that ward, and, with the exception of 
E. J. Conroy, the only one who ever has been. In 1892, while 



still a member of the city council, he was nominated for 
mayor, but, although he ran about 2,000 votes ahead of hia 
ticket, W. H. Eustis, his Republican opponent, won the 
election by over 2,000 majority. 

During the next ten years Mr. Haynes did not seek any 
political honors, but in 1903 he defeated Julius J. Heinrich 
for the Democratic nomination for mayor by a small plurality 
after a very hard fight. At the election which followed he 
had little difficulty in defeating Fred M. Powers, the Republican 
candidate, receiving a majority of over 5,900 votes. At the 
next election he was opposed by David P. Jones, at that time 
president of the city council, and was defeated by 256 votes. 
In the fall of 1906 more votes were cast for the office of 
mayor than at any other time before or since. Mr. Haynes 
was again the Democratic candidate and Mr. Jones the Repub- 
lican nominee. The battle was one of the fiercest in the 
history of the city, but Mr. Haynes was elected by a plurality 
of 3,565. In 1908 he defeated Charles H. Huhn by the same 
plurality that Mr. Jones secured four years before. In 1910 
the situation was complicated by the first serious entrance 
of the Socialist party into the contest. Thomas Van Lear 
was the candidate of that party and former Alderman W. E. 
Satterlee was the Republican candidate. The three were so 
clo.se together at the election that it took several days to 
determine the exact result. In the official count Mr. Haynes 
had the slight plurality of thirty-four votes over Mr. .Satterlee 
and only a few more than 750 over Mr. Van Lear. 

While Mr. Haynes was a member of the city council an 
unusually large number of important matters came before 
that body for action. He was firm in his advocacy and support 
of the interests of the people in connection with every measure, 
as he always was in his whole career. There was great 
activity and interest in the proceedings of the city council 
also during his tenure of the oflSee of mayor. Mr. Haynes 
kept his ears to the ground and obeyed the voice of public 
sentiment which he had founded in all his official acts, looking 
after the welfare of the city and its residents with sleepless 
vigilance and untiring energy. He vetoed many ordinances 
passed by the city council regulating raattera of public policy, 
giving excellent reasons for his position in every case, and 
most of his vetoes were sustained. 

Perhaps the greatest contest in which Mr. Haynes engaged 
while he was mayor was with the Minneapolis Gas Light com- 
pany. The city council passed an ordinance granting that 
company an electric franchise for thirty years. Mayor Haynes 
vetoed this ordinance on the ground that there was no justifi- 
cation for granting a franchise for so long a period, and con- 
tended that only frequent renewals, for periods not to exceed 
ten years, or fifteen at the outside, would compel good senMce 
and just and rea-sonable rates. His veto message hung fire for 
several weeks, but was finally sustained by the council, its 
opponents being unable to muster enough votes to override 
it. His positiveness in standing by his convictions awakened 
strong criticisms and at times bitter censure, but after time 
passed even the most violent of his critics acquitted him of 
obstinacy and all unfairness, and the judgment of the city 
council, as embodied in resolutions formally passed after his 
death, was accepted generally as that of the commiuiity. It 
was: 

"That the character and the life of the late .lames C. 
Haynes were such as to command not respect and confidence 
only, but admiration and affectionate regard. He combined 
in an unusual degree lofty ideals and firmness of purpose ' 



360 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



with a tactful and kindly demeanor. He was forceful and 
resolute, yet free from rancor and from all uncharitableness. 
He performed unpleasant duties unflinciiingly, yet with such 
evident fairness that resentment was disarmed. He was 
lovable as well as inflexible, a good neighbor, a capable and 
honest ollicial and a model citizen. The records of this body 
bear eloquent testimony to his wisdom and his firmness. 
Unmindful of selfish and unjust criticism, he was singularly 
responsive to the public will where ditt'erences of opinion 
seemed founded on reason. Mere stubbornness was no part 
of his nature; his fiinuness was not pride of opinion, but faith 
in the right as God gave him to see the right." 

Mr. Haynes died at 8:10' Monday morning, April 15, 1913. 
For some months he realized and his friends feared that his 
end was approaching — that the plow was nearing the end of 
the furrow. But as an evidence of the appreciation in which 
he was held, close personal associates got together and pro- 
vided for an effort to prolong his life by a change of air, an 
extended rest and quiet recreation. Thej- made up a purse of 
$6,300, the contributors numbering 560. The number pre- 
sented him with a beautiful bound volume containing their 
signatures and the following: 
To the Honorable James C. Haj'nes, Mayor of Minneapolis: 

We, your friends and fellow citizens, desire to express to 
you upon your retirement from the office of our chief 
e.xecutivc, our honor and respect for the honesty and fearless 
fidelity with which you have labored for the best interest of 
Minneapolis, as her mayor of longest continuous service; and 
to add thereto our sincere regard for you as neighbor, friend 
and citizen. 

Yours has been a rich gift, the gift of your best years and 
greatest powers to the public service of our city. We honor 
you for this great sacrifice of private time and opportunity. 

We believe that your sacrifice has not been in vain, that 
you have set a mark in the public service; that henceforth 
whenever an executive, guided by your example, strives for 
and attains a high plane of usefulness it will be sufficient to 
say in his praise: "'He was as good a J^ayor as James C. 
Haynes." 

This money was presented to Mayor Haynes at his home. 
711 East River road, on Christmas day, 1912, and soon after- 
ward he left for a trip to the South and a sojourn on the Isle 
of Pines in the West Indies. 

Accompanied by his wife, Mr. Haynes passed some weeks 
on the Isle of Pines, then went to Xassau on New Providence 
Island, one of the Bahamas. Early in April, 1913, they re- 
turned to New York city, intending to go from there to 
Atlantic City, New Jersey, for the benefit of the sea air and 
ocean tonic. But the sufferer felt that his strength was wan- 
ing, and the tourists hastened home. They arrived on Sun- 
day, April 13, and the next day the weary star of the dis- 
tinguished citizen and public official was unloosed, atrophy of 
the muscles being the cause of his death. 

Every possible testimonial of public esteem was bestowed 
upon him after his death, in his home city and many other 
places. Business was generally suspended in Minneapolis 
during the funeral services, and the various organizations to 
which Mr. Haynes had belonged were represented in the pro- 
cession which attended his remains to their last resting place 
in Lakewood cemetery, as did the city council in a body after 
holding a special meeting and passing resolutions proclaim- 
.iiig to the world the merits of the man whose death the mem- 
bers mourned. The body lay in state at the city hall and 



thousands passed the bier for a last look at the remains, 
while the floral tributes were unusually numerous, rich ancj 
appropriate. 

Mayor Haynes was active in the fraternal and social life of 
his community. He belonged to the EUcs' lodge of Minne- 
apolis; was a thirty-second degree Freemason and a Noble of 
the Mystic Shrine in the fraternity; and was also a member 
of the Royal Arcanum, the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men and the Knights of Pythias. Formerly he served on the 
public affairs committee of the Minneapolis Commercial club, 
of which he was long a member, and he also belonged to the 
St. Anthony Commercial club. In religious affiliation he was 
a devout member of All Souls Universalist church, and at- 
tended its services with continued regularity. 



GEORGE G. HYSER. 



Though he retired from active business in 1907, George G. 
Hyser still represents one of the few remaining links between 
the generation of bonifaces of the early days in Minnesota — 
that is, its boom times and its fast-building period — and the 
head of the hostelry of the present day. He has had a part 
in the building of the Northwest in a sense different from 
that of most other factors in it, and he has been the friend 
and companion of many of the foremost men of the North- 
west. 

George G. Hyser was born in Zurich, Switzerland, Jlarch 24, 
1847. When he was two years old he came to America with 
his parents. They settled first in Massachusetts, and when 
George was nine years old he went to work in a cotton piill. 
He worked in the finishing room, marking goods, etc., until 
he was nineteen. Then he spent three years as an overseer 
over eighteen employes, who worked at measuring and tagging 
for shipment. His wages as overseer were $55 a month; to 
this he had worked up from the meager wage of a boy 
marker. In 1869 the family came west. His father took a 
homestead two miles north of Smith Lake, Wright County, 
Minnesota. He joined his father and began the labor of 
farming, but soon found he was not fitted to cutting trees 
and digging in the ground. A few months later a neighbor 
built a "shack called a hotel," as Mr. Hyser puts it, at Smith 
Lake, then on the new line of the St. Paul and Pacific rail- 
road—now the Great Northern. The line into that village 
was just building. Regular trains were running to Delano 
from Miimeapolis. It was when the construction train reached 
Smith Lake that Mr. Hyser and his mother took charge of 
the hotel. The next year the railroad was extended to Ben- 
son, sixty-six miles further west. The railroad company built 
a hotel there, — the hotel business in small towns was then 
promoted by the railroads which built into them — and Mrs. 
Hyser and her son George were asked to take charge of that 
one. The son accepted, and his mother and his brother 
Robert soon joined him. They were there a year before regular 
trains were run into Benson. A year later they moved on 
westward into Morris, fifty-five miles further on, to nm the 
hotel. Shortly the railroad company built another hotel, this 
time in Brockenridge, as part of its policy of development of 
its towns. Mr. Hyser went there and remained ten years. 
In those days, Mr. Hyser says, it took two days for passenger 
trains to run from St. Paul to Breckenridgo, 214 miles. It 
was some time before the railroad was extended further, but 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COrNTY, MINNESOTA 



361 



stages ran between Brcekenriilge and Winnipeg, and the travel 
by four-horse stage coach was heavy. Thus it came about 
that in his hotel Mr. Hyser entertained some of the biggest 
men in the country. President Hayes and his party took 
dinner with him; Mark Twain was a guest, and many other 
men of importance. J. P. Farley became receiver of the road, 
and operated it until James J. Hill came upon the scene. 

It was in this period that two steamboats were built on 
the Red River of the North, and were operated between 
Breckenridge and Winnipeg. W^ith them flatboats were run, 
and on these hugh quantities of groceries and supplies were 
shipped, and sold direct from the boats at many places along 
the river. Mr. Hyser became interested in this trade, which 
proved a lucrative one, sometimes as high as -f 20,000 worth of 
groceries being carried and disposed of at good profit. Mean- 
while he ran the best hotel along the route. Later the rail- 
road was extended to Fargo, N. D. About this time Mr. 
Hyser married, and in the summer of 1880 he built the 
Arlington hotel at Wayzata, the first big summer hotel on 
Lake Minnetonka. He was led to erect the Arlington at 
the instance of James J. Hill. Mr. Hyser found it a losing 
venture, and in the winter of 1880-81 he w-ent to clerk in 
the Nicollet House in Minneapolis, under Col. John T. West. 
In 1884 he went with Colonel West to the West hotel, and 
was the first clerk in that hostelry, which was for many 
years one of the famous hotels of America. Later Mr. Hyser 
built the hotel at Third Street and Second Avenue South, 
now known as the Allen. He ran that for five years, and 
then he went to Fourth Street and Nicollet Avenue and 
remodeled the building into the Hotel Hyser. He conducted 
that hotel for eight years, and then retired in 1907. Thus 
Mr. H}'ser was identified prominently with the hotel business 
of the Northwest for thirty-six years and acquired an acquaint- 
ance almost unequalled in the state. 

It was in 1880 that Mr. Hyser married Miss Alice M. Bowen 
of Minneapolis, daughter of a contractor who was one of the 
best known politicians of his day. To them were born two 
children; a daughter, Alice Maude, now the wife of Warren 
Leslie Wallace, superintendent of Lewis and Clarke High 
School in Spokane, Wash.; and a son, George W. Hyser, an 
electrician in Minneapolis. Mr. Hyser is a member of Masonic 
orders, the Scottish Rite and the Knights Templar. His 
home is at 1 Orlin Avenue, Prospect Park. 



MICHAEL W. HACKETT. 



Michael W. Hackett was born near Darwin, Minnesota, on 
June 29, 18G0, and died in Minneapolis on May 26, 1912, 
lacking just one month and three days of being 52 years of 
age. He was w'holly the architect of his own fortune and 
made his way in the world by his own unaided eft'orts. His 
father died while the son was still in his boyhood and the 
mother married a second time. 

The son therefore started the battle of life for himself at 
an early age, and in the pursuit of advancement among men 
came to Minneapolis. . Here was employed by Geo. Elwell 
as a furniture salesman both in the city and outside for a 
number of years, after which he became manager of the, 
Webster Chair Factory, with which he was connected in this 
capacity until his death, a period of about eight years. He 
Was careful with his earnings and invested them wisely in 



farm loans and real estate, becoming the owner of a farm 
of 314 acres near Campbell, in Wilkin county, this state. His 
business absorbed his energies and attention to the exclusion 
of almost everything else. But he took an interest in fraternal 
life as a member of the Order of Knights of Columbus and 
was also a devout and consistent member of St. Lawrence 
Catholic church. To his home and family he was warmly 
attached, and in his hunting and fishing trips and his occasional 
outings at the lakes, always insisted on being accompanied 
by his wife or some other member of the household. 

Mr. Hackett was married on January 8, 1884, to Miss Ida 
May Jester, who was also a native of this state. She died 
on October 19, 1907, leaving a family of six children, Mabel, 
Ida May, Grace Arvilla, Rollie J., Adelaide Olivia and Rosalia. 
Mabel is the wife of H. J. Lane, who is connected with the 
Russell-Miller grain commission company in the Minneapolis 
Chamber of Commerce. The home of the family for the last 
twelve years has been at 1004 Seventeenth avenue southeast. 

The mother's early death left the family largely to the care 
of the second daughter, Ida May. The older daughter was 
married and Ida had just entered upon her high school course. 
But she abandoned this in order that she might give her whole 
attention to caring for the younger children. They have 
found in her a devoted motherly companion and helper. Her 
father was thus ably assisted by her, and when his own end 
approached, found great consolation in the fact that he would 
be able to leave those who were dependent on him in such 
excellent hands, and that the comfortable competence he had 
accumulated for them would be judiciously employed for their 
benefit. 



GEORGE E. HUEY. 



A pioneer in three of the Northwestern states, one of the 
founders of at least two great industrial and commercial 
centers, and a successful operator in several important lines 
of business, the late George E. Huey was born in Steuben 
county, New York, December 19, 1819, being the son of John 
and Susan (Minier) Huey, who were taken as children from 
Pennsylvania to New York. Abram Huey once owned the land 
on which Harrisburg now stands. 

Judge Huey, a lo'cal justice of the peace, and later first 
police justice of Great Falls, Montana, was reared on a farm 
in his native state and educated in a country school. He 
was in business for two years in New York, and in 1851 
reached the Indian agency at Long Prairie, Minnesota, where 
lie was employed by the agent for one year. 

In 1853 he returned to New York, but within a year he 
returned, soon coming to St. Anthony Falls. Here he engaged 
in rafting logs and cutting them into lumber. He assisted 
in the organization and operation of the Minneapolis Milling 
company, which superseded the "Old Government Mill" in 
1856. 

He was the first secretary and superintendent of llic board 
of directors of the old Canal company, which took a leading 
part in rivalry between the lower city, and Bridge Square as 
to which should become the business center. 

He took a valiant part in this struggle in favor of the 
milling district, and in furtherance of determination to make 
that section the business center, he built the Cataract house, 
at what is now the intersection of Washington and Sixth 



362 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



avenues south, and which led the opposition to the Nicollet 
house. 

In 1854 Judge Huey was elected the first county register 
of deeds for four years, and in 1855 was made a justi'ce 
of the peace, rendering valuable services in establishing law 
and order. By 1865 the lumber industry had grown to such 
importance that in association with R. P. Russell and others, 
built a large planing mill where later the Model mill stood. 

In 1861 R. P. Russell and 0. B. King built the Dakota flour 
mill. In 1879 he moved to Central City, Black Hills, where 
he operated stamp mills, and finally selling his interests 
immediately sought new fields of enterprise. 

In 1884 he went to Great Falls, Montana, where not sev- 
enty-five persons were then living, but its natural resources 
and promise for the future were inspiring, and it is now 
a busy, progressive city of some 25,000. Judge Huey took 
up a pre-emption claim on land he felt the town must soon 
cover, and after securing title platted it as Huey's Addition 
to Great Falls. 

He took a great interest in the development of the town 
and was ele'cted first police magistrate, his firmness enabling 
him to handle the tough element that still abounded. 

About 1901 he returned to Minneapolis and died at Ex- 
celsior, April 17, 1904. He was a lifelong Democrat, and was 
a devoted Freemason and Odd Fellow. In early life he was 
united in marriage with Miss Mary E. Ticknor. Their daugh- 
ter is the wife of Byron Dague of Deadwood. Her mother 
died young, and in 1858 he married Miss Corolene Tay- 
lor, a native of Painesville, Ohio. Four of their children are 
living. George T., a railroad man; Arthur S., of Chicago; 
Frank, who live-s in Montana, and Douglas, a resident of 
Mexico. 

One son, Albert (twin brutlier to Arthur) died in Jlexico 
where he was in business, in August, 1903. A friend at 
Judge Huey's funeral said: "He lused his time in useful 
labors and won for himself a warm place in the affectionate 
veneration of the people. One of the patriarchs of the city 
he helped to found, he could look back over his long connec- 
tion with it with pleasure unmarred by the recollection of any 
interest neglected, any duty slighted or any wrong done eon- 
s'ciously to any pei-son." 



CHARLKR F. HAOLIN. 



It was in 187:i that Charles F. Haglin, one of the leading 
contractors and builders of Minneapolis, came to this city 
and began his very creditable and successful career here. He 
started in business in this locality as an architect, having 
been well trained in the technique of the profession by 
previous study and practical work in architects' offices farther 
East, and having also brought to this Western country the 
spirit of enterprise and self-reliance required for advance- 
ment among men in its strenuous activities, large engage- 
ments and great wealth of opportunities. 

Mr. Haglin's life began in the village of Hastings, Oswego 
county. New York, on April 7, 1849, and there he passed his 
boyhocKl and early youth on the farm of his father, Joseph 
Haglin. He was educated in his native state, and, having a 
special aptitude for drawing, became a draughtsman in an 
architect's office in the city of Syracuse. A few years later 
he came to Cliieago, and there he was employed for two years 



in the office of Messrs. Yorke & Ross, architects, with an ex- 
tensive business in that city. 

When he came to Minneapolis the old city hall was Hear- 
ing completion, and he decided to wait until he could secure 
an office in that building before beginning operations here. 
He forme'd a partnership with F. B. Long, under the name of 
Long & Haglin, and they were associated in business three 
years. At the end of that period Mr. Long sold his interest 
in the firm to F. G. Corser, and the firm name was then 
changed to Haglin & Corser, the new partnership enduring 
until 1879. 

In that year Mr. Haglin, having found that there was a 
better field for him in the domain of building than in that of 
architecture, formed a new partnership with Charles Morse, 
and they immediately began contracting and building. They 
erected the Globe building and the Washburn Home in 1888; 
had eight of the leading contracts for the construction of the 
new court house and city hall, and built the union station in 
Duluth and a number of brick structures in Brainerd. 

During the construction of the Minneapolis court house and 
city hall Mr. Haglin severed his business connection with Mr. 
Morse and conducted his operations under his own name alone, 
He continued to do this until 1909, when he formed a partner- 
ship with B. H. Stalir, and they carried on their business 
under the name of the Haglin-Stahr company. During the 
time he was alone in business he built many of the city's 
prominent business and residence structures and a number 
of the largest grain elevators in this section of the country. 
Some of the larger buildings put up by him are the Sixth 
street addition to the Glass Block, the Northwestern Tele- 
phone building, the Security National Bank building, the 
Wyman-Partridge building, the Patterson-Stevenson building, 
the Minneapolis Gas Light building, the Orpheum theater, the 
Northwestern Miller building, the Chamber of Commerce, the 
Chamber of Commerce annex, tlie Security Warehouse, the 
First National Bank building, the Plaza and Radisson hotels, 
the Pence building at Hennepin avenue and Eighth street, the 
Studebaker building and the F. E. Murphy building, and there 
are others almost as important and imposing. 

In the line of private residences this firm also has a long 
and impressive record of its credit in the way of construc- 
tion work. Among the fine residences in and about Minne- 
apolis which it has erected are those of .John Edwards, Frank 
H. Peavey, George W. Peavey, C. M. Harrington, George 
Partridge, L. S. Donaldson, Frank T. Hell'elfinger, A. S. Brooks, 
Mrs. L. R. Brooks. F. B. Semple, Franklin Crosby and John 
Crosby, in the city proper, and those of George H. Porter, E. 
W. Decker and John Birkholtz at Lake Minnetonka, and that 
of Frank H. Peavey at Highcroft. 

The list of grain elevators and warehouses built by Mr. 
Haglin includes the Peavey elevator in Duluth, one for the 
American Malting company in Chicago, one at New Ulm for 
the Eagle Rolling Mill company, a (lour mill and elevator at 
Waseca, tlie Wasliburn- Crosby elevator, the Concrete elevator, 
the International Sugar Feed company's house in Minneapolis, 
two warehouses for the J. R. Watkins company in Winona, 
one for the same company at Memphis, Tennessee, the Minne- 
ajiolis Sewer company's plant, a machine shop and several 
warehouses for the Minneapolis Threshing Machine company 
at Ho])kins, besides many other large structures in different 
localities in this and neighboring states and others in other 
sections of the country. 

Being deeply interested in the enduring welfare, rapid 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



363 



progress and wholesome improvement of the city by both 
natural tendency and the cliaraetcr of liis business, Jlr. Haglin 
has given practical and serviceable attention to all under- 
takings involving or contributing to its good in any way. He 
is the owner of the ilinneapolis Cornice and Iron Company, 
and is president of the Minneapolis Stone company and the 
Oklahoma Gipson company, of Prim, Oklahoma. He belongs 
to tlie Minneapolis, Commercial, Auto and New Athletic clubs, 
being a life member of the one last named. He is also' a 
member of the Masonic Order, in which he is a Noble of the 
Mystic Shrine in Zurah Temple, Minneapolis. On .January 
22, 1880, he was united in marriage with Miss Emma R. 
Smith, a native of Racine, Wisconsin. They have three chil- 
dren, Edward, Charles F., Jr., and Preston. 

Mr. Haglin's record as briefly outlined in these paragraphs 
is almost wholly one of results accomplished by his own 
efl'orts or under his immediate direction and supervision. But 
he has also been a potential force in inspiring other men to 
activity and achievement by his example and stimulating ad- 
vice and encouragement. 



houses, and business buildings and because of specializing in 
down town property handles Some of the largest deals in 
Minneapolis. 

Mr. Harrington is a member of the Minneapolis Athletic 
club, the Rotary club and the Minneapolis Civic and Commerce 
association and St. Albans Club. He also retains active mem- 
bership in his college fraternity and is a zealous adherent 
of the Masonic order. He is an ardent devotee of his busi- 
ness and never neglects it on any account. But he Seeks relief 
from its burdens and cares in hunting, fishing and other out- 
door enjoyments when he has opportunity. He is also fond 
of athletic performances and always takes a cordial and help- 
ful interest in their promotion. 

On September 2, 1903, Mr. Harrington was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Mary E. Willis, a daughter of H. B. Willis, 
president of the Brydwell Manufacturing Company of this 
city. Mrs. Harrington was bom in Rochester, Minnesota, and 
educated in the Central High School and the State University. 
She and her husband are the parents of two Sons, Wayne E. 
and Willis L. 



CURTIS L. HARRINGTON. 



LEASON EDWIN HOLDRIDGE. 



This estimable gentleman and excellent business man has 
been in business in Minneapolis for years and a resident 
of the city, with but temporary absences, since 1899. He 
was born in New Richmond, Wisconsin, April 29, 1876, 
and is the son of George N. and Effie M. (Lyman) Harring- 
ton, whoso names stand high on the records of our sister 
state across the Mississippi. The father was a farmer and 
dairyman at Hayward, in Sawj'er county, that state, and 
the mother, who was a teacher in her young womanhood, 
has been county superintendent of schools in that county 
for twenty-four years, being the oldest lady county superin- 
tendent in length of continuous service, it is believed, in the 
United States. 

The son was graduated from the high school in Hayward 
and came to Minneapolis in 1899. Here he pursued a course 
of s^)ecial training in a business college, and then entered 
the Northwestern University, at Chicago, to prepare him- 
self for the Christian ministry. The uncertain state of his 
health, however, interfered with his design in this respect, 
and he returned to Minneapolis and became a student in the 
Law Department, University of Minnesota. He worked his 
way through this institution, and was graduated in the 
class of 1904, and admitted to the bar of the State of Minne- 
sota in June, 1904. 

He began his business career in the office of H. E. Ladd, 
a real estate broker, in whose employ he remained three 
years. He then formed a partnership with R. C. Wyvell in 
the same business, and this also continued three years. At 
the end of that period he associated himself with A. V. 
Skiles in the real estate and insurance business under the 
name of the Harrington-Skiles company, incorporated, and 
also engaged in the practice of law which he still continues. 
In 1911 Mr. Skiles withdrew from the company, and the name 
was changed to the Harrington Sales 'company, the one under 
Which the business is now carried on. 

I his company conducts extensive operations in building 
and Selling on a commission basis, in addition to handling 
its own properties. The company has erected about 240 



This estimable gentleman, whose early death in Minne- 
apolis on November 37. 1889, in the forty-eiglith year of his 
age, widely lamented, was a native of Northampton, Massa- 
chusetts, where his life began September 15, 1842. On .June 
3, 1868, he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Parish 
at Poughkeepsie, New York, where she was born Decem- 
ber 25, 1847. They came to Minneapolis in 1881. Jlr. Hold- 
ridge was a wholesale dealer in crockei'y in Poughkeepsie, 
and in this city returned to that line of mercantile enter- 
prise, although, for a short time, he was a bookkeeper in the 
First National Bank. 

The state of his health obliged him to leave the bank, 
but he soon afterward took another position as bookkeeper, 
this time in a grocery store. A little later he became man- 
ager for C. W. Foss in an extensive crockery trade, and also 
conducted a real estate agency. He built a home for his 
family at Twenty-seventh street and Hennepin avenue, one 
l)lock removed from the home of R. P. Russell, who lived at 
Twenty-eighth street and Hennepin avenue, there platting 
the Holdridge subdivision. In this home he died in 1889, 
as has been noted, and in 1901 his widow had a summer 
residence erected at Mcadville. Excelsior, on Lake Minnetonka, 
where her life ended on February 18, 1909. They were both 
charter members of Lyndale Congregational church, and 
Mr. Holdridge was its first treasurer. After the widow's re- 
moval to the I^ake she continued to be an active worker in 
this cliurch as long as her health permitted. 

Three children were born in the Holdridge hou.seliold. 
.James Parish, the only son, who was a stenographer, died at 
the age of twenty-seven, and Mary Dibble, in childhood. 
Rachel Harrington Holdridge, the only survivor of the fam- 
ily, remained with her mother until the death of the latter, 
and still resides in the home on the lake. It is beautifully 
located on Lake Minnetonka, about one mile distant from 
that village, and on the opposite side of the water. 

Miss Rachel Holdridge was a charter member of the Sunday 
school of Lyndale Congregational church, and she is now an 
active nu'mber of the Excelsior church of the same denomina- 



364 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



tion. In February 1912, in company with Miss Ella Strat- 
ton Molter, she established the Minnetonka circulating library 
at Excelsior, in rooms rented for the purpose, the ladies hav- 
ing their home together at the Holdridge residence. They 
have about l.SOO volumes in the library, and during the year 
and a half of its usefulness about 5,000 books have been 
read from it by its patrons. It was founded for the pur- 
pose of elevating the taVite of the community, or gratifying 
it where it was already manifest, and is admirably filling this 
want. It is kept supplied with the best literature, and has 
become a very popular and highly esteemed social center. 
The ladies at the head of the enterprise are their own super- 
visors and conduct their business according to their own judg- 
ment. But they are studious of the lu'cds of the community 
around them and zealous in their efforts to supply them in 
the pleasing and beneficial line of their work. They are 
well esteemed for their genuine worth personally, and widely 
commended for their courage in undertaking a work so use- 
ful and attended with so much risk, as well as for the agreeable 
manner in which they perform the duties they have so reso- 
lutely taken upon themselves. 



.JEFFERSON .M. HALE. 



Congregational church to which he devoted much time and 
attention. 

He was married in 1869 to Miss Louisa M. Herrick, daugh- 
ter of Nathan and Laura (Small) Herrick. both from Ver 
mont. They moved to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1S54, four years 
later coming to Minneapolis, where Mr. HeiTick engaged in 
the marble trade, at Third, street and Nicollet avenue. He 
died in 1893, aged eighty-five, and his widow in 1898, 
aged eighty-eight. Of their four children, ]\Irs. Hale is the 
only survivor. Albert passed away in 1911. George died 
at Monticello, Minnesota, and Eev. Henry Herrick, a Baptist 
minister, the oldest son, died at Granville, Ohio. Prior to 
his marriage to Miss Herrick, Mr. Hale was married to Miss 
Emeline Barrows, of Vermont, who died in Minneapolis in 
1867. They had one child, Jessie, now the widow of George 
Tuttle, of Minneapolis. Charles S. Hale, the only child of the 
second marriage, is president of the Peteler Car company. 

Mrs. Hale is a member of the board of directors of the 
Pillsbui-y Home, having been active in the service of that ex- 
cellent institution for many years. She is also a member of 
the Women's Christian Association, which has an oversight 
of the Pillsbury Home, and of other charitable and benevolent 
organizations, among them the Puritan Colony, and various 
church missions of great usefulness. 



Jefferson M. Hale, who died in Minneapolis, October 22. 
1893. at the age of sixty-five, and after a residence of over 
forty years in this city, was born at Tunbridge, Orange 
county, Vermont, September 5, 1828, and passed his earh' 
life on a farm at Stowe in that state. In 1849 he joined 
a party of gold-seekers going to California, by the Cape 
Horn route. Soon after returning to the East two years later, 
he came to Minneapolis, working for Mr. Northrup and other 
lumbermen in the mills and at other occupations until 1868, 
when he joined his brother George in the dry goods business, 
with which he was connected to the end of his life. 

George W. Hale was a merchant near Boston previous 
to coming to St. .\nthony in 1858. He was for a time toll 
keeper for Captain Tapper at the bridge, and after teaching 
school for a time, returned to the East. In 1868 he came 
back to Minneapolis, and in company with his brother 
JefTerson opened a dry goods store on Washington avenue, be- 
tween Nicollet avenue and First avenue' south. They soon 
built up a large trade which necessitated tlie employment 
of several assistants. They confined their operations to dry 
goods, and after some years moved to the only double store, 
and the largest dry goods house, in the city at Third street 
and Nicollet avenue. Just before the business was again 
removed to Fifth and Nicollet, George died, and .Jefferson 
selected John Thomas as buyer in his place, in accordance 
with an arrangement previously made by George. Mr. 
Thomas is still carrying on the business, established forty- 
six years ago. 

JefTerson M. Hale confined his attention exclusively to the 
details of the business until his death. The firm name was 
originally G. W. Hale & Company, finally becoming Hale, 
Thomas & Company. Mr. Hale took no particular interest in 
party politics or public affairs. He performed all the duties of 
citizenship conscientiously and faithfully, but never became 
an active partisan or sought or desired public office. He was. 
however, warmly interested in the welfare of Plymouth 



WILLARD W. MORSE. 



Prior to 1880, St. Paul had practically a Mumopoly of the 
jobbing trade in this part of the country, but witiiin the 
decade which began with that year, enterprising and resource- 
ful men put forces in motion here to build up an extensive 
trade of the same kind for this city. The steps taken look- 
ing to this end were not designed to rob the sister city of 
any of its trade, but to secure for Minneapolis that proportion 
of the wholesale trade of the Northwest to which, by her 
location and natural advantages, it seemed she was justly 
entitled. This brought about a wholesome rivalry that re- 
sulted in vast advantages for both cities, and for the whole 
Northwest, as an immediate consequence. One of the men 
to whom these ideas strongly appealed, and w)io luid nuich 
to do with the results which followed, was Willard ^\■. Morse, 
now president of the Security Warehouse Company, of this 
city. He built warehouses on an extensive scale and gave 
manufacturing companies in other localities space in tlieni for 
the storage and exhibition of their products. From these 
warehouses orders were filled and deliveries made that ef- 
fected great savings both in time and in freight charges in 
the delivery of merchandise to the people of the Northwest. 
He visited the manufacturers at their headquarters and 
showed them the possibilities of trade for them in the 
Northwest. 

Mr. Morse did not seek to augment his business to any- 
great extent through the storage of household goods. His 
energies were employed in getting trade that reaches farther 
and tends at once and directly to aid in building up the city 
of Minneapolis as a jobbing center. 

Many of the jobbers in this city who are now carrying on 
an extensive business in Minneapolis were started here by his 
enterprise. It was his custom to visit the leading factories 
in tlie Eastern and Middle States and get them to begin 
trading here bv using his facilities. Seventy-five to eighty 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



365 



per cent of the agricultural implement houses now operating 
in this section, began business in the Northwest in this way. 
Four-fifths of the companies now composing the International 
Harvester Company began their operations in the Northwest 
through tlie Morse warehouses. At the present time, seventy- 
five to one hundred companies, foreign to this city, keep ex- 
tensive stocks of goods in these warehouses. Mr. Morse began 
with storage room for agricultural implements, and as the 
trade in tliem became established, he furnished space for 
stocks of groceries, hardware and other merchandise. Many 
manufacturers sent carloads of goods to his warehouses and 
then put agents in the field to sell them. When their trade 
was sufficiently developed, they established wholesale houses 
of their own in this city. Numbers of tlie companies which 
have large establishments in ilinneapolis now, were first in- 
duced b}- Mr. Morse to enter the trade territory of Minneapolis. 
In this way, a very large jobbing trade was started here, and 
the story of it is creditable alike to the city and the man 
who initiated the enterprise; and the enterprise, itself, fur- 
nishes strong proof of both his business capacity and his 
strong and intelligenf devotion to his home city and its 
residents. 

Willard W. Morse was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on 
July 5th, 1864. He is a son of Willard and Lydia (Whit- 
conib) Morse, natives of Sharon, Massachusetts and Newport, 
New Hampshire, who moved to Michigan in 1857 and to 
Minneapolis in 1882. The father was a merchant and soon 
after his arrival in this city started the Minneapolis Rubber 
Company, which continued in business five years. After the 
expiration of that period the elder Mr. Morse engaged in 
various lines of merchandising until his death in 1897. The 
mother is still living and makes her home in this city. They 
had two children, their son Willard W. and their daughter 
Minnie F., both of whom are residents of Minneapolis. 

The son obtained a high school education and started his 
business career in the employ of his father's rubber company. 
In 1886, in association with Harry B. Wood, also of Kalama- 
zoo, he started the Security Warehouse Company. The 
partnership lasted until 1894. when Mr. Wood moved to Cali- 
fornia, where he has ever since had his home, and since then 
Mr. Morse has been the sole proprietor and director of the 
business of the company. He owns his own warehouses, some 
fourteen in number, all located on North First Street and all 
supplied with trackage of the C. St. P. M. & O. Ry. Co. In 
1886 there was but one warehouse and was located at No. 700 
North First Street. This was the first general storage ware- 
house for merchandise ever opened in Minneapolis. Now the 
warehouses contain sixteen acres of floor space and the busi- 
n ss employs regularly about 100 persons, and in busy sea- 
s many more. 

dr. Morse has long taken an earnest interest and an active 
t in the organized social life of the community and all 
lertakings for its advancement and improvement as a 
mber of the St. Anthony Commercial Club and the Civic 
1 Commerce Association. He does not, however, confine his 
)rts for the betterment of the city to the projects these 
anizations have in charge, but opens his hand freely and 
ploys his faculties industriously in behalf of all work for 
irovement, morally, mentally, socially and materially, and 
his efl'orts are guided by intelligence and inspired by a 
>ad and discriminating public spirit. 

On May 15th, 1888, Mr. Morse was united in marriage to 
'iss Bertha F. Alden, of Minneapolis, a daughter of Albert 



M. Alden, a pioneer merchant here, who was in business in 
this city from 1864 to his death some ten years ago. Mts. 
Morse was born in Spring Valley, Fillmore County, Minnesota. 
She and her husband are the parents of four children, Wil- 
lard A., Guilford A., Mildred and Priscilla A. All the mem- 
bers of the family attend Plymouth Congregational church 
and are actively interested in the work of that organization. 
They are also esteemed throughout the community as enter- 
prising, progressive and serviceable members inspired and 
directed by lofty ideals of citizenship, and they richly deserve 
the universal regard and good will bestowed upon them. 



REV. .JOHN HOOPER. 



For many years in liis young manhood the voice of tliis 
now venerable minister of the gospel was literally that of 
"one crying in the wilderness," in appeals to men to "repent, 
believe and be born again." He came to this state as a 
pioneer Methodist Episcopal minister in 1855, and carried the 
message of salvation to men and women in their crude and 
lowly homes on the frontier, preaching wherever he could 
find a roof to cover him and his hearers, and under the blue 
canopy of heaven when no other covering was available. He 
is now (1914) eighty-six years of age, and during sixty-eight 
of the number, twice the average duration of human life, he 
was an active force in the Christian minisfry. 

Mr. Hooper was born in County Cornwall, England, on April 
27, 1828. His parents emigrated to the United States when 
he was but three years old, and he was reared to the age of 
twenty in his native land by an uncle. When he was seven 
he began working in a tin mine at a wage of five shillings a 
month, boarding himself, and he continued his laborious and 
meagerly recompensed toil for thirteen years, but without 
much improvement in wages or conditions. At the age of 
fifteen he joined the Methodist Episcopal church, and two years 
later began preaching in humble quarters and the open fields, 
as was the custom of his class in England in those days. 

In 1848 he too came to this country and joined his parents 
in Cleveland, Ohio. One year later he moved to Grant county, 
Wisconsin, near the Illinois line, and there served as a supply 
preacher until he could join the conference of his denomination 
and become a regular circuit rider. In 1855 ho was sent to 
Minnesota on a mission, the whole territory now embraced in 
this state and Wisconsin then being under one organization. 
He was assigned to a mission at Caledonia, now the seat of 
government in Houston county, but then almost nothing but 
a name in the wilds. There was but one congregation 
organized in the locality at the time, but in the two years 
Mr. Hooper passed there he organized several others. There 
was also only one schoolhouse in his territory and he was 
obliged to preach often in private dwellings. For the purpose 
of securing a house for regular meetings he hewed timber in 
the woods and helped to put it together in the erection of a 
rude church. He also conducted camp meetings, being the 
only evangelical worker in the region, as other denominations 
had not yet begun their circuit work in that section of the 
state. 

Mr. Hooper attended the first Methodist Episcopal confer- 
ence in Minnesota. This was held at Red Wing in 1857, and 
presided over by Bishop Swift. The conference sent him to 
North Minneapolis, his circuit embracing all the territory for 



366 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



many miles north of Bassett's creek, and he also had charge 
of the church interests at Harmony, now Richfield, and those 
at Brooklyn Center. He secured the nucleus of a congregation 
at each place, the number at the first being seven. Of this 
number only one, Mrs. Abisha Benson, of Minneapolis, is 
now living. There was not a school house or M. E. church 
building in his territory, and for about one year he preached 
and worked as best he could. 

At the end of the year he was transferred to Princeton, 
where there was a church edifice, and where he remained two 
years. His next appointment included Sauk Rapids, where 
there was a school house, and Little Falls, where there was 
a church. He next passed another year at Brooklyn Center 
and one more at Richfield, preaching tljree times every Sunday, 
attending to pastoral duties during the week, acting as local 
elder, and working on a farm he rented to provide a living 
for himself and his family. 

In the course of a short time Jlr. Hooper bought eiglity 
acres of land on what is now Pcnn avenue but then lying far 
beyond the boundary of the city. This land he transformed 
into a good farm, and when the city grew out to it laid out a 
part of what is now one of its main streets, Penn avenue 
already mentioned. The school house on that street stands 
on what was a part of his farm, and the bountiful crops 
which once enriched and beautified the rest of it have been 
succeeded by acres of solid masonry in which many varied 
industris are now housed and conducted, and by a multitude 
of homes in which prosperity and comfort abound. 

Rev. Mr. Hooper preached his last sermon three years ago. 
having been engaged in the ministry for sixty-eight years. 
He is now a member of the new Calvary church in this city. 
AVhen the general conference of the denomination to which he 
belongs met in Minneapolis in 1911, he was called before the 
conference as being probably the only charter member of the 
first Minnesota conference of the church who was then 
living. 

Mr. Hooper cast his first political vote for candidates of the 
Free Soil or Abolition party in Ohio. He afterward became 
a Republican and later a Prohibitionist. He has occupied 
his present residence sixteen years. On July 31, 1853, sixty 
years ago, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary M. 
Atkinson of Wisconsin. Four of the children born of their 
union are still living, one daughter, Ida M., being the wife of 
Edwin Peteler, as told in a sketch of his father. Colonel 
Francis Peteler, on other pages of tliis volume. The others 
are also residents of Minneapolis and, like their parents, the 
children all have and well deserve a strong hold on the regard 
and good will of the community in which they live. 



•TUDSON C. HinOIXS. 



Judson C. Higgins, until recently a leading grocer of Minne- 
apoli.s. has passed fifty-two years of his seventy-five in con- 
tributing to the advancement and welfare of the city. He 
was born in Benson. Rutland County, Vermont, November 21, 
1838. His father was successively a farmer, a merchant, 
and a postmaster, and came to Minneapolis in 1860 and 
became associated with Daniel R. Barbee in the loan business. 
They borrowed money in the East at six per cent, investing 
it here on mortgage loans at five and even six per cent a 
month. He died here in 1867, aged sixty-five, in the old Elder 



Whitney home, on Fourth street, between Fifth and Sixth 
avenues. 

Judson C. Higgins came to Minneapolis in 1861. He had 
taught school in his native county and was accustomed to 
hard labor and simple living. He bought a wood saw and 
sawhorse, and during his fir^t winter in Minneapolis earned 
his living by sawing stove wood at sixty cents a cord. He 
was married in the East, March 24, 1861, to Miss Emeroy 
Knapp, and they started at once after marriage for their 
new home. 

Early in 1862 he bought a yoke of oxen and for several 
months engaged in teaming, buying other teams as his pa- 
tronage increased. He liauled freight from St. Paul, sup- 
plies to the lumber woods, etc. 

Early in the Indian outbreak of 1802 he volunteered to haul 
supplies for Capt. Richard Strout's company and 20 citizens 
that had been ordered to Meeker County. Nine teams were 
so engaged in hauling camp outfits and other necessaries. He 
was out for 30 days. He w-as in the fight with Little Crow's 
Indians near Acton, and when the whites retreated he, with 
his two horses, went to Hutchinson, i^i company with the 
troops. Before daylight that morning while in camp at 
Acton postoffice. Captain Strout had been warned by three 
white men that the Indians were in force near him and he at 
once started for Hutchinson. Two miles out the whites 
came upon the Indians in ambush in a wheat field, 150 in 
number. The savages, on horseback, attacked the party, 
attempting to surround it, but the whites charged them and 
escaped. The Indians followe<l Strout's command for four 
or five miles, or to near Hutchinson, riding along at a con- 
venient distance and firing into the command from both 
sides. Three white men were killed, twenty were wounded, 
and five teams were lost. The Indians attacked Hutchinson 
the next day. 

Mr. Higgins continued teaming until 1867, hauling sup- 
plies to the pineries, logs to the saw-mills, and lumber for 
Ankeny, Robinson & Petit from the yards to the planing 
mills. He also did considerable hauling for other firms. Early 
in 1867, he met Mr. Ankeny and entered the employ of 
Ankeny, Robinson & Petite, made a success of his work, and 
remained with the firm until 1S70, becoming head manager 
of the yards, and having charge of the measuring and shipping. 

In 1869 Mr. Higgins and Morris Gleason decided to engage 
in the grocery business. Mr. Higgins borrowed $2,100. at 12 
j>er cent interest, to begin business. Mr. fileason decided 
to remain with the lumber firm, but Mr. Higgins opened the 
grocery under the name of Higgins & Gleason. according to 
announcements already made. The store was at No. 127 
Washington avenue .south, in a locality recommended by 
Anthony Kelly. There were then five or six grocery stores 
in the city, but Mr. Higgins made the venture. He pur- 
chased the building, opened the store, and within the first 
year his business became so extensive that he was able to 
pay back the capital borrowed, employed four or five men 
and used three teams. At the end of four years he found 
himself $25,000 to the good financially, but with his health 
breaking down from overwork. He then sold the store to his 
clerks. 

In the meantime he had bought the adjoining building on 
the corner of Second and Washington Avenues, and had 
formed a partnership with E. S. Corser in the purchase of 
300 or 400 acres of railroad land near Crookston. which they 
intended to farm. Tliev sent two carloads of horses and 



1 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



367 



other tilings needed to the land, erected buildings for a super- 
intendent, and took all other necessary steps to begin opera- 
tions, when Jlr. Higgins became Sick from drinking alkali 
water and retired from the undertaking, selling his interest 
to Mr. Corser and Lester B. Elwood, and returning to Minne- 
apolis. 

For some years thereafter he was engaged in the grocery 
trade and as a shoe dealer, a portion of the time with Robert 
Anderson. He finally sold his grocery establishment and 
bought Anderson's interest in the shoe store, which he con- 
ducted for some time, eventually turning it over to his 
son. the present proprietor. 

The senior Mr. Higgins still owns the two store buildings, 
and a number of other pieces of desirable property. He has 
lived in his present home at the corner of Fourth Avenue and 
Sxith Street thirty-two years, though it has recentl}' been 
leased for business purposes for a term of one hundred 
years. Since Mr. Higgins bought this property, in 1862, it 
has increased in value seven fold. In 1887 he paid $99,000 
for his store property, a lot of 66 feet front with the same 
buildings on it that are now there, and borrowed a large part 
of the purchase money. This lot was bought in earlier yeara 
for $1,100. For himself and wife he is now building a resi- 
dence at 3624 Nicollet avenue. 

Mr. and Mrs. Higgins had seven children: Lucy A. is the 
widow of the late Henry Waterman; Lottie E. married a Mr. 
Goden and died young; Chauncey, is in charge of the shoe 
department of the Donaldson store; Albert, J. is in the 
commission house of Gamble & Robinson ; Anna L. is the 
wife of Grant CoUender; Fannie L. died at the age of eleven; 
Beatrice M. is the wife of Charles B. Peteler. 



STEPHEN CROSBY HALL. 



Thirty-five years of active and useful existence in three 
states ending suddenly and tragically by accident, make up 
the life story of tlic late Stephen Crosby Hall, who was 
engaged in the lumber industry from early manhood, and 
became one of the most extensive operators during a fruitful 
business activity. He lived in Minneapolis only four years, 
but long before this he was as well known in its business 
circles as though here dwelling and operating. 

He was born in Penn Yan. New York, August 16, 1834. He 
met with a fatal accident August 3, 1888, while employed 
at his sawmill on the bank of the river. He made a misstep 
and fell a distance of about twenty-six feet striking Some 
timbers, thus ending an active career at the age of fifty- 
four years. He was the son of Deacon Jonathan and Anna 
(Whitaker) Hall, originally of Passaic, New Jersey. One 
of his sisters became the wife of Rev. Luther Littell, a prom- 
inent Presbyterian minister of Orange county, New Y'ork. 

In his youth he was much inclined to mathematics, and 
made a specialty of that branch of learning to become a 
civil engineer, a knowledge of which was of vast use a few 
years later when living in the wilds of Michigan. At nine- 
teen he was employed as a clerk in New Y'ork city, and two 
years later moved to Michigan, locating on White river in 
the great [linc forest. For a number of weeks he carried 
the mails to and from his locality in a carpet bag until a 
regular route was established and a postoffice selected. White- 
hall was chosen as the name, and it was formed by combin- 



ing the name of the river with that of Mr. Hall and his 
brother. It is now a city of some 2,000 inhabitants, and 
has become a widely popular resort, and was for some years 
the chosen home of the renowned Alexander Dowie. 

Mr. Hall was soon employed in surveying, in which he 
acquired an expert knowledge of timber and where the best 
of it was. About one year and a half later he erected a saw- 
mill, but which he soon sold. He acquired title to a 2,000- 
acre tract of land in what surveyors reported to be an im- 
passable marsh. This he drained and converted into one 
of the finest farms in Michigan, and which has in recent 
years been e.xchanged for valuable property in Minneapolis. 

In addition he soon began to acquire pine lands, making his 
own investigations, selections and surveys. While doing 
this he slept in the woods many nights, depending on fires to 
protect him from the wolves with which the forests abounded 
and which especially in winter were often ravenous. He then 
began extensive logging operations, having 1,500 acres of 
pine later increased to 300,000 near Houghton lake. By 
employing 300 to 300 men and one-third as many horses 
he was enabled to put 15,000,000 feet of logs into the lake 
in a single season. 

In the seventies he operated several sawmills, being asso- 
ciated with Thompson Bros. & Company, of Chicago, the 
output of the mills going largely to that city. The Steamer 
Stephen C. Hall, which he built at Grand Haven and which 
■was engaged in this traffic, was named in his honor. He 
was president of the Bay State Lumber Company of Menom- 
inee, Michigan, and also of the S. C. Hall Lumber company, 
his Son-in-law, Thomas H. Shevlin, being its manager. His 
operations led him to buy Minnesota timber lands, interests 
which induced him financially to move to Minneapolis in 1884. 

Mr. Hall was for a time a partner with Colonel James Good- 
now in the North Star Lumber company; and, in 1886 the 
Hall & Ducey Lumber company was incorporated, he being 
the president and manager. This company became one of 
the largest operators in Minnesota, cutting regularly 40,000,- 
000 feet of lumber and doing a business aggregating three- 
fourths of a million dollars annually. The Hall & Shevlin 
company, he being president, was organized in 1886, erect- 
ing a new mill with a capacity of 40,000,000 feet. In 1888 
the pay roll of the two companies averaged $18,000 a month. 

Mr. Hall was a member of the Minneapolis Lumber Ex- 
change, which at his death showed its estimate by passing 
strong resolutions. Busy as he was, he made it his duty 
to take an active part in all projects designed to improve 
the community and promote the general welfare. He served 
as supervisor and county treasurer in Michigan, where he 
was also president of a Congregational church society and an 
ardent supporter of foreign missions, even going so far as 
to support a missionary in Japan at his own personal ex- 
pense. The Y'oung Men's Christian Association in Minne- 
apolis enlisted his most helpful interest, as did also West- 
minster Prebyterian church, and he was a liberal contributor 
to the needs of both, being especially so in the erection of 
the church edifice which stood on Nicollet avenue between 
Seventh and Eighth streets. As he was diffident and retiring, 
shrinking from public notice, knowledge of his charities and 
public benefactions became public only after his demise. 

On April 8tb, 1862, Mr. Hall married Miss Alice Clark, of 
Grand Haven, Mich. She is still a resident of Minneapolis; 
three of their four children are also living. Alice A., married 
Thomas H. Shevlin and died in 1910. Emma is the wife of 



368 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HEXNEPIX COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Charles A. Bennett, of Los Angelas, California. Hattie is tlie 
wife of Edwin Shevlin of Portland, Oregon; and Stephen A. 
Hall, who died in 1914. He married Miss Cecilia A. Kent. 
They had one child, Stephen A., Jr., the third generation of 
the name, a high school student. 

At the death of her husband Mrs. Hall assumed the heavy 
responsibility so suddenly thrust upon her, and taking upon 
lierself the management of his large interests, directed them 
with admirable judgment and ability. She gradually changed 
extensive outside holdings into Minneapolis properties, and 
has erected some very important buildings, including those 
at the corner of Nicollet avenue and Eleventh street and the 
corner of Hennepin avenue and Seventh street. The Colonial 
Realty company has been fonned to look after the various 
properties, she being its president and the owner of nearly 
all its stock. Earlier she was a zealous chur'ch woman and 
the prime mover in many important charities. She was 
also devoted to art, literature and social organizations. In 
later years, however, business responsibilities have over- 
shadowed the social, artistic and esthetic inclinations en- 
gendered by her education, culture and early environment, 
though still no really worthy cause is allowed to pass without 
some consideration from her. 



EDWlIi HAWLEY HEWITT. 

Edwin Hawley Hewitt of Minneapolis, one of the most 
widely known and most highly approved architects of the 
Northwest, has made his own way to success and prominence 
by arduous effort, close and analytical study, and a judiciou.^ 
use of all the means for the development of his art faculty 
which he has found or made available for his purposes. 

Mr. Hewitt was born in Red Wing, Minnesota, March 26, 
1874, a son of Dr. Cliarles N. and Helen R. (Hawley) Hewitt. 
His father, a renowned physician and surgeon, was born in 
Vergennes, Addison County, Vermont, and was graduated, 
with the degree of A. B., from Hobart College, Geneva, New 
York, and with that of M. X>. from Albany Medical College. 
He served throughout the Civil War in the medical service of 
an engineer corps in the Union army, becoming chief of a 
division in the Army of the Potomac. 

After the close of the war Dr. Hewitt located in his pro- 
fession at Red Wing. He organized the first Minnesota State 
Board of Health and served as chief State Health Officer for 
25 years. He was also for many years a member of the 
faculty of the University of Minnesota, and a lifelong asso- 
ciate and friend of its first President, Dr. William W. Folwell. 
Edwin Hewitt's grandfather was also a physician and sur- 
geon, and a graduate of Y'ale University, and he too served in 
the Civil War. The mother's father was a distinguished phy- 
sician of Ithaca, New Y'ork, and also a graduate of Yale. 

Edwin H. Hewitt received his early education from his 
father, who instructed him and directed his studies until he 
reached the age of fifteen. He then went to Potsdam, New 
York, where he studied two years. After his return to Red 
Wing he followed a course of study preparatory to entering 
Hobart College, his father's alma mater. He passed one year 
at Hobart, and in 1895 entered the sophomore class of the 
University of Minnesota, and from this institution he was 
graduated in 1890 with the degree of A. B. The next year 
he devoted to the stuiiv of architecture in tlie Massachusetts 



Institute of Technology, in which he was a member of the 
sophomore class. This gave enlargement and definiteness to 
the knowledge of his chosen profession which he had gained 
by previous study and practical work, during his vacations, 
in the office of Cass Gilbert, the eminent architect of St. Paul 
and New York. 

After completing his course in the Institute of Technology 
Mr. Hewitt worked in the offices of different architects from 
1S98 to 1900. In April of the latter year he went to Paris 
to study in the "Ecole des Beaux Arts," the national school 
of architecture in France. He was admitted to this institu- 
tion on a competitive examination which placed him at the 
head of the list of foreign applicants and within one place of 
heading the whole list of students admitted. When he com- 
pleted his course in this school he stood second in a class of 
fifty students or more. 

Mr. Hewitt remained in Paris until 1904, when he returned 
to Minneapolis and opened offices for the practice of his pro- 
fession. While he was abroad, however, he made trips to 
England, Spain, Switzerland, and Italy for study. His first 
offices in Minneapolis were in the Lumber Exchange, but he 
found them inadequate and moved to larger rooms at 14 
Fourth Street North. These met his requirements for eigh- 
teen months, and he then decided to build an office of his own 
for permanent use and erected the attractive and artistic 
office building which he now occupies at 716 Fourth Avenue 
South, and which is one of the architectural gems of the city. 

From the beginning of his career here Mr. Hewitt has had 
an extensive business and his work has all been of a high 
class. He designed the residences of Mrs. L. R. Brooks, on 
Mount Curve Avenue; and of E. J. Carpenter, T. B. .lanney, 
Robert Webb, and William Bovey. He also designed the city 
residence of Charles S. Pillsbury and his summer home at 
Lake Minnetonka, the McKnight Building, St. Mark's Church, 
the Thomas Hopewell Hospital, and the Loose Wiles Biscuit 
Factory. He is now (1914) at work on the Hennepin Avenue 
Jlethodist church and the Gateway Park. 

Mr. Hewitt was one of the prime movers in the efforts that 
resulted in the erection of the fine building for the Minne- 
apolis Museum of Arts, and he is an enthusiastic member of 
the Society of Fine Arts. He also belongs to the Minneapolis. 
Minikahda, and Lafayette Clubs, and tlie Cliff Dwellers Club 
of Chicago. He was married April 18, 1900, to Jliss Caroline 
C. Christian. They have one child, their son Charles C, who 
was born in Paris. A daughter named Helen died a number 
of years ago. The jiarents are members of St. Marks Epis- 
copal Church, and live at 126 East Franklin avenue. No 
residents of Minneapolis stand higlier in public esteem than 
they, and they are richly deserving of all the regard and good 
will bestowed upon them because of their high character, rare 
accomplishments, genial natures and genuine worth in every 
way. They embody the best attributes of elevated Minne- 
apolis citizenship and are among its most admired exponents. 



CHARLES SUIMNER HALE. 



As president of the Peteler Car company, Minneapolis, and 
through his connection of other large industries in this city 
Charles Sumner Hale lias been able to contribute largely and 
substantially to the growth of Minneapolis as a manufacturing 
center and the exi)aiision of the city's industrial and com- 




Y/i^m^ 



HISTORY OF MliNNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



369 



mercial power and usefulness, and he has made the most of 
his opportunities in this respect for the benefit of tlie city 
and all classes of its residents. 

Mr. Hale was born in Minneapolis on A])ril 1, 1870. and is 
a son of Jefferson M. and Louisa M. (Herriok) Hale. He was 
graduated from the high school in 1888 and from the academic 
department of the University of Minnesota in 1892. He then 
began his business career in the store of his father. Some 
time afterward he was associated for two years with the late 
Jesse G. Jones, and at the end of that period became con- 
nected with W. S. Hill in the lumber trade. In 1896 he was 
made secretary and treasurer of the Kettle River Quarries 
company, furnisher of building and paving material, with 
quarries at Sandstone, Minnesota. In 1904, in company with 
George W. Bestor, he organized the Kilgore Machine company, 
which soon afterward absorbed the Peteler Portable Railway 
Manufacturing company, and is now called the Peteler Car 
company and engaged in making cars for contractors and rail- 
roads. 

The old plant of the Peteler Car company embraces five 
acres, and the company also owns another site of twenty 
acres within the free switching zone at Como avenue and 
Belt Line. The new plant is located on that track and is 
the only commercial car plant in this state for standard car 
work. It has contracts with the Soo Line, the Minneapolis 
& St. Louis and the Chicago Great Western railroads covering 
the building of refrigerator cars, tank, box and flat cars and 
rebuilding and repairing old ones. Its employes number at 
times more than 300 and its pay roll exceeds $20,000 a month. 

In 1870 Francis Peteler founded the Peteler Portable Rail- 
way Manufacturing company, he having been the inventor of 
the first dump car used in railroad work. He erected the plant 
located at Thirtieth Avenue S. E. and the Northern Pacific 
tracks south east, and continued in charge of it until 1905, 
when the company was consolidated with the Kilgore Machine 
company and he retired from active connection with it. Since 
then the consolidated enterprise has been manufacturing 
additional lines of equipment for railroad work, and has built 
up a vci-y extensive business. 

Mr. Hale has also been president of the American Loco- 
motive Equipment company, of Chicago, and the Sandstone 
Land company, which owns the townsite and electric and 
water companies at Sandstone. He is a member of the 
Minneapolis and Minikahda clubs, the Chi Psi college fraternity 
and Plymouth Congregational church. On June 23, 1897, he 
was married at Mankato, Minnesota, to Miss Marjorie L. 
Patterson. They have one child, their son Sumner Patterson 
Hale. 



WILLIAM S. HUNT. 



He is the son of Dr. Henderson Hunt and Sarah Ann (Bar- 
low) Hunt and was born in the town of Delavan, Wisconsin, 
on May 1st, 1861. His mother's father, Stevan A. Barlow, 
was for two terms the attorney general for the state of 
Wisconsin. Another relative on his mother's side was .John W. 
Barlow who as an officer in the regular army held the rank 
of brigadier-general. Dr. Hunt, the father, was an old time 
family physician, of a type, unfortunately, which the specialist 
has driven out of fashion. He was not only the physician 
of the physical ills but also the healer of souls and the 



father confeesor of half the town of Delavan; William, his 
son, spent the years of his early youth and boyhood in Delavan 
and began his education in the local schools. When he was 
sixteen years of age the family moved to Beloit and he began 
the scientific course in Beloit College. From this college he 
graduated in 1880. He now determined to become an architect 
and went to Chicago to study. He put in three years of hard 
work there as a student and then entered the office of one 
of the most prominent of the Chicago architects as an office 
student. He came to Minneapolis in 1888 still considering 
himself a student. That same year he began an independent 
practice of his profession which he has continued successfully 
evei* since. It has been his good fortune to plan a great many 
of the large and beautiful buildings of the citj'. 

Mr. Hunt is a republican in politics although not seeking 
office and having little time for any special activity along 
political lines. He is interested in all civic matters and a 
student of civic conditions. He is a member of the Odd 
Fellows and a number of principal clubs of the city. He 
belongs to the Episcopal church. He married Miss Caroline 
Park Graves in 1885. She died seven years later. In May, 
1906 he was married to Miss Barbara C. Maurer. They have 
uo children. 



ALONZO D. HOAR. 



Mr. Hoar was born in Meeker county, Minnesota, Septem- 
ber 1, 1864, being a son of David B. and Melissa (Bryant) 
Hoar, natives of Maine but married in Minneapolis. The 
mother came to Minnesota with her parents, in 1856, finding 
a new home near Montieello, in Wright county. David B. Hoar 
became a resident of Meeker county, in the fall of 1857, the 
next year taking a tract of government land from which he 
was driven by the Indians in 1862, his dwelling being burned. 
He then served in the militia aiding in reducing the savages 
to subjection. 

When their homes were destroyed the families fled to 
Montieello. Eleven of the men returned and collected the 
household effects, and on their way back to Montieello intentled 
to stop at a Mr. Coswell's. Four of them drove into this 
place and were immediately killed by Indians lying in con- 
cealment. The other seven escaped, one of whom, James 
Nelson of Litchfield, is still living. 

Mrs. Hoar was teaching school at the period of the out- 
break, and was warned of the impending danger by a mail 
carrier. But before she and the rest of the family could get 
away bands of Indians appeared in the neighborhood. As 
their house was destroyed and their crops ruined, they decided 
to go back East, and for two years and a half thereafter 
lived with Mr. Hoar's peojjle in New Brunswick. The}' then 
returned to their homestead of 280 acres in Meeker county, 
and there Mr. Hoar died in 1900 in his eighty-third year. 

Mrs. Hoar and some of the members of her family are still 
living on the homestead. She and her sister, Mrs. Lemming, 
are among the very few survivors of the Indian trouble in 
her vicinity. She and husband were the parents of eleven 
children, seven sons and four daughters, ten of whom are 
living (1913) and of whom Alonzo D. and Irving are residents 
of Minneapolis. Alonzo came to this city in 1886, and for 
seven years was assistant engineer at the city water works. 
About 1893 he started his present transfer business with one 



370 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



horse, doing all his own work. He now keeps sixteen horses 
and employs eight men with a constantly increasing business. 

Mr. Hoar's father took a warm interest in local public affairs 
and filled several local offices. In this respect the son has 
been like the father, having been interested in the progress 
and advancement of his community. In 1908 he was elected, 
alderman from tlie Tenth ward and served on the committees 
on good roads, public grounds and buildings, licenses, salaries, 
markets, and fire department. The goods roads committee of 
which he was a member did effective work in the way of 
bringing about a general improvement of the roads leading 
into the city. In fact, laid the foundation for all such improve- 
ments that have Since been made. 

November 12, 1890, Mr. Hoar married Miss Xettie Beach, 
daughter of John P. Beach, one of the pioneers of Northfield, 
who came from New York. Mrs. Hoar died in 1907, leaving 
three sons, Chester, Bryant and Gordon. The former is in 
the employ of a railroad company in St. Paul and Bryant is 
in the employ of Pittsburg Plate Glass Co. 

December 10, 1910, Jlr. Hoar was united with Miss Mina 
Grout, who was born and reared near Mankato, where her 
father was for years a member of the police force, and who 
died recently in Minneapolis. Mr. Hoar has been a member 
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows from the age of 
twenty-one, and is on the charter roll of Highland Lodge, 
at Camden Place. He also belongs to the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen and the Woodmen of the World. His re- 
ligious alliliation is with the Camden Place Methodist Episcopal 
church. 



PLEASANT M. STARNES. 



Pleasant Jl. Starnes is a stockholder and valued executive in 
coriiorations that are conducting extensive operations in the 
handling of timber lands and other properties on the Pacific 
coast, with specially large holdings in Northwest Canada. He 
maintains his residence and business headquarters in the city 
of Minneapolis, where he is vice-president and general man- 
ager of the American Timber Holding Company, besides which 
he is vice-president of the North American Timber Holding 
Company, the official headquarters of wliicli are in the city of 
Chicago. 

He was born in Hancock county, Illinois, on the 1st of 
January, 1S63, and is a son of Eldridge and Emily (Jenkins) 
Starnes, the former of whom was born in Tennessee and the 
latter in Ohio, their marriage having been solemnized in the 
state of Illinois, where the father Eldridge Starnes was a 
pioneer representative of the agricultural industry in Hancock 
county. He departed this life Feb. 3, 1914. and the mother 
on April 17, 1914. After long years of worthy and fruitful 
application, he maintained his home at Afton, Iowa, and both 
he and his wife commanded inviolable places in the confidence 
and high regard of all who knew them. 

Pleasant M. Starnes gain<'ii his initial experience in connec- 
tion with the work of the home farm and duly availed him- 
self of the advantages of the public schools of his native 
state, where he also attended a well ordered academy and thus 
effectively supplemented his earlier educational discipline. 
He finally went to the state of Iowa, and there he began the 
study of law under effective preceptorship. He later estab- 
lished his residence in Kansas, where he was admitted to the 



bar, and for several years thereafter he was there engawed 
in the successful practice of his profession. He maintained 
his residence for some time at Winfield and later in the city 
of Topeka, the capital of the state, and in the meanwhile he 
developed and matured the powers which have made him a 
force in the industrial world. He then moved to Iowa where 
he held the position of state manager for an insurance com- 
pany and later he there effected the organization of a life 
insurance company, of which he became president, an olhce 
of which he continued the efficient incumbent until the com- 
pany was consolidated with the National Life Insurance Com- 
pany of the V. S. A. in Chicago, ilr. Starnes showed great 
administrative and constructive ability during his identifica- 
tion with this important field of enterprise and developed a 
large and substantial business for the corporation. After its 
consolidation with the National Life Insurance Company he 
became president of the latter corporation, of which he con- 
tinued the executive head for two years. 

From the domain of life insurance M. Starnes withdrew to 
turn his attention to real-estate operations, particularly in 
the handling of timber lands and other realty in Western 
Canada and other parts of the west. In 1909 he came to 
Minneapolis and effected the organization of the American 
Timber Holding Company, and of this representative corpora- 
tion he is now vice-president and general manager, the com- 
pany having extensive and valuable holdings of timber lands^ 
in various localities on the Pacific coast as well as in th» 
Canadian northwest. He also was one of the organizers of the 
North American Timber Holding Company, of Cliicago, of 
which he is vice-president and a director and in which a num- 
ber of representative business men and capitalists of Minne- 
apolis and other places are likewise interested principals. Mr> 
Starnes is also vice-president and treasurer of the Western 
Finance Company, a director and executive of various other 
important corporations, in Minneapolis and the northwest.. 
He is a stockholder in leading financial institutions in Minne- 
apolis and is known as one of the representative men of 
affairs in this city. 

In politics Mr. Starnes gives his allegiance to the Repub- 
lican party and in his civic attitude he is essentially public- 
spirited. In his home city of Minneapolis he is identified with, 
the Minneapolis, the Athletic, the Minikahda, and the La- 
fayette Clubs and other representative organizations. 

In the year 1894 was solemnized the marriage of Jlr. 
Starnes to Miss Marie Lower, who, like himself, was born 
and reared in the state of Illinois. They have four children — 
Frederick E., who is in the office with his father; William U., 
who is assistant secretary of the North American Timber 
Holding Company, of Cliicago; and Louis H. and Mildred E.,. 
who remain at the parental home. 



WILLIAM PENROSE HALLOWELL. 

William Penrose Hallowell, a well known business man who 
is prominently identified with the commercial interests of 
Minneapolis as coal dealer and manufacturer, was born at 
Philadelphia, Pa., November 30. 1863, the Son of William P. 
and Elizabeth (Davis) Hallowell. He received the educational 
advantages of his native state in several of its well known 
institutions, attending Cheltenham academy, the Friends 
Central school and Swarthmore college. In 1883, he came to 






I 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



371 



Minneapolis, joining his brothers, Morris L. and I. E. D. Hal- 
lowell, who had located here a few years previously. His first 
employment was as clerk in the Northwestern National bank. 
He then served in the same capacity with D. Morrison & 
Company, merchant millers. In 1888 he accepted a clerkship 
with the Northwestern Fuel company and since that time 
has continued to devote his attention to this business. Hu 
became a partner of the firm of H. W. Armstrong & Company, 
then resident manager for the Youghiogheney & Lehigh Coal 
company. In 1903 was secretary of the Holmes & McCaughy 
company, and in 1904 vice president and treasurer Holmes & 
Hallowell company, located at 401 First avenue, south, who 
operate wholesale and retail oflices in Minneapolis and St. Paul. 
He is also prominently connected with the Ramaley Boat com- 
pany as president in the manufacture of cruisers, auto boats, 
hydroplanes, racing sail boats and high grade row boats and 
canoes. Mr. Hallowell served for five 3'ears, 1883-88, in the 
state militia, as a member of Company I, First regiment. He 
holds membership in the Minneapolis, Minikahda, and La- 
fayette clubs and his personal affiliations are with the Repub- 
lican party. His marriage to Miss Agnes Hardenbergh, the 
daughter of Charles M. and Mary Lee Hardenbergh of Min- 
neapolis, was solemnized in St. Marks church, .June 5. 1888. 
Their only child, William Penrose Hallowell, Jr., died March 
23, 1913, aged twenty-one years. 



EMANUEL GEORGE HALL. 



Mr. Hall is a native of the city of Bowmanville, province 
of Ontario, Canada, where his life began on August 13, 1865. 
The circumstances of the family made it necessary for him 
to begin earning his own living at an early age, and his 
opportunities for securing an education were therefore limited. 
In 1880, when he was fifteen years old, he came to Minneapolis 
with his parents, and soon afterward began learning the 
cigarmaker's trade in the factory of James Elwin, under whom 
he served an apprenticeship of four years. He then worked 
at the trade in several diff'erent states, until early in 1909, 
when he was appointed assistant State Labor Commissioner 
of this state under Labor Commissioner W. E. McEwen, during 
the last term of the late Governor Johnson. 

Mr. Hall filled this office with great credit to himself and 
satisfaction to all the interests involved for two years and 
four months, having direction of the factory and other 
inspectors during the whole of his tenure. He retired from 
tlie office in May, 1911, and in June of the same year was 
elected president of the State Federation of Labor by its 
annual convention in session in Mankato. In 1912 he was 
reelected by the convention which met in Brainerd, and in 
•Tune, 1913, was chosen a third time by the convention in 
St. Cloud. 

As president of the state central body of organized labor 
Mr. Hall is required to look after the interests of the labor 
unions and their members in all parts of the state. 

The State Federation of Labor embraces between 30,000 
and 3,'j.OOO union workers, and reaches, in its work and 
uifluence, every locality in Minnesota sufficiently populous to 
maintain a labor union. 

The State Federation of Labor was organized in 1890 on a 
very small scale. It has made steady progress from the 
start, although it has had its seasons of depression, and is 



now a very strong, virile and energetic body. During the 
last two years one of the most difficult situations it has had 
to deal with was the strike of the street car employes in 
Duluth. Mr. Hall was on the battle ground continuously for 
seven weeks, using every honorable means, Avith the help of 
others, to bring about an adjustment of the differences between 
the men and their employers and bettering the conditions of 
labor for the workmen, and while the strike was not entirely 
successful, practically every condition asked for by the street 
ear men has been since conceded and is now enjoyed. 

Mr. Hall's devotion to the cause of organized labor and 
his ability in serving it have been recognized in a national, 
or more correctly speaking, an international way. He is the 
Sixth Vice President of the Cigarmakers' International Union, 
the supreme governing body of the craft for the United States, 
including their insular dependencies, and the Dominion of 
Canada. By virtue of this office he is a member of the 
General Executive Board of the International Union. He ia 
also the secretary-treasurer of the Northwestern Blue Label 
Conference, an interstate organization formed and maintained 
for the benefit of union cigarmakers in Minnesota and the 
Dakotas. 

In 1886, while Mr. Hall was working as a journeyman cigar- 
maker, he took an active part in the great fight for the 
eight-hour workday for his craft. The fight was won for 
the workers, and in fifteen years following the establishment 
of the eight-hour day for them the death rate from, 
tuberculosis among cigarmakers fell from 63 per cent 
to 25 per cent as compared with other industries, which is an 
enormous saving of human life since the number of persons 
engaged in making cigars and tobacco products is so large. 
This decrease is attributed entirely to organization and the 
eight-hour day. 

In his home city of Minneapolis Mr. Hall has been appointed 
on a committee of three to select a 'committee of fifteen to 
make an investigation within educational lines for the purpose 
of recommending to the Minneapolis Board of Education a 
plan of vocational training to be put in operation in the 
public schools of the city. On July 2, 1892, Mr. Hall was 
married in Fargo, North Dakota, to Miss Martha Strem, a 
native of Fertile, Polk county, Minnesota. They have six 
children, Gertrude, Ethel, Hazel, Milton, Chester and Irene. 
The head of the house belongs to the Knights of Pythias, 
the Woodmen and the Order of Moose. His residence in 
Minneapolis is at No. 923 Third avenue north. 



THOMAS ASBURY HARRISON. 

Mr. Harrison was a very prominent citizen and business 
man of Minneapolis. He was the founder of the Security 
National Bank, in 1878, and its president thereafter until 
his death, in 1885. He was one of the original members 
of the lumber firm of J. Dean &. Company, organized in 1863, 
and which built the Atlantic & Pacific Mills, for many years 
the most extensive lumber mills of Minneapolis. He was for 
several years president of the State National Bank, a director 
in the First National Bank of St. Paul and in the Chicago, 
Milwaukee & St. Paul and the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroads. 
In 1862 he and his brothers, Hugh and William Harrison, 
built Harrison's Hall at the junction of Nicollet and Washing- 
ton Avenues. The building was of stone and upon its con- 



372 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



struction was the most imposing in the town. Mr. Harrison 
was born at Belleville, 111., December 18. 1811. In early life 
he was engaged in milling and operated both saw mills and 
flour mills. He came to Minneapolis in 1859, and died in 
1885. In 1839 he married Rebecca M. Green and she died in 
Minneapolis, February 13, 1884, in her 64th year. They 
had five children, two of whom— Mrs. S. H. Knight and Mrs. 
Dr. E. B. Zier — now reside in Minneapolis. 



PAUL D. BOUTELL. 



Since writing the following Mr. Boutell w;as called to the 
life eternal on May 26, 1914. 

To no part of the population it has gained from other 
sections of the country is the Northwest more indebted than 
to that which it has secured from New England. Tlie persons 
who have come here from that section have brought with 
them the industry, frugality and all-conquering ingenuity 
which have combined to make its residents renowned through- 
out the civilized world, and having ready to their hands great 
wealth of natural resources, however difficult of development, 
have gloriously helped to work out the results of application, 
genius and persistency wliich have made Minneapolis wonder- 
ful for the extent and rapidity of its growth and advancement. 
One of the admirable specimens of the strong and resource- 
ful New England character was P. D. Boutell, for more than a 
generation of human life one of the leading merchants and 
business men of the city, and also one of its most elevated 
and influential citizens. He was well advanced in years and 
retired from all active pursuits when the end came on 
May 26, 1914. His record as a worker was practically made 
up and closed. There was little more for him in reputation, 
in achievement or in business profits to look forward to. But 
the retrospect of his career, however unsatisfactory it may have 
been to himself, is full of suggestiveness and sources of admir- 
ation for his friends and all others who know what he had 
done and how true he had been to every command of duty. 

Mr. Boutell was bom at Bakersfield, a little interior town 
in Franklin county, Vermont, on .Ian. 3, 1837, and was reared 
on a farm, obtaining his scholastic training in the country 
school in the neighborhood of his home. He began his business 
career in the leather business in Massachusetts, remaining not 
far from his native heath and amid the civic, social and 
industrial associations of his nativity until he reached the 
age of thirty-four years. He prospered in his business and 
stood well in his community. But there was within him a 
longing for larger opportunities and a freer air, and the great 
Nortliwest seemed to offer him all he desired in this respect. 
His own section of country was not lagging beliind or losinj; 
ground. It was keeping pace witli the nuirch of events in its 
way. But the great sweep of advancement seemi'd to be in 
the regions which bask in the arms of (lie -Mississippi and 
the Missouri, and he was irresistil>ly inii)elk>d to be in it and 
a part of it. 

When his pas'sion for the West became a ruling one he 
yielded to it, and in 1871 came to Minneaimlis. after being in 
business three years in St. Paul. Soon after his arrival in 
this city he founded the large furniture business whicli i^< 
now carried on by his sons, Walter D. and William T. He 
conducted this business and other mercantile enterprises until 



1907, when he retired, turning the management of the under- 
takings he had started over to his sons. Before coming to 
this city he was a member of the firm of Nelson, Eiee & 
Boutell, tanners on an extensive scale in Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts. His connection with that firm gave him a wide 
and accurate knowledge of business, and he lost none of the 
lessons which the hard but thorough taskmaster, Experience, 
set for him. 

When he located in this state to start an enterprise of his 
own, therefore, Mr. Boutell was well prepared tor the project 
he had in mind. And he was by no means deterred or daunted 
by the magnitude of the undertaking, or even much dispirited 
by the uncertain state of his health, which had drivep him 
from the bleak and humid climate of New England to the 
more salubrious one of this region, severe as it often is in 
winter. He arrived in St. Paul in 1868, and at once became 
a member of the firm of Coon, Boutell & Company, wholesale 
dealers in hardware. 

After moving to Minneapolis from St. Paul he passed three 
or four years in the hardware trade as a retailer, then, in 
1875, opened a small retail furniture store, which was the 
beginning of the vast business his establishment now does in 
its six story building at the corner of 1st Avenue South and 
Fifth Street, which is 165 by 140 feet in dimensions. 

Mr. Boutell was married in Massachusetts on Sept. 12. 1863, 
to Miss Maria C. Wellington. They have three sons and one 
daughter living. The daughter is now the wife of J. H. 
Reuttell. The father was a Republican in political faith and 
allegiance, but he never was an active partisan. But served 
on Governor Van Sant's staff with rank of colonel. His 
business ability and high character were recognized, however, 
by his appointment on the city park board, of which he had 
been a member for six years. In fraternal circles he was 
connected with the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias 
and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He was presi- 
dent of the Elks' Building association, which had charge of the 
erection of the new Elks' Temple in the city. He was also 
president of the Indemnity Life and Accident association. In 
religious affiliation he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and for many years he served as president of the 
board of directors of the Asbury hospital, to the interests 
of which he gave a great deal of time and attention, seeing 
that its affairs were properly cared for and made to result 
in the largest possible good to the beneficiaries of the institu- 
tion. Mr. Boutell was one of the best known and most highly 
esteemed residents of Minneapolis and deserved to be. 



CHARLES A. HOHAG. 



Mr. Hohag has been a resident of Minnesota since his boy- 
hood and is a member of one of the sterling pioneer families. 
Ho was born in Prus.sia. (m the 10th of August. 1848, and is 
a son of William and Dorothea (Henchel) Hohag. He was 
about fen yeai-s of age when, in 1858, he accompanied his 
]iarents on their immigration to America, and his father 
established a home at St. Anthony, where he engaged in the 
work of his trade, that of carpenter. He became one of 
the successful contractors and builders of Slinneapolis and 
here his death occurred in June, 1884. at which time he was 
sixty-eight yeara of age. His widow survived him by a dec- 
ade and was seventv years of age when she died. Of the 




c/7 ^ , /(j cr-^-^-^^^^t^^^' 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



373 



children, the subject of this review is the only survivor, Wil- 
liam and Anna having died, of consumption, when in middle 
life. 

Charles A. Hohag gained his rudimentary education in 
the schools of his native land and thereafter attended school 
in Minnesota. When eighteen years of ago Mr. Hohag went 
to the home of his maternal grandparents. He assumed 
virtual charge of the farm, and during the winter terms 
attended school at Parker Lake. Two years after he thus 
assumed the work of the farm his grandmother died, and 
thereafter he and his venerable grandfatlier kept house at 
the old homestead for two years. A radical change was then 
made, as Mr. Hohag. in 1871. took unto himself a wife and 
devoted helpmeet, in the person of Miss Emily Moser, daugh- 
ter of the late Karl and Margaret Moser, who were natives 
of Germany and who came from Detroit, Michigan, to Minne- 
sota, in 1854, Mr. MoSer entering a preemption claim to 
a tract of wild land in Golden Valley township, where he 
reclaimed a valuable farm. He was a millwright by trade and 
assisted in the erection of the first grist mill at St. Anthonj' 
Falls. He continued to reside in Golden Valley but became 
a successful contractor and builder in Minneapolis. Mis. 
Hohag was born in Germany, in 1847. 

Mr. Hohag early gave evidence of his public-spirited inter- 
est in local affairs, and a few years after establishing his 
residence on his present farm he was elected treasurer of the 
school district, a position of which he continued the incum- 
bent about ten years. In 1879 he was elected township super- 
visor, and in this important office he served for thirty con- 
secutive years, during twenty of which he was chairman 
of the town board of supervisors. When the village of Rich- 
field was incorporated, in 1907, he was elected its first 
president and in this office he 'continued to .serve during the 
first year of his incumbency of the position of superintendent 
of the county farm and infirmary. He made an admirable 
record as a member of the board of supervisors. In 1900 Mr. 
Hohag was a candidate in the first Republican primaries in 
Hennepin county for the office of county commissioner, but 
was defeated, as was he also in the contest four years 
later, after having made an excellent showing at the polls 
and having been defeated by a small majority on each 
occasion. In 1909 he was appointed to his present respon- 
sible office, that of superintendent of the county farm, 
and his able administration has been signally fortified by 
the eff'ective co-operation of his wife. 

In politics Mr. Hohag has never wavered in his allegiance 
save on the one occasion when he supported Grover Cleve- 
land for the presidency. Both he and his wife are zealous 
members of the Third Christian Science church in Minneapolis 
and both have a wide circle of friends in Hennepin county. 
They had seven sons, concerning whom brief record is made 
in conclusion of this sketch: Arthur owns an adjoining 
farm in Richfield; Walter, who held an office position in con- 
nection with the construction of the Panama canal, for a 
period of four years, is now identified with railroad operations 
in British Columbia; Augustus is a large farmer, his farm 
also adjoining the old home, Richfield; Herman died at the 
age of twenty-four; Frederick likewise owns a farm in 
Richfield; .John is in charge of the old homestead; and Cleve- 
land Henry, who was named in honor of President Cleveland, 
resides at Seattle. Washington, where he is engaged in the 
fniit and produce commission business. 



JOHN HARVEY HORTON. 

The late John Harvey Horton, who is well remembered in 
Jlinneapolis for his activity in the lumber trade in the early 
years and still better for his skill and artistic taste as a 
house decorator, was born at Chazy, Clinton county. New 
York, in 1828. His father was a lawyer, farmer and 
merchant, and his mother was a Beach, a member of which 
family was one of the distinguished lawyers connected with 
the trial of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 

At the age of twenty-one .John H. Horton became one of 
the great host of "Forty-niners" who crossed the plains in 
search of gold. He remained in California several yeai'S, and 
on his return to the East found that his father was dead and 
that his mother and two brothers had come to Slinneapolis. 
He followed them in the spring of 1856, thenceforth making 
it his home and the scene of his subsequent activities. 

The two brothers were Milon and Myron, twins. Milon 
was a grocer and Myron a druggist on Second avenue south, 
the then business center. Milon died in the service of the 
Union during the Civil war and Myron returned to Malone, 
New Y'ork. The mother died in Minneapolis, and a daughter, 
Zerviah, became a homeopathic physician who enjoyed a large 
practice among the women, continuing her professional serv- 
ice until her death in 1893. after thirty-seven years of active 
practice. She was one of the earliest homeopathic physicians 
in the city, being preceded only by Dr. Hatch and Dr. Higby. 

.John H. Horton was engaged in lumbering for a number 
of years. He then turned to house decorating, in which work 
he is best and most favorably remembered. He became an 
expert, his services being in demand, the best homes receiving 
final decorations from his hand. His own first home here was 
at the corner of Nicollet avenue and Ninth street, and when 
he and wife built on that site there was but one other house 
within the range of vision. Later they built a new home on 
Diamond lake just south of the city. Mr. Horton's death 
occiu'red in April, 1893. 

In politics he was a Democrat of the old school and a zeal- 
ous worker for the success of his party, although never an 
office seeker. In religious affiliation he was a Methodist, and 
a liberal supporter of the church. He was accounted a skill- 
ful Sportsman, being companion of T. B. Walker in deer hunt- 
ing trips. He was also a great lover of fine horses and 
enjoyed driving in contests of speed on the street and on the 
Lake of the Isles. 

He was married in 1857 to Miss Helen J. Scrimgeour. a 
daughter of E. J. and Mary (Morrison) Scrimgeour, whose 
mention is found on another page. Six children were born to 
them. Florence Isabel is the wife of L. E. Kelley of Minne- 
apolis. Addie S. is the wife of George Colton, and for twenty- 
three years has resided at Yokohama, Japan, where Mr. Colton 
is an importer of merchandise, but whither he first went as 
resident buyer for a New Y'ork mercantile firm. Mrs. Colton 
is acfive in the work of the Union church in Yokohama. 
Helen Morrison is the wife of Arthur E. Hammond, dealer 
in farm loans and farm lands. For some years he was in 
with the Kelly loan office, having come from Vermont to 
Minneapolis in 1881. Mary Louise and Jessie Phoebe died 
in childhood. .James Harvey Horton, the only son, is a 
farmer at Backus, in Cass county. 

Mrs. Horton is a charter member of the old Heiincpiii 
.\venue Methoilist Episcopal church, and one of the two 
or three survivors of the seventy-two who made up the 



374 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MfXNESOTA 



first congregation. She was active in church work until 
affected by age and infirmities. She has made three visits to 
Japan, passing four years in that country. With a quick wit, 
a habit of close observation, a memory that is richly stored 
with incidents and events of pioneer life, and a cordial, genial 
manner in social intercourse, she is an agreeable companion 
and popular among the many who know her. She makes 
her home with her youngest daughter, Mrs. Hammond, whose 
four sons, Arthur Horton, Lawrence Darwin, Wray Ells- 
worth and John Morrison, are sources of great companion- 
ship and comfort to their grandmother, as are the con- 
siderate attentions she receives from her large circle of ad- 
miring friends and acquaintances. 



JOHN R. HUGHES. 



The late .John R. Hughes, who passed the last two years 
of his life in Minneapolis, and died in this city on April 26, 
1913, was one of the earliest settlers at Gettysburg, South 
Dakota, and during his residence in the town one of its most 
important, useful and valued citizens. 

Mr. Hughes was born at Lewiston, state of New York, on 
December 28, 1866, the son of Hugh R. and Margaret Hughes. 
He passed his boyhood at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and obtained 
his education in the schools of that state, finishing at one of 
its State Normal Schools, at which he pursued a special course 
of training for the profession of a teacher. He followed this 
profession for a sliort time, but soon yielded to an increasing 
longing for a newer and more unsettled region, and in 1884, 
took up his residence at Gettysburg, South Dakota, almost at 
the beginning of its history, and while its possibilities were 
as yet wholly undeveloped, but full of promise for men of 
nerve like him. 

On locating at his new home Mr. Hughes started a bank 
there. He was familiar with the banking business, having 
had experience in it at Emmittsburg, Iowa, for a number of 
years. His bank proved to be a great convenience and 
advantage to the people around him, and a fruitful means of 
assistance in building up the community and providing for 
its growing needs. He managed it with skill and judgment, 
and in such a manner as to make it of great service to the 
public and very profitable to himself. He also dealt exten- 
sively in land in South Dakota, and had interests in other 
banks besides the one he owned and conducted at Gettysburg. 
He was therefore of considerable importance in the develop- 
ment of the new country in which he was located, and he 
supported with ardor all undertakings having this in view, 
and originated many of them himself. 

Failing health caused him to retire to some extent from 
active pursuits, and in 1910 he temporarily changed his 
residence to Minneapolis, locating in this city on June 9, on 
account of medical assistance and making his home -in the 
Lake Harriet section of the metropolis which had his warm 
admiration. While living there he assisted in organizing the 
Lake Harriet Commercial club. This made him friends here, 
and in seeking his co-operation in furtherance of other projects 
of value they always found him genial, obliging, liberal and 
highly intelligent in his views as to what would constitute 
judicious improvements. 

Before leaving South Dakota Mr. Hughes served as a 
member of its legislature, and for a number of years was 
president of the South Dakota Bankers Association. He 



attended the conventions of this association and made many 
strong and illuminating addresses before them. He also 
attended bankers and other conventions in other states, and 
always took an active part in the proceedings of any gather- 
ing of which he was a part. By appointment of the governor 
he also served as a member of the board of directors of the 
State Orphan Asylum at Sioux Falls for some years. 

Mr. Hughes was always ready to do all he could to aid 
in promoting any worthy enterprise. He took a cordial interest' 
in the fraternal life of the country as a Freemason of high 
degree, and in social alliances, through his active membership 
in many clubs and other organizations. Nothing was foreign 
to him that was human, and everybody who came in touch 
with him felt the quickening inliuence of his strong mentality,! 
wealth of general information and companionable disposition.; 

Mr. Hughes was married in Wiconsin in 1892 to Miss Mary. 
J. Williams. Two children were born of their union: Lucille, 
who is a graduate of the West High School in the class of 
1913, and Harold, who is now (1914) a high school student. 
The wife is very active in connection with the affairs of the 
Gettysburg Literary club, and in 1912 was the secretary of 
the State Federation of Clubs, and a delegate to its conven- 
tion in 1913, and is now secretary of the Ramblers Literary 
club. The father's usefulness was cut short by his early 
death at the age of fifty-six on April 26, 1912, and the event 
was universally mourned throughout South Dakota, in Min- 
neapolis and in all other places where the people had knowl- 
edge of the genuine worth and conspicuous usefulness of the 
life which then closed. 



MOSES P. HAYES. 



Living now retired from all active pursuits, and serene in 
the enjoyment of the rest he has well earned by many trials 
and triumphs in business in his long and active career, and 
by his arduous labors in conducting a variety of useful enter- 
prises at different places and in different lines of industrial 
and mercantile endeavor, Moses P. Hayes enjoys the respect 
of all classes of the people of this city, and the cordial regard 
of all who know him well and associate with him intimately. 
He was an early settler in St. Anthony, as East Minneapolis 
was called when he located here, and if he did not assist at 
the birth of the new metropolis at the head of the Mississippi, 
he was at least one of the guides and guardians of its l)oy- 
hood, to personify the place, and a wise and helpful aid to 
its growth and development. 

Mr. Hayes, whose liomc is now at 525 University avenue, 
was born at Limerick, Miiine, on December 6, 1829. The 
circumstances of his parents compelled him to begin caring 
for himself at an early age, and the self-reliance thus taught 
him has been a valuable asset through all his subsequent 
years. As a boy he went to work in a butcher shop in 
Brighton, Mass., at a wage of $150 a year. He proved capable, 
industrious and attentive to the interest of his employers 
to such an extent that his pay was raised to $200 for the 
second year, and to $300 for the third year. After that he 
received $600 a year as long as he continued to work for the 
employers with whom he began his career; becoming head 
butcher. 

By the time he reached the age of twenty-five years he 
had accumulated $1,000 by fnigality and good management, 
and with that as active, ready and responsive capital to 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



375 



begin any new venture he might wish to make in business, 
he came to St. Anthony, arriving in October, 1854. Albert 
Stimson of Stillwater had married his sister, and Mr. Hayes 
accompanied them to their home in wliat was then the far 
West. Albert Stimson's cousin Charles had come to St. 
Anthony in 1850, and was engaged in the lumber trade here. 
About 1857 he erected the big mill on the island, but the 
undertaking proved disastrous. He is still living, now past 
ninety years of age, and has his home at Elk River. 

Mr. Hayes, in association with Charles Stimson and his 
brother Daniel, built a butcher shop, Mr. Hayes assuming the 
management of it, and engaged in supplying the local market 
with meat. The shop was located on Second avenue just off 
Main street, and for a number of years the firm had an 
extensive local trade. In the course of time Charles Stimson 
withdrew from the firm, and some time afterward Daniel 
sold his interest in it and moved to Oregon. Harman Martin 
tlien became a partner of Mr. Hayes. 

The butchering business was not to Mr. Martin's taste, 
and he induced Mr. Hayes to join him in the purchase of a 
foundry and machine shop at Belle Plaine. This they moved 
to St. Anthony at once, locating it near First avenue and 
the river bank. Here they manufactured flour and saw mill 
machinery, and while neithsr of them had had any previous 
experience in the industry, they made their undertaking 
successful and built up an extensive and profitable business 
in it. 

Mr. Martin in time sold his interest in the establishment 
to C. R. Bushnell, and the business continued to prosper and 
grow until the plant was destroyed by fire in 1879. The 
loss of patterns by the fire was great, and other difficulties 
were in the way of going on in the industry, and so the firm 
determined to abandon it and not rebuild the plant. More- 
over, other persons had started in the business, and the 
competition promised to be keen. Altogether, the conditions 
did not look promising and the machine shop was given up 
for other engagements. 

In company with the late Senator W. D. Washburn and 
Capt. .John Martin, Mr. Hayes built a lot of grain elevators on 
the line of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad, locating one 
at nearly every station from Albert Lea to Rritt, Iowa. Mr. 
Hayes took charge of the construction o'f these elevators and 
afterward of the operation of them, buying grain for the 
mills at Minneapolis for eight or nine years. At the end 
(if that period the elevators were sold, and Mr. Hayes then 
joined Mr. Grinnell and Mr. Jordan in putting up a cold 
storage jdant. This was not a success financially. Mr. Hayes 
lost .$1,500 in interest and $3,000 he had loaned on the 
business. 

But he was gamp and not to be deterred by disaster. His 
next venture was an investment of $25,000 in the stock of a 
school furniture company. This proved more disastrous than 
the cold storage enterprise. Mr. Hayes not only lost his 
investment in the stock of the company, but was forced to 
pay notes he had indorsed to secure funds with which to 
carry on the business. This company has since been placed 
on a paying basis, but he is no longer connected with it. 

In company with Thomas F. Andrews Mr. Hayes erected 
an important business block on Bridge Square. This invest- 
ment has been profitable, as has his purchase of stock in 
the First National Bank, which he acquired when the bank 
was started. In politics he has ever been a firm and loyal 
Republican, but has never sought or desired a political office. 



He was made a Freemason in 1864, in Cataract Lodge, and 
he also belongs to the Royal Arch Chapter, the Council of 
Royal and Select Masters and the Commandery of Knights 
Templar in the Masonic fraternity. For more than si.xty 
years he has been a liberal contributor to the Congregational 
church. 

On June 17, 1855, Mr. Hayes was married at Limerick, 
Maine, to Miss Elizabeth Stimson, a sister "of Charles Stimson. 
When he came to St. Anthony this lady was one of the 
party, she coming out here to visit her brother. She died on 
October 10, 1900, after a residence in Minneapolis covering 
forty-six years. Of the four children born of the union all 
are living. They are: Nellie, the wife of W. E. Chamberlain, 
a jeweler in Great Falls, Montana; Carrie, the wife of T. J. 
Dansenberg; Emma, the widow of a Mr. Arthur N. Monroe, 
who is living with her father, and Frank M., who is also 
living at home. 



ADAM HORNUNG. 



The late Adam Hornung, who died in San Diego, Cal., on 
March 30, 1913, aged sixty-three, after a residence in this 
city of nearly thirty years, gave the community in which 
he lived and labored on this side of the Atlantic a striking 
example of German thrift, frugality, and business capacity. 

Mr. Hornung was born in the busy commercial city of Mainz 
in the province of Hesse, Germany, on January 28, 1849. 
For a number of years he passed his winters in California, 
and in San Diego, that state, he obeyed Nature's last call on 
March 30, 1912. His remains were brought to Minneapolis 
for interment, and they now rest in Lakewood cemetery in 
this city. Germany gave him birth and Minneapolis burial; 
and in his active and useful life he reflected great credit 
on both. He was reared and educated in his native land, 
and according to the requirements there served his term 
in the army. His period of service covered the Franco-German 
war of 1870 and 1871. He took an active part in the short 
but decisive contest, and was called on to undergo many 
hardships and privations in doing so. He faced death in a 
number of battles of the war, but escaped unharmed, and 
at the close of the struggle returned to his former occupation 
of jeweler. 

In the meantime Mr. Hornung's fatlier had come to the 
United States and located in Cleveland, Ohio. He Sent for 
his two sons, Adam and Vincent, and they joined him in 
Cleveland, where they also had a sister living. Vincent, his 
sister and their father remained in the Ohio lake metropolis, 
and Vincent died there in 1913. Adam, however, came on to 
Chicago, where he engaged in dyeing and cleaning, carrying 
on a profitable business and growing into extensive favor 
with the residents of the city. In 1875 he was married in 
Chicago to Mrs. Mary Penning, who was born in the grand 
duchy of Luxemburg, but reared in Paris, her parents being 
French. She came to Cliicago a widow, with two children, 
but was married soon after her arrival in that city to Mr. 
Hornung. 

After tlioir marriage the couple rcniniiicd in Chicago for 
about eight years. In 1883 tlu\v cliiuigcd their residence to 
Minneapolis, and here Mr. Hornung bought the dyeing and 
cleaning plant of a Mr. M.ver on Bridge Square. He continued 
the business until his retirement from all active pursiiits in 



376 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



1902, and it is now conducted under the firm name of Gross 
Bros. The main establishment, while Mr. Hornung owed the 
business, was at Tenth avenue and Fifth street, but he had a 
branch on Cedar avenue, one on the East Side and one in 
St. Paul. The business proved to be very profitable and grew 
to great magnitude, ilr. Honning's returns from it enabled 
him to invest heavily in real estate and pass his winters in 
California, where tlie climate was more congenial to his 
health than were the wnters here. His wife died in 1903. She 
was about to start for California, but her fatal malady 
attacked her in this city, and here her life ended. 

Mr. Hornung became a citizen as soon as he could after com- 
ing to this country, and to the end of his career always took 
a warm and helpful interest in the institutions, aims, industries 
and public affairs of his adopted land. He was a devout and 
zealous member of the Catholic Church of the Immaculate 
Conception, of which the present Archbishop Kane was the 
pastor for many years. He was also interested in athletic 
pursuits and belonged to the German Harmonia Society. 

By his marriage Mr. Hornung became the father of two 
children, Catherine Laura and Elsie L. The latter died at the 
age of twenty years. 

Mrs. Hornung had two daughtcre by her first marriage. 
Elizabeth became the wife of A. R. Brandt of Chicago, where 
she died at the age of thirty-three. Margaret, the other 
daughter, is now the wife of P. J. Thielen of Minneapolis. Their 
mother was a lady of fine business capacity, and she took an 
a'ctive and very helpful interest in all the affairs of her hus- 
band. She possessed great force of character and was highly 
educated, being particularly an accomplished linguist and 
able to read, write and converse with fluency and accuracy in 
the French. German and English languages, and having an inti- 
mate knowledge of the best literature in each. She was also 
a lady of social culture and refinement, and made a pleasant 
and lasting impression on everybody with whom she came in 
contact. Like her husband, she is remembered in Minneapolis 
with admiring regard, and the foi'ce of her elevating and stim- 
ulating example is still serviceably felt in the city of her long 
residence, as is that of her husband's influence. 



A. W. HAEPEE. 



Arthur W. Harper, organizer and president of the Min- 
neapolis State Bank, has been prominently identified with 
that institution since its incorporation September 28. I'.ilis. In 
January of that year he came to Minneapolis. The bank 
was organized with a capital of $25,000. which in 1912 was 
increased to $30,000. Its deposits are nearly $.i00.000, and 
it has a surplus of $20,000. Mr. Harper became cashier and 
Roy Quimby vice-president. Fred M. Powers was the first 
president and was succeeded bj' B. W. Smith. Mr. Harper 
was elected in 1911, after three years of service as cashier. 
A. W. Harper and L. M. Chamberlain became vice-presidents. 

Mr. Harper was born at Owatonna, Minn., where his father, 
L. T. Harper had come from Moline. 111., in 1868. He was 
the first manufacturer of foi'ce pumps in the State, having 
his factory at Owatonna. The grasshopper years in Min- 
nesota so discouraged him that he removed to Minnehaha 
county. South Dakota, where he took up a homestead eighteen 
miles north of Sioux Falls. He continued there and at 
Parker, South Dakota, with the exception of a few years 



spent in California, until his death. Arthur Harper accom- 
panied his father to South Dakota and his boyhood was largely 
passed on the homestead. At nineteen he secured a position 
in a bank, and in six years had advanced to the position 
of manager. Previous to coming to Minneapolis, in 1908, he 
had already organized three banks in South Dakota. He is 
secretary and treasurer of the Bankers' Security company, 
which has a paid up capital in excess of $100,000. E. E. 
Merrill is president of this company, which is closely allied 
with the Minneapolis State bank, handling stocks, loans and 
real estate, and owns the controlling interest in several other 
corporations. Aside from his banking interests Mr. Harper 
is identified with the Brownton (Minn.) State Bank, and in 
other corporations. 

He is a member of the West Side Commercial club and the 
Calhoun Commercial club, and is a trustee in the First Baptist 
Church. He was married in South Dakota to Miss Stella 
Near. They have two children, Alzo and Keith. 



WILLIAM CHANDLER JOHXSON. 

William Chandler .Johnson, secretary and treasurer of the 
Northwestern Casket Company, was born in St. Anthony 
November 1, 1856, being a Son of Luther G. and Cornelia E. 
(Morrill) Johnson. The father was a native of New Hamp- 
shire, settling at St. Anthony Falls in 1853. He was one of 
the pioneer merchants and helped lay the foundations of the 
city and its trade, giving even then an illustration of the 
spirit of broad and compiehensive enterprise that was to dis- 
tinguish the future business center. Judge E. M. Johnson, 
whose biography and portrait are in this work, was another 
son. 

William C. .Johnson attended the public Schools of St. 
Anthony and Minneapolis and for three years the State Uni- 
versity. After acquiring a knowledge of merchandising in his 
father's store he went to Duluth in the employ of the Duluth 
Iron company. He was for a time cashier in a wholesale flour 
house in New York city, and spent one year with the Minne- 
apolis Harvester company. In 1887 he became secretary and 
treasurer of the Northwestern Casket Company, since then 
being one of the prominent manufacturers and has taken an 
active part in local development and improvement, as in 
organized social life. For many years he has been a director 
of the East Side State Bank and is a member of the St. 
Anthony Commercial club, the Civic and Commerce Association 
and the Lafayette club. 

In 1891 he married Mrs. Blanche (Gilbert) McCall. 



WM. S. HEWITT. 



Wm. S. Hewitt, head of the Security Bridge Company, 
although comparatively young in years is a veteran in bridge 
construction. Bom in 1864, he entered the business which 
became his life work in 1887, and his name is now identified, 
after a shade more than a quarter of a century, with some 
of the largest highway bridge structures between the Great 
Lakes and the Pacific Coast. 

Mr. Hewitt was born in Maine, Oct. 27, 1864, and it was 
in that state, famous for its educational institutions, where he 



HISTORY OF MLNxNEAPOLIS AND HllNNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



377 



obtained the foundations of his now technical education. He 
went througli tlie common schools, the high school, and the 
normal school. When he was only 23 years old he engaged 
in business in Minneapolis, associating himself with an uncle, 
S. M. Hewitt, who had himself gone into the bridge business 
in 1880. Great possibilities loomed before the young man; 
it was an attractive profession, and he rapidly proved his 
fitness. In the years that followed, Mr. Hewitt gained a 
remarkably varied experience, coming in contact with every 
phase of the work. 

In 1897 the firm of W. S. Hewitt and Company was organ- 
ized. It was incorporated in 1911, as the Security Bi'idge 
Company, with an authorized capital stock of $250,000, and 
at once became a factor to be reckoned with in the strongly 
competitive field of Northwestern bridge contracting. Its 
specialty was highway bridges, but it built all kinds of bridge 
structures, in iron, steel, and concrete. Minneapolis was made 
its headquarters, and branch offices were also established in 
Billings, Montana, and in Lewiston, Idaho. 

It does a business nearly $750,000 annually and employs, 
in its construction work over the great Northwest, more than 
300 men. W. S. Hewitt was the first president of the com- 
pany, and continued in that position until 1913, when his 
nephew, A. L. Hewitt, was made president and placed in 
charge of the Billings offices, while the uncle continued in 
Minneapolis, as vice president and treasurer. 

Mr. Hewitt was married in 1891 to Miss Helen Obert. Tliey 
have a family of five children: Maurice, a student in the 
Engineering Department of the University of Minnesota; 
Agnes, wife of E. H. Carvill, of Montana; Harold, Pauline, 
and Elizabeth. The family home is a handsome residence at 
4602 Dupont Avenue South, in the beautiful Lynnhurst region. 
Mr. Hewitt is a member of the New Athletic club of Min- 
neapolis, and also is a member of Hennepin Lodge No. 19, A. 
F. & A. M. 



ANTHONY W. INGENHUTT. 

Anthony W. Ingenhutt was born in Northeast Minneapolis 
September 34, 1886, and is a son of Joseph and JIary (Keat- 
ing) Ingenhutt, the former a native of Gladbach, Germany. 
They were married in Minneapolis in 1877, and here the 
mother died October 30, 1908. In 1863 the father came to 
Minneapolis at fifteen years of age with his parents, William 
and Mary Gertrude (Geopkins) Ingenhutt, who bought the 
farm, then containing sixty-seven acres, of Edward Bacli, 
the first postmaster of St. Anthonj^. It had half a mile of 
river frontage, a good dwelling house and other improve- 
ments, and was then considered one of the most desirable 
residence sites near the city. The price paid was $1,600, a 
large one for the period, but lie reckoned tliat tlie city would 
grow to it eventually. The limit then was Eighteenth avenue 
north, and the farm being at what is now Marshall street 
and Twenty-ninth avenue, and the city limits extending to 
Thirty-seventh avenue, his expectation has been fully real- 
ized. Since then fifty-five acres have been added and part 
of the tract bordering the river has been leased and is occu- 
pied by the Northland Pine Company. 

William Ingenhutt died in 1872. His widow survives, and 
on March 20, 1914, celebrated the one hundredtli anniversary 
of her birth. She is active and energetic, and even at her 



advanced age, continues to do her own housework. They 
were the parents of five cliildren, Joseph, John, Anthony, 
Mary and Theresa. John, Antliony and Theresa are still 
living at home with their mother. Joseph, the father of 
Anthony W., died a number of years ago, and Mary M. is 
the wife of John Reiners of this city. The family has been 
parishioners of St. Boniface Catliolie church for more than 
fifty years. 

Joseph Ingenliutt helped to manage his father's farm, dairy 
and butchering business until the age of twenty-one, then 
becoming a cement sidewalk and paving contractor. For a 
number of years he was councilman from the First ward 
and was accorded the cognomen of "Honest Joe" because of 
his unflinching integrity and unselfish devotion to the general 
welfare. He had clear and practical ideas, and with con- 
vincing argument exerted an influence in securing better- 
ments. He was a stanch Democrat, but was free from party 
bias in matters affecting the improvement of the city, and 
rendered excellent service for several years as a member of 
the park board. He reared a family of three sons and one 
daughter. Gertrude E. is living with her grandmother. John 
J. is vice president of the Northeast Feed Mill companj', and 
Thomas S. is a grain merchant. 

Anthony W. Ingenhutt, the other son and the third born, 
obtained his education in the public schools, at St. Boniface 
Catholic school, of which he is a graduate, and at La Salle 
Institute, conducted by the Christian Brothers, from whi'eh 
also he was graduated in 1904. He then worked as a book- 
keeper for the Gluek Brewing company, and in 1909 started 
his present real estate and insurance business. His pride in 
and devotion to the city and the nature of his business have 
made him an ardent advocate of public improvements, espe- 
cially those affecting the East Side. Largely through his 
efforts greater school and playground facilities have been se- 
cured, street car extensions have been made, and many other 
steps taken in keeping with the advanced spirit of the time. 

Mr. Ingenhutt is a firm believer in the power of organization 
and has made his faith in this respect practical. He is 
president of the St. Anthony Commercial club. He also be- 
longs to the Knights of Columbus, the Order of Elks, the 
Catholic Order of Foresters, the Apollo club and the Elks 
Glee club, the former being the leading male chorus in the 
Northwest, and is president of the Northeast Minneapolis 
Improvement association. 

Mr. Ingenhutt is a devout Catholic and holds active mem- 
bership in St. Boniface churcli. He is a worker for all 
advancement, moral, social and civic. In 1909 he was mar- 
ried to Miss Catherine Weeks of Minneapolis. They have 
one child, Catherine Mary. He is fond of outdoor sports, 
being especially ardent in his devotion to tennis, hand ball, 
the enlivening game of squash and indoor baseball. 



JOSEPH HENRY JOHNSON. 

Joseph Henry Johnson was horn in Calais, Maine. Jan. 17, 
1853, and came with his mother and steiifathcr. Justin Dow, 
to Minneapolis April 1857. 

He is the son of Rev. Charles Henry Augustine Johnson 
and his second wife, Navini Ann Moore, both of whom were 
lineal descendants of the New England Puritans. One of his 
paternal ancestors was Rev. Stephen Bachiler (or Batchelder), 



378 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



founder of the town of Hampton, New Hampshire, and the 
first minister of the town. Another of his paternal ancestors 
was Rev. Robert Yallalee, who was ordained by Bishop Coke 
in 1796 for the Foulah Mission, Africa, and with others went 
to Sierra Leone. Owing to war the missionaries were com- 
pelled to leave. He sailed for America, joined the Methodist 
itinerants of New England in 1796 and was appointed to 
Provincetown, Mass. In 1797 he was colleague of Joshua 
Taylor on Readfield Circuit, Maine. He founded the society 
at Saco, Maine. It was his privilege to receive into the 
church the senior bishop of the Methodist Episcopal CInirch 
South, Joshua Soule. 

Rev. Robert Yallalee died July 13, 1846, in his seventy- 
eighth year at Rome, Maine (see History of the M. E. Church 
by Abel Steven, Vol. Ill, Page 498). He married Betsey 
Hoxie. 

The great-great-grandfather of Joseph Henry Johnson and 
his great-great-great-grandfather were both signers of the 
Association Test of New Hampshire, viz., Joseph. .Johnson, 
Sr., and Deacon Joseph Johnson of Hampton, New Hamp- 
shire, thus making him eligible to the Sons of the Ameiican 
Revolution. The subject of this sketch has been a resident 
of Minneapolis since April, 1857. The white cottage at 318 
Fifth street south, where he first lived was still standing in 
1913, though there were stores built in front of it. 

Early left an orphan, Mr. Johnson was thrown upon his 
own resources, and at the age of fifteen went to live with 
the late Judge F. R. E. Cornell, during which time he attended 
the public schools and business college. 

He has been a member of the Methodist church from early 
boyhood, being one of the few remaining members of Cen- 
tenary M. E. Church, now Wesley church, which he joined in 
1868 and was a member of the Sunday School in 1857 in the 
'"Xittle White Church Around the Corner." 

He is a member of the Minnesota Territorial Pioneers, 
has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1885, is 
Past Worshipful Master of Minnesota Lodge No. 334, and one 
of its charter members, also Past Senior Grand Deacon of 
the M. W. Grand Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Minnesota. 

Jlr. .Johnson was married Feb. 15, 1877, to Miss Louise A. 
Lyon, daughter of Walter Lyon of Herrick, Pa. 

She is descended from the Puritans of New England on 
both sides. Two of her maternal ancestors were named in 
the famous charter of Connecticut granted by King Charles, 
viz., John Deming and Richard Treat. She is a member of 
the Daughters of the American Revolution through her ma- 
ternal great-grandfather, Captain .Jabez Deming, and hor 
paternal great-grandfather, William Bishop. During the 
middle seventies Jlrs. .Johnson taught in the Lincoln, .Jeffer- 
son and Washington schools of this cit.v. 

She is a graduate of the Mansfield, Pa., State Normal 
School, class of 1874, and of the Chaiitauqua Literary and 
Scientific Circle, class of 1890. 

She was Worthy Grand Matron of the Order of the Eastern 
Star of Minnesota 1895, the banner year in the history of 
the Order in this State, and Regent of Minneapolis Cliapter, 
Daughters of the American Revolution 191,3. 

Mr. and Mrs. .Joseph Henry .Johnson have two sons. Wal- 
ter Henry .Johnson, Captain Company C, Second Infantry, 
United States Army, and Arthur Eugene .Johnson, Second 
Ijieutenant, Mounted Detachment, First Regiment, Minnesota 
National Guard. The latter is associated with his father in 



business, being secretary and vice president of the .Johnson 
Undertaking company. 

Mr. Joseph Henry .Johnson is an active and successful 
business man. He was early associated with George T. Vail, 
one of the pioneer undertakers of this city, and continued 
the business thus established on Washington avenue until 
1890, when it was removed to 614 Nicollet avenue. Later the 
firm was Johnson and Landis, but in 1906 that association 
ceased, since which time Joseph H. Johnson has conducted the 
undertaking business at 838 Hennepin avenue. 

What is now known as Wyoming Park, near Camden place, 
was platted and sold by Mr. Johnson for the late John 
Bohannon in the year 1889, Mrs. Johnson naming the section 
for the historic Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, which was 
near her childhood home. 



H. S. JOHNSON. 



H. S. .Johnson, prominent manufacturer and president of 
the H. S. Johnson company, was born in Denmark, in 1849. 
At the age of eighteen he came to this country and for some 
time was employed in the Union Pacific shops at Omaha. 
In 1874 he located in Minneapolis and for several years 
worked at his trade of carpenter in various factories and 
mills, employed by the Wheat & Reynolds company, manu- 
facturers of sash and doors and subsequently in the Minne- 
apolis Planing mills and in the shops of .Johnson cS Hurd, 
wlio built the plant which Mr. .Johnson now occupies. In 
1878 he formed a partnership with Peter Frazier, purchasing 
a small shop of Janney Semple Hill & Company and engag- 
ing in the manufacture of sash and doors, operating the 
plant by means of a wire rope that was connected with the 
machinery of Camp & Walker's planing mill. After some 
years he sold his interest in this enterprise and in company 
with Mr. John W. Anderson, started a planing mill on 
Fourteenth avenue north, under the firm of Anderson &. John- 
son. This association continued during five years of profit- 
able and successful trade. At the end of that period Mr. 
Johnson sold his share of the business to his partner and 
made an independent venture in the same industry. He 
operated a mill on Nineteenth avenue for several years, and 
then, perceiving the fast approaching limitations in the plan- 
ing mill and lumber business he reverted to his former occu- 
pation of the manufacture of sash doors and mouldings and 
for the past twenty years has devoted his interests to these 
lines. The firm of Johnson & Hurd, his former employers, 
had failed and for a number of years the plant had renmined 
unoccupied and after seven or eight years in his original 
location he disposed of it and purchased the Johnson & Hurd 
property on Eighteenth avenue and Marshall street, which 
became the permanent quarters of his factory. The pur- 
chasing price was $30,000 with a cash investment of $10.(100, 
and in a few years under Mr. .Johnson's management the 
plant had paid for itself and developed a business of fully 
three times its former capacity. The company was incor- 
jiorated in 1904 with a capital of $80,000. Mr. Johnson now 
owns three-fourths of the stock. The other stockholders are 
Cliarles Lubeck, superintendent of the factory; B. A. Lind- 
pren. who holds a position in the ollices; 0. N. Nelson: Mrs. 
Bangs of Sleepy Eye, Minnesota: Anna D. .Johnson, wife of 
Jlr. Johnson, and Bernard Stahr. Tlu- company has enjoyed 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



379 



marked success through a prosperous and steady growth and 
handles a large local retail and wholesale trade, its annual 
transactions amounting to $230,000. They make a specialty 
of interior finish work of all kinds, employing expert work- 
men. Mr. Johnson is a member of the New Athletic club, the 
Auto club, the Civic and Commerce association and the North 
Side Commercial club. His fraternal affiliations are with the 
Elks and the Masonic order, having attained the rank of the 
Thirty-second degree. He was treasurer for six years of the 
Plymouth Masonic Lodge and for a number of years served 
in the same capacity in Columbia Chapter. He was married 
to Miss Anna D. Stahr and they have two children, Olga K., 
the wife of Mr. Hemrichs of Stettin, Germany, and Arthur 
H., of Muscatine, Iowa. 



OLIVE TALBOT JAFFRAY. 



In the twenty-five years that Clive Talbot .laflray has been 
a factor in the banking circles of Minneapolis, he has risen 
from a clerkship to the vice-presidency. He began his career 
as a banker in his native city, Berlin, Ontario, in the Mer- 
chants' National Bank of Canada. This was soon after he 
had finished his education in the Canadian public schools. He 
was associated with this institution for five years and gained 
there most valuable experience for his future business life. 
In 1887 he accepted a position as clerk in the Northwestern 
National Bank of Minneapolis. Two years later he was made 
bookkeeper and in 1890 w^as promoted to the position of 
assistant cashier of the same institution. In 1895 he was 
offered a cashiership in the First National Bank of Minne- 
apolis which was then as now one of the leading financial 
institutions of the city. He has been with this big banking 
house ever since, part of the time acting both as cashier and 
as vice-president. He is now devoting all of his time to the 
activity of the vice-presidency. 

Mr. Jaff'ray is a member of all of the leading social organ- 
izations of the city, including the Minneapolis and the Mini- 
kahda clubs. He is an enthusiastic golf player and spends 
much of his recreation on the golf links of the Minikahda 
club. He is a member of the Long Meadow and the Minne- 
apolis Gun Clubs. 

Mr. Jaflray was born July 1, 1865, in Berlin, Ontario, and 
is the son of W. and Agnes S. Jafi'ray. 

Aside from his activity in the First National Bank of 
Minneapolis he is also in the First National Bank of Sleepy 
Eye, Minnesota, being a director of that institution. He is 
also interested in the Northwestern Life Insurance Company, 
the Northwestern Fire and Marine Insurance Company and 
vice-president of the Minneapolis Trust Company. 



THOMAS B. JANT^EY. 



Thomas B. .Tanney is yet one of the active and energetic 
business men of Minneapolis, and at the head of an estab- 
lishment which connects him in its history and through its 
acquisitions. He h.us himself been a resident of the city 
since 1866, and throughout all the Subsequent years has been 
conducting a very extensive and active business in the hard- 
ware trade. 



Mr. .Janney was born in the village of Shanesville, Tuscara- 
was county, Ohio, on October 5, 1838, and is the son of Phineas 
M. and Frances (Smith) Janney. When he was one year old 
his parents moved to Van Buren county, Iowa, where they 
lived twelve years, and where he began his education in the 
district schools. At the age of thirteen he accompanied his 
parents to a new home in the town of Henry, Illinois, and 
there attended the academy for instruction in the higher 
branches. His first business experience was as a clerk in a" 
general store. 

In 1866 Mr. .Janney came to Minneapolis to join his brother 
Edwin and his brother-in-law, S. T. Moles, in the retail hard- 
ware business, which they were then conducting on Bridge 
Square. For a number of years the firm carried on only a 
retail business, but it was gradually drawn into the wholesale 
line, which it then steadily enlarged and emphasized in its 
operations. The trade grew and Hourished as the years 
passed, and it became manifest in time that there was room 
for another enterprise in the same line conducted on a more 
ambitious basis. 

In recognition of this fact Mr. Janney, wlio had been in the 
hardware trade in this city nine years, in 1875 associated him- 
self with Messrs. Eastman and Brooks and formed the firm of 
Janney, Brooks & Eastman. This firm purchased the hard- 
ware store started by Governor .John S. Pillsbury in 1855, and 
for a number of years carried on a wholesale and retail busi- 
ness on Bridge Square. The retail department was finally 
disposed of and the wholesale department was moved to its 
present location at the corner of First avenue south and Second 
street. 

In 1883 Mr. Brooks died and Mr. Eastman retired from the 
firm. But Mr. Janney remained at its head and .Janney & 
Semple was founded and later the present organization, .Jan- 
ney. Semple, Hill & Company was incorporated as such in 
1898. It is by far the largest wholesale hardware establish- 
ment in the Northwest, and one of the largest in America. It 
is in the wholesale trade that Mr. Janney has prospered most 
and made the greater part of his reputation as a business 
man. In this he has won the regard and respect of all mer- 
cantile circles in his home city and of those in many other 
localities, far and near. 

Mr. Janney has also taken an active and serviceable part 
in the civic and social life of the city. His aid in fostering 
and developing the city's interests in every way is generally 
recognized. For he has been connected with nearly all the 
movements and institutions which have aided in extending 
the stability and renown of Minneapolis, and has long been 
and still is active in all semi-public and philanthropic corpo- 
rations, organizations and agencies for good of every kind. 
He was one of the men who founded and conducted the old 
Minneapolis Exposition twenty-five years ago, and has for 
years been one of the directors of the Northwestern National 
Bank. He is also president of the Farmers and Mechanics 
Savings Bank, and a director of the Equitable Loan Associa- 
tion, which was started as a means of combating loan sharks. 
It is largely due to his pertinacity in its behalf that this 
institution was made the gratifying success it is. 

Mr. Janney has also long been interested in the work of 
many civic organizations and has done his full part toward 
making them as useful and productive of goo<l as possible, 
and has always given cordial siip])ort to the interests of the 
Presbyterian Church. He is a director of the Minneapolis 
Civic and Commerce Association and belongs to the Minne- 



380 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



apolis, Commercial, Minikahda and Lafayette clubs. In 1869 
he was married to Miss Mary E. Wheaton of Minneapolis. 
They have two children, their daughters Frances, who is still 
living at home, and Helen, who is now the wife of Charles M. 
Case of this tity. The delightful home of the family, "Red 
Oaks," is beautifully located on one of the inviting shores of 
Lake Minnetonka. 



estimate of him is based on his elevated manhood and genuine 
worth. 



CHARLES J. JOHNSOX. 



Mr. .Johnson is a prominent and well known lumberman, but 
has reached his position from very humble beginnings and 
through his own persistent and honorable efforts. There is 
really no more worthy career than his. He was born on his 
father's little farm in the parish of Hufmantorp, Sweden, 
September 12, 1849. His primary education was obtained in 
the parish school, but he early began to help his father on 
the farm and worked at farming in Sweden until he was 19. 

In 1869 he came to the United States and at first located 
at Stillwater, Minn. In 1870 he changed his residence to 
Minneapolis. Feeling that his education was incomplete, he 
attended a public school on the East Side, and afterward 
attended one of the city high schools, while working for H. 
M. Carpenter for his board. After the high school he was for 
another year at the State University, and also pursued a 
course of special training at a business college at night, earning 
his living by clerking in stores, and working in sawmills and 
lumber yards. 

When he left school finally Mr. .Johnson was given employ- 
ment by Messrs. Camp & Walker in the lumber business, and 
he remained in their employ for about five years. In 1879 
he became connected with C. A. Smith in lumber yards at 
Evansville, Minn., where he remained until 1884, when he 
returned to Minneapolis, and here he has been engaged in the 
lumber trade ever since. He is now vice president of the C. 
A. Smith Lumber Company and the Northwestern Compo- 
Board Company. He was one of the directors of the Swedish- 
American National Bank from its origin until it was consoli- 
dated with the Northwestern National, and has been connected 
with several other business and financial institutions. 

Mr. Johnson is an active member of the Odin Club of Minne- 
apolis, and is also liberal in his support of other social organi- 
zations and improving agencies. He is a loyal member of the 
Republican party, and is quietly active in public affairs; but 
he is more zealous and ardent in behalf of the general welfare 
of hia home community and its residents than he is in his 
services to any club, political party or other organization 
among men. The duties of citizenship come first with him, 
and other claims receive attention afterward. 

Mr. .Johnson was married May 23, 1881, to Miss Mary S. 
Craft. They have three sons, Victor, Guy and Ansel. The 
family residence is at 2325 Fremont Avenue South. From the 
time when he first came to Minneapolis the father has been a 
member of Augustana Swedish Lutheran Church, and for 
many years was one of its trustees. Mr. Johnson has practi- 
cally retired from all active pursuits and is passing his time 
in rest from long-continued and arduous labors, relief from 
business burdens and cares. He is an enthusiastic bowler, 
and has a private bowling alley on his premises in which 
he spends an hour or two every morning. He is one of the 
most generally esteemed men in Minneapolis, and the public 



FREDERICK C. BARROWS. 



The firm of Barrows Bros, was for many years among tlie 
most extensive operators in the lumber trade in Minneapolis. 
Its members are practical men, who master every line of 
effort they undertake and give close and critical attention to 
every detail of their business, whatever may be its nature 
and requirements. It is, therefore, only a logical sequence 
of their ability and industry that they have been successful 
in all of the several business engagements with which they 
have been connected and in every avenue of usefulness which 
has had their attention. 

Colonel Fred C. Barrows was born in Orono, Maine, on 
29th of March, 1830, and is the son of Micah and Judith 
(Smart) Barrows. He came to St. Anthony in 1855, whither 
he was soon followed by his brother, William M. Barrows. 
They soon began operations in the lumber industry, and made 
themselves thoroughly familiar with it in every stage and 
detail by actual personal participation in its work through 
every step of progress from the standing tree to the last turn 
of the factory on the finished product; and this they also 
attended into the retail yards and the possession of the con- 
sumer, when it was sold at retail. 

In 1869 these enterprising gentlemen founded the Barrows 
Bros, company with a large mill in active operation. The 
growth of the business was so rapid and continuous that ten 
years later greater capital and more help in management 
were required, and then 0. C. Merriman and J. S. and L. M. 
Lane became members of the company. In 1909 the business 
was incorporated under the name of The Merriman Barrows 
company. This company invested largely in pine lands, logged 
off its own timber, banked it and drove it to the mill. A 
large box factory was added to the plant, and as long as its 
timber supply lasted the company was one of the largest 
manufacturing institutions in the Northwest. When the 
supply was exliausted the mill was dismantled, and attention 
was then given to an advantageous disposal of the property, 
which included not only the large tracts of land that had 
been cut over but several acres in the mill sites and yards. 

The energies and business ability of the members of the 
company were turned into real estate channels, and all the 
property w'as in time disposed of at good prices. This com- 
pany was very prosperous m its operations, but it also met 
with some serious losses. Two immense mills were destroyed 
by fire and other disasters were suffered. But there was 
sufficient force and enterprise in the men at the head of the 
business to overcome all difficulties and keep the tides of 
prosperity at flood most of the time. 

Colonel Fred Barrows platted Barrows' Addition to Min- 
neapolis around the intersection of Lyndale avenue and 
Forty-third street. The company has since erected several 
business and residence structures in the wholesale district 
of the city and has put some of the land in use under long 
leases, thus necessitating the continuance of the incorporation, 
under the influence and control of which the improvements 
will go on with steady progress and to great proportions, 
and of which he is still president. 

Each of the Barrows brothers has been influential in shaping 





p^d'^i^^^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



381 



the destiny of Minneapolis and raising the standards of its 
industrial, commercial and civic life and activities. William 
M. served as a member of the city board of aldermen from 
1880 to 1885. His brother, Fred C, then succeeded to the 
office, and he has helped to settle many important municipal 
problems. One for wliich he is doubtless entitled to more 
credit than any other one man was limiting Minneapolis to 
a single street railway company. 

In order that he might act intelligently on this question 
Colonel Barrows visited cities with competing lines and cities 
with but one company. He studied the matter thoroughly and 
found the argument in favor of one company so overwhelming 
that he stood valiantly for the one line S3'stem here, and 
finally, after considerable effort and a large amount of adverse 
criticism, won the day for his views, thus sparing Minneapolis 
the inevitable conflicts which involve competing companies, 
an immense amount of unnecessary trackage and various other 
costly and discomforting features in its street railway system. 
Colonel Barrows, however, demanded strict regulation of the 
one company allowed, and from his positive stand in this 
respect have resulted the unsurpassed street railway facilities 
the residents of Minneapolis and the adjacent territory enjoy. 

With his strong desire to benefit his home community by 
every means available Colonel Barrows became one of the 
original stockliolders of the Soo Railroad. He realized its 
value to Minneapolis, and was eager to aid all he could in 
its construction, although he knew from the beginning that 
the road could not possibly pay any dividends to its stock- 
holders for many years. He has largely increased his holdings 
in the stock of this road in recent times, and he is now 
enjoying some measure of the legitimate fruits of his fore- 
sight and enterprise in connection with it. 

Governor David Clough, in 1898, appointed Colonel Barrows 
state inspector of oils. The colonel conducted the aflairs of 
this office with an eye single to the public good and won 
general and cordial commendation by his wise and vigorous 
administration of its extensive and complicated duties. He 
served two terms on the State Board of Equalization, was 
also a member of Governor Clough's staff. 

Colonel Barrows has been married twice. His first union 
occurred in 1865 and was with Miss Sarah J. Swain, of 
Monticello, Mo. She died in 1873, and in March 9, 1877, he 
was married to Mrs. Sadie .J. (BusshII) Jones, she has a 
son Earl W. C, an attorney at law, as his second wife. His 
children are: Nellie, now the wife of F. R. Salisbury, of 
Minneapolis; Fred J., who is at home; and Frank, a well 
known and very successful music teacher and conductor at 
Antioch, California. Another son, named Harry, was deputy 
state oil inspector for a numbeif of years and secretary of the 
state senate for two terms. He became an osteopathic 
physician, but died while he was yet a young man, before he 
had time to make his mark in his profession, as ho surely 
would have done if he had lived. 

Colonel Barrows is an enthusiastic Freemason and one of 
the oldest members of the fraternity in Minneapolis, having 
been raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason in 
Cataract Lodge in 1859. He holds membership in all the 
different branches in the Order, including the thirty-second 
degree in the Scottish Rite and the Mystic Shrine, being 
connected with Zurah Temple, Minneapolis, in the branch last 
named. He takes an active part in the meetings and proceed- 
mgs of the difl'erent bodies in the fraternity and is a zealous 
promoter of the welfare of each. In business, in public oflice. 



in social life and in the duties of citizenship generally, he has 
demonstrated his great ability and genuine worth, and he is 
esteemed in all parts of the city as one of its best, most 
useful and most representative men from every point of 
view. 



ANDREW BLAKE JACKSON. 

Mr. Jackson is one of the leading members of the Minne- 
apolis bar and enjoys a wide acquaintance and practice 
throughout the state. 

By birth he belongs to the sturdy sons of the soil for his 
ancestors were a race of Connecticut farmers for several gen- 
erations. These forebears were Colonists and then soldiers 
in the War of the Revolution. By his training he became a 
scholar and a professional man, having spent his school days 
in Brooklyn, Freeport and Utica, New York, and graduating 
from Hobert College, Geneva, New York, in 1870, and from 
Columbia Law School, New York, in 1873. Fart of his years 
of training were spent in a law office at Utica, N. Y. His 
years of endeavor brought him into the wealthy professional 
class of Minneapolis, and developed in him the highest char- 
acteristics for good citizenship, and he has been one of the 
most enthusiastic and efficient participants in all public enter- 
prises which have made for the up-building of the great city 
of Minneapolis. 

After Mr. Jackson received his degree from the Columbia 
Law School he practiced his profession for five years in New 
York City. While there he became attorney for the Bond- 
holders' Committee of the Kansas City Railway and spent 
most of his time during 1878 in Kansas City. When the 
Kansas City Railway was absorbed by the Union Pacific in 
1880 he came to Minneapolis to engage in private practice. 
For a number of years he was in partnership with Judge 
Pond under the firm name of Jackson and Pond and later the 
firm name became Jackson and Atwater when he formed li 
partnership with Judge Atwater. 

He has never sought office and has only been interested 
in politics so far as it was his duty as a man and a citizen. 
He believes in the principles of the Republican party and is 
an earnest student of conditions and the political situation. 

A year after he came to make Minneapolis his home he 
was married to Eugenia Cheney Adams. They have two 
children living. The son, Anson Blake Jackson, Jr., was 
graduated from Yale University with the class of 1907 and 
the daughter, Margaret E. Jackson, who was a member of 
the graduating class from Rosemary Hall, Greenwich, Con- 
necticut, in 1906. 

The family is popular and prominent socially, Mr. Jackson 
being a member of a number of the principal clubs of the 
city. 



DAVID PERCY JONES. 



The men born and reared in a cDmmunity who rise to emi- 
nence among its people and maintain their rank are usually 
the best representatives of the characteristics, attributes, 
aspirations and achievements of the residents of that com- 
niunit}', and present in their own records most frequently an 



382 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



epitome of its history and the sources of its progress. Among 
the business and public men of Minneapolis none more dearly 
holds this relation to the city than Uavid P. Jones, several 
times its mayor, and for many years one of its leading busi- 
ness men, public spirits and social ornaments. 

Mr. Jones was born in Minneapolis on July 6, 1800, and is 
a son of Judge Edwin S. and Harriet M. (.Tames) Jones. He 
was educated in the public schools of the city, being graduated 
from the Minneapolis High School in 1878, after which he 
attended the University of Minnesota, and from it received 
the degree of A. B. in 1883. Young as he was at his gradua- 
tion he felt a call to business and an impelling ambition to 
take his place in the stirring activities and large ejfcitement 
of the mart — "in among the throngs of men." 

Accordingly, he at once entered the business founded by his 
father in 1868, embracing real estate, mortgage loans, rentals 
and fire insurance. With this business he was connected under 
its original form and management until January 1, 1900, when 
it was incorporated as David P. .Jones & Co., with himself as 
president, which he has been ever since. The business has 
grqwn and flourished from its inception, and has long held 
a leading place among the mercantile entities of the city, Mr. 
.Jones being everywhere recognized as one of the best posted 
and. most judicious men in his line, and as having excellent 
judgment in reference to business affairs in general. 

Mr. Jones has shown this versatility and resourcefulness in 
his practical business operations, which embrace several enter- 
prises besides the one in which he began his career. He is presi- 
dent of the .Jones Realty company and tlie Jones-Davis Agency, 
and vice president of the Hennepin County Savings Bank, and 
is connected in an inrtuential way with other business under- 
takings of great value to tlie community. In every line of 
endeavor to which he has put his hand he has shown unusual 
capacity and been successful in carrying his operations to a 
high plane and also in making them profitable to himself and 
beneficial to the people around him. 

This wise and progressive business man of Superior talent 
has not confined his activities to mercantile life alone. With 
a good citizen's interest in the community in which he lives, 
he has for years taken an active part in public afiairs, local 
and general, and has given Minneapolis excellent service in 
connection with the administration of its civil government in 
two important positions. He represented his ward in the 
board of Aldermen six years, and during four was president of 
the board. He was also acting mayor from July to Decem- 
ber 31, 1902, and was first elected mayor for the term begin- 
ning .January 1, 1905. The wisdom, vigor and progressive- 
ness of his official administration brought him great credit 
and warm commendation from all classes of the residents of 
the city. 

On May 13, 1891, Mr. .Jones was married in Minneapolis to 
Miss Alice Gale, who was born and reared in Minneapolis. 
They are members of the Congregational church, and in its 
councils Mr. Jones is active, prominent and .serviceable. He 
is president of the board of trustees of Carleton College at 
Northfield, Minnesota, and a member of the Anu-rican Board 
of Foreign Missions. He is also a member of the executive 
committee of the National Municipal League. In each of these 
organizations he is zealous in his attention to the interests 
he has in charge and with reference to them all he makes his 
force of character and intelligence felt. 

In the fraternal and social life of the city of his home Mr. 
Jones has also taken a very lively and helpful interest. He is 



a Freemason, a member of the Loyal Legion, and belongs to 
the Minneapolis, University, Six O'clock and Minikahda clubs. 
His membership in each is highly valued and of benefit 
through his activity, his breadth of view and his strong and 
stimulating personality. There is no better citizen of Min- 
neapolis, and none who is more widely or favorably known 
for progressiveness, aggressiveness for what he believes to be 
right, purity of private life and genuine interest in the public 
welfare than the former mayor of the city, David P. Jones. 



HERSCHELL V. JONES. 



Mr. Jones is a native of Jefferson, Schoharie county, New 
York, where his life began on August 30, 1861. He is a son 
of William S. and Helen E. (Merchant) .Jones, and obtained 
his education in the district schools and at Delaware Literary 
Institute, Franklin, New York. His trend was toward jour- 
nalism from early life, and in 1879, when he was but eighteen 
years of age he became the owner of the .Jefferson (N. Y.) 
Courier. In 1885 he moved to Minneapolis, and here he began 
his journalistic work as a reporter on the Minneapolis Journal. 
With this paper he was connected in various capacities for 
seventeen years. Late in the eighties he founded his news- 
paper market service and became its commercial editor. 

In 1001 Mr. .Jones started "The Commercial West," a weekly 
publication which he conducted until September 1, 1908, when 
he became owner of the Minneapolis Journal. 

Although Mr. Jones has never been an active partisan, and 
has never sought or desired a political office of any kind, 
he has been a firm believer in the principles of the Republican 
party from his youth, and wherever he has lived has been 
earnestly and serviceably interested in public affairs. He is 
a member of the Minneapolis, Minikahda, and Skylight chibs. 
On September 30, 1885, he was married to Lydia A. Wilco.x, 
of .Jefferson, New York. 



SAMUEL S. THORPE. 



Mr. Thorpe was born on April 20, 1864, at Red Wing, 
Minnesota, a .son of Samuel S. and Caroline E. (Emery) 
Thorpe, both of New England ancestry, but with the family 
on the father's side long domesticated in the state of New 
York, while that of the mother lived for generations in Maine. 
The father was a Methodist minister and for a number of 
years a member of the faculty of Hamline University in this 
state. The son's educational facilities in early life were 
meagre, and what he obtained was just sufficient to whet his 
appetite to keenness for more. But the circumstances of the 
family compelled him to earn bread by the sweat of his brow 
while he was yet very young, and he entered upon the task 
of doing it with all his powers and stuck to it as if held 
by the tug of gravitation. 

After a few years of sedulous indtistry and great frugality 
he was able to attend Hamline University for a time. But 
he could not complete the course of study at that institution, 
and accepting the inevitable with cheerfulness, again went to 
work. That is, he went into business and at once began 
showing the metal of which he was made. He accumulated 
about $70,000 in two years, then gave up all mencantile 




Ci^'^ytyCcb 



/^ JrZ^^-L , 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



383 



pursuits and passed two years at Princeton University, from 
which he was graduated in 1889. 

Prior to this, after serving for awhile as a newsboy, he 
secured a position in a liat store in 1883. During the next 
two years he was employed in a bank, and from that he 
engaged in handling real estate, in which his success was 
great from the start. After returning from Princeton well 
fortified with the knowledge he luid craved he re-entered the 
real estate business in association with his brother, J. R. 
Thorpe, under the firm name of Thorpe Bros., the style under 
which the business is still conducted although it is now 
incorporated with Samuel S. Thorpe as president of the com- 
pany. 

Thorpe Brothers and the corporation of the same name have 
built a large number of the jobbing houses in this part of 
the city and have handled and sold or built large numbers 
of the wholesale and retail buildings. The company is also 
agent for a great many of the leading business blocks in 
Minneapolis, including the Andrus Building, the Palace Build- 
ing, the Plymouth Building, the Dyckman Hotel, and many 
others of magnitude and importance. 

Samuel S. Thorpe is president of Thorpe Bros., real estate, 
incorporated, as stated above; a trustee of Hamline University 
and secretary of the board, and vice president of the Asbury 
Hospital of Minneapolis; president of the University Club 
and served as president of the National Association of Real 
Estate Exchanges. He is eminently social in his disposition, 
and manifests it by active, helpful and valued membership in 
the Minneapolis, Athletic, Minikahda, University and Auto- 
mobile clubs. He is also in close touch with the genius 
of improvement awake and at work in his community, and one 
of the potential factors in all undertakings started and carried 
on by it. Every phase of his business, locally and generally, 
engages his close and deeply interested attention, and he is 
particularly active in connection with national real estate 
affairs. In 1911 he was president of the National Real Estate 
Association, which for some time previous to that year he 
served as vice president. At the conventions of this association 
he has been for years a regular attendant, and over the one 
that met in Denver, Colorado, in July, 1911, he presided with 
distingiiished ability which won him high commendation. 

Mr. Thorpe was married on October 3, 1899, to Miss Margaret 
P. Andrus, a daughter of Hon. John E. Andrus, of Yonkers, 
New York. Thej' have four children, their sons Andrus, 
James R., Jule and Samuel S., .Jr. Besides being one of the 
leading business men of Minneapolis the father is one of the 
city's most admired and esteemed citizens from every point of 
view. 



HON. LOWELL E. JEPSON. 



Lowell Ellsworth Jepson is a scion of one of the pioneer 
families and was born on the old homestead in Rice county, on 
the 19th of October, 1863. His parents were John and Lydia 
(Sherpy) Jepson, the former born in New York and the latter 
in Ohio, where they were married and from whence they 'came 
to Minnesota in the '50s. .John Jepson reclaimed a fine farm 
and became a substantial agriculturist and well known and 
influential citizen. During the Civil war he was a member of 
the First Minnesota Heavy Artillery, and his patriotism was 
on a parity with his sterling character. He was influential 
in public aifairs, contributing his full quota to the development 



and upbuilding of the county. He also conducted for a num- 
ber of years a prosperous general merchandise business at 
Cannon City. He passed the closing years of a long and 
useful life in Minneapolis, where he died on January 21, 1913, 
at the age of seventy-eight. He was a stalwart in the Repub- 
lican party, and his religious faith was that of the Congre- 
gational church. 

Lowell E. .Jepson was reared on the old homestead and his 
preliminary education was in the public schools. He entered 
Carleton College at Northfield, in which institution he com- 
pleted the scientific course, graduating in the class of 1887, 
with the degree of Bachelor of Science. Later his alma mater 
conferred the degree of Master of Science. 

In 1888 he purchased the Winkley patents on artificial limbs 
and with these as the base of operations he instituted, on a 
most modest scale, the enterprise which has been developed 
into one of the mofst important industries of Minneapolis. 
With limited capital he began manufacturing artificial limbs, 
his original quarters comprising one small room and employing 
two workmen. He studied anatomy and mechanics, with a 
view of making limbs that would most nearly supply the 
place of natural members of the human body, and this investi- 
gation was carried to a diligent study in meeting the needs 
of individual eases, and proving a force in bringing the business 
to its present prominence and success. Im])rovements have 
been made and new patents have been secured to supplement 
the original excellent ones. The reputation of the manufac- 
tory is of the highest, thousands afflicted by the loss of limbs 
being drawn to the establishment by the conceded excellence 
of its product. 

In 1906 was erected and equipped the present fine manu- 
facturing plant at Fourteenth and Washington avenues North, 
and here employment is given to a corps of fifty highly skilled 
artisans. 

Mr. Jepson is loyal and public-spirited and a zealous cham- 
pion of the Republican party. In 1898 he was elected from 
the Forty-fourth district to the state senate, and forthwith 
became known as an active and effective worker. He took 
a part in all legislation pertaining to sanitary, medical and 
general health regulations, working to elevate the professional 
standard in the various medical institutions of the state. To 
his efforts was largely due the establishment of the state 
tuberculosis hospital at Walker, and the legislation providing 
means for the treatment, under state auspices, of deformed 
children. Study of anatomy taught him the expediency of 
treating deformed children while young, his labors in this 
initial provision for the proper care of such children being 
acknowledged. 

He has been a delegate to several state conventions and has 
proved himself an able and popular campaign speaker. 

Mr. .Jepson became one of the organizers of the Minne- 
apolis Civic and Commerce Association, and was selected a 
member of its first board of directors. For sixteen years Mr. 
Jepson has been a member of the board of trustees of Carleton 
College, and has the distinction of being the first of a younger 
generation to be called to this position in the college in 
which he himself was graduated. Both he and wife are 
members of Pilgrim Congregational church, contributing to 
its generic work and collateral, benevolences, also to charities 
and general philanthropic work. 

In 1889 occurred the marriage of Mr. Jepson to Miss Ada 
S. Whiting, and they have three daughters — Katharine, Lydia 
and Charlotte. 



384 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



AVILLIS JASON JEXNISON. 

The late Willis J. Jennison, who died in Minneapolis, at 
his home, 2546 Portland avenue, June 11, 1908, was identified 
with diversified interests and displayed superior capacity and 
public spirit. 

He was born at Shelburne, Chittenden county, Vermont, 
May 17, 1852, was reared on a farm and attended Essex 
Classical School and Barre Academy. His parents had died 
in his infancy, but a well-to-do and generous uncle gave him 
a pleasant home, reared him with parental care and provided 
liberally for his education. Through life the recollections of 
the years passed in that home were among his chief sources 
of pleasure, cherishing the memory of the uncle with grati- 
tude and appreciative aff'ection. 

At twenty-two Mr. Jennison came to Janesville, Minne- 
sota, where Warren Jennison, his much older half-brother, 
was engaged in business. He clerked in a store for a time 
and then for five years conducted a retail lumber yard at 
Waseca. In 1882, in partnership with Stokes Bros., he built 
a flouring mill at Watertown, South Dakota, which he 
managed for five years. Returning to Waseca he devoted 
the next six years to looking after his interests in a large 
mill at Janesville, a few miles distant. 

He became a resident of Minneapolis in 1893, and for 
some three years thereafter gave his attention to mills out- 
side the city. In 1896 he organized the W. J. .Jennison 
company, which acquired a large mill at Apjileton, Minn. 
Mr. Jennison served as president of this company and head 
of an extensive wholesale flour business until his death. 

For some years he was also interested in Gregory, .Jennison 
& Company, grain dealers in Minneapolis, and in the Powers 
Elevator company. He was thus interested in .several flourish- 
ing mills, and as long as able gave his personal attention to 
their direction. He also was a stockholder and director in 
a bank at Janesville, but his energies were centered prin- 
cipally in the grain and milling business, and in those lines 
of industrial and mercantile enterprise he was an important 
factor. 

After a residence of three years at Janesville, Mr. .Jennison 
returned to Hinesburgh, Vermont, and was there married in 
1877 to Miss Florence Beecher, a daughter of Dr. Elmer 
Beecher, and a descendant of an old and distinguished New 
England family. They have one child, Helen, who is with 
her mother at the pleasant residence, which was erected in 
1900. Mr. Jennison was a great believer in young men, and 
was ever ready to assist them, not only with encouraging 
words, but also with sympathetic deeds and, when necessary, 
with financial aid. He was one of the most highly and 
generally esteemed men in the community. 



ousTA^^T.s johnson. 



Because no small niinilvr of his former pnjiils have come 
to be enrolled in the lists of musicians of more than ordinary 
accomplishment, the name of C.ustavus .Johnson stands high 
among the instructors of the West. For more than thirty- 
five years Mr. .Johnson has been one of the foremost musicians 
of the Northwest. It was early in his youth, in Stockholm, 
Sweden, that his musical talents pointed the way to an 
illustrious career, and his realization, in a great measure. 



of early predictions of success have fully borne out the child- 
hood promise. It was in Stockholm, in conjunction with his 
education in high school, that he gained his first training, 
studying the piano and theory of music under the leading 
masters of the art in that seat of music in Northern Europe. 
He added to this schooling in the Schartau business college 
in Stockholm and was graduated from there in 1874. A year 
later he emigrated to America and after looking about him 
in the East concluded the West held fine opportunities of 
which he preferred to take advantage. He came direct to 
Minneapolis, and here for the most part of the time he has 
remained. He rapidly attracted a following of appreciative 
people in musical circles, and soon came into more than 
ordinary prominence, both as an instructor in music and as 
a concert pianist. His talents likewise took the direction of 
original composition, and throughout the long period of his 
residence in Minneapolis he has from time to time produced 
not only for the piano but for other instruments as- well as 
for the voice. His most noteworthy works are a trio for 
piano, violin and cello, and a concerto for piano and orchestra. 
He has taken a prominent part in musical organizations, and 
his influence has been more than state-wide, partly through 
his leadership in the Minnesota Music Teachers' Association, 
of which he was president 1905-6. 

Mr. Johnson is a son of Peter Johnson, a native of Sweden, 
and Henrietta Hole, a daughter of that Admiral Hole who 
had so glorious a record in the annals of the English navy. 
The Holes were an old English family, and the youth who 
first distinguished himself as a lieutenant under Lord Nelson 
entered the navy about 1795, served through the battle of 
Trafalgar and several other notable battles, and won his way 
to the rank of admiral. At the time of his death in 1870 
Admiral Hole was the oldest officer — and admittedly one of 
the most gallant — in the English navy. 

The boy Gustavus Johnson was born in Hull, England, and 
lived there until he was three years old. It was then that 
his parents moved to Stockholm, and it was in Stockholm 
that the son remained until he was nineteen years old, when 
he came to America. Mr. .lohnson was born November 2, 
1856. He was married in 1882 to Miss Caroline Frances 
Winslow, a direct descendant of that Governor Edward Wins- 
low who was so prominent in the events of colonial times in 
America. They have a daughter, Laura Louise. Mr. .John- 
son now gives the greater part of his time to conducting the 
Johnson School of Music, Oratory and Dramatic Art, which 
he established in 1898 — the second large and important school 
of its kind to be founded in Minneapolis. 



HARRY A. TUTTLE. 



Harry A. Tuttle, now president and general manager of 
the North American Telegraph company, the Northwestern 
connection of the Postal Telegraph and Cable system, is a 
native of Oswego. New York, where his life began on Sep- 
tember 19, 1846, and a son of .John and Mary Elizabeth 
(Perkins! Tuttle. The father was a pattern maker by trade 
but became a builder and passed the greater part of his later 
life in that occupation. The son spent his boyhood and early 
youth in Oswego, and was graduated from the high school m 
that city at the age of fifteen. He then entered the telegraph 
service at Adams, New York, as an operator on the I'nitcd 




\ 




t_ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



385 



States Biancli Telegrapli com'pany's lines. He has been in 
this important and exacting service ever since, except during 
the period between 1876 and 1882. 

Mr. Tuttle was manager of the Western Union office at 
Oswego from 1870 to 1876. But in the meantime he was 
transferred from Adams to Ilion and was manager for the 
company there until its consolidation with the Western Union 
and after that time until he was assigned to duty in Oswego. 
From 1876 to 1882 he was engaged in merchandising, and 
in the year last named came to Minneapolis, arriving on 
February 13, _ and at once assuming the management of the 
Western Union office here. He remained in charge of that 
office until February, 1886, when he resigned to accept the 
general superintendency of the North American Telegraph 
company. He superintended the construction of the lines of 
that com|)any. and was elected its secretary and general 
manager. Afterward he was elected vice president and 
general manager, and still later president and general manager, 
the position in the company which he now liolds. He has done 
excellent work in connection with this company, and his 
ability and enterprise in performing it have given him an 
enviable reputation as a telegraph man throughout the North- 
west. 

The club life of his home community has interested Mr. 
Tuttle and he has long been a potential factor in it. He 
belongs to the Minneapolis Commercial club, of which he was 
president in 1909 and 1910, the Minnesota club, of St. Paul, 
the Minneapolis Athletic, Rotary and Elks' clubs and the 
Chicago Athletic Association. He was married on June 15, 
1870, at Ilion, New York, to Miss Amanda Carpenter. They 
had one cliild, a son, Charles W. Tuttle. Mr. Tuttle is 
a Republican in his political faith and takes an active and 
serviceable interest in local public affairs, but only as a good 
citizen, not as a partisan or seeker of any of the honors or 
emoluments of public office. He is also earnest in his support 
of all projects involving the advancement and improvement of 
the city and the welfare of its residents. 



JACOB KUNZ. 



Jacob Kunz began his career as a locomotive fireman on the 
Omaha railroad. This was soon after he was sixteen years 
of age. He had finished his common school education and the 
dream of his life was to become a locomotive engineer. To 
this end he sought the position as fireman. He tontinued in 
this work for five years, then he came to Minneapolis in 1878 
and entered the employ of the Island Power Company, which 
was then under the management of W. W. Eastman. Mr. 
Eastman offered young Kunz the opportunity to work for 
the company as engineer and millwright. For some years he 
was connected with this company as an employe, but he 
finally acquired stock in the concern and became its first 
general superintendent and later general manager. 

Almost from the first Mr. Kunz's business connections 
have been constantly widening. He became interested in a 
number of local concerns. Among them the North Star Malt- 
ing Company and the Minneapolis Brewing Company. At 
present he is General Manager of the Minneapolis brewing 
company, also its vice-president and one of its directors. He 
is also vice-president and director of the North Star Malting 
Company, and president of the Kunz Oil Company, and a 



director in the German -American Bank. He gives personal 
attention to all of various business interests, and it is to 
this fact that the credit is due for a large measure of the 
success Avhich has come to all the great business concerns 
with which he is identified. He is public spirited and interested 
in everything that makes for the betterment of the city but 
he has never sought public office or political honors. 

Jacob Kunz is of German parentage, and was liimself born 
in the old country in 1857. He passed his early boyhood in 
that country although he has been a resident of Minnesota 
for more than forty years. When he was only eleven years 
old he came with his parents to America and settled in Chaska, 
Minnesota. Here his father engaged in farming and the 
boy worked in the interval of his schooling on the farm. He 
has come to be one of the most prominent and prosperous 
of the German- American citizens of Minneapolis. 



JAY HUGHES JOHNSTON, D. D. S. 

Dr. Jay Hughes Johnston, who died in Minneapolis on 
April 14, 1913, gave in his manliness and the career he 
wrought out a forcible illustration of the solid qualities, and 
their value for sustained, effective and successful warfare in 
the battle of life. 

Dr. Johnston was born in the city of Northumberland, 
county of the same name, Pennsylvania, on May 11, 1842, 
the son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Charrington) Johnston. Na- 
tives of Pennsylvania, they were farmers and both died in 
Pennsylvania. Early in his boyhood he was taken to Bucks 
county, in the same state, where he remained until he 
reached the age of sixteen. He was a poor boy and obliged 
to make provision for himself while he was still very young. 
He worked out to educate himself academically and profes- 
sionally, literally digging his way through the district school 
and the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, from which 
he was graduated in 1870. It was his custom to attend 
school in the morning and work in a grocery store in the 
afternoon, and he kept on with this division of time between 
his studies and the labor for his livelihood until he received 
his dental degree and was ready to begin practicing his 
profession. 

Directly after receiving his degree in 1870 he took up his 
residence in Washington, D. C, and there he was actively and 
successfully engaged in professional work for thirteen years. 
He was an expert workman in the mechanical department 
of his profession, and was also well versed in the technical 
knowledge belonging to it. He was always studious and 
made every effort to keep up witli the most advanced thought 
and discovery in connection with his work, and won recogni- 
tion in Washington as one of tlie most knowing, skillful and 
progressive dentists in that city. When failing health forced 
him to visit Europe for a change of air and svirroundings he 
took with him scores of strong testimonials from the leading 
men and women of Washington of that period, among them 
high officials of the government and other persons of renown 
in this country and foreign lands. 

While he was in Europe he visited Rome and all other 
places of interest, saw a great deal of the country and be- 
came familiar with the customs of the people in many places. 
His health was somewhat improved by his trip, but on his 
return to this country he deemed it unwise to again risk 



386 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



himself in the humid climate of the Atlantic slope, and so 
came to Minneapolis to live. He began practicing here, but 
continued for only a few weeks. The climate of California 
seemed inviting to him, and he moved to San Francisco, 
where he conducted an active and profitable practice for 
nine years. 

The Pacific coast climate was a delusion in his case, how- 
ever, and he found the salt air and excessive moisture there 
hurtful to him. So he returned to Minneapolis, where he 
had received benefit before, and again began practicing here, 
being located in the Masonic building for a number of years 
and then moving his offices to the Syndicate block, where he 
remained to the end of his life. His health was entirely 
restored; he had an extensive and remunerative practice, and 
he became active in all the dental societies in this part of 
the country. 

Dr. .Johnston's diligent and reflective study of his profes- 
sion led him to make many improvements in tlie tools manu- 
factured for its work. These liave been found advantageous 
and been adopted generally throughout the domains of dental 
science. 

Fraternal life interested the doctor intensely. He was an 
enthusiastic Freemason of the thirty-second degree, and an 
active participant in the doings of all branches of the frater- 
nity. He stood high in Masonic circles far beyond the 
boundaries of his state, and wlien he died his Lodge, of which 
he had long been a member, piously bestowed his remains 
in their last resting place with the beautiful and impressive 
ceremonies of the order. 

On June 4, 1889, Dr. Johnston was married in Minneapolis 
to Miss Anna C. Hang, the daughter of John Hang, a pros- 
perous farmer of Carver county, Minnesota. Slie is a native 
of Milwaukee, but has long been a resident of Minneapolis. 
Edgar C. Johnston, the one child born in the family, is still 
living with his mother in her home at 3131 Stevens avenue. 



WILLIAJI A. KERR. 



William A. Kerr, a prominent member of the Minneapolis 
bar and former municipal judge, was bom in New Brunswick, 
Canada, 1867, the son of William A., and Mary .T. (Loggie) 
Kerr. He received his education in his native city, attending 
the common schools and later the University of New Bruns- 
wick where he was graduated in 1887. He then began prep- 
arations for his professional career and for two years studied 
law in the offices of Weldon & McLeon, at St. Johns. New 
Brunswick. In 1889 he came to Minneapolis and in April of 
the same year was admitted to the bar and began tlie practice 
of law. At first he carried on his legal work alone but 
soon entered into a partnership with Russell, Calhoun & Reed. 
An appointment to the bench necessitated the retirement of 
Judge Russell from the firm and about this time Mr. Calhoun 
removed to Illinois, leaving the firm, Reed & Kerr, an asso- 
ciation that continued for about three years. In 1894 Mr. 
Kerr was elected municipal judge. For six years he gave 
the city most efficient and honorable service in this position. 
At the end of his term of office he formed a partnership 
with Judge Fred V. Brown which was maintained for a 
number of years, with the exception of a term of four years 
when Judge Brown served on the bench. In 1909 Mr. Fowler 
became the third member of the firm and on the appointment 



of Judge Brown as western counsel for the Great Northern 
railroad company, it became Kerr & Fowler. The present 
professional associations of Mr. Kerr, formed in 1913, are 
with Kerr, Fowler. Ware & Furber. Mr. Kerr is a member 
of the order of Elks and affiliated with the Commercial Club 
the Minneapolis, the Minikahda, the LaFayette and the Repub- 
lican Clubs. 



GEORGE HENRY WARREN. 



George Henry Warren, who for more than forty-two years 
has been engaged in the land and real estate business in 
Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Minneapolis, was born in Oakfield, 
New York on January 16, 1845. His parents were James and 
Sarah March Warren. His grandfather, Henry Warren, who 
was a descendant of the Varrennes or Warren(nel8 who 
landed in England with AVilliam the Conqueror, migrated 
from Devonshire and settled in Stafford, New York. He was 
the inventor Of the first grain separator then known in that 
state or, probably, in America. Mr. Warren's father was a 
farmer, but also a manufacturer of threshing machines, car- 
riages, and sleighs. In this factory and in the rich forests 
of western New York, while assisting his father, Mr. Warren 
received an early training in the selection of kinds and qual- 
ities of woods, and of trees that proved invaluable in later 
years. 

He attended the common schools of Oakfield which at that 
time were very good. Later, he prepared for college at the 
Cary Collegiate Seminary in Oakfield, and at the Genesee 
\Vesleyan Seminary at Lima, New York. He entered Genesee 
College, then at Lima (now Syracuse University at Syracuse) 
and graduated with the degree of B. S. in 1866. In 1872, 
after five years of teaching and of study, he received, from 
the same institution, the degree of M. S. 

Immediately after graduation, Mr. Warren came to the 
West, and. in the school year of 1867-8, became principal of 
the High School at Hastings, Minnesota. Then for two years 
he was principal of the High School and superintendent of the 
public schools at Faribault, Minnesota. During those years, 
lie was one of the best known educators in the state. 

During that period, also, he made several trips to Minne- 
apolis, and because of his early training under hij father's 
direction in the forests of New York, he was impressed by 
the thriving timber and lumber interests there. In 1870, an 
attractive offer to enter the timber land business in the 
Northwest induced Mr. Warren to leave the teaching pro- 
fession for one, more congenial and witli better prospects of 
financial success. His work as surveyor and timber land ex- 
aminer began in 1871 in the pine forests of Wisconsin. He 
engaged in this work continuously for many years, and ac- 
quired experience and a knowledge of the resources of Wrs- 
consin and Minnesota wliich he put to practical use, when, , 
in 1S71, he entered the land business and acquired extensive 
pine and mineral land interests. 

Since 1872. Mr. Warren has been a resident and loyal cit- 
izen of Minneapolis, actively interested in civic and eduoa-* 
tional conditions. In 1889. he was elected a member of the 
city council for the thirteenth ward and was made chairman 
of the committee on railroads. At that time the street rail- 
way was required to change its system of motive power from 
horse to electric, and, as cliairnian of tlie council committee, 




ALo. HrroAA^e^i^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



387 



Sir. Warren took a prominent part in the framing of 
ordinances relating to the electrification and to the control 
of the local traction system. 

In the days of the Business Men's Union, the predecessor 
of the Commercial Club, and of the Athletic Club, Mr. Warren 
was active in promoting the civic and educational interests 
of Minneapolis. In 1892, because of an acquaintance with 
men of affairs in the northern part of the state that gave 
him inside information regarding a movement to secure the 
School of Mines for Duluth. he was able to do a most val- 
uable service both to the city and to the state university. 
Knowing that the outcome of a light with Duluth for this 
school would be uncertain, Mr. Warren urged the Business 
Men's Union to appoint a committee to raise money for a 
building for an ore testing plant at the University. As chair- 
man of the committee which the Business Men's Union ap- 
pointed, he raised the funds for the building and kept the 
School of Mines at Minneapolis. 

Mr. Warren is a member and supporter of the Civic and 
Commerce Association and of the Society of Fine Arts. He is 
also a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, 
and of the Academy of Natural Sciences, of the Masonic 
fraternity and of Psi Upsilon. He belongs to the University, 
Minneapolis, and Minikahda Clubs of Minneapolis. 

On November 6, 1872, he married Jennie L. Conkey of Fari- 
bault. Minnesota. Their children were Aurie Sarah who was 
born September 13, 1873, and who died March 28, 1876; and 
Frank Merton who was born December 1, 1875, and who is 
now associated with his father in his various interests. 



THOMAS N. KENYON. 



Thomas N. Kenyon. prominent in the manufacturing circles 
of Minneapolis as proprietor of the Kondon Manufacturing 
company, one of the leading industries of the city, was born 
in the Adirondack mountains in New York state. He came 
to Minneapolis in 1882 and was employed as salesman in a 
retail store and then accepted a position with an eastern 
specialty company and for over twelve years represented this 
firm in the northwest. During his travels he visited Rhine- 
lander, Wisconsin, where he became acquainted with Mr. .J. .J. 
Reardon with whom in 1892 he formed a partnership for 
the production of Kondon's catarrhal jelly. After three years 
of this association in Rhinelander, Mr. Kenyon became sole 
owner of the business and removed to Minneapolis. For 
some years he worked in the basement of his home, putting 
all his resources and effort into the enterprise, experiencing 
much delay in getting the commodity placed on the market 
through lack of capital but confident in its ultimate success. 
Through his determination and progressive business methods 
lie won recognition for his remedy and with the help of its 
intrinsic merit has established a vast trade throughout this 
and other countries. Thirty-five thousand druggists now 
handle the article and distributing agencies are maintained in 
Toronto, London, Havana and Guadalajara in Mexico. When 
he met with his first successes, Mr. Kenyon moved from his 
modest quarters in the basement of his home to a double 
store building on Stevens avenue and in 1911 occupied his 
own building at 2608 Nicollet avenue where thirty-five work- 
men are employed, supplying the constantly increasing demand 
while eight traveling salesman are engaged in extending the 



business. The remarkable development and noteworthy suc- 
cess of the Kondon Manufacturing company is a striking 
example of what may be accomplished through the ability 
and perserverance of one man. Mr. Kenyon was married 
November 8, 1888, in Minneapolis, to Miss Ellie DeMille. They 
have two children. Norma R. who married Mr. Asa .J. Hunter 
of Minneapolis, and Donald D. Mr. Kenyon is a member of 
the Hennepin Avenue Methodist-Episcopal chufch and in 
Masonic orders has attained the rank of Shriner and the 
Thirty-second degree. He is a member of tlie United Com- 
mercial Travelers association and is prominent in the leading 
social and commercial organizations of the city, holding mem- 
bership in the Minneapolis, Athletic, Interlocken, Lafayette, 
Rotary and Auto clubs and in the Commercial and West Side 
Commercial clubs. 



JOSEPH RAMSDELL KINGMAN. 

Mr. Kingman of Kingman & Wallace, attorneys, was born in 
Chicago April 15, 1860, a son of Benjamin F. and Adelaide_ E. 
(Ramsdell) Kingman, of old Massachusetts families. The 
father was a manufacturer; and, removing to Chicago in 1854, 
continued in business there until failing health induced him 
to seek different climate; and, in 1869 he came to Minneapolis, 
where he died in 1875, at the age of forty-three. 

Mrs. Kingman, survived until 1902. She was an ardent and 
sympathetic worker in all the benevolent activities of Ply- 
mouth Congregational church, prominent and energetic in the 
undertakings of the Pillsbury Settlement, a zealous and 
effective force in connection with Druramond Hall and earnest 
in her intelligent and practical support of other improving 
and uplifting agencies. She and her husband were the parents 
of two children, Joseph R. and Susan H. 

Joseph R. Kingman was graduated from the Central High 
School in 1877 when it was under the direction of Benjamin 
F. Knerr. He read law for one year in the oHice of Samuel R. 
Thayer, then a prominent lawyer and afterward L'nited States 
minister to Holland. Mr. Kingman then spent one year in 
the University and four years in the academic course at 
Amherst College, from which he was graduated in 1883. He 
immediately began anew the study of his chosen profession in 
the office of Charles H. Woods and William J. Hahn, the latter 
of whom was then attorney general. 

He was admitted to practice in 1885, and soon joined his 
former preceptors, the firm becoming Woods, Hahn & King- 
man, the firm continuing without change of name until 1908 
when it became Woods, Kingman & Wallace. Judge Woods 
died in 1899 and John Crosby became associated with Mr. 
Kingman and Jlr. Wallace for two years, when he became 
Secretary and Treasurer of Washburn Crosby Co. Mr. King- 
man and Mr. Wallace continued in business and have an 
extensive general practice although real estate, law, probate 
and corporation business demand most of their attention. 

In political allegiance Mr. Kingman is a Republican; but, 
while loyal to his party and deeply interested in its success 
he has never been an aspirant for public office. He has, 
however, taken an active part in many things that make for 
the betterment of the community. He is a director of the 
Minneapolis Trust company, and a member of the Minneapolis, 
Minikahda and Six O'Clock clubs. 

Mr. Kingman was also president for five years of the 



388 



HIST(3RY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Associated Charities. He was chairman of the building com- 
mittees in the erection of the new Plymouth Congregational 
church, the Young Women's Christian Association Building 
and the Pillsbury Settlement House. He was a trustee of 
Plymouth church for many years, and has also rendered 
valuable service on other boards of trustees and directors, and 
on public commissions. 

In October, 1891, Mr. Kingman was united in marriage with 
Miss Mabel Selden, a daughter of the late Henry E. Selden, 
who died in 1903, after a residence of over forty years in 
the city, having located here in 1861. He was a general 
contractor; and, erected the Public Library and many other 
large and important structures. Mrs. Kingman is a native of 
Minneapolis and a high school graduate. They are the parents 
of three children: Henry S., a student at Amherst College, 
Joseph Ramsdell, Jr., and Eleanor. 



AXTHOXY KELLY. 



Mr. Kelly was a native of Ireland, born in the borough of 
Swinford, County Mayo, on August 25, 1833. 

He was one of six sons born to Andrew and Alice (Dur- 
kin) Kelly, who were also bom in County Mayo, Ireland, 
and a grandson of Thomas Kelly, a merchant in that part 
of the Emerald Isle. The father died at the age of thirty- 
three. The mother married a second husband, and about 
1843 the family came to America and located near Montreal, 
Canada, where the son passed ten years in school and clerical 
work. Soon after attaining his manhood he changed his 
residence to Savannah, Georgia, and in the neighborhood 
of that city engaged in planting. 

In 1859 he came to the Northwest and located in Minne- 
apolis, joining an older brother, Patrick H. Kelly, who had 
taken up his residence in this city a year or two before. 
Together the brothers started a retail grocery store on a 
small scale and conducted the business under the firm name 
of Kelly Bros. 

The firm's first store was on Washington avenue one door 
south of what was then Helen street but is now Second 
avenue south. Their trade kept on expanding and they 
were soon forced to seek larger accommodations for it, 
and moved into a large room in the Woodman block at the 
corner of Helen street. When they started in business 
Minneapolis had a population of about 1,500, whose wants 
they supplied in part. At the time of Mr. Kelly's death his 
wholesale grocery was sending its goods over all the rail- 
roads radiating from the commercial and industrial center 
which he had helped so largely to build up and give it business 
life, social tone and a high moral atmosphere. 

In 1861 they added pork-packing to the grocery trade, 
and in 1863 Patrick H. Kelly retired from the firm and started 
a wholesale grocery in St. Paul, while Anthony continued as 
proprietor of the Minneapolis store. The building in which 
he carried on his business was destroyed by fire in ISfiti. 
He immediately built a larger and better house, constructing 
it of stone instead of wood. This gave him better facilities 
and considerably more room, but as the trade of the city 
increased he formed a new partnership with Hiram W. 
Wagner and .T. I. Black under the name of Anthony Kelly 
& Company, and their quarters soon became again too lim- 
ited for their trade. 



The new firm started a wholesale business which grew 8o 
rapidly that it was obliged to discontinue retailing and take 
a still larger building. The commodious and substantial 
stone structure at Washington and Second avenue north 
was put up, and this continued to be the headquarters of 
the business until the firm was dissolved by the death of 
Mr. Kelly in May, 1899. 

During the Civil war Mr. Kelly's political training and ton- 
victions made him an ardent sympathizer with the Southern 
side of the great contest. His brother John, who shared his 
views in this respect was killed in the Southern army, and 
they had another brother, Dudley, who served in the Union 
army. Anthony did not enter the military service, but he 
made no secret of his love of the South and his warm in- 
terest in its cause. He handled some munitions of war in 
his store, and one event in. his life that was always a source 
of deep regret to him, was that by chance he sold to the 
Indians the ammunition they used in the uprising in this 
state in 1862. But he knew nothing of their purpose and 
was guiltless of all wrong in making his sales to the savages. 

Mr. Kelly was married on April 26, 1863, to Mrs. Anna 
(Haymond) Willey, the widow of U. S. Willey, an early and 
gifted lawyer of Minneapolis. She was a Virginian by na- 
tivity. Six children were born of the union, four daugh- 
ters and two sons. The sons died in early life. The four 
daughters who are living are: Alice K. Corrigan; Annie, who 
is now Mrs. James F. Blaine; Agnes, who is unmarried, and 
Bernadette, who married F. W. Plant. The mother had two 
children by her first marriage: Robert Kelly Willey and Geor- 
gia, who is now the wife of E. A. Prendergast. The mother 
died in 1907 and the father in May, 1899. He met with a 
Serious accident in 1893, which greatly disabled him and 
almost put an end to his activity. 



WILLIAM B. BOARDJL\N. 



William B. Boardman, president of the Real Estate Board, 
was born in New Brunswick, March 1, 1862, and is the son 
of George A. Boardman. naturalist. George A. Boardman, 
who passed the years 1882 and 1883 in Minneapolis, expect- 
ing to make it his future home, was a genius and an interest- 
ing and cultured man. He was born in Massachusetts but 
became a resident of Calais, Maine, at an early age, and there 
grew to manhood, an ardent lover of natural history, char- 
acterizing him from boyhood. He rose to eminence &a 8 
naturalist, collecting large numbers of specimens for the 
Smithsonian Institute, having spent twenty-one winters in 
Florida for that purpose. He maintained relations of cordial 
friendship with Professor Baird, secretary of the Institute, 
Professor Louis Agassiz, and many other eminent scientists. 
Calais, being located in the boundary line of New Brunswick, 
Mr. Boardman studied the natural history of the province 
and made a collection of 3,000 specimens of the native birds, 
wliich is still on exhibition in the parliament house at Freder- 
ickton. The only pair of a peculiar specimen of Labrador 
ducks, now extinct, in the Smithsonian Institute were sup- 
plied by him. His useful and interesting life ended at Calais, 
in 1901, his sons, soon after, publishing a well deserved 
memorial. When seventeen years old, William B. Boardman 
came to Minneapolis to attend the University, liis brothers 
F. H. Boardman, a prominent lawyer, and A. J. Boardman, a 




y/'^r, ' C) ^ c^-o<-/ve6v->.'vcovA^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



389 



prosperous real estate dealer, being already residents. Wil- 
liam B. passed two years in the University, returning to New 
Brunswick. He soon went to Florida as a member of the civil 
engineering corps for the Florida Southern Railroad. In 1884 
he became a partner with his brother A. J. in real estate, this 
brother, in 1892, going to Tampa. Florida, to superintend the 
erection of a gas plant. He now lives in Los Angeles, Cali- 
fornia. Jlr. Boardman then began to take special interest in 
the development and improvement of the East Side, and his 
energies have since been largely devoted to that section. Be- 
sides having an extensive agency business he has important 
personal holdings, being particularly interested in railroad 
trackage properties. Jlr. Boardman, realizing shortage of 
track facilities in the jobbing district, conceived the idea of 
building a railroad spur between Washington avenue and Third 
street, from 4th to 10th avenues North; and, which has 
changed this section from the most dilapidated part of the 
city to what is fast becoming the most attractive business 
district. He has already located on this spur several of the 
largest jobbing and manufacturing houses in Minneapolis, not 
less than a million dollars being alreadj' expended in build- 
ings. Among them are the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, 
employing 500 hands, The Parlin & Orendorf Plow Company, 
The Roach-Tisdale Company, The Green & De Laitte Whole- 
sale Grocery Company, The Pence Automobile and the 
Andrews Warehouses, The Cribben & Sexton Stove Company 
and the Acme Harvester Company and the plant of the George 
Diiensing Hay and Grain Company, which he erected individ- 
ually and which he still owns. This was the initial move- 
ment to open many miles of trackage in the heart of the city ; 
and, which, being followed by others, will afford an unlimited 
supply of moderate priced houses for the growing jobbing 
trade. A more recent movement is the development of a new 
industrial center on the East Side covering not less than 1,000 
acres. He conceived the idea of bringing the Belt Line into 
Minneapolis, the extensions of which make such a center 
possible. One of the industries in the movement, and located 
by Mr. Boardman, is the new plant, just being completed, of 
the National Lamp Company costing one half million of dol- 
lars and to employ 600 hands. For three years he was chair- 
man of the Commercial Club committee to secure new in- 
dustries, and is chairman of the industrial and development 
committee of the Civic and Commerce Association. He was 
for some years real estate agent for the Great Northern, the 
Northern Pacific and the Burlington Roads; and, secured the 
right of way from Minneapolis to Rochester, for the Dan 
Patch Electric line. Many other commissions, committees 
and organizations for improvements have had the benefit of 
his counsel and enterprise. It is in the extension and im- 
provement of Minneapolis proper, however, that he has been 
most deeply and thoroughly interested. He laid out the Wil- 
liam B. Boardman Addition at Minnehaha Falls, and joined 
in platting the Gilman & Boardman. the Taylor and Board- 
man and the Minnehaha Falls Second Addition, and has 
erected several business and residence properties His entire 
thought and attention are given to business, steadfastly re- 
fusing to accept political honors. He has not neglected social 
organizations nor enjoyment of outdoor pleasures, belonging 
to the Lafayette and Auto clubs; and, for recreation, makes 
frequent trips to northern Minnesota, in the development of 
which he is deeply interested. He was married in 1887 to 
Miss .Jessie P. Wilbur, a native of Vermont. They have one 
daughter Marjorie. who was a member of the first graduating 



class of the West Side High School and a student at Smith 
College. In 1912 she and her mother made a world tour visit- 
ing .Japan, China, the Philippine Islands and Honolulu. Th» 
family attends the Universalist Church of the Redeemer. 



ALBERT H. KENYON. 



F'or a continuous period of forty years this esteemed citi- 
zen has lived in this city and been actively connected with 
its business interests, public aflfairs, social life and general 
advancement. When he came here in 1873 he had the fore- 
sight to realize the wonderful possibilities and the enter- 
prise to take advantage of the passing opportunities. His 
enterprise and public spirit made him a promoter of the 
development of the community, and by exercising business 
ability and a'cumen has made that development advantageous 
to himself. 

Mr. Kenyon was born in Greenwich, Washington county, 
New York, thirty miles from Troy, September 14, 1842, 
working on his father's farm until the age of eighteen. He 
then began his business career as clerk, and in 1868 came 
to Chicago, and soon became a partner in a general store 
at Aurora and which is still doing business. The rapid restor- 
ation of Chicago following the fire soon drew much of the 
trade from Aurora, and in 1873 Mr. Kenyon sold his interests 
and came to Minneapolis. He had known A. C. Rand, later 
mayor and president of the Minneapolis Gas Light company, 
in Aurora, and acted upon the representations of that gen- 
tleman, who drew flattering pictures of the future of the 
Northwest. Mr. Kenyon bought the store of Thomas and 
Geo. Andrews on Bridge Square, next door to the hard 
ware store of Hon. John S. Pillsbury. The AndreAvs estab- 
lishment was a general store with a trade of ,$100,000 an- 
nually. The management of it was a difficult undertaking 
for Mr. Kenyon. but his twin brother, Alfred F. Kenyon, 
joined him as Kenyon Bros., and they succeeded in handling 
the enterprise with the small capital they had. 

L'nder the name of Kenyon Brothers they conducted the 
business until 1885. In the days when the Grange organi- 
zation was potential it was their custom to open the store 
at 4 o'clock in the morning to meet the requirements of 
customers from the country. The farmers bringing their grain 
to the city would often fail to get unloaded until far in the 
night, when, after a few hours' rest, they were ready to 
start on their long joHrney home early in the moniing. 
It was thus necessar}' to have the store open at that early 
hour to accommodate them. It carried a large stock in al- 
most everything but groceries, and was the leading dry 
goods store. 

In 1885 Mr. Kenyon sold his interest to his brother and 
opened a carpet store, Me-ssrs. Folds & Griflith being the 
only firm already operating in that exclusive line. The 
brother continued to conduct the old Store with a constantly 
increasing trade, which in time reached a business of $200,000 
annually. The new carpet store was opened on a small 
scale on Nicollet avenue where the Rothschild store now 
is. Later it moved to the old Sidle block, and in 1888 
Mr. Kenyon. .JameS I. and W. S. Best united in building 'the 
Medical block, in which he now has his offices, ami which 
has been more especially devoted to the use of the medical 
profession. 



390 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



This six story block fronts 110 feet on Nicollet avenue 
between Sixth and Seventh streets. When it was built some 
of Mr. Kenyon's friends said he must be demented to build 
so far from the business center. He moved his carpet store 
to the new building where it was continued successfully for 
ten years. 

Mr. Kenyon also owns a business block on Washington 
avenue north, a four-story brick block on Washington avenue 
south and another on Third street, having kept his inter- 
ests in the heart of Minneapolis. His old home at 89 South 
Tenth street is now occupied as a business block, and his 
present residence is at Twenty-second street and Blaisdell 
avenue. During the last twenty years he has passed win- 
ters in Southern California, New Orleans and at Palm Beach, 
norida. With abiding faith in Minneapolis property he is 
justified in taking some satisfaction in having been one whose 
efforts have materially contributed to its growth. 

Mr. Kenyon takes no active interest in politics as a par- 
tisan, but is earnest in his advocacy of good government as 
a citizen, and zealous in securing it. In religious affiliation he 
is a Universalist, being a regular attendant at the Church 
of the Redeemer. In 1875, he was married at Aurora, Illinois, 
to Miss Belle Newlin, a daughter of Major Thomas Newlin, 
of that city. Mrs. Kenyon is a member of the Women's club, 
the Travelers' club and other similar organizations. 

Mr. and Mrs. Kenyon have three children: Lewis N.. a 
graduate of the University of Minnesota, is now associated 
with his father. Alfred T. is a coffee broker in Los Angeles 
after having for some years been so engaged in San Francis'co. 
Raymond H. is a student at Columbia University, New York 
city. 



MATTHIAS KUNZ. 



Matthias Kunz, vice president and manager of the Kunz 
Oil company, is a native of Germany, born near the Rhine, 
March 22, 1856. He came to this country in 1868, and 
located in Carver county, Minnesota. In 1882 he removed to 
Minneapolis and for several years was in the employ of W. W. 
Eastman as night engineer and watchman for the Island 
Power company. He then erected a livery barn and for six 
years engaged successfully in this business in company with 
his brother, Jacob Kunz. The latter was at this time employed 
as engineer by the Island Power company and in 1888 he 
established an oil business in which his brother was also 
interested, the firm being known as .Jacob Kunz & Brother. 
This enterprise met with such success and its rapid growth 
attested to possibilities which at length claimed the attention 
of Matthias Kunz to the exclusion of other interests. In 
1892 the livery was disposed of and the following year the 
firm was changed to its present style, the Kunz Oil company. 
Matthias Kunz as manager of this company has been eminently 
identified with every phase of its remarkable development. 
From an original investment of $2,200 with .$5,000 covering 
the first year's sales, its success and growth is marked. In 
1905 it was incorporated with a capital of $100,000 and in 
191,3 the company tran.sacted an annual business of ovit 
$400,000, It has a force of thirty employees engaged in com- 
pounding and blending, producing a high grade lubricating oil. 
Through their salesmen they transact a large business through- 
out the northwest beside an extensive local trade. Aside 



from his interests as vice president, treasurer and manager 
of the Kunz Oil company, Mr. Kunz is associated with other 
important industries of the city and is a stockholder in the 
Minneapolis Brewery, and the North Star Malt House of which 
Jacob Kunz is the manager. Matthias Kunz was married in 
Waconia, Minnesota to Miss Emma Haback, daughter of 
William Haback, They have four children, Therese, Helen, 
William and Florence. 



HENRY N, KNOTT, 



Henry N, Knott was born at Bloomington, Hennepin county, 
Minnesota, on December 14, 1874, a son of E. W. and Tabitha 
(Little) Knott, the former having removed from Canada to 
Minnesota about 1855. and the latter born and reared in Penn- 
sylvania. Her father was a merchant in that state, and about 
1856 located near Glencoe, in this state. His daughter 
Tabitha was a young woman when the family moved to 
Minnesota, and soon after her marriage to Mr. Knott, the 
father of Henry N., they located on a farm in Bloomington 
township, Hennepin county. 

Henry N. Knott passed his boyhood and early youth at 
Sauk Center and completed his education at the high school 
in that town. In 1893 he located in Minneapolis, anil here he 
supplemented his academic training with a thorough course 
of study in a good business college. In 1895 he was appointed 
stenographer and bookkeeper in the city clerk's otiite by 
C. F. Haney, at that time the city clerk. From this start he 
passed through all the intervening positions in the office until 
he reached that of assistant city clerk in 1900. which he 
continued to fill until 1909, when he was elected to the 
city clerkship as the successor of L, A. Lydiard. 

Mr. Knott was elected as a non-partisan, and that he has 
been ever since. He was re-elected in 1911 and again in 
1913. The volume of business requiring attention in the 
office is constantly increasing, and has grown to such mag- 
nitude that Mr. Knott is compelled to have seven assistants. 
In the fraternal life of the community he mingles freely 
and serviceably as a member of the Order of Elks and of 
Minneapolis Lodge No. 19 and Ark Royal Arch Chapter of 
the Masonic Order, 



O, P, BRIGGS, 



President of the H. E. Wilcox Motor Company, was born 
on a farm in Maine, February 17. 1856, and came to Minne- 
apolis in 1877, the directory of that year indicating him as 
clerk for O. A. Pray, Mill Furnishings and Iron Works at 
First Street and Fifth Avenue South. His father, W. H. 
Briggs, who was a life-long friend of the Hon. W. D Wash- 
bum, was a teacher for many years and became, at the 
urgent request of Mr. Washburn, the superintendent of the 
Children's Home, where he rendered valuable service till his 
death. He was also treasurer of the Church of the Redeemer, 
a warm attachment existing between him and Drs. Tuttle and 
Shutter, its pastors. O. P. remained Avith Mr. Pray till 18S6, 
and the following year, in association with .Tose])!! Oarbctt 
and W. H. Getchell, founded the Twin City Iron Works, It 
was at first a foundry and machine shop, gradually becoming 





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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



391 



devoted to the making of Corliss engines and transmission 
machinery. Several of the old employees of the Pray Com- 
pany sought positions here under their former companion; 
and, the business experienced so rapid development that by 
1903 it hiid outgrown its shop facilities, it becoming necessary 
to secure larger and better accommodations. Other citizens 
DOW becoming interested, united in the organization of the 
Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company, erecting the finest 
plant of its kind in the Northwest, and whose operations soon 
demanded the employment of 650 mechanics. Mr. Briggs was 
vice-president of the incorporation. His services being re- 
peatedly sought by the directors of the National Founders 
Association, who urged him to become its head, he finally 
yielded, and resigning his position with the above company, 
and his terms of activity in the association being readily ac- 
cepted, he in 1903 assumed that important official relation, 
that of commissioner to the organization, a position he filled 
two years, was the vice-president for one year and president 
for seven years, till November 15, 1913, his successor being 
William H. Barr of BufTalo, N. Y. 

The objects of this association are: "The adoption of a 
uniform basis for just and equitable dealings between the 
members and their employees, whereby the interests of both 
will be properly protected. Also, the investigation and ad- 
justment, by the proper officers of the association, of any 
question arising between members and their employees." 

His own wide experience reaching back to boyhood in ad- 
justing the questions arising between employer and employee, 
thus extending over a long period, readily enabling him to 
recognize the rights of all concerned, justified his selection as 
the head of an important employers organization. Main- 
taining his home at Minneapolis, he had become interested as 
a director in the Wilcox Motor Company, to the presidency 
of which he was selected July 1, 1913. 

He is a Republican, and when important matters demand 
attention of progressive citizens, his services are not with- 
held. For thirty-six years he has held active membership in 
the Church of the Redeemer, whose pastor was one of his 
father's warmest friends. Ever desirous of contact with the 
soil, he secured a part of the old Gideon homestead on Lake 
Minnetonka, where the Wealthy apple had its origin, and has 
found pleasant recreation in various industrial phases of 
agriculture. 

In 1880 he married Clara Getchell. daughter of W. H. Get- 
chell mentioned above. She died September, 1907, leaving 
one son, Hiram Kenneth, a student in Shattuck School, Class 
of 1914. In 1909 he married Miss C. L. Gaines of Wisconsin. 
He is identified with the New Athletic Club. 



EDWARD CRANE CHATFIELD. 

F.dward C. Chatfield practiced law in Minneapolis for 
more than thirty years. The Chatfield family to which he 
belonged came to this country in 1639, with the colony of 
Rev. Henry Whitfield, settling at Guilford, Conn. The fam- 
ily remained in Connecticut for several generations, until 
David, the great-grandfather of Mr. Chatfield, was given a 
grant of 800 acres of land in Onandaga Co.. N. Y. This 
was in place of money, as remuneration for his service in 
the Revolutionary War. Then the family removed thither, 
to establish a home upon the property, and remained there. 



until William, Mr. Chatfield's father, removed as a young 
man to Ohio, settling at Sharon Centre, Medina Co, 

William Chatfield married Ruth Ann Crane, a member 
of the Crane family who settled in Dorchester, Mass., in 1658. 

Edward C. Chatfield was born in Sharon Centre, October 24, 
1849, In 1861, when he was nearly twelve years old, the 
family undertook, on account of the frail health of his 
mother, an overland journey by wagon to Minnesota, where 
relatives had preceded them. They started in the spring 
and traveled by easy stages, arriving in the autumn in Fill- 
more County, where the family lived for eight years upon 
a farm near Spring Valley. 

Edward Chatfield attended the district school there, and 
then went to the academy in the town of Fillmore, to fit 
for the University of Minnesota, from which he graduated 
in 1874. This was the second class to graduate from this 
institution, and consisted, as did the first class, of two 
members, the other member being the late Dr. George E. 
Rickcr. 

Mr. Chatfield then taught school for two years, after which 
he read law in the offices of Messrs. Loehren. (iilfillan and 
McNair. 

He then took the law course of the University of Iowa, 
graduating with the late Judge Edward M. Johnson, with 
\vhom, after their return to Minneapolis, he formed a part- 
nership, which, however, was of short duration, and after 
its dissolution, Mr. Chatfield practiced alone for the remain- 
der of his professional career, occupying for many years the 
same offices with his father-in-law, the late David A. 
Secombe. 

In 1901, Mr. Chatfield was elected an alderman from the 
second ward, which office he filled for eight years. 

He was instrumental in the erection of the statue, by 
the alumni and personal friends, of Ex-Governor John S. 
Pillsbury. He proposed the project at an alunmi dinner, 
and was made chairman of the committee appointed to ac- 
complish it. Throughout the entire undertaking, he worked 
with unusual interest and great satisfaction when his efforts 
resulted in obtaining the noted sculptor, Daniel Chester 
French, to design and model the statue. 

Mr. Chatfield's great interest in this work led him to 
make quite a study of municipal art, in which subject he 
was greatly aided by his intercourse with Mr. French, d\ir- 
ing his visits to New York while the work of the statue 
was going on, and Mr. French's visits to Minneapolis, vvitli 
the result that he secured the formation of an art commis- 
sion for Minneapolis, of which he was made chairman, re- 
maining in the office until his ill-health caused him to 
resign shortly before his death in 1910. 

In 1895, he developed a serious ailment, which made the 
remaining fifteen years of his life a burden, although he 
continued to attend to his practice, and his duties in the 
council, up to the last year of his life. In the fall of 1909, 
his health was so impaired that he did not dare to remain 
another winter in the climate of Minnesota, and removed in 
September, to San Diego, California, hoping that that equable 
climate might add a few years to his term of life, but 
the change had been made too late, and he passed away 
.January 26. 1910. 

He married in 1884, Carrie Eastman Secombe, the daugh- 
ter of the late David A. and Charlotte Eastman Secombe, 
and four children were born to them, three of them surviv- 
ing their father: William Edward, born Aug. 19, 1890; 



392 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



David Secombe, born Dec. 26, 1891, and Charlotte Eastman, 
born Dec. 14, 1893. The youngest Son, John De Laittre, was 
bom Feb. 21, 1895, and died Aug. 25, 1908. 



WILLIAM M. KNIGHT. 



Having been one of the county commissioners continuously 
during the last eight years, and having previously filled an- 
other important office, William M. Knight has had abundant 
opportunity to demonstrate superior qualifications for ad- 
ministrative work to become intimately familiar with the 
public needs, and keep himself fully in touch with the spirit 
of enterprise and progress. He represents the Fourth dis- 
trict, which includes the Third and Tenth wai-ds and all of 
the Fourth ward lying between Hennepin and Franklin 
avenues. 

Mr. Knight was born in East Machias, Maine, May 29, 
1847, and came to St. Anthony with his parent's in October, 
1854. He is a son of William and Bridget (Hickey) 
Knight, natives of England and Ireland respectively, although 
they were married in Maine. The father was a well digger, 
a stonemason and farmer; and in 1856 settled on a tract of 
government land half a mile west of where William now 
lives. He also owned another farm, which lay about three 
miles northwest of the present city hall, and there he died 
in 1892, aged seventy-si.x years. His widow survived him 
two years, dying in 1894 at the age of seventy-eight. They 
had a family of six sons and three daughters, eight of 
whom reached maturity and four of whom are living now. 
John lives at Thirty-third avenue and Fourth street, and of 
the two daughters one is a maiden lady and the other a 
widow. 

William M. Knight worked for a time in the lumber woods, 
and then, in association with his brother John and Horatio 
and A. A. Day, took lumbering contracts, sometimes for driving 
logs down to Minneapolis. He was engaged in lumbering in 
this waj' fourteen or fifteen years, during seven or eight years 
of the time being a partner with his brother in cultivation of 
a large farm in Dakota county and in operating a thresh- 
ing outfit. About 1876, William started farming independ- 
ently, renting land in his old home neighborhood. For 
thirty-three years he has occupied his present farm, which 
comprises forty acres, lying within the city limits, and 
bounded by Penn avenue on the east and Yerxes avenue, or 
Osseo Road, on the west. This farm is devoted to market 
gardening, its principal crops being potatoes, onions and 
melons. The average yield is about 9,000 bushels of pota- 
toes and 4.000 bushels of onions, and frequently twenty 
acres are devoted to melons. 

In 1888 Mr. Knight was elected street commissioner for 
the Tenth ward, so serving in all for six years, and graded 
the first streets in the ward. In 1906, and again in 1910, 
was elected county commissioner. In 1906, running as a 
Republican and with five other candidates in the field, he 
received a majority of 2,970 votes, the large.'st ever given a 
candidate for this ofilce in the district. In 1910 a strong 
fight was made against him at both the primaries and the 
election; but, he was sustained by the people at the polls. 
He is positive in convictions and thoroughly alive to the 
best interests of the county. In his zeal in behalf of good 
roads he has visited Eastern states on tours of inspection, 



much of the extension of fine roads in Hennepin county, being 
secured through his support. In all official business he has 
stood firmly for what he has believed to be right and most 
conducive to the best interests of the public, and is not 
diverted from his course by partisan or personal considera- 
tions. He belongs to and takes an earnest interest in the 
Territorial Pioneers Association. 

In November, 1872, Mr. Knight was married to Miss Mary 
A. Fewer, a native of St. Anthony and a daughter of Richard 
Fewer, who was the first judge of probate in Hennepin county 
and one of the early merchants in St. Anthony, where he 
settled in 1849, coming here from New Brunswick. Mr. 
Fewer also enlisted in the Civil war, Company K, 10th 
Minnesota, and was mustered out as Captain Richard Fewer. 
Mr. and Mrs. Knight have had fourteen children, eight sons 
and six daughters. Six of the sons and two daugliters are 
living. Walter W. is deputy clerk of the district court; Rich- 
ard E. is chief bookkeeper for the gas company; Clement 
V. is manager of Bamaby's shoe department; Stephen 
E. is in the city fire department at Twentieth street; Willis 
A. operates the home farm; Otis R. is a meter tester for 
the gas company; Mary I. is deputy county treasurer, and 
Eleanor I. is living at home. The father has ever been fond 
of good horses, and has owned many of superior <iualities 
and high value. 



JUDGE WILLIAM LOCHREN. 

William Lochren was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, on 
the 3rd day of April, 1832. His father, Michael Lochren, died 
when William was little more than one j-ear old and his 
mother, Elizabeth, with her fatherless boy and other kins- 
men crossed the Atlantic while the lad was not yet two 
years old to find with him a home on a farm in Franklin 
County, Vermont. At the age of eighteen, he went to 
Auburn, Mass., where manual labor alternating with assidu- 
ous study occupied the next four years and during whith 
time he was able to obtain a fair academic education. In 
1854 he returned to Franklin County, Vermont, and com- 
menced the study of law. He continued his legal studies 
for two years and in 1856, at the age of twenty-four, was 
admitted to tlie bar. Soon afterwards he moved to St. 
Anthony, Minnesota, where he entered upon his chosen life 
work, the practice of law, and where for more than half a 
century he continued to make his home. He continued in 
the practice of his profession, either in partnership with 
others or alone until April 29, 1861, when he enlisted in 
Company "E" of the First Minnesota Volunteers, the first 
regiment whose services were tendered to President Lin- 
coln in response to his call for volunteers. Not long after 
the enlistment, he was made a sergeant in Company "E." 
As such he served until September 22, 1862, when he was 
commissioned Second Lieutenant and assigned to Company 
"K" of the same regiment; .July 6th, 1863, he was com- 
missioned First Lieutenant and re-assigned to Company 
"E," From July 6th, 1863, to the latter part of October fol- 
lowing, he acted as Regimental Adjutant. December 30, 1863, 
on account of illness brought on by his military service he 
resigned his commission and was honorably discharged on 
surgeon's certificate of disability. He reluctantly left the 
service and returned to St. Anthony after his discharge and 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



393 



resumed the practice of law. In 1868, he was elected State 
Senator from a strong Republican district and served two 
years. In the following spring he formed a partnership 
with W. W. McNair, and in 1871, J. B. Gilfillan became a 
member of the firm of Lochren, McNair & Gilfillan, a firm 
distinguished in the legal annals of the Northwest. In 1877 
and 78, he was elected city attorney of Minneapolis of 
which the town of St. Anthony had then become a part. 

The legal business of the city and county had grown so 
rapidly that a special act was passed by the Legislature 
in 1881, giving a third judge to the Fourth Judicial District 
and on November 19, 1881, he was appointed a district judge 
of the Fourth .Judicial District of Minnesota by Governor 
John S. Pillsbury of opposite political affiliations. At the 
election in November, 1882, he was elected to the district 
bench for a terra of six years, and in 1888 was elected for 
a second term without opposition. His nomination at each 
election having been made by both the Republican, and Demo- 
cratic parties. Near the close of his second term as district 
judge. President Cleveland appointed him Commissioner of 
Pensions which position he held for over three years and on 
May 26, 1896. he was appointed by President Cleveland, 
Judge of the United States District Court for the District 
of Minnesota to succeed Judge Nelson who retired at that 
time. In this office, he served until March 31, 1908, when 
he resigned, was placed on the retired list of federal judges 
and retired from active work. He died Januarj^ 27, 1912. 
He was married in 1871 to Mrs. Martha Denimon, who died 
in 1879, and in April. 1882, he married Mary E. Abbott, 
who with one son, William Abbott Lochren, born February 
26, 1884, survives him. 

During his active practice of law he was engaged on one 
side or the other of all of the important litigations of the 
Northwest and to review his record as an active practitioner 
would in a substance aiuount to a legal history of the North- 
west. The affairs entnisted to him were always of the 
weightiest, both corporate and private, incident to the develop- 
ment of Minnesota during that period and his name was 
a source of strength to his clients and an ornament to his 
profession to the last. He possessed a rare combination of 
ability to quickly perceive principles of law and discern 
points of precedents with a power to make effective appli- 
tation of them to the ease in hand as well as a natural and 
legal judgment so sound and clear as to be an exceptionally 
safe guide in itself. 

A careless perusal of the newspapers of the early days of 
Minnesota will give some conception of the high value placed 
even then by the citizens on his services, high-standing and 
integrity both as a citizen, a lawyer and a legislator, and 
history further shows that his sympathies and interests lay 
in many directions. He was actively identified with Holy 
Trinity Episcopal Church, serving for many years as a war- 
den; he was also active in Masonic affairs until the time 
. he became a judge, being a member of Cataract Lodge and 
■ of Zion Commandery, Knights Templar. For this body he 
served a term as Grand Commander of the State of Minne- 
sota. He was a charter member of the Minneapolis Club 
and Served actively with that organization in his younger 
^ days. One of the business lines that received his attention 
was banking and he served for a long time as one of the 
1 directors of the First National Bank of Minneapolis. 
i' In legislative and political matters he served as alder- 
i'lnan of the old town of St. Anthony, and as already noted, 



served one term in the State Senate. He was elected City 
Attorney in 1877, and 1878. Before his appointment to the 
district bench in 1881, he actively participated in the poli- 
tical affairs of the state and the Nation for his party. He 
was for many years a member of "the Democratic National 
Committee until he retired on his own volition. In 1874, 
he was the Democratic candidate for judge of the Supreme 
Court of the State and in 1875, came within two votes of 
being elected L'nited States Senator from Minnesota al- 
though at the time the Legislature was strongly Republican. 

Of his army record, the fact that he was a member of the 
famous "First Minnesota" and shared in all the battles of 
that regiment leaves nothing to be said. He served on 
battlefields whose names have become classics in American 
history and participated with that regiment in making the 
historic charge at the battle of Gettysburg of which Gen- 
eral Hancock said, "there is no more gallant deed recorded 
in history." Of the two hundred sixty-two heroes who 
made that charge, he was one, and by the fortunes of war, 
he was one of the forty-seven returning unhurt, but none 
the less heroic. 

He was a member of George N. Morgan Post, G. A. R., 
and of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United 
States, Minnesota Commandery, of which he served one 
year as Commander in 1890. He also served one term as 
Judge Advocate General of the Grand Army of the Republic 
by appointment of the Commander in Chief Wheelock G. 
Veazey. In 1889, he was appointed one of a commission 
under an act of the Legislature to prepare a historj' of Min- 
nesota in the Civil and Indian Wars, other members were 
J. W. Bishop, C. C. Andrews, J. B. Sanborn, L. F. Hubbard, 
and C. E. Flandreau. Judge Lochren was chairman of this 
commission and C. C. Andrews, Secretary. The first forty- 
eight pages of the work are devoted to a narrative of the 
First Minnesota by Judge Lochren and its descriptions of 
army Service and especially of the charge of the First Min- 
nesota at Gettysburg are frequently quoted. 

Early in 1893, he resigned his position as District Judge 
to accept the office of Commissioner of Pensions under Presi- 
dent Cleveland. This appointment as well as others came 
to him unsolicited and public appreciation of the sterling 
merit of Judge Lochren, independent of party affiliations, 
was shown by various organizations when it was noised 
about that he would probably receive this appointment. 
Both Houses of the Minnesota Legislature passed resolu- 
tions recommending him for the position in high terms and 
indicating his e.xact fitness to assume the duties of that office. 
His administration of this office was characterized by the 
same dignity, unswerving honesty and sense of justice that 
had characterized every act of his life coupled with the 
largest sympathy for the worthy veteran but with no com- 
passion for the bounty jumper or deserter. 

Upon the bench, both state and federal, were fully devel- 
oped and displayed his peculiar fitness for and wonderful 
adaptation to judicial duties. His patience was proverbial, 
his self-control masterful, his courtesy uniform, his manner 
kindly and his personality, wholly impersonal. Clearness 
of perceiition, generosity of labor in research, accuracy in 
detail and statement, strength in diction, an intuitive sense 
of justice and a comprehensive and thorough knowledge of 
jurisprudence were the qualities of Judge Lochren pre- 
dominating in a high degree. Nothing ever tried his equa- 
nimity or disturbed that serene composure and was natural 



394 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



to the man, bt-coming to a judge and most gratefully appre- 
ciated by those who were called to present their contentions 
in his court. Xo lawyer ever left his presence without the 
pleasant impression that he had had to the fullest extent his 
day in court and if mistakes were made by counsel, the 
generous and sympathetic disposition of Judge Lochren 
seemed to overlook them and the youngest members of the 
bar came to regard him with paternal respect. His consid- 
eration of every case was careful and thorough, but his 
decision once made was inflexible. No judge in Minnesota 
was ever more highly esteemed and loved by the bench and 
bar than William Lochren. 

His personal characteristics have been briefly referred to 
in speaking of his work on the bench. He was kindly cour- 
teous, and a loyal friend. He sought and retained the friend- 
ship of all around him. With but slight opportunities for 
an early and thorough education he improved every later 
opportunity. He was a constant student and ever a lover 
of books. Gifted with a remarkably retentive memory, a 
clear and- analytical mind and unusual habits of thorough- 
ness, he acquired a vast knowledge not only of the law but 
of history, literature and general information, and this was 
always at his command both in his judicial work and as a 
genial and entertaining companion. 



HENRY WEBSTER. 



In a residence of nearly forty years in or near Minneapolis, 
during all of which time he has been actively connected with 
the lumber industry, Henry Webster, now president of the 
Webster Lumber Company, which he founded, has made a 
highly creditable business career. He has risen from the 
position of a day laborer to the head of one of the leading 
lumber corporations of the country and has won commenda- 
tion for his ability and fidelity at every step of his ascent 
from the bottom to the top of the trade. 

Mr. Webster was born in the town of Orono, Penobscot 
county, Maine, A])ril 4, 1852. His father, Paul Dudley Webster, 
■was a member of the firm of Paul D. & E. Webster, manu- 
facturers of lumber for more than forty years at Orono. 
George A. Brackett, now and for many years past a leading 
citizen of Minneapolis, was in his youth an employe of this 
firm, and the late Hon. William D. Washburn lived in the 
family of Mr. Webster's father when he was a law student 
in Maine, before he came to the Falls of St. Anthony. Mr. 
Webster was educated in his native State, and in 1874, came 
to Minneapolis and as a common laborer went to work for 
Senator Washburn in a retail lumber yard where the Min- 
neapolis Chamber of Commerce now stands. After two years 
of faithful service in the yard he was sent to Anoka to take 
charge of the shipping from Mr. Washburn's mill at that 
place. He remained at Anoka for two years, then returned to 
Minneapolis with a view to starting in business for himself. 

In 1880 he began business on his own account — at first 
contracting in getting out logs on Rum. River, and, while his 
operations were not very profitable, they were steady, and 
he continued them for fifteen years. 

He then bccanu' a salesman for the Foley-Bedor Lumber 
Company, which had large mills at Milaca, in Mille Lacs 
County. He lived in Minneapolis and handled the sales of 



the output of these mills for eight years. In 1902 he again 
started in business for himself as the Webster Lumber Com- 
pany. Eater, when he was joined in the undertaking by V. A. 
Whipple, of Saulk Center, the name of the concern became the 
Webster-Whipple Company, and so remained until Mr. Whipple 
retired, in .January, 1913, since which time it has again been 
known as the Webster Lumber Company. 

The company has a city retail yard at Seventh Avenue 
Ninth Street Southeast, and a chain of thirteen country yards, 
the latter carried on as the business of the Rudd Lumber 
Company, but all located in Minnesota. The Webster Com- 
pany's wholesale yards are at the Minnesota Transfer, at 
Midway. The Company has its lumber sawed at different 
mills and buys in the open market. It also conducts a hard- 
wood department and sells extensively at wholesale to fur- 
niture factories and railroad shops. It is capitalized at 
.$150,000 and has fifty men regularly employed, and at times 
many more. 

Mr. Webster is not wholly absorbed in his lumber business, 
however, great and exacting as that is. He has a farm of 
100 acres at Richfield, Hennepin County, six miles and a half 
from the center of Minneapolis and half a mile from the city 
limits in a southerly direction. This is known as the Burweb 
Stock Farm, and is Mr. Webster's home. He is an extensive 
breeder and importer of Jersey cattle, of which he keeps a 
herd of thirty-five head. He exhibits at State, county and 
other fairs, and the Burweb herd from the Burweb Farm is 
to be seen in almost every contest. It is well known far and 
wide as a superior herd and a dangerous competitor. 

Mr. Webster began his live stock industry by purchasing 
the Frank Peavy herd of 29 head in 1909, and he has won 
honors for his cattle from the start. He has also worked up 
a warm interest in this breed, and has made extensive sales 
at high prices from the products of his stables. 

In the organized social life of the community Mr. Webster 
has taken an active and serviceable interest as a member of 
the Commercial and Lafayette Clubs, and in fraternal activi- 
ties as a Freemason, holding membership in Minneapolis 
Lodge No. 19, for many years. He was married June 24, 
1876, to Miss Clare A. Burbank, a native, like himself, of 
Orono, Maine, but living in Jlinneapolis at the time of the 
marriage, having come to this city with her parents. George 
A. and Caroline (Merrill) Burbank in 1867. Mr. Burbank 
was a miller in one of the Washburn mills at the time of 
the great explosion in 1878, and was killed in that disaster. 
His name is on the monument erected to the memory of its 
victims in Lakewood Cemetery. He was engaged in the lum- 
ber business in Maine for a number of years. 

Mr. and Mrs. Webster have two children, George B. and 
Paul D. Both are associated with their father in the lumber 
business, and are energetic and highly capable lumbermen. 
They are also deeply interested in the live stock industry 
and earnest advocates of its largest and highest development. 
Paul is a gra<luate of the Central High School and passed 
one year at Dartmouth College. While George was at the 
University of Minnesota he was a member of its football 
team, was a skillful player, and made a good record. Both 
brothers are considered good business men, and potential 
factors in augmenting the magnitude and importance of their 
line of tr.nde. The otiices of the Webster Lumber Company 
are in the Lumber Exchange. 




/z^i^^-^^ 0>^efc 




HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



395 



JOHN LOHMAR. 

Mr. Lohmar's life began August 6, 1860, in Carver county, 
Minnesota. His parents were Hubert and Regina (Kirsch) 
Lolimar, who came to Minnesota in 1854 and located on a claim 
in that county. The father was a native of Germany, and 
the mother was a widow with four children when she married 
him. They were married at Galena, Illinois, and came at 
once to this state, where they passed the remainder of their 
days. The father was killed in 1904 by a cyclone which swept 
his house away. He was then eighty yeai's old and had 
survived his wife a number of years. Of their four children 
John is the only one living in Minneapolis. 

He remained at home until he reached the age of twenty- 
one, working on the farm and attending the neighborhood 
school for a short time during the winter months when he 
could be spared. At seventeen he pursued a course of special 
training at the Curtis Business College, and at twenty-one 
began his business career as a clerk in a country store, in 
which he worked five years. In 1885 he came to Minneapolis 
in company with his brother-in-law, William .J. Vander Weyer, 
whose sister Louisa he had married, in 1884, she being at 
the time a resident of Wright county. Mr. Lohmar had saved 
the greater part of his earnings; and he and his brother-in-law 
had together a ready capital amounting to about $2,300. 

Together they purchased the stock of dry goods, furnishings, 
millinery and kindred commodities in the store of B. L. Buck, 
at 1201 Washington avenue north, the inventory amounting 
to about $9,000. The expansion of trade continued to be slow 
for some time after Mr. Lohmar and his partner purchased the 
store; but its increase was steady and soon became rapid, 
requiring two rooms in addition to the first used. In 1909 
Mr. Lohmar bought his partner's interest and gives his whole 
time and energy to the management. 

Mr. Lohmar and wife are members of St. Joseph's Catholic 
church. They have nine children living, Helen, Mary, Veronica, 
Bernard L., Ester, Rudolph, Arthur, Leo and Jerome. Helen 
is a teacher in the Perham public school, Mary is employed in 
the store, and Bernard is connected with the North Side State 
Bank. While Mr. Lohmar has taken no particular part in 
public affairs and shown no special political activity, he has 
always been deeply interested in the welfare of the community. 



purchasing agent in 1908. In 1911 he was made general 
superintendent of the mills, but still left in charge of the 
purchafsing department. He now has personal supervision and 
direction of all the details of the enormous business carried 
on by the company, which employs 1,100 persons and manufac- 
tures more than 20,000 barrels of flour per day. A narrow 
man, lacking in executive ability, would probably wear himself 
out over a multiplicity of details in such a position, while 
Mr. Lehman, depending upon others for detail, is necessarily 
employed in the larger supervision. In whatever situation 
placed, his ability to judge men, coupled with a sincere 
sympathy and fellow-feeling for the employes, has stood him 
in good stead, thus obtaining results with due consideration 
to the employes. The good will of the men under him is 
more to him than his position, and, knowing his attitude in 
this respect, they all hold him in high esteem, supporting him 
with genuine and unstinted loyalty. A strong proof of this 
was furnished during the great strike in 1903. As far as 
possible the mills were supplied with workmen from the 
outside, which were housed and fed in the mills. The hack 
drivers in sympathy with the strikere refused to bring in 
the necessary supplies, there thus being danger of a shortage 
of food for the marooned men. In this critical situation Mr. 
Lehman himself mounted a hack and led the way through the 
strikers, who offered him no violence. They realized that he 
was but endeavoring to do justice to his employers, and the 
respect of the men was not only maintained but heightened. 
One mill was started on the first day of the strike, the others 
being also soon in full activity, although the strike lasted 
four weeks. Mr. Lehman's experience as purchasing agent 
for the great milling industry induced Mayor Haynes, in 1912, 
to select him as a member of a commission consisting of ex- 
Gov. John Lind and Mr. Horace Hill to select a purchasing 
agent for the city of Minneapolis. He is a member of the 
University, Interlachen and Lake Harriet Commercial clubs, 
Traffic club, and the Theta-Delta-Chi college fraternity. 

On Oct. 16th, 1903, Mr. Lehman and Miss Louise James, the 
daughter of Ralph James, an old resident were married. She 
was born in Minneapolis and is a higli school graduate. They 
have two children. They are members of Plymouth Congre- 
gational church, and Mrs. Lehman belongs to the Sunshine 
club, in which she is an active and effective worker. Mr. 
Lehman finds recreation and inspiration in golf, of which is 
an ardent devotee. 



MAX A. LEHMAN. 



Max A. Lehman, General Superintendent of the Pillsbury 
Flour Mills Company, was born at Lubbenau in the province 
of Brandenburg, July 31. 1876. He is a son of Ferdinand 
Lehman, who came to Minnesota in 1881, and located on a 
farm near Wells, Faribault county, but who passed the later 
years of life as a merchant in Blue Earth City, where he died. 
Max graduated from the scientific department of the University 
in the class of 1898. After one year as Principal of the public 
school in Kent, Minnesota, he became clerk in the Car account- 
ants office of the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad. When this 
road was absorbed by the Northern Pacific, he went to the 
auditing department of the Soo in Minneapolis, and in Sep- 
tember, 1900, joined the office force of the Pillsbury Milling 
company, as a clerk in the purchasing department. Here the 
most responsible duties of this whole branch of service soon 
devolved on him, his handling of them making him general 



FRANK F. LENHART. 

Frank F. Lenhart, prominent manufacturer and ])roprietor 
of the Lenhart Wagon company, 2600 University avenue, is 
one of the pioneer business men of the cit}', having established 
the wagon industry in Minneapolis in 1878. He was born 
near the state line at Fountain City, Wisconsin, nine miles 
north of Winona, April 1, 1858. At sixteen he went to 
Winona to learn his trade, serving an apprenticeship of three 
years, with no monetary return the first year and but little 
the last two, so that at the end of this time he possessed no 
cash capital but had a thorough training as a wheelwright. 
He came to Minneapolis in 1875 and found employment with 
Driscoll & Forsythe, wagon manufacturers, where in a very 
few weeks his skill earned him the promotion to the position 
of foreman over thirty men. But ambitious to become one 



396 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



of the factors in the business life of the growing city and 
equipped with a good kit of tools and forty dollars, he estab- 
lished an independent plant in 1878 on Main street near the 
present site of the Exposition building, with Mr. M. J. Klop, 
a wheelwright, and Mr. J. Roberts, a blacksmith, as partners, 
their total cash investment being $150. With this unpreten- 
tious start in one room and with but one extra workman, they 
began to secure trade and in a short time were building 
wagons for many of the leading firms. They constructed the 
first spring dray and first police wagon in Minneapolis. After 
two years Mr. Lenhart bought Mr. Klop's interest and the 
firm continued for nine years as Roberts & Lenhart. Mr. 
Lenhart has always displayed sound business judgment and 
also confidence in the ultimate prosperity of his industrial 
ventures which was evidenced markedly in one of the early 
years, when a large stock of material, purchased against the 
advice of his partner, was justified by a remarkable increase 
in trade. When Mr. Roberts retired, they were employing 
about twenty workmen and Mr. Lenhart was left sole pro- 
prietor of a business valued at $16,000, and owner of the 
buildings occupied on the island. In 1893 the entire plant 
was destroyed by fire with a complete loss of stock, machinery 
and buildings. But the following year, Mr. Lenhart estab- 
lished the Lenhart Wagon company in cooperation with Mr. 
Woodbury and Mr. Horace Andrews, Mr. Andrews soon retir- 
ing. The plant was installed at "Little Pittsburg" on Univer- 
sity avenue, its present site, and was the pioneer business 
establishment in this vicinity, which could not then even 
boast of water mains. The new company developed rapidly, 
Soon adding the manufacture of farm wagons and fire trucks. 
The demand for these lines became so great that they finally 
absorbed almost the entire output and were sought for by 
dealers throughout all the adjoining states. In 1907, after 
thirteen years of partnership, Mr. Lenhart acquired Mr. Wood- 
bury's interest in the company. He now employs sixty men 
in operating the plant which covers two and a half acres, 
the yards provided with trackage, and equipped with every 
modern mechanical improvement, and docs an annual business 
of $100,000, the notable outgrowth of a forty dollar capital 
and years of efficient and capable management. The lumber 
used by the company is purchased 'in its native forests and 
dried and seasoned at the factory, certain woods being secured 
in Louisiana, while another especially adapted for the manu- 
facture of spokes comes from Indiana and that for axles from 
Arkansas. Mr. Lenhart is besides a stockholder in several 
other manufacturing concerns. As a Democrat in a Republican 
ward, he takes an enthusiastic interest in public matters. He 
has been prominently identified «ith all civic progress and 
influential in securing various important factories for Min- 
neapolis. He was married in North Dakota, in 1883. to Miss 
Johanna Piatt. His family have taken an active interest in 
the business, Alfred, the eldest son, being general manager and 
a daughter, Helen, the bookkeeper and stenographer. Tlie 
four younger children, Roy; Lillian; Willard and Frank, are 
students in the public schools. Mr. Lenhart takes great 
pleasure in out of door recreation and owns a summer home 
at Black Lake in the northern woods, where he enjoys his 
favorite sport with the rod an<l reel. He is a member of 
the St. Anthony Commercial club and for thirty-three years 
has held membership in the I. O. 0. F., No. 40, has passed 
the chairs in the subordinate lodge and the encampment and 
is now a trustee. 



HERBERT FLXLER CHAFFEE. 

Among the chief characteristics of elevated American man- 
hood and sources of pride and glory to the countrj- in which 
it is produced are the courage and self-reliant spirit which it 
exhibits in all its activities, and the deference it pays to 
women in all the relations of life and amid all circumstances, 
whether the requirements are energy and enterprise, the 
courtliness and grace of social intercourse, or fortitude in the 
presence of imminent danger. The late Herbert Fuller Chaf- 
fee, one of the leading citizens of North Dakota and most 
extensive farmers and live stock men in this country, dis- 
played many of these characteristics in his long and success- 
ful business career, and the last came out prominently in his 
tragic and heroic death in the disaster of the unfortunate 
Steamship Titanic. He might probably have saved liis life 
in that disaster, but he followed sturdily the rule of the 
country, "women first," and cheerfully accepted his own death 
in order that he might help to save the lives of others. 

Mr. Cliafi'ee was born in Ellsworth, Connecticut, on Novem- 
ber 20, 1865, a son of Eben W^hitney and Amanda (Fuller) 
Cliaffee. who resided at the time on an old farm that had been 
in the Chafl'ee family from early Colonial times, the first one 
hundred acres of it having been granted to one of its Amer- 
ican progenitors by one of the Georges when he was king of 
England. The earliest representatives of the family in this 
country came over in 1635, and their descendants have dig- 
nified and adorned almost every worthy walk in life in many 
sections of the country, as many of them are doing now. 

Eben Chaffee, the father of Herbert, and some of his neigh- 
bors in Connecticut owned large blocks of stock in the North- 
ern Pacific Railroad, and in return for their holdings, when 
a settlement had to be made, were given extensive tracts of 
land in what was then the territory of Dakota. Mr. Chaffee 
was selected by his neighbors to come to the territory and 
pick out the land for the whole number. He chose about 
forty-five sections in what is now Cass county. North Dakota, 
twenty miles from Fargo. They were alternate sections, and 
hence covered the larger part of three townships. The next 
year he brought to the land a car-load of workmen and other 
help to begin reducing the grant to productiveness. 

In the meantime he formed the Amenia cSk Sharon I-and 
company, which was named for two townships, one in Con- 
necticut and the other in New York, where most of the 
owners of the land lived. The purpose of this company was 
to improve its land and push forward judiciously the develop- 
ment of the county. As a result of Jlr. Chaffee's first year's 
efforts he raised and marketed a whole section of wheat and 
erected extensive farm buildings. He continued to come to 
the territory and extend the improvement and cultivation of 
the company's land every year, returning to his Eastern home 
for the winter, until 1886, when he abandoned Connecticut 
altogether and began a permanent residence in North Dakota. 
Mr. Chaffee was president and general manager of the 
land company, and he gradually bouglit out the interests of 
the other stockholders until he became practically the owner 
of the whole property and business. His son Herbert was 
associated with him in the enterprise from the time when 
he was but sixteen years of age, and remained with him until 
his d<>ath. The father started the village of Amenia and 
built it to a considerable extent. He died there in 1892, 
leaving the greater part of his immense acreage under culti- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



397 



vation in one of tlie largest wheat-growing farms in the 
United States, the Amonia & Sharon Land Company Farm. 

This farm lies in two parts, with the villages of Chaflee 
and Amenia on it, and is located about eight miles from 
Castleton. As a means of marketing his crops to the best 
advantage Mr. Chaffee erected elevators at different towns 
in the region, in which he was able to store his grain until 
he was ready to sell it. For years he devoted his energies 
principally to raising wheat in large quantities. But early 
in the nineties he began to raise corn also on a large scale. 
His son Herbert was an industrious student of advanced 
farming, and he adopted a well thought out scientific system 
of it for his own use. He and his father operated for a long 
time with hired help, but in later years they instituted the 
tenant method, and this is still in vogue on the estate. 

The son began the erection of mills, stores and other needed 
structures, not only for their own use but also for the benefit 
of the section of country in which they carried on their 
business. Their annual corn crop often covered 6,000 acres, 
and their wheat crop a great deal more. They also made 
specialties of seed wheat and corn, which they raised in large 
quantities to supply a very active and widespread demand in 
the new country around them and in localities far more 
remote. 

Eben Chaffee, the father, also took an earnest interest in 
public affairs and was well qualified for service in helping to 
conduct them. He was a member of the constitutional con- 
vention, and in that body served on the committee on legis- 
lation. He had bj' this time become thoroughly attached to 
the Dakotas and always stood for the best that was attain- 
able in constitutional and legislative provisions for their 
welfare, but after the division of the territory into two parts 
and their admission into the Union as the states of North 
and South Dakota, he gave his attention mainly to the 
affairs and needs of North Dakota. 

In 1899 Mr. Cliafl'ee united with Hon. John Miller, the 
first governor of North Dakota, in organizing the John Miller 
Grain Commission firm, which had offices in Minneapolis and 
Duluth. Tlie firm carried on an extensive and profitable 
business, for it was well and vigorously headed and its 
operations were conducted with wisdom and excellent judg- 
ment. The men who composed it knew all about their 
business and ]»\t all tlieir knowledge under requisition in 
conducting it. 

Herbert F. Chafl'ec owned extensive tracts of land not 
included in the pro[ierty of the Amenia-Sharon Land com- 
pany's grant, and on all the land he used the tenant sj'stem. 
He made his own plans for the cultivation of the land, and 
his tenants found them satisfactory and profitable. There 
are now about ninety-five tenants on the lands, and they have 
the benefit of an ideal course of instruction in farming es- 
tablished by him. One is reserved for experimental work, 
and on this every new development in agriculture is thor- 
oughly tested. He also built a 600 barrel flour mill at Castle- 
ton and named the leading brand of its products the "Nodak" 
Flour. This has an extensive popularity and sale, and has 
been found equal in quality to any flour on the market. 

The father built a church, with parsonage attached, at 
Amenia, and started it on so good a basis that it has been 
self-supporting from the beginning of its history. In that 
village Herbert Chaffee had his home until after the demise 
of his father. The latter was an excellent citizen and deeply 
interested in the welfare and advancement of his state, and 



the steady improvement of the agricultural operations eon- 
ducted in it. In several visits to Europe and other lands 
also he studied the methods of farming in its various coun- 
tries, and adopted for his own use whatever he deemed good 
in them that he was not already practicing. He had firm 
faith in the future greatness of North Dakota as an agricul- 
tural state, and bent his energies to give its farmers the 
benefit of all he knew or could learn in the business of high 
grade aii(T advanced farming. 

In addition to raising enormous crops of superior grain, 
Mr. Cliaffee, for a number of years prior to his death engaged 
extensively in feeding sheep for the markets, often having 
as many as 40,000 head on his farm at one time. He be- 
lieved strongly in young men, and was always ready to 
give them opportunities for advancement. Some of his ten- 
ants renting from him, for sixteen years, and after years of 
tenancy with him most of them preferred to continue that 
relation to buying and owning land. 

At the time of his death this prominent and most useful 
man was a trustee of Fargo College, and for many years 
before that was deeply and helpfully interested in the Young 
Men's Christian Association and other educational and up- 
lifting institutions. Every form of good for the people of all 
classes in his locality enlisted his interest and had his earnest 
practical support, and his activity and generosity in behalf 
of each sprang from the dictates of his elevated and pro- 
gressive manhood, his breadth of view and his great public 
spirit. But he was unostentatious in his bounty and work 
in this respect, seeking no commendation for himself, only 
good for his fellow men. 

On Dec. 21, 1887, Mr. Chaffee was married in Iowa to 
Miss Carrie Toogood of Manchester, Delaware county, in that 
state. Five of their children are living: Eben Whitney, who 
is on the farm and assists in managing its operations; 
Dorothy, who is the wife of P. E. Stroud, manager of the 
John Miller Commission company; Herbert Lawrence, a mem- 
ber of the junior class at Oberlin College, Ohio; Florence 
Adele, and Lester Fuller. The two last named reside with 
their mother in Minneapolis, where she bought a home in 
order to secure good educational facilities for her younger 
children. All the sons are preparing to take part in the 
management of the farm, as they desire and intend to keep 
the estate together in one big business enterprise. 

Mr. Chaffee's life ended tragically when he was but forty- 
seven years of age and in the prime of his manhood and 
usefulness. His death was due to one of the great historical 
catastrophes of the world, and could have been prevented by 
no precaution on his part, or by any effort of his except an 
exhibition of selfishness of which he was incapable. The 
whole state of North Dakota mourns his early death and 
the manner of it, but rejoices at the same time over the 
manifestation of elevated manhood he made in it, and the 
credit thereby brought to the citizenship of the common- 
wealth. He died as he lived, deeply interested in the welfare 
of others and eager at all times to promote it by any sacrifice 
he might be called upon to make. 



JOHN T. LUCAS. 



Mr. Lucas was born in Maumee, Lucas county, Ohio, some- 
thing more than seventy years ago. He grew to the age of 



398 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



eighteen in liis native place and obtained his education in its 
public schools. At the age mentioned he made his patriotic 
devotion to the Union manifest by enlisting in the armies 
called into action by the Federal government for its defense 
when armed resistance to the mandates of the people threat- 
ened its dismemberment. He was enrolled in Battery H, First 
Ohio Light Artillery, and in 1862 this battery was assigned to 
the Army of the Potomac. It took part in all the campaigns of 
that great fighting aggregation from the second battle of 
Bull Run to the end of the war, and was in the midst of all 
its heavy fighting from the battle of Fredericksburg until the 
banner of the Confederacy went down in everlasting defeat at 
Appomattox. 

At Chaneellorsville the battery lost four of its six guns, and, 
although it afterward recovered one of the four, the recovered 
gun was found to be spiked and temporarily useless. The 
battery's position at Gettysburg was on Cemetery Hill, where 
it was advantageously located to mow down General Pickett's 
men in their terribly disastrous but heroic charge. The battery, ■ 
however, suffered heavily in losses of men, but it recuperated 
in time to take part in the campaigns of General Grant which 
brought the war to a close. Mr. Lucas was with his command 
through all its terrible experiences, but escaped without a 
wound or once being taken prisoner, and was one of the few 
men who enlisted in 1863 that were present when its final 
discharge from the service came. He was slender in build and 
not robust, but he came out of the momentous conflict in good 
health and with increased vigor. 

After the war was over he returned to his old Ohio home, 
but in the autumn of 1865 came to Minneapolis, where his 
older brother, Charles, was established in business as a pros- 
perous tinner. He had come to this city about 1857 or 1858, 
but had gone back to Ohio. In 1860, however, he returned to 
Minneapolis, and here he passed part of the remainder of his 
days. During his first residence in Minneapolis he worked 
for Edward Nash, but when he came again and to stay, he 
started a business of his own at First street and First avenue 
north, continuing in the tinning industry, with which he was 
familiar. His brother John joined him in the enterprise, work- 
ing as a salesman in the store, and remained with him four 
years. Mr. Lucas then spent some time in traveling over the 
Western States. 

It was in the fall of 1870 that Mr. Lucas came back to 
Minneapolis, and soon afterward his brother sold him his 
interest in the business and moved to California. Mr. Lucas 
continued in the tinning business until 1898, being the pro- 
prietor of his store for twenty-eight years. In 1866 this was 
on Bridge Square. Later it was moved to the corner of First 
street and Bridge Square, then the business center of the town. 
He put up a new house on his old lot at 25 Nicollet avenue, 
and in this he carried on his business until about 1886. By 
that time his operations had grown to such large proportions 
and his stock was so extensive, that he found it necessarj' to 
have more commodious quarters for them, and moved to lO'J 
Nicollet avenue. There he remained until IH'.tS, when he 
retired from business altogether. 

Since 1898 he has built the business block he now owns on 
the site of his old residence. This block fronts 66 feet on 
Sixth street and contains four store rooms. It is on land 
that was formerly a part of the old homestead of John 
Jackins, and in it the business Mr. Lucas once conducted is still 
in operation by a younger brother. He also still owns his old 



property on Nicollet avenue, on the site of which the dry 
goods store of Fletcher & Loring stood about 1867. 

In political faith and allegiance Mr. Lucas has been a member 
of the Republican party from the dawn of his manhood. He 
is a member of Levi Butler Post, Grand Army of the Republic, 
and one of the few who still respond to its tattoos, many of 
its once large membership having foiever grounded their arms 
for earthly contests. 

In 1879 Mr. Lucas was united in marriage with Mrs. Louise 
A. (Putnam) Oburn, a Wisconsin lady, who died three years 
later. 



LESLIE C. LANE, M. D. 



Dr. Lane was born on September 19, 1855, at North Perry, i 
Maine, and in 1863 came to Minneapolis with his parents to 
reside. They were Charles W. and Almira B. (Coulter) Lane, 
also natives of Maine. The father was a'farmer and practiced 
veterinary surgery in his native state, and after his removal to ' 
Minneapolis was ])roprietor of the Wilbur hotel on First street 
north for a number of years, and also operated a carriage > 
factory. He was interested in the Flathead Lake Lumber i 
Company, but kept his residence in this city, where he died on 
Februarj' 10, 1913, aged eighty-five years, surviving by only \ 
four months his wife, who passed away here in October, I9l2, 
at the age of eighty-eight. 

The father was a Freemason, holding his membership in ; 
Ark Lodge at the time of his death, but formerly belonging 
to old Cataract Lodge. He was buried by the Lodge with full 
Masonic ceremonials, and his remains were attended to their 
last resting place by many of his fellow members and large 
numbers of other persons, all of whom respected him highly. 
In his political relation? he was always a Republican, but at I 
the last national election decided to vote for the Democratic 
candidate, Hon. Woodrow Wilson. He could not carry his 
intention into elfect, however, owing to his inability to get ; 
to the voting place. He enjoyed hunting and fishing in his 
years of activity, and was to the close of his long life a 
man of strong friendships and social inclinations. His family 
consisted of three sons and one daughter: Freeman, who is 
a lawyer in active practice; Leslie C, the immediate subject 
of this review; Frank S., now a deputy sheriff, and Cora, who 
died in childhood. 

Dr. Lane obtained a good high school education and was 
graduated in medicine from Rush Medical College. Chicago, in 
1877. He practiced his profession at Benson in this state two 
years and at Ortonville twelve. In 1890 he returned to Min- 
neapolis, where he built up a good general practice and was 
rapidly rising to the first rank in the profession. The death 
of his wife three years after their marriage changed his line 
of action, and he became interested in life insurance work in 
the employ of the Fidelity Life Insurance company of Phila- 
delphia, with which he was associated two years as a solicitor. ' 
At the end of that period he was made manager of the com- ■ 
pany for the Northwest, his territory including Minnesota, i 
the Dakotas, Wisconsin and one-half of Iowa. 

In 189,'!, when it was necessary to have a receiver to close ! 
up the business of the Children's Endowment Society of Min- 
neapolis, the doctor was appointed to the position by Judge 
Russell. It took three years to complete the work, and he so 
managed it that the society paid fifty cents on the dollar, a 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



399 



much larger percentage than many persons expected, some 
declaring that it could not possibly pay over ten cents on the 
dollar. In discharging him from the receivership at the end 
of his work the judge complimented him for his excellent 
management of the trust and the fine result he had accom- 
plished thereby. 

In 1901 Dr. Lane was elected president of the Surety Fund 
Life company of Minneapolis, which was organized in 1898, 
and in 1901 had about $390,000 insurance in force and was at 
a standstill. This company now has some $13,000,000 insurance 
out in live policies and operates in six of the states and also 
largely in Canada. Its last annual report, published on Decem- 
ber 31, 1912, and brought down to that date, showed its total 
assets to be $225,323.50, and to include $112,100 invested in 
first mortgage farm loans, $36,400 in municipal bonds, 
$60,410.64 cash in banks, and various other funds and property, 
the gain in gross net assets for the year being $70,251.31, and 
the income in excess of disbursements $60,089.35. 

In January, 1913, the doctor was re-elected president of the 
company for another term of three years. He was married 
in 1881 to Miss Matilda Emmett, a daughter of Hon. Lafay- 
ette Emmett, the first chief justice of the state of Minne- 
sota, formerly a resident of Faribault. Mrs. Lane died after 
three years of married life, leaving one son, L. Emmett 
Lane, who is now in the employ of the city. In his second 
marriage the doctor was united with Miss Adla M. Carlson of 
Minneapolis. They have three daughters, Bonnie, Eleanor and 
Charlotte, all living and all still members of the parental 
family circle. 

In church relations the doctor is a Presbyterian and chairman 
of tlie board of trustees of Stewart Memorial church. He was 
elected to this office for a second term although he was not, 
at the time of the election, an actual member of the church. 
Fraternally he is a Freemason and belongs to Ark Lodge in 
the order. He is also a Knight Templar and a Noble of the 
Mystic Shrine in this great fraternity. In politics he is a 
Regenerated Republican, and cast his vote for Woodrow Wilson 
for President at the election of 1912. But the only political 
or semi-political office he has ever held was that of United 
States Pension Examiner, which he filled for two years while 
he was living at Benson. 



ALFRED HADLEY LINDLEY. M. D. 

The late Dr. Alfred H. Lindley was for forty years one 
of the leading physicians and surgeons of Minneapolis. 

Dr. Lindley was a native of Chatham county. North Caro- 
lina, where his life began in May, 1821. He died in Minne- 
apolis on February 16th, 1905, in the eighty-fifth year of his 
age. He grew to manhood and was educated in his native 
state, completing his academic courses at the Friends' 
School at New Garden, which is now 'called Guilford College, 
in which he taught four years and his professional instruc- 
tion at the Jefl'erson Medical College in Philadelphia, from 
which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1827. 

After completing his medical course the doctor returned 
to his native county and there practiced medicine until 
1861. Having been reared a Friend, or Quaker, in the sect 
to which all his family connections belonged, he was strongly 
opposed to the Civil war, and as soon as North Carolina 
seceded from the Union he decided to remove to the North. 



R. J. Mendenhall, one of his old friends and intimates, was 
living in Minneapolis at the time, and that fact induced 
him to select this city as his future home. His brother-in- 
law. Dr. M. B. Hill, whose sister Eliza was his wife, came 
with him, and after their arrival they practiced medicine 
together here until the death of Dr. Hill in 1875, after 
which Dr. Lindley practiced alone until he retired, except 
that for a number of years one of his sons was associated 
with him. 

He yielded to the genius of the place in another line of 
business also, and did what everybody else was doing — • 
dealt in real estate and put up buildings. In 1883 he erected 
what is now known as the Lindley block, an office building 
fronting 82V2 feet on Nicollet avenue, and others of value 
later. He also served as health officer for the city for some 
years, and bought the land on which the first pest house was 
built. This has since been converted into a public park. 

True to the religious Sect in which he was reared, the 
doctor was through life a warm and helpful friend of its edu- 
cational institutions. He contributed liberally to the support 
and advancement of Guilford College in North Ciarolina, his 
own Alma Mater, and also to Earlham College, at Richmond, 
Indiana, where Lindley Hall has been erected in honor of 
him and as a memorial of his serviceable interest in the 
institution. Penn College, in Oskaloosa, Iowa, also enlisted 
his aid and his donations to it were frequent, generous and 
cheerfully made. The Society of Friends, his home and his 
profession were the objects of his warmest devotion, and he 
was true to them all in every particular and at all times. 

Dr. Lindley's wife was a zealous worker in Quaker circles, 
giving a great deal of time and energy to the service of her 
chur'ch as long as she was able. She was also zealous in be- 
half of the Women's Boarding Home, and for many years 
served as the president of its board of trustees or directors. 

Her death occurred on February 18, 1913. after she had 
reached the age of eighty-seven. She and the doctor were the 
parents of four sons and one daughter. One of the sons 
died when he was but three years old and another when he 
was thirteen. The daughter lived to the age of thirtj'. 
The two sons who grew to manhood were Samuel and Clark- 
son. Samuel was a graduate of the Jefferson Medical Col- 
lege in Philadelphia, and was associated with his father in 
the practice of his profession until his death in 1887, at the 
age of thirty-five. He was a valued member of the Hennepin 
County Medical Society. 

Clarkson Lindley, the last survivor of his father's family, 
and the only one now living, was graduated from the Minne- 
apolis high Schools in 1874 and completed his academic 
education at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He was 
engaged in the real estate business seven or eight years 
in association with Corser & Company, and was secretary 
of the Minneapolis Trust company eight years. In 1896 he 
became connected with his father in the real estate trade, 
and in addition to what he handled for the firm while his 
father lived, he owned extensive and valuable properties him- 
self. 

Like all the other members of his family for several 
generations, Mr. Lindley belongs to the Society of Friends, 
and he has for some years been one of the trustees of the 
organization in Minneapolis. On Dec. 11, 1895, he was united 
in marriage with Miss Anna Gale, a daughter of Samuel 
C. Gale, of this city. They have three daughters and one 
son. Ella, their oldest daughter, is a student at Bryn Mawr 



400 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



College, in Pliiladelphia, and Alice G., Charlotte and Alfred 
are living at home with their parents and attending school 
in this eitv. 



GEORGE P. DOUGLAS. 



Prominent in professional life as a capable, energetic, re- 
sourceful and successful lawyer, and, during the last twelve 
or thirteen years, standing high as a real estate investor, 
George P. Douglas of Minneapolis has fully justified the 
confidence the community has in him. 

Mr. Douglas exemplifies in his energy and ingenuity the 
salient characteristics of the section of country and race of 
people from which he came. He was born in Vermont in 
1866, and is a typical New Englander in every commendable 
feature. He is a son of Christopher F. and Louisa (Perkins) 
Douglas, with whom he came to Minneapolis in 1873. when 
he was but seven years old. The father was a dry goods 
merchant in the firm of Camp, Douglas & Gold, and also 
operated a flour mill on Minnehaha creek. He was active and 
enterprising in business until about 1885, when he retired. 
He died in 1910, aged seventy-nine, having survived his wife 
by a number of years. 

Their son, George P. Douglas, was prepared for college at 
the East Side Academy, Minneapolis, and in 1885 entered 
Yale University, from the academic department of which he 
was graduated in 1889. He then became a student in the 
law department of the University of Minnesota, obtaining his 
degree of LL. B. in 1890. During the next ten years he 
practiced his profession. But more promising fields of en- 
deavor opened before him, and he entered tliem without hesi- 
tation, and has cultivated them with great enterprise and 
success for himself, and with decided advantage to the 
community. 

The new fields were in tlie real estate business, and in 
this Mr. Douglas has been engaged with profit and a steadily 
rising and widening reputation ever since he, in a measure, 
gave it precedence over the law. He has mastered his busi- 
ness in this line, and made himself so well informed with 
reference to it that he has become an authority on every 
phase of it, and his opinion and judgment have great weight 
in connection with cverytliing belonging to it. 

Mr. Douglas is also earnest and enthusiastic in his support 
of the social agencies at work in the community for the 
enjoyment and betterment of its residents. He is president 
of the Minneapolis New Athletic Club, which has now (July, 
1914) 2,300 members, and also belongs to the Minneapolis, 
Minikahda, Lafayette and St. Paul University Clubs. 

In his political relations Mr. Douglas is an ardent Demo- 
crat and a very hard, faithful and efficient worker for his 
party. He has served for some years as chairman of its 
local campaign committee, and as such has rendered it very 
loyal and valuable service. During the campaigns of the late 
Hon. James C. Haynes for tlie mayoralty he was particu- 
larly active, and his activity and the intelligence whicli 
guided it gave inspiration to the other members of the com- 
mittee and kept up the courage and determination of the 
most faint-hearted and sustained the faith of those most 
inclined to be doul)tfuI of triumphant results. In another 
public service he has worked arduously as a member of the 
city charter commission. 



Mr. Douglas was married on Oct. 19, 1899, to Miss Bessie 
Pettit, the only child of Hon. Curtis H. Pettit, a sketch of 
whom will be found on other pages of this work. Mr. and 
Mrs. Douglas are the parents of three children, their daugh- 
ters Deborah L., Elizabeth P. and Eleanor G. The mother is 
a member of Westminster Presbyterian church. She and lier 
husband are very fond of the enjoyments of social life as 
furnished by a select circle of congenial friends, and their 
home at 2434 Park avenue is an attractive and much fre- 
quented resort for such circles. The general welfare of their 
home city and its residents also has their earnest and dis- 
criminating attention, and they are zealous in their support 
of every commendable undertaking for its promotion and 
general advancement along all wholesome lines of progress, 
moral, mental, social and material. The city of Mnineapolia 
is well pleased to number them among its most useful, agree- 
able and representative citizens and forces fo"- good. 



WILLIAM H. LANDIS. 



ilr. Landis is a native of Pennsylvania, that great hive of 
industry in which almost every form of productive human 
endeavor is in fruitful activity. He was born near the Bloss- 
burg coal mine, in Tioga county, that state, on May 28, 1844. 
His father, Joseph Landis, was a farmer, and the son was 
reared on the farm and acquired habits of useful labor in 
assisting in cultivating the land. Near the close of the Civil 
war the father, a farmer, was drafted for service in the Union 
army. The son volunteered to go to the front as a substitute 
for his father, and was enrolled for a i)eriod of nine months. 
A regiment was formed of the conscripted men and Mr. Landis 
was made its adjutant. The regiment was never called to the 
field, however, as the war closed soon after it was organized. 

Mr. Landis was less tlian twenty j'ears of age when he began 
his military service, and never had any opportunity for 
advanced education. What he could get in the common district 
schools of his native neighborhood was all the mental training 
he received from regularly appointed teacliers. But his mind 
was strong, active and inquiring, and lie acquired a considerable 
fund of general information by reading and observation, and 
also learned by doing things how best to employ his faculties 
to }iis own advantage and in the service of his fellow men. 

The experience of this gentleman in the army quickened into 
determination his inherent desire to see more of the world 
than the hills and vales amid which he was born and reared, 
and when he quit the militarj' service in 1865 he came west to 
La Crosse, Wisconsin, and *as in that city when President 
Lincoln Avas assassinated. From La Crosse he journeyed by 
boat to St. Paul, and from that city went to Le Sueur, where 
lie taught school one term and studied telegraphy while he 
was doing it. At the end of his engagement as a teacher he 
became a telegraph operator for the St. Paul and Pacific Rail- 
road. He worked faithfully as an operator for this company 
for a year and a lialf at Anoka, Jlinn., and in 1S67 came to 
Minneapolis and o])eneil an office for it as operator and bill 
clerk. 

Six months later lie was sent to the Big Woods region as a 
claim agent, and sometime afterward became interested in 
the publication of a newspaper, the one now known as the 
Delano Eagle, which he founded. In 1881 he was appointed 
auditor on the Great Northern Railroad, and he served the 




k::^^'^ 




-fS^-^_^ 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



401 



road in that rapacity ten years. At the end of that period he 
was made superintendent of the business of the Northwestern 
Elevator company between Minneapolis and Sioux Falls, South 
Dakota, and later purchased a one-half interest in an under- 
taking establishment in 1891, which was then conducted under 
the firm name of Johnson & Landis, his connection with it 
lasting from 1891 to 1905, as member of the firm. In that 
year he acquired a large ownership in the business and the 
name was changed to the Landis Undertaking company. This 
company is interested in developing a forty-acre tract of land, 
in Cuba, ten acres of which are well wooded. The tract is 
located in a very desirable country and the climate of the 
region is as good as can be found in America. The company 
is also interested in building mausoleums and is erecting three 
this summer (1913). Mr. Landis is its secretary and treasurer 
with offices in the Lumber Exchange building. 

Mr. Landis is of Pennsylvania Dutch extraction, and a fine 
tj'pe of the American manhood that has come from that source. 
He is a Republican in his political belief and adherence, but, 
while deeply interested in the success of his party at all times, 
and zealous in its service in his quiet way, he has never aspired 
to public office. On April 36, 1S67, he was united in marriage 
witli Miss Mary A. Cuttler, the daughter of a prominent lum- 
berman. They have two sons living: Raymond F. and Willis 
E.. connected with their father's business in Minneapolis. 
The father belongs to the Masonic order, the Knights of 
Pythias, the Royal Arcanum and the Grand Army of the 
Republic. 



LE\T LONGFELLOW. 



With a creditable record of forty-three years in the same 
line, during which time he has built up an extensive trade by 
square dealing and progressive enterprise, Levi Longfellow, 
head of the Longfellow Brothers Company, wholesale produce 
dealers, is justly regarded as one of the leading men in busi- 
nesS, civic and social activities. 

Mr. Longfellow was born at Machias, Maine, May 10, 1842, 
being a son of Jacob and ilartha .J. (Getchell) Longfellow, also 
natives of Maine. Machias Bay on which the city is located 
was the scene of a thrilling and unusual event during the 
Revolution. The British frigate "Margaretta" with four 
4-pounders and 16 small cannon, entered the harbor and her 
commander, Capt. Moore, demanded that the Liberty Pole be 
taken down. The next day upon leaving he fired upon the 
town. The Colonists, led by Capt. O'Brien, on the "Unity," 
a much smaller vessel, followed the "Margaretta" which became 
wind-bound. They grappled with and boarded her, and after 
a severe hand to hand fight captured her, Capt. Moore being 
mortally wounded in the battle. 

Mr. Longfellow's paternal great-grandfather Nathan Long- 
fellow, was a First Lieutenant in the Revolutionary War and 
served on General Washington's stalT. Mr. Longfellow's ma- 
ternal great-grandfather took part in the Battle of Bunker 
Hill. 

Jacob Longfellow was a lumber manufactiu-or operating 
two large saw mills. In 1851 the family came to St. 
Anthony Falls to join the mother's parents, Washington 
and Mary (Berry) Getchell, who had located here in 1848. 
Mr. Getchell erected the second frame residence built in the 
village. He took up land in Brooklyn Center and his Sons, 



Winslow D., Washington, Jr., and Henry, became citizens of 
that town. In 1857 they removed to California, making that 
their permanent home. 

Jacob Longfellow pre-empted land at Brooklyn Center 
where he lived until after the Civil War. He then removed 
to Minneapolis where he died in 1884, surviving his wife four 
years. Mrs. Longfellow, the mother of Levi, was a mem- 
ber of Hobart Chapel, Methodist Episcopal Church. Of nine 
children but five are living. Elizabeth Ls the widow of S. D. 
Morrison, Levi and Daniel W. are the membeiis of the Long- 
fellow Bros. Company. Charles is in the West, and Ansel is a 
contractor in Seattle. 

In 1862 Levi Longfellow enlisted in Company "B" Sixth 
Minnesota Regiment under Capt. 0. C. Merriman, then mayor 
of St. Anthony — the regiment being under the command of 
Col. William Crooks. He became Principal Musician of the 
regiment and was discharged with the field staff at St. 
Paul on August 19, 1865. He then taught school in St. 
Paul for a year and clerked in Minneapolis until 1870, when 
he engaged in the wholesale Fruit and Produce business. 
Later his brothers, Daniel W. and Nathan, became associated 
with him in the business which has continued until the 
present time. 

In 1906-07 Mv. Longfellow was Department Commander of 
the Grand Army of the Republic in Minnesota, and follow- 
ing that was made Department Patriotic Instructor. He 
held this office till 1913, when he was appointed National 
Patriotic Instructor, under Commander-in-Chief, Alfred B. 
Beers. 

The Longfellow Brothers have been active in improve- 
ments. They platted and incorporated the village of West 
Minneapolis where the Minneapolis Threshing Machine 
Works are located, Levi having been treasurer of that in- 
stitution for nine years. 

Levi Longfellow has always been deeply interested in the 
education of young men to full American citizenship. He is 
a pleasing speaker and is always heard with profit. F'rom 
the founding of the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Hospital he 
has been one of its trustees and for many years has been 
the treasurer of the Board. He is the only survivor of the 
incorporators of the Hennepin Avenue Methodist Episcopal 
Church. For five years he has been the resident executive 
member of the Board of Trustees of the Minnesota Soldiers 
Home, and is at present its president. In politics he is a 
Republican but has never been induced to accept a public 
office. He is also a member of Hennepin Lodge No. 4 A. 
F. and A. M. 



W. H. LAWRENCE. 



W. H. Lawrence, Secretary and Treasurer of the Model 
Laundry company, was born in Minneapolis on July 5, 1877, 
and is a son of Wesley and Elvira (Potter) Lawrence, natives 
of Vermont who came to Minneapolis in 1876 and started the 
first steam laundry in the city. They are still living, but 
tlie father is now retired from all active pursuits and enjoying 
a well-earned leisure. 

The son was reared in this city and educated in the public 
schools. He began business in association with his father, and 
remained in this relation to the parent for a number of years, 
helping to conduct the laundry, but not in charge of its affairs. 



402 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



In 1902, however, he was given the general management of the 
business as secretary and treasurer of the company, his father 
still retaining the presidency. He still fills this position and 
directs the business of the mechanical institution over which 
he presides in every particular; and it is nourishing and 
thriving under his vigorous management. 

On Aug. 18th, 1910, Mr. Lawrence was united in maniage 
with Miss Ettie S. Webster, of Minneapolis. He is a member 
of the Order of Elks and since early in 1911 has been president 
of the East Side Commercial club, of which he was one of 
the founders. The family is of English ancestry, and in his 
business operations Mr. Lawrence exhibits the sterling and 
sturdy traits whicli distinguish the race from which he sprang, 
and which always command the success due to persistent 
effort and good judgment. Throughout the city he is well 
known, and among all classes of its residents he is esteemed 
as an energetic and enterprising business man and an excellent 
citizen, earnestly interested in the substantial welfare of his 
community and anxious to promote by every means at his 
command the enduring good of its people and its own material 
advancement and improvement. But, while he is earnestly 
interested in public affairs locally, he is not an active political 
partisan, although a loyal member of the Republican party. 



CHARLES G. GATES. 



The sudden death of the late Charles G. Gates on Tues- 
day, October 28, 1913, in his private car, at Cody, Wyoming, 
ended the second generation of the most spectacular, striking 
and successful business enterprise in the same family the 
world has ever known. The career of the father, John W. 
Gates, and that of the son, Charles G. Gates, was each unique 
in its way, and distinct from the other, although there were 
many elements of similarity and many features that were 
common in the two. The father was a man of unbounded 
nerve in business, and by his unrivaled boldness and self- 
confidence of the commendable kind, won for himself the fa- 
miliar sobriquet of "Bet-You-a-Million Gates," and the son, 
through a liberality on all occasions that was almost unprece- 
dented in human history, if not entirely so, became almost 
as familiarly spoken of as "Spend-a-Million Gates." These 
names were not, however, mere empty sounds, and much less 
were they terms of reproach. Tliey were but the expression 
in the popular mind of general admiration of substantial and 
fruitful qualities in the two men on which their respective 
fortunes and careers were founded and built up to Such 
impressive proportions. 

Charles G. Gates was born in West Chicago, May 21, 1876, 
and was, therefore, only thirty-seven years old when he died. 
He was the Son of John W. and Delora R. (Baker) Gates, both 
born and reared in Illinois. The father was one of the most 
towering and stupendous of all captains of industry. His 
business career touched the industrial and financial world at 
so many points of contact that a recital of them all would be 
wearying. But he touched nothing Small, and was never con- 
nected with any business transaction, after he struck his 
proper pace and got fairly under way, but one of magnitude 
and prime importance. He began his industrial activity as 
a manufacturer of wire, but soon broadened his operations so 
that they took in large dealings in steel and grain, and in 
time covered almost the whole field of large transactions of 



every kind. He died in August, 1911, leaving a fortune esti- 
mated at about $30,000,000, the bulk of which he willed to his 
wife, who is still living in New York city. After the death 
of her husband she made an almost equal division of the 
estate witli their only child, the immediate subject of this 
writing. 

The son obtained liis education in the public schools of 
Chicago, and his father earnestly desired him to secure a 
thorough college training of advanced scholarship, but he 
opposed the proposal and insisted on .going into business in 
his early manhood. The father argued, persuaded, and pos- 
sibly even threatened dire results from his displeasure. But 
the son was literally "a chip of the old block," and firmly 
adhered to his own purpo.ses. Doubtless his own intuitions 
were guiding him in the right course, and they overbore all 
outside influences. At the age of sixteen he began his busi- 
ness life as secretary to the manager of a large wire mill, 
and during the next five years he performed the duties of 
that responsible position with great ability. 

When Mr. Gates reached tlie age of twenty-one his father 
gave him $50,000 with which to go into business for himself. 
He at once bought an interest in the brokerage firm of Balwin 
& Gurney, dealers in stocks and bonds in Chicago. This step 
was also taken against the advice and wishes of his father, 
but subsequent events proved the wisdom of the choice, as the 
son became one of the most extensive and successful stock 
operators in the world. He carried on his business for some 
time in Chicago, and then moved to New York city and founded 
the firm of Charles G. Gates & Company, which was the larg- 
est Stock and bond firm in business on W'all street. The com- 
pany consisted of twelve members, the elder Mr. Gates being 
one of the number, but the son retained a majority of the 
stock. The firm was very successful until its retirement from 
business in 1897. After his withdrawal from this firm he 
operated alone until his death and amassed a large fortune 
by his own efforts. 

Among the numerous business projects Mr. Gates aided 
in creating and bringing to large fruition was the development 
of the Beaumont Texas oil fields, he being one of the first 
men of large means who became interested in them. He in- 
duced his father to invest heavily in that region also, and 
together they founded the town of Port Arthur, Texas, and 
contributed liberally to its growth and improvement. The 
younger Mr. Gates built a rice mill, started a bank, erected a 
large number of buildings of various kinds, gave the local 
Lodge of Elks a handsome home and aided in many other ways 
in making the place important and attractive for business 
and as a residence. At his death the entire town was in 
mourning for several days and its people paid him many touch- 
ing tributes. 

One of the largest enterprises in which Mr. Gates was inter- 
ested was the United States Realty and Improvement com- 
pany of New York. This company built the Plaza Hotel in 
that city and many other important structures tlicre and 
elsewhere. Mr. Gates was one of its largest stoekholdere and 
most influential directors. His widow still has an extensive 
interest in it. But he was interested in many companies in 
different parts of this tountry, and was known in every sec- 
tion of it. He belonged to the Minneapolis, Minikahda, Lafay- 
ette, Interlachen and Automobile clubs in this city, and many 
of tliose in Chicago and New York. In the latter city he was 
a member and at one time the commodore of the celebrated 
New York Yacht club. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



403 



On September 29, I'Jll, Mr. Gates was united in marriage 
with Miss Florence Hopwood, of Minneapolis, and at once 
decided to make his home most of the time in this city. With 
this end in view he bought whatever land he wanted on the 
Lake of the Isles front regardless of cost, and began the erec- 
tion of a mansion that was to cost at least $1,000,000. The 
structure was not finished at the time of his death, but in 
accordance with his wishes, Mrs. Gates is having it completed 
on the original design. It will be one of the most magnificent 
residences in the country, when finished, but language pales 
before the task of fully describing it. 

Like many men of robust physique and vigorous health, 
Mr. Gates overrated his strength. His extensive business 
engagements made enormous drafts on his resources, and in 
the fall of 1913 his private physician. Dr. Fellows Davis, Jr., 
advised him that in order to recuperate he must pass a con- 
siderable period in the open air, and agreed to accompany him 
on a trip for the purpose. In obedience to their wishes he 
went to Cody, Wyoming, arriving there on Friday, Septem- 
ber 26. The whole population of the city welcomed him 
warmly and treated him with marked consideration. 

From Cody Mr. Gates rode on horseback twenty miles 
through the mountains into Shoshone Canyon in one day. 
He spent a month hunting big game and returned to Cody on 
Saturday, October 25, to make preparations for his journey 
back to New York. His preparations were delayed by a 
■slight derangement of the stomach, and on Monday night he 
began suffering from dizziness and an alarming weakness in 
the action of his heart. His ailment would not yield to treat- 
ment, and the next day he died in his private car, which was 
about to be attached to an Eastbound train. Even in the face 
of death, however, he did not lose his interest in his fellow 
men or withhold his unfailing generosity to them, and as 
the people of Cody had treated him with great cordiality and 
theirs was a good town, he ascertained the indebtedness of 
the different churches in the town and paid it. He also made 
liberal donations to the other churches, and was munificent 
in his generosity to his personal attendants, giving them 
various sums of money ranging from $100 to $10,000. His 
remains were taken to New York and buried in Woodlawn 
cemetery in that city. 



Company. He is President of the North Star Malting Company, 
and associated in various capacities with quite a number of 
other financial organizations. A member of the Minneapolis, 
Minikahda and Lafayette Clubs. 



ALBERT C. LORING. 



Albert C. Loring, son of Charles M. Loring and Emily Cros- 
man Loring; born in Milwaukee, August 31, 1858. Educated 
in the public schools of Minneapolis, Minnesota, State Univer- 
sity of Minnesota, and the West Newton English Preparatory 
School, West Newton, Massachusetts. 

Upon returning to Minneapolis, he entered the office of L. 
Fletcher & Company, then engaged in general merchandising 
business and Hour milling; and became associated as Secretary 
and Treasurer of the Minnetonka Mill Company in 1877 — one 
of the earliest mills in the City. He has remained contin- 
uously in the milling business since that time. He was the 
organizer of the Galaxy Milling Company — its Secretary and 
Treasurer — afterwards, its President; was one of the organ- 
izers of the Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company, being 
for a long time associated as Manager, and for some years. 
President of that Company. Upon organization of the Pills- 
bury Flour Mills Company, he was made President of that 



.J. A. LATTA. 



Almost from boyhood J. A. Latta has been actively identified 
with the world of banking and with banking business. Pre- 
paratory to his career as a banker he entered the employ of 
the County Treasurer of Ionia County, Michigan, soon after 
he graduated from the High School in Allegan, Mich. This 
was in 1882 and in 1883 he was made deputy treasurer with 
full charge of the office. In this capacity he served for two 
years. After some months in an insurance office, — in 1885, — 
became teller of the Second National Bank of Ionia, Mich. 
With this bank and with the banking firm of Webber brothers, 
its successor, he continued for seven years, then he went to 
Detroit to accept a position with the Penisular Savings Bank 
as assistant teller. Here he remained for only a short time 
as he was soon elected to fill the office of cashier in the First 
National Bank of Hurley, Wisconsin. Two years later, after 
having satisfactorily filled this position in Hurley, lie went 
back to Detroit to an advanced position and two years after- 
ward was appointed State Bank Examiner, and when two years 
had been given to this service he went back to Detroit as 
assistant cashier of the Penisular Savings Bank, remaining here 
for six years. 

Mr. Latta's first entrance into Minneapolis Banking circles 
was made as vice president of the Swedish American National 
Bank. This was in 1905, nearly four years before its con- 
solidation with the Northwestern National Bank. When this 
consolidation took place on November 28. 1908, he was elected 
as vice president of the augmented Northwestern National 
Bank, which position he is now filling. 

Miss Cristine Webber, daughter of John A. Webber, of Port- 
land, Michigan, became the wife of Mr. Latta on January 15, 
1902. Mr. Webber now deceased was of the banking family 
which is so prominently identified with a number of Michigan 
Banks. Two daughters have been born to them, Marian and 
Jeannette. 

He and his family are membci*s of St. Mark's Church and he 
is a 32nd degree Mason. He is a member of the Minneapolis, 
the Minikahda and the Commercial clubs. 

Mr. Latta was born in Ionia County, Michigan, April 23, 
1865. He is the son of Patroclus A. Latta and Margaret (Just) 
Latta, natives of Michigan and New York. 

He was reared and educated in Allegan, Michigan, and 
gi-aduated from tlie High School of that city in 1880. His 
father was engaged in the practice of law and educational 
work. He died at Saugatuck, Michigan, in 1911. 



CAVOUR S. LANGDON. 



Cavour S. Langdon, railroad contractor and a prominent 
business man of Minneapolis, is a son of Robert B. and Sarah 
(Smith) Langdon, a sketch of whose lives will be found else- 
where in this work. His business activity has been highly 
beneficial to this part of the country, and his career in the 



404 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



conduct of it has been very creditable to him in the upright 
and enterprising manner in which it lias been wrought out and 
the success that has attended his judicious, energetic and 
wisely applied efforts. 

Mr. Langdon is a native of New Haven, Addison county, 
Vermont, where his life began on September 11, 1861. He 
was educated in the public schools of Minneapolis, and has 
been engaged in railroad construction work continuously since 
1878, when he was but seventeen years of age. 

In the public affairs of the community Mr. Langdon takes 
an earnest and helpful part as a Republican in political faith. 
But he has never been an active partisan and has never sought 
or desired a political office; but has served as secretary of 
the school board for tlic past two years and as a member since 
1911, his term expiring in 1917. The industrial and fiscal 
agencies at work in this city and state also interest him 
practically, and he gives them serviceable attention, being a 
trustee of the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank, president 
of the Minneapolis Syndicate and a director of the Minneapolis 
Trust company. He was also a member of the Minnesota 
National Guard from 1879 to 188G. In church affiliation he 
is an Episcopalian. In the organized social life of the city 
he is active as a member of the Minneapolis, Minikahda and 
Lafayette clubs. While his business is always the first con- 
sideration with him, he frequently finds relief from its burdens 
and recreation in golf and hunting. 



IRVING A. DUNSMOOR. 



The old Pine Tree state has contributed an appreciable 
and valuable quota to the complex social fabric of tlie Gopher 
commonwealth, and of this number Mr. Dunsmoor is a rep- 
resentative. He was born in Franklin county, Maine, on 
the 25th of June, 1844, and has been a resident of Minne- 
sota since his boyhood days, his father, .James A. Dunsmoor, 
having been one of the honored pioneers of Jlinneapolis, 
where he first made his appearance in the winter of 1852 and 
where he was joined by his family in tlie following spring. 
James A. Dunsmoor secured from the government a pre- 
emption claim of land on what is now Lyndale avenue, and 
his original domicile was erected at the present number, 
5317, on this fine thoroughfare, which then crossed Minne- 
haha creek at a point about one-half mile west of his home, 
which was on the south side of the creek and five and one- 
half miles distant from the court house of Hennepin county. 
James A. Dunsmoor reclaimed his land to cultivation and 
developed a productive farm, besides which he became one 
of the prominent and influential citizens of the pioneer com- 
munity. He assisted in the organization of Richfiehl township 
and served for a number of years as its treasurer, besides 
having been for a considerable period of time the postmaster 
at Richfield and having also held the office of justice of the 
peace. He donated five acres of land, at the crossing of 
Minnehaha creek and Lyndale avenue, to a company which 
there erected a grist mill, and he also sold small tracts of 
land to other ])ersons, for the starting of stores, blacksmith 
shop and other business enterprises. He was one of the most 
liberal and public-spirited of the pioneer settlers of that sec- 
tion of the city and his attitude has been that assumed by his 
son. Irving A., who, as early as 1867, built a store at Rich- 
field, and served as postmaster for four years prior to his 



going to California, the old grist mill previously mentioned 
having been constructed about the year 1854. The old home- 
stead of the Dunsmoor family was a house of six rooms and 
in the same entertainment was given in the early days to 
settlers who came from points forty or more miles distant 
to avail themselves of the advantages of the grist mill. The 
capacity of the little house was thus often taxed, and the sons 
frequently slept in the hay-mow or on the floor, in order to 
provide beds for the guests, the home having served as a 
hotel or inn. The old liomestead is still standing and in ex- 
cellent preservation, but many changes have been made, in- 
cluding additions to the original building. The place is now 
inside the city limits of Minneapolis and is one of the land- 
marks of the section in which it is situated. The old Duns- 
moor farm is now a part of the Wasliburn Park addition. 
About the year 1872 .Tames A. Dunsmoor disposed of the 
portion of the farm which he had retained and he then re- 
moved with his wife and other members of the family to 
California. In Los Angeles, that state, his death occurred 
about one year later, and there three of his sons still re- 
side, another son having been a resident of the same city 
at the time of his death, in 1912. Tlie devoted wife and 
mother, who likewise was a native of Maine and whose maiden 
name was Almina A. Mosher, survived her husband by a 
number of years and passed the remainder of her life in 
California. She was a zealous and devoted member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church and her name merits enduring 
place beside that of her husband on the roll of the noble 
and honored pioneers of Minnesota. Of the six sons. Irving 
A., of this review, and Dr. Frederick A., reside in Minneapolis. 
Irving A. Dunsmoor was about nine years of age at the 
time when the family home was established in Minnesota 
and he was reared under the conditions and influences of the 
pioneer days. He attended a primitive school two miles 
distant from his home and later continued his studies in a 
school at Wood Lake, but this discipline was irregular and 
somewhat desultory, so that his broader and more liberal 
education was that gained through self-training and through 
the lessons acquired in the practical school of experience. He 
assisted in the operations of the pioneer farm and also, until 
he was fourteen years of age. aided his mother in the domestic 
affairs of the household, as there were no girls in the family. 
When the Civil war was precipitated upon the nation Mr. 
Dunsmoor did not long wait to respond to the call of pat- 
riotism. In the autumn of 1861 he enlisted in the first Min- 
nesota company of sharpshooters, under command of Colonel 
Pcteler, his elder brother, Frank, having enlisted at the first 
call of President Lincoln, and having taken part in the first 
battle of Bull Run. in which he received a wound that de- 
stroyed one of his eyes, so that he was granted his discharge 
on account of physical disability. Irving A. Dunsmoor. the 
second of the six sons, proceeded with his command to the 
front and with the same assisted in the capture of Fred- 
ericksburg, besides taking part in various engagements of 
General Pojie's campaign leading >ip to the second battle of 
Bull Run. He continued on active duty for thirteen months 
and then received an honorable discharge, having been m- 
capacitated as the result of sunstroke received on the march. 
In 1864 Mr. Dunsmoor gave further evidence of his insistent 
loyalty to the Union, as he enlisted in the First Minnesota 
Heavy Artillery. At Chattanooga he was detailed in charge 
of a one-hundred-pound gun that was stationed at a bend 
of the river, to guard against the advancement of the Con- 




■C^t4.^^in^d<y'y\^erO-'i^, 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



405 



federate forces under General Hood. The approach of Hood 
caused the Union forces at Chattanooga to be hard pressed 
for adequate food supplies, and the command of which Mr. 
Dunsmoor was a member went on half-rations for six weeks. 
He remained at Chattanooga until the close of the war, and 
his entire period of military service thus covered nearly two 
years. He made an admirable record as a faithful and valiant 
soldier and won promotion from the position of private to 
that of sergeant. He is a member of .John A. Rawlings 
Post, Grand Army of the Republic, in Minneapolis, and 
wliile a resident of California he became a charter member 
of the first Grand Army post organized in the city of Los 
Angeles; of this organization he served as deputy inspector 
and also as commander, and through his close and active as- 
sociation with the Grand Army of the Republic he vitalized 
and perpetuates the more gracious memories and experiences 
of his military career. While in California he Avas made 
Major and Inspector of the First Brigade of the National 
Guard of California. 

After the close of the war ilr. Dunsmoor obtained a sol- 
dier's claim of one hundred and sixty acres of government 
land, near Sauk Center, Stearns county, Minnesota, but he 
disposed of the property within a few years and then en- 
gaged in tlie general merchandise business in the old home 
town of Richfield, where he continued to conduct a store for 
four years. He then, in 1872. accompanied his parents on 
their removal to California, where he engaged in the mer- 
cantile business and where he continued to reside for a 
period of ten years. He was a member of a volunteer fire 
department at Los Angeles, that state, and when running 
to a fire was taken ill, the result of his illness being his 
affliction with asthma. To find relief from this disorder he 
found a change of climate necessary, and accordingly he re- 
turned to ^linneapolis. For several years he had definite 
relief from his asthmatic trouble, but the disease again at- 
tacked him and with greater severity. He made a trip to 
Honolulu, where he found no relief, and he then returned to 
Minneapolis. 

Mr. Dunsmoor has been successfully established in the real- 
estate business for the past thirty years and he has platted 
twelve additions to the city of Minneapolis. One of the 
most important' and attractive of these subdivisions perpet- 
uates his name, being known as Dunsmoor's Seventh addition 
and being in the southeastetn part of the city. He has re- 
cently platted Richfield Heights addition, which is a most 
attractive and eligibly situated district, one and one-half 
miles southwest of the old Dunsmoor homestead and ex- 
tending from Humboldt avenue to Morgan avenue. His oper- 
ations in the local real-estate field have resulted in adding 
two hundred acres to the improved sections of Minneapolis. 

In politics Mr. Dunsmoor has been a stalwart supporter of 
tlie cause of the Republican party, and he and his wife are 
zealous members of the Hennepin Avenue Methodist Epis- 
copal church. He is past chancellor commander of the 
Knights of Pythias, and has represented his lodge in the 
grand lodge of the state, besides which he is past grand 
guide and past grand master of the Minnesota grand lodge 
of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

In the year 1867 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Duns- 
moor to Miss Adeline Burns, of Sauk Center, this state, and 
concerning their children the following brief data are en- 
tered in conclusion of this sketch: Albert Irving is a resi- 
dent of Los Angeles, California; Maude is the wife of Arthur 



Armitage, of Minneapolis; Harry is manager of an extensive 
lumber business at Bottineau, North Dakota. Frederick is floor 
manager in the important Minneapolis clothing house of 
Browning, King & Company; and Eva is the wife of Robert 
H. Rose, secretary of the Northwestern Fire & Marine In- 
surance Company, of Minneapolis. 



NEIL S. LIVINGSTONE. 



Mr. Livingstone wis born on the Island of Mull, one of the 
Hebrides, in Argyleshire, Scotland, July 19. 1854. He comes 
of a very old and honorable Scotch family. His father, John 
Livingstone, was a fii'St cousin of the celebrated missionarj', 
Dr. David Livingstone, "the weaver of Blantyre," who died 
practically a martyr to his efforts for the conversion of the 
heathen of "Darkest Africa," and who was offered, but refused, 
knighthood in recognition of his exalted services. John Liv- 
ingstone was likewise a man of fine intellectual attainments, 
having received a collegiate education, and he aided his 
cousin. Dr. David Livingstone, in the preparation of the lat- 
ter's first volume descriptive of his travels and experiences 
in Africa. Their paternal grandfather was a gallant Scottish 
patriot and loyally supported the cause of Prince Charles. He 
participated in the historic battle of Culloden, in which he 
was severely wounded. Owing to political turbulence and 
unrest in Scotland various members of the Livingstone family 
became exiles In Norway, and others came to America, where 
one of the number, Robert, became a signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence and known as a patriot of prominence 
and influence during the period of the Revolution. 

Neil S. Livingstone, attended, in 1909, tlie great celebra- 
tion held in Glasgow, Scotland, in honor of his distinguished 
kinsman, Dr. David Livingstone, and was invited to the cele- 
bration held in that city in March, 1913, when all Scotland 
and England gave further commemoration of the services of 
the great missionary and explorer. 

Mr. Livingstone's mother was Catherine St. Clair, of the St. 
Clairs of Caithness, Northern Scotland, and She was related 
to Dr. David Livingstone. In his childhood, Mr. Livingstone 
spoke only the old Scotch Gaelic. When he was about five 
years of age, he accompanied his parents to America, where 
the first family home was established in the Province of 
Ontario, Canada; his parents passed the closing years of their 
lives in Canada and Minneapolis. In Ontario, Neil S. Living- 
stone was afforded the advantages of excellent private Schools, 
in which he acquired a good academic education. At the age 
of 19 he came to the United States, first locating in Wis- 
consin and later in Minneasota. In the latter State he at- 
tended the Minnesota State Normal School at St. Cloud, and 
graduated therefrom in the class of 1880. For a time tliero- 
after he engaged in school teaching and was a successful and 
popular teacher. 

After a brief time he foiind his principal life work sind be- 
came identified with railway and bridge construction, and 
chiefly in the building of railway bridges, he has won his 
greatest success and precedence. Utilizing the Howe-truss 
spans in bridge work, he began his career as an iiulependent 
'contractor in 1893, and he did a large amount of important 
work on the lines of the Great Northern, the Canadian Pacific, 
and other leading railway lines of the northwest. His opera- 
tions have been largely in British Columbia and elsewhere 



406 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



in Canada, and also in the States of the Nortliwest. For 
several years he was associated in business with O. M. CoUinB, 
under the firm name of Collins & Livingstone, but since the 
dissolution of this firm he has conducted his extensive opera- 
tions in an individual way. He has constructed many impor- 
tant bridges and trestles in the Rocky mountains, besides 
viaducts and other forms of engineering work. 

Mr. Livingstone has maintained his residence and business 
headquarters in Jlinneapolis since 1883, and his character and 
services have given him a high place in popular confidence 
and esteem, as well as prominence in business cir'cles in the 
Minnesota metropolis. In politics he is a Republican, and in 
religion he is a member of Westminster Presbyterian church. 
He has completed the circle of both the York and Scottish 
Rites of Masonry, and in the latter he has received the 
thirty-second degree, besides being identified with the Ancient 
Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. 

In the year 1883 Mr. Livingstone married Miss Margaret 
E. LeVesconte, who was at the time a resident of Hastings, 
Minn. Mrs. Livingstone was born in Australia, was reared 
to the age of sixteen years on the Island of Jersey, in the 
English Channel, and then accompanied her parents on their 
removal to the United States. Mr. and Mrs. Livingstone 
have two children, Robert, who is a bridge contractor and 
builder, and Helen, who remains at the parental home. 



CHARLES B. LAYMAN. 



One of the best known namt's in Minneapolis is that of 
Layman. The principal representative now living in Minnea- 
polis being Charles B. Layman, son of Martin Layman, one 
of the pioneere. He was born in New York, May 30, 1838, 
the son of Martin and Elizabeth (Brown) Layman, themselves 
natives of the Empire state. In 1845, the family migrated 
by team to Illinois, settling in Peoria county. They im- 
proved a prairie farm, and in 1853, they came to St. Anthony. 

Entranced by the new country, the Laymans took up a 
claim of 160 acres, its boundaries being now Lake street on 
the south. Twenty-sixth Street on the north, and Cedar 
avenue on the west. On what was then the farm now stands, 
among other industries, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. 
Paul railway shops, the immense plant of the Minneapolis 
Steel and Machinery Company, and other large concerns^ 
presenting a far different aspect from that of the Layman 
homestead of the early fifties. The residence of the family, 
built by Martin Layman, about 1855 to 1856, is still stand- 
ing, facing Cedar avenue. Later, in 1876, he built a larger 
residence, also facing Cedar avenue, and in this he lived 
during the declining years of his life. He died in 1886, past 
the age of seventy-five, his companion of fifty years sur- 
viving but three months. 

Layman's Cemetery was laid out by Martin Layman in 
1858, a'nd constituted during many years the principal place 
of burial for the city. It first comprised ten acres, extend- 
ing from Twenty-ninth street to Lake street, with the main 
entrance on Cedar avenue. The tract was added to, until it 
contains thirty acres and is now, as always, conducted as a 
private cemetery. More than 24,000 bodies have here found 
the final resting place. 

Aside from establishing the cemetery, Martin Layman and 



his family platted four additions to the city, known as Lay- 
man's First, Second, Third and Fourth additions. 

Martin Layman was the father of thirteen children, all of 
whom reached years of maturity. Three sons and four 
daughters of these are now living. 

Charles B. Layman spent his early years helping to im- 
prove his father's farm, which was all prairie land. When he 
was twenty-two years old he bought a farm on the Fort 
Snelling prairie, some eight miles south of the old home, pay- 
ing for it $11 per acre. He "bached it" there on the farm, 
broke the land, and raised a crop. He had got the trop In 
stack in 1861, when, moved by the patriotic fervor which 
was giving regiments of soldiers to the volunteer army, he 
enlisted in Company I, of the Second Minnesota Volunteer 
Infantry. He served three years, ten months and sixteen 
days, remaining constantly with his company, and being hon- 
orably discharged at the end of his faithful service. 

Meanwhile his father had sold Charles' farm for him, and 
soon after his return from the war Charles went to Cali- 
fornia, where he resided for twelve yeaw. Returning in 
1879 to Minneapolis, he built his present home, nearly op- 
posite the old place on Cedar avenue. For twenty-one years 
he acted as superintendent of Layman's Cemetery, being 
succeeded by his son. Martin, so that for half a century the 
Laymans, through three generations, have laid in the breast 
of mother earth the remains of Minneapolis citizens. 

Charles B. Layman married Anna Nolan in 1880. To them 
were born one son, Martin, superintendent of the cemetery 
which bears the family name; and two daughters, Edna, Mrs. 
L. W. Paul, and Ruth, who lives at her parents' home, 2822 
Cedar avenue. Mr. Layman is a charter member of Morgan 
Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and is also prominent in 
the Knights of Pythias order. 



HON. FRANK MELLEN NYE. 

Hon. F"rank M. Nye, one of the most eminent of the repre- 
sentative professional men of Minneapolis, has achieved a suc- 
cessful career alike creditable to him and highly serviceable 
to the localities in which he has lived. Those who know 
him best recognize his worth and take pride in his honor- 
able career and his service to his fellowmen. 

Mr. Nye was born in the town of Shirley, Piscataquis 
County, Maine, March 7, 1853. He is a son of Bartlett and 
Eliza (Loring) Nye, and a brother of the late genial author 
and humorist, who was familiarly known to delighted mil- 
lions as "Bill Nye." Benjamin Nye, the progenitor of the 
American branch of the family, came to America from Eng- 
land, in 1637, and settled at Sandwich, Massachusetts, on 
Cape Cod Bay. He was a young man at the time and re- 
mained at Sandwich until his death. Three brothers, de- 
scendants of Benjamin, removed to Maine, where each raised 
a family. They were active in service on the side of the 
Colonies during the War of the Revolution, and all the sub- 
sequent generations of the family have shown patriotism and 
devotion to their country. 

Franklin Nye (son of Bartlett Nye), a name that has been 
handed down from many generations in unbroken succes- 
sion, was a native of Maine and a lumberman and mill man 
in that State. He moved to Wisconsin in the latter part of 
1853, the next year located in St. Croix County, near River 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



407 



Falls, between tliat city and Hudson. He improved a tract 
of wild prairie and bush land into a fine farm in the beautiful 
Kinnikinick Valley, and in that region he passed the re- 
mainder of his days, dying in River Falls in 1887. 

Mrs. Nye, the widow of Bartlett, is still living, and has her 
home with her son, Frank, in Minneapolis. She is of English 
ancestry of the higher class and belongs to families distin- 
guished for intellectual force and social refinement for many 
generations. Her father, Amasa Loring, was a gentleman of 
the old school, courtly and considerate toward all men, and 
distinguished wherever he was known for his uprightness, 
sincerity and unwavering straightforwardness. His mother be- 
longed to the Haskell family, and Mrs. Loring's mother, 
Frank's grandmother, to the Teague family, both prominent 
in New England history. 

Three children were born and reared to manhood in the 
household of Franklin Nye, "Bill," the humorist, Frank M., 
and Carroll A. The last named has lived in Moorhead, Min- 
nesota, twenty-six years. In 1910, he was elected District 
Judge of the Seventh Judicial District, which is normally 
Republican, but which he carried by a handsome majority, 
although he was a Democrat. Before going on the bench, he 
was a member of the State Board of Managers of the Normal 
Schools. The parents reared, in addition to their three sons, 
an adopted daughter, Josephine M. Nye, whom they took into 
their family in her childhood. She is now a teacher of elo'cu- 
tion and a public entertainer in New York City. She has 
always been an object of special care and solicitude to Mrs. 
Nye, who, being highly intelligent and well read herself, was 
eager that her adopted daughter should make the utmost of her 
faculties and opportunities, and gave untiring attention to her 
education. Mrs. Nye is of the same ancestry as Charles M. 
Loring of this city. 

Frank M. Nye grew to manhood on his father's farm in 
Wisconsin. He was educated in the district schools and at 
the River Falls Academy, with a short attendance at a colle- 
giate institute. He and his brother, "Bill" Nye, both taught 
school and read law together at their home. Frank was 
admitted to the bar while he was still engaged in teaching, 
receiving his license to practice at Hudson, Wisconsin, in 
1878. He at once moved to Clear Lake, in Polk County, 
Wisconsin, and began practicing, and the next year was elected 
district attorney, holding the office for two terms in succes- 
sion. He had many important cases to try, and his reputa- 
tion as a skillful lawyer and man of unusual ability grew 
steadily. 

His election to the office of district attorney was the be- 
ginning of Mr. Nye's political career, and he was kept in office 
almost without a break thereafter until he retired from public 
life voluntarily at the end of his third term in the National 
House of Representatives on March 4, 1913. In the fall of 
1883, he was elected to the Lower House of the State Legis- 
lature of Wisconsin, as a Republican, and when Hon. John 
C. Spooner was elected to the United States Senate for the 
first time by that Legislature, Mr. Nye was selected to make 
the speech which placed him in nomination. 

During his service in the Wisconsin Legislature Mr. Nye 
introduced a resolution providing for submitting to a vote of 
the people an amendment to the State constitution conferring 
the right of suffrage on women. He made the only speech de- 
livered in favor of the resolution, and succeeded in getting 
it through the House. He thus became a pioneer advocate of 
woman suffrage in the Northwest, his resolution having been 



the first ever introduced in the Legislature of Wisconsin, or 
any of its bordering sister states. The issue was much 
more unpopular than now. 

In the spring of 1886, Mr. Nye came to Minneapolis to live 
and practice law. His start here was humble and obscure. 
He wore out his old clothes, a'ccording to his own account, 
but before he did this, as the record shows, he gained a 
high professional reputation, especially in the trial of criminal 
cases. In 1888 he was appointed Assistant County Attorney, 
under Hon. Robert Jamison, since one of the district judges. 

In the fall of 1890, Mr. Nye made the race for the office 
of county attorney, but the political landslide of that year 
in favor of the Democratic party elected his opponent. In 
1893, however, and again in 1894, he was chosen to this of- 
fice. During his four years' tenure he had a great deal of 
hard work and many difficult cases. There were many murder 
and embezzlement cases which required his attention, and in 
the management of which he was very successful. One ease 
of national, if not international, importance and renown was 
that of the State vs. Harry T. Hayward, which involved the 
crime of murder in the first degree and resulted in a con- 
viction. 

At the end of his service as prosecuting attorney, Mr. Nye 
resumed his general practice, and soon found himself under 
almost constant requisition in connection with important 
criminal cases, not only in Minneapolis and Minnesota, but 
also in Wisconsin, North Dakota, and even Montana. He as- 
sisted in the prosecution of the noted Kent case at Mandan, 
North Dakota, where the first trial was held, and in Fargo, 
where the second was conducted. Both resulted in convic- 
tions and death sentences. 

In 1906, Mr. Nye was elected to the Lower House of Con- 
gress by a flattering vote, and was re-elected in 1908 and 
again in 1910. In 1912, he declined to be a candidate. During 
his first term he was a member of the Committee on the 
District of Columbia and the Committee on Public Build- 
ings and Grounds. By his work in the latter committee he 
secured the first appropriation for the erection of a new post- 
office building in Minneapolis. 

Mr. Nye's first speech in the exalted forum of his latest 
renown was in defense of President Roosevelt's special mes- 
sage after the panic of 1907. The Republican members who 
controlled the House, with Speaker Cannon in the chair, 
were not in accord with Mr. Roosevelt, and the Democi^ats 
taunted the whole party membership with repudiating the 
President. The conditions made it necessary for new mem- 
bers to defend him. In his second and third terms. Mr. Nye 
was a member of the Judiciary Committee of the House, 
one of the most important in the body, and requiring of its 
members an immense amount of detail work. Though a 
minority member during his third term in the House, Mr. 
Nye did his full share of this work. 

As a public speaker, Mr. Nye has always been very popular 
and drawn large audiences. He won distinction of a special 
kind in a half-hour's address on Lincoln in Congress, on the 
one-hundredth anniversary of the martyred President's birth, 
and in another short address on one of the anniversaries of 
Washington's birthday. He has spoken often on national 
questions and in the councils of his party, as well as on the 
stump in important campaigns. He has also filled numerous 
Chautauqua lecture engagements. His speeches are extem- 
poraneous, and have piquancy and interest and Show the in- 



408 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



fluence of a mind richly stored with general information and 
philosophical study. 

In his home city, Mr. Xye belongs to nearly all the social 
clubs and benevolent fraternities, including the orders of the 
Free Masons and the Knights of Pythias. He is fond of 
base ball and other athletic sports, as a spectator, and gives 
them liberal support. In religious affiliation he is connected 
with Park Avenue Congregational Church, but he is liberal 
in his theological views, believing that the Bible and the 
teachings of the lowly Xazarene contain all the basic prin- 
ciples of correct living in their spirit and tenets, independent 
of all sectarian interpretation and application. 

March 27, 1876, Mr. Nye was united in marriage with Miss 
Carrie M. Wilson, of St. Croix County, Wisconsin. They have 
four children, Mrs. Belle Carter, Mrs. C. S. Laird, and Mrs. 
A. Berkhall, all of Minneapolis; and a son, Edgar W., who 
was named for his uncle, "Bill" Xye, and who associated in 
business with the Stone-Ordeen-Wells Company in this city, 
and unmarried; he was his father's secretary while the 
latter was in Congress. Mr. and Mrs. Xye have five grand- 
children. 



GEORGE H. EASTMAX. 



More than half a century ago George H. Eastman numbered 
himself among the pioneers of Minnesota, and he has been 
a prominent and influential figure in the development of 
the resources and industrial enterprises of this favored com- 
monwealth. He was long and conspicuously identified with 
the great flour-manufacturing industry of Minneapolis and 
did much to further the city's prestige in this line of enter- 
prise. 

George H. Eastman was born at Conway, Carroll county, 
X'ew Hampshire, on the 'Jth of February, 1839, and was 
reared to maturity in his native state, where he received 
excellent educational advantages in the common schools. In 
March, 1858, as a youth of nineteen years, Mr. Eastman came 
to Minnesota, while it was still a territory, and established 
his residence at St. Anthony, where his elder brothers, John 
and William W., had previously located. John Eastman was 
the first of four brothers to come to Minnesota and he was 
prominently concerned in the development of various indus- 
trial and commercial enterprises of the pioneer days. He was 
associated with his brother William W. in the control of 
many important business interests and he continued to main- 
tain his home in Minneapolis until the time of his death, Dr. 
Arthur Eastman, a representative physician of St. Paul, be- 
ing his son. On other pages of this volume is given a spe- 
cific review of the career of William W. Eastman, and to this 
article reference may be made for further details concerning 
the Eastman family. Haskett Eastman, the oldest of the 
four brothers, came to Minneapolis several years later and 
at the time of his demise he was executive head of the well- 
known lumber firm of Eastman, Bovey & Company. His 
widow and son Clarence still reside in the old family home- 
stead, 20 Grove Place, Minneapolis. Four sisters of the sub- 
ject of this review likewise became residents of St. Anthony 
and Minneapolis: Annette K. was the wife of Charles Thomp- 
son. Charlotte was the wife of Judge David A. Seacombe, 
who was a representative lawyer of Minneapolis and who 
also served as probate judge. Judge Seacombe and his wife 



are deceased and are survived by two children, Willis, a 
successful manufacturer and business man of Minneapolis, 
and Gary, the widow of Edward C. Chatfield, of this city. 
Caroline Eastman resides in Minneapolis, where she makes 
her home with her sister, Clara T., who is the widow of John 
DeLaitte, individually mentioned on other pages of this work. 

George H. Eastman learned the paper-making trade in the 
establishment conducted by his father and upon coming to 
Minnesota he entered the employ of his brother, William W., 
who at that time conducted a grocery store on the site of 
the present Lockwood machine shop, on Main street, St. 
Anthony. In the year that marked the arrival of Mr. 
Eastman in Minneapolis was erected the Winslow House, 
which became the principal hotel of the town and which 
stood on the site later occupied by the Exposition building. 
In those early days but little money was in circulation here 
and scrip was the common circulating medium. After having 
been in the state about two years ilr. Eastman supplemented 
his educational discipline by study under the able precep- 
torship of Dr. Gray and was one of the first students of 
the University, one of the leading pioneer educators of 
Minnesota and a man of high attainments. About this time 
Mr. Eastman found employment in a paper mill that had 
been erected and equipped by his brother William, at the 
upper end of Hennepin island. In this mill wrapping paper 
was manufactured from rags and old rope, and employment 
was given to a force of ten men. The average output of the 
pioneer factory was two tons of paper a day. George H. 
Eastman continued to be identified with the operation of the 
mill about one year, at the expiration of which his brother 
disposed of the plant and business. He then returned to his 
old home in New Hampshire, where he remained about one 
year, and in 1861 he went to California via the Isthmus, 
where he gained varied and interesting experiences. He was 
made superintendent of the government tool road over the 
Sierra Nevada mountains, this road extending for si-xty 
miles. Prior to his regime as superintendent various Mexican 
sheep and cattle men refused to pay toll at the gates on the 
road and were persistent in their attempts to override au- 
thority. They would tear down the gates and were ever 
ready to shoot at those who interfered with tlieni. Under 
these depressing conditions Mr. Eastman was ridiculed for 
his temerity in assuming the position of superintendent of 
the toll road, but he convinced the belligerent Mexicans that 
they would encounter trouble with the government and that 
their live stock would be confiscated. He gained their good 
will, as he proved to them that he was ready to avoid dilliculty, 
and the tolls were paid without further trouble. In California 
Mr. Eastman also devoted one year to gold mining in the 
placer fields of Calaveras county, where he met with meas- 
urable success. 

In 1866 Mr. Eastman returned to Minneapolis, and here 
he finally rented the Prescott flour mill, on Hennepin island. 
This was one of the older mills of the locality and had a 
capacity of about two hundred barrels. It had been unsuc- 
cessfully operated, but Mr. Eastman made the enterprise so 
prosperous within a period of six months that the owners 
of the property insisted on again assuming control, no lease 
having been signed. Mr. Eastman then assumed supervision 
of the erection of the first grain elevator built in Minneapolis, 
the same having been situated near the corner of East \\ ash- 
ington street and Ninth avenue and having been owned by 
the firm of Merriman & Wilder, of St, Paul. This elevator 



/^ 




^°/ 4;t^^<L-'t^.^>-i^c 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



409 



had a capacity of 150,000 bushels and long continued as the 
largest in the state, its grain supply having originally been 
drawn almost entirely from the southern part of the state. 
After the completion of the elevator Mr. Eastman was made 
its manager and of this position he continued the incum- 
bent for eight years. Prior to his superintendency all grain 
had been transported in bags direct to the mills. He ar- 
ranged to permit the wheat to flow into the wagon boxes, 
but the majority of those concerned still insisted upon the 
use of bags. He constructed a wagon box with a capacity 
of one hundred bushels, and in the facility of loading and un- 
loading this saved in both time and expense, his innovation 
effecting a revolution in the handling of grain. His success 
encouraged others to erect elevators, and within his regime 
of eight years seven or eight such structures were built in 
Minneapolis. In 1870 he resigned his position and became as- 
sociated with his brother, William W., in the erection of the 
"Anchor' mill, equipped with eleven buhr stones and having 
a capacity of two thousand barrels. While still in charge 
of the elevator he and his brother had engaged in the man- 
ufacturing of grain reapers, the same having been the first 
automatic rakers to be placed on the market and having 
been designated as the "Valley Chief." Defects in certain 
minor parts of the mechanism made the practical working 
of the machines unsatisfactory, and the manufacturing of 
tlie same was, therefore, discontinued. For two years Mr. 
Kastman had active charge of the operation of the Anchor 
mill, and under his able direction were installed improved 
purifiers, for the whitening and strengthening of the flour. 
His study and experimentation were carried forward with 
marked zeal and the result proved of inestimable and en- 
during value in connection with the great industry fhat has 
made the name of Minneapolis famous. Mr. Eastman learned 
that the "shorts" or gluten went into the bran, the while 
the starch was retained in the flour. He also found that the 
embryonic chits or sprouts contained the oil which yellowed 
the flour, as combined with the middlings. The result of his 
investigation was that he found that desired conditions could 
be gained by the utilization of rollers. In his preliminary 
experimentation he borrowed sugar-rollers from a local whole- 
sale grocery firm. He thus tested the middlings through the 
primitive rollers and found that his ideas had been correct. 
He then arranged for the construction of two rollers to be 
attached to the mill machinery, but before lie had perfected 
liis plans for the improvement of the process he and his 
brother sold their mill to the late Governor Pillsbury, so that 
his idea of the roller process of flour manufacturing was left 
to be developed and perfected by others. In- connection with 
the selling of the Anchor mill the Eastman brothers ac- 
cepted a hardware store and business, the headquarters of 
which were on Bridge Square. William W. Eastman sold 
his interest in this business to T. B. Janney, and the enter- 
prise was continued by George H. Eastman and Mr. .Janney 
until 1875, when the firm became .Jannej', Brooks & East- 
man, by the admission of a third member. Under these 
conditions the business was successfully continued until 1883, 
and the volume of the trade, both wholesale and retail in 
functions, was increased frctai two hundred thousand to one 
million dollars a year. In the year last mentioned Mr. East- 
man sold his interest in this prosperous enterprise, which is 
still continued under the firm name of .Tanney, Seniplc, 
Hill & Company. 

After his retirement from business Mr. Eastman indulged 



himself in extensive and appreciative travel, the interest of 
which was intensified by his previous careful and far reaching 
study of history. He made four trips to Europe, and extended 
his travels into Egypt, China, Japan and other parts of the 
Orient. In 1884 Mr. Eastman and his brother, William W., 
erected a fine and extensive hotel at Hot Springs, Arkansas, 
but from this line of -enterprise he soon afterward withdrew. 
For twenty years Mr. Eastman was associated in the opera- 
tion of one of the leading baths of the great Arkansas resort, 
where he customarily passed the winters for a term of years. ' 
Though he has had no desire to enter the arena of practical 
politics or become a candidate for public office of any de- 
scription, Mr. Eastman is found arrayed as a staunch sup- 
porter of the principles and policies of the Democratic party. 
He is a charter member of the Minneapolis Club. He is 
identified with the Minneapolis Civic & Commerce Associa- 
tion and is essentially progressive and public-spirited as g. 
citizen. He is affiliated with the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen and was one of the organizers of its first lodge 
in Minneapolis, of which he was the first master workman. 
In Minneapolis, in the year 1869, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Eastman to Miss Caroline W. Holt, daughter 
of the late Edwin Holt, who was an honored pioneer and 
influential citizen of this city. Mr. Holt was a man of 
marked ability and was a prominent figure in civic and busi- 
ness affairs in Minneapolis. He came to this state in 1868, 
from Wisconsin, but formerly from New York City, in 1862, 
and became a large owner of valuable realty in Minneapolis, 
besides being specially prominent in the state organization 
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mrs. Eastman has 
been a leader in church and charitable activities of her home 
city, where her circle of friends is limited only by that of 
her acquaintances. Mr. and Mrs. Eastman became the par- 
ents of two children, Florence, who died in New Orleans, at 
the age of seven years, and Eugene Holt Eastman, M. D., 
who is engaged in the practice of his profession. He married 
Miss Lenora Snyder, of Dayton, Ohio. 



HORACE LOWRY. 



Horace Lowry is the only son of tile late Thomas Lowry, 
former president and founder of the Twin City Rapid Transit 
Company. His mother is Beatrice M. (Goodrich) Lowry. 

He was born in Minneapolis, February 4, 1880. He is a 
graduate of the Emerson Grade School, the Central High School, 
class of 1896, and the University of Minnesota, class of 1900, 
graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Science. For nearly 
two years after leaving the University, he was emploj'ed aa 
an electrician in the company's shops, after which he entered 
the auditing department of the company where he remained 
for nearly a year, being chief clerk at the end of that time. 
Mr. Lowry then left. the company to look after his father's 
real estate and personal business interests, which up to that 
time had been in the hands of Several agents. In June, 1908, 
he accepted the superintendency of the Minneapolis division of 
the company, holding that position until December 10, 1910, 
when he resigned to give his entire time to the Arcade Invest- 
ment Co., of which he was president. It was then that he 
built the twelve story Lowry Building in St. Paul, acting as 
his own engineer and general contractor of the construction. 
On .lanuary 1, 1912, Mr. Lowry was appointed general manager 



410 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



of the Twin City Rapid Transit Company, and one year later, 
January 1, 1913, was elected vice president which position he 
now occupies. 

Mr. Lowry is a member of the Minneapolis, Minikahda, Inter- 
lachen and Lafayette Clubs of Minneapolis, the Minnesota Club 
of St. Paul, University Club of Chicago, as well as the Psi 
Upsilon Fraternity. He is also a member of the Minneapolis 
Civic and Commerce Association, and the St. Paul Association 
of Commerce. He was married March 18, 1909, to Kate S. 
Burwell. They have two sons, Thomas Lowry and Goodrich 
Lowrv. 



CHARLES F. LINSJLWER. 



■ Chas. F. Linsmayer, president of the McMillan Fur & 
Wool Company, was born in German)-, in 1872, and at the 
age of eleven came with his parents, who are still living, 
to Minneapolis, where he attended a public school for two 
years. 

His first work, at the age of 13, was as office boy for the 
company of which he is now the head; but continued to 
attend school at night. 

At different times and in various ways the company showed 
its confidence in his ability and judgment, one manifestation 
of this being that in 1906, he was sent to Europe to study 
the foreign markets and make extensive sales and pur- 
chases of rare costly furs. He has since made two trips 
abroad in the interest of the company, redounding in 
largely increased business. 

Mr. Linsmayer is the president and treasurer; J. C. Wade 
is vice president, and C. M. Wiley, secretary, and among 
its directors are Miss C. E. McMillan, a sister of James 
McMillan, whose sketch and portrait are found elsewhere in 
this work, and A. C. Gebhart. Mr. Linsmayer is a member 
of the New Athletic club and the Civic and Commerce associa- 
tion. He is a Republican but not an active partisan. Sept. 
11, 1894, he was married to Miss Helen Gilles of Minneapolis. 
They have two sons, Carl and James McMillan. One month 
each year is devoted by Mr. Linsmayer to hunting in the 
northern wilds, the home at the Lake of the Isles containing 
some fine trophies of such recreation. He and wife are 
members of Immaculate Conception Catholic Cliurch. 



GUST LAGERQUIST. 



Having come to this country a young man, with habits of 
industry, and the Spirit of enterprise that characterizes his 
countrymen. Gust Lagerquist, an extensive manufacturer of 
elevators, has found conditions in the United States agree- 
able in every sense. He has made the most of the oppor- 
tunities and has hewed out for himself a flourishing business. 

Mr. Lagerquist was born in Sweden in 1855, and came to Chi- 
cago in 1878. There he was for some years employed in a 
manufactory of elevators when he in 1885 came to Minne- 
apolis and started the present enterprise, removing after 
six years to First street and First avenue north, where he 
remained for five years. 

Realizing the need of larger quarters and better facilities, 
he then built the present factory at 514-524 Third street 



north. This is two stories hign. 75 by 150 leet m dimension*, 
and gives employment regularly to about forty men. Under 
Mr. Lagerquist's progressive management the business has 
grown to very considerable magnitude, the products attain- 
ing wide popularity and a very extensive sale. His elevators 
are modern in every particular, made according to tlie latest 
and most approved ideas and contain none but the best 
materials, and have ever retained the high standard orig- 
inally set, the principal buildings in the city being fitted 
with them. 

While not a political partisan, Mr. Lagerquist has taken 
an earnest interest in local affairs, in good government and 
most rapid advancement for Minneapolis. He has also been 
active and serviceable in its fraternal life, being a Shriner 
in Masonry. 

He was married in 1885, to Miss Emma Nelson, also of 
Sweden. They have three children, F. W. is a graduate of 
the United States Naval Academy, for eight years being an 
ensign in the navy; Helen is a graduate of Sargent's Phys- 
ical Culture College in Boston; Carl S. graduated from high 
school, and is a freshman in the University. 



OWEN J. EVANS, M. D. 



Few citizens of Minneapolis are better known and none 
is held in higher esteem in the community than the repre- 
sentative pioneer physician and surgeon to whom this re- 
view is dedicated. He established his home in Minneapolis 
in 1865, after having rendered gallant and distinguished 
service as a surgeon in the Union ranks of the Civil war, 
and here he continued ir the active and successful practice 
of his profession for virtually half a centurj-. He is unmis- 
takably the dean of his profession in Minnesota, where he 
is the only survivor of the charter members of the State 
Medical Society, as is he also of the charter members of the 
Hennepin County Medical Society. A few years since he re- 
tired from active practice, but he is held in reverent affec- 
tion by many representative families to which he has min- 
istered in years past. 

Dr. Owen Jason Evans was born in the town of Remsen, 
Oneida county, New York, on the 5th of February, 1840, 
being the ninth in order of birth in a family of ten chil- 
dren, of whom only three are now living. He is a son of 
Thomas T. and Mary (Lewis) Evans, both of whom were 
born and reared in Anglesey, an island and county of Wales, 
in the Irish sea.' and both representatives of the staunchest 
of Welsh lineage. The marriage of the parents was solemn- 
ized in their native laud and upon coming to .\merica they 
established their residence in the state of New York. When 
Dr. Evans was seven years of age his parents removed from 
his birthplace to Remsen, Oneida county, where the father 
became the owner and operator of a dairy farm. In 1858 
the family removed to the city of Rome, New York, and 
there the parents passed the closing period of their lives, 
secure in the high esteem of all who knew them. 

The rudimentary education of 'Dr. Evans was obtained in 
the little district school near his birthplace and was con- 
tinued ill a similar institution after the removal of the family 
to Oneida county. Thereafter he continued his higher aca- 
demic studies in tlie Rome Academy, and in preparation for 
his chosen profession lie finally entered the Albany Medical 






^yzr<^^^^^-cj 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



411 



College, in the capital city of the Empire state. In this in- 
stitution lie was graduated in December, 1863, wiien he duly 
received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. Dr. Evans, forth- 
with showed his intrinsic loyalty and patriotism by tender- 
ing his services in behalf of the cause of the Union, the Civil 
war being at this time at its height. On the very day on 
which he received his medical diploma the Doctor also ob- 
tained his commission as assistant surgeon of the Fortieth 
New York Volunteer Infantry, proceeded to the front, and 
entered service in the Army of tlie Potomac. He lived up to 
the full tension of the great conflict between the states of 
the north and the south, and made a record that will ever 
reflect honor upon his name. After the battle of Chancel- 
lorsville he was detailed as a member of the surgical operat- 
ing staff of his brigade, and in this important capacity he 
continued in active and faithful service until the close of 
the war, when he received his honorable discharge. Nearly 
one and one-half years before his discharge a vacancy hav- 
ing occurred in the surgical staff of his regiment, he was 
commissioned and mustered as surgeon of the Regiment, this 
preferment having been given at the urgent request of all 
save one of the officers of the regiment. It is worthy of note 
in this connection that his associate, the other assistant sur- 
geon, was a man twenty-nine years his senior and that his 
ability and personal popularity brought about his advance- 
ment. 

At the battle of the Wilderness a request was made for 
volunteer surgeons to remain with and care for the wounded 
while the army moved to the left and prepared for the battle 
of Spottsylvauia. Dr. Evans was one of the four surgeons 
who volunteered for this exacting service, and the next day 
after the Army of the Potomac had moved forward to the 
left the Confederate ofHcer Colonel \Vhite, with his guerillas, 
effected the capture of the four surgeons and all of their 
wounded patients. They were held in captivity for two 
weeks and then, by a clever ruse, effected their escape to 
Fredericksburg. This result was accomplished principally 
through the versatility and efforts of Dr. Evans. He started 
for General Wade Hampton's headquarters for the purpose of 
obtaining needed supplies, but was met by the Confederate 
otticer of the day and halted, but he persuaded the Con- 
federate officers to permit him to depart unmolested for 
Fredericksburg, and on his return to come in with such a 
supply train as he may have been able to secure. He at 
once sought the Federal lines under General Ferreros, not 
many miles distant, and after obtaining a goodly amount of 
food and medical supplies, together with about seventy-five 
ambulances, he returned to his stricken comrades. The next 
day he contrived to effect the removal and escape of about 
two-thirds of the wounded Union soldiers, and he also left 
adequate provisions for the remainder, as well as for about 
two hundred wounded Confederate soldiers. With his rescued 
comrades he returned in pafety to the Union lines. 

After the surrender of General Lee, at Appomattox, Dr. 
Evans was detailed as chief medical officer of the department 
at FarmviUe, Virginia, where the Confederate hospital was 
situated and where many wounded Union soldiers, as well 
Confederate, were confined. In caring for these men the 
Doctor completed his service as one of the able and efficient 
surgeons in the Union army, and his career thereafter has 
mainly to do with Minnesota and its fair metropolis. 

After the close of the war Dr. Evans came to Minneapolis, 
where he engaged in the practice of his profession and where 



he has nuiintained his home during the long intervening 
years, which have been marked by large and worthy achieve- 
ment on his part. He early made careful investments in 
local realty, and in addition to erecting many dwellings of 
excellent order he has built three business buildings. He 
still owns the Anglesey block, three-story block and three 
store rooms, at the corner of Hennepin avenue and Four- 
teenth street, all of these buildings having been erected by 
him. 

He served two terms as city health officer, was a valued 
member of the city council, and also gave effective service 
as a member of the board of education. In 1885 he served 
as a member of the lower house of the state legislature. In 
this connection he takes just satisfaction in the fact that he 
was the author of the bill in conformity with the provisions 
of which the state condemned and assumed control of the 
property now known as Minnehaha Falls park. The city of 
Minneapolis later obtained from the state the ownership of 
this beautiful park, the state retaining the ground on which 
is now located the Minnesota Soldiers' Home. Prior to the 
assumption of state control the now beautiful park was un- 
kempt and was the resort of tlie most undesirable class of 
persons, the ideal place having thus virtually denied its 
privileges to the better class of citizens. The Doctor was for 
many years a director of the Minneapolis Board of Trade. 
Both he and his wife are zealous members of Westminster 
Presbyterian church, with which he has been actively identi- 
fied for practically half a century. He is a member of the 
American Medical Association, and, as before stated, is the 
only surviving charter member of each, the Minnesota State 
Medical Society and the Hennepin County Medical Society. 
Dr. Evans is one of the appreciative and valued members of 
Rawlings Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is 
a member and in which he served four terms as surgeon. 
He is also affiliated with the Minnesota Comraandery of the 
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 
and he served as a member of the council of this patriotic 
organization. In former years he was an active member of 
the Minneapolis Club and the Nicollet Club, but he resigned 
his membership in both several years ago. 

A specially interesting and valuable achievement has been 
that of Dr. Evans in connection with the raising of live- 
stock standards in Minnesota. He has been a prominent and 
successful breeder of fine horses and cattle. He has brought 
out on his stock farm many admirable standard-bred horses, 
and was the first to introduce the high-class draft horses 
in the state, both Clydesdale and Perclieron stock. He has 
in his possession a fine Tiffany prize cup, valued at one 
hundred dollars, and this he won at the state fair on ex- 
hibiting the Wilkes trotting stallion "Red Chieftain," and 
four of his get. Another valued trophy is two solid silver 
cups captured by the Doctor's standard-bred "Mike Wilkes" 
in the ice races on the Lake of the Isle course. The Doctor 
has also become well known as a financier and successful 
breeder of fine registered Jersey cattle. At the present time he 
is interested in fruit ranches in the Bitterroot valley of 
Montana and on the Pinellas peninsula of Florida. In each 
of these localities he has made substantial investments in 
real estate, and his land in Montana is devoted to the raising 
of apples, pears, cherries and plums, while that in Florida is 
given over principally to the propagation of grape fruit. 
Dr. Evans is giving personal attention to the improving of 



412 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



these valuable properties and takes likely interest In the 
same. 

In the year 1869 Dr. Evans wedded Miss Elizabeth Dodge, 
of Princeton, Illinois, and she was summoned to the life 
eternal in 1879, leaving no children. In 1890 was solemn- 
ized the marriage of the Doctor to Miss Tamazine McKee, 
who presides graciously over their attractive home, no chil- 
dren having been born of this union. Dr. Evans is known 
and honored in the city that has so long represented his 
home, and it may consistently be said that his circle of 
friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances. 



CHARLES D. LOUGEE. 



Charles D. Lougee has borne the heat and burden of the 
day and is enjoying the beauty of its sunset or the milder 
glories of its late evening at his home, 1103 Fifth street, 
Southeast Minneapolis. But he is by no means oblivious of 
or indifferent to what is going on around him, and is as 
deeply interested in the continued progress and welfare of his 
home city and state as when he was one of the most active and 
potent factors in promoting their advancement. 

Mr. Lougee was born in the village of Bainstead, Merri- 
mack County, New Hampshire, a few years after the birth 
of the late Governor John S. Pillsbury in the neighboring 
village of Sutton, about 25 miles distant. They were life- 
long friends, and were associated in business here for many 
years. The county of their nativity has produced other men 
who have attained distinction, among them former Governor 
Harriman, of New Hampshire, and former Governor Otway. 
of South Dakota, 

Mr. Lougee grew to manhood and was educated in his native 
State, and he there learned the trade of carpenter. He came 
to Minnesota in 1857, and located at Faribault, where he 
engaged in carpenter work for ten years. In 1867 he came 
to Minneapolis to live, and in partnership with the late H, 
J. G. Croswell, operated a flour mill near the site of the 
present Pillsbury Mill A, which was destroyed by fire some 
years after he Sold his interest in it to his partner, with 
whom he was associated for about four years. 

The milling business in which Mr. Lougee was engaged was 
profitable, and he invested his revenues from it in pine lands, 
in St. Louis County. Minnesota. Governor Pillsbury owned 
lands nearer the city, and they began to operate together. Mr. 
Lougee assuming charge of the details of the lumber business. 
They had their logs sawed in Minneapolis mills, belonging to 
other persons and then disposed of their lumber at wholesale. 
The business continued under their joint management for a 
number of years, and each accumulated a handsome fortune 
from it. Mr. Lougee finally sold his interest to C. A. Smith 
and Governor Pillsbury. 

.M an early day Mr. Lougee became and still is a stock- 
holder in the First National Bank. He also served for a time 
as vice-president of the Floiir City Bank, and has held con- 
siderable stock in other banks for many years, but has never 
cared for official positions in these institutions. Neither has 
he ever sought or desired public office of any kind. One reason 
for refusing official position was that once given by Governor 
Pillsbury when he was urged to be a candidate for Congress: 
"My business is worth more and it must suffer if I go into 
public life," and he resolutely put aside all efforts to induce 



him to change his mind, and some of them were difficult to 
resist. 

November 28, 1872. Mr. Lougee married Miss Catherine 
Sperry, in Minneapolis, where they were both living at the 
time. Miss Sperry was a young lady of unusual mental en- 
dowments, educational attainments, and personal cliarms. 
She is a sister of Rear Admiral Sperry. of the United States 
Navy, and of Mark L. Sperry, of Waterbury, Connectitut, the 
place of her nativity. She and her husband were the parents 
of three daughters: Mary, the wife of Hon. John C. Sweet, 
a prominent lawyer of Minneapolis; Helen, the wife of Dr. 
A. A. Law, and Catherine Louise. They are all graduates of 
the University of Minnesota, and Miss Catherine is a teacher 
of art in Oregon. The mother died in 1889. He was married 
the second time to Harriette L. Brown on .luly 12, 1894. 

The home of the parents is at 1103 Fifth street southeast, 
Minneapolis, as has been stated, and there Mr. Lougee finds his 
greatest contentment and pleasure. He has helped to build, 
magnify, and adorn a municipality that is one of the glories 
of our country, and he has planted and cherished one of the 
finest of the many charming homes in the city, and given to it 
an example of domestic virtue and contentment nowhere sur- 



HON. JOHN G. LENNON. 



In business affairs, in public service and in all the elements 
of sterling manhood the career of Hon. .John G. Lennon is 
creditable alike to him. to his family and to the community. 
He was born on Bridge Square, Minneapolis, September 2, 
1858, a son of Charles and Margaret (Glass) Lennon, natives 
of Ireland, where they were reared and married. Soon 
after marriage they came to the United States, making the 
voyage in an old sailing vessel and being twenty-seven weeks 
on the ocean. The father's brother, John G, Lennon, one of the 
leading real estate men of Minneapolis, was at that time 
sutler at Fort Snelling, 

Mr. Lennon's father died before the son was born and, in 1860, 
his mother married C. C. Hartley and moved to Lansing, Mower 
county, Minnesota, whence she returned to Minneapolis in 
1895 or 1896, and here ])assed the remainder of her life, ex- 
cept when living at Kalispell, Montana. She died in Kalispell, 
Montana in September, 1912, aged eighty-two. For many 
years she was a member of the Territorial Pioneers Associa- 
tion, and from girlhood belonged to the Methodist Episcopal 
church. There were two children in the family. .Tohn (",. and 
his older sister, Mary, 

Before John G. Lennon returned to Minneapolis, in 1895 
or 1896, he opened a general store at Blooming Prairie, where 
he rendered the community service as a member of the city 
council, the school board and the postmaster. He was also 
for some years a justice of the peace. He has traveled ex- 
tensively for clothing houses, which he has served thirty 
years as salesman. As a salesman he has been connected with 
one firm fifteen years, and is still selling goods all over the 
Northwest, making two six week trips a year. He belongs 
to the Church of the Redeemer and the United Commercinl 
Travelers' Association, and is a life member of Minneapolis 
Lodge of Elks No. 44. 

It is in his legislative lareer. however, that Mr. Lennon's 
record is most lonspicuous. creditable and serviceable. He has 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



413 



been a member of the House of Representatives continuously 
for ten years, being elected in 1904, in the Forty-first legisla- 
tive district, which embraces the Fifth and Sixth wards. 

In 1905 Mr. Lennon fathered the law providing for state 
inspection of hotels. He was the author of the law creating 
the state free employment bureau. Its activities at first 
were confined to Minneapolis, but since extended St. Paul and 
Duhith and so enlarged in scope that it now includes several 
lines, not at first embraced. He has kept in close touch 
with labor legislation and supported what he deemed judicious 
and helpful to the working classes. 

In the session of 1907, he ardently supported the bill creat- 
ing the State Farm for Inebriates, which is now in operation 
at Willmar, and which is supported by 4 per cent of all 
saloon licenses in the state. After the law was put into effect, 
the citj' of Morris contested by refusing to pay the tax, but 
the law was fully sustained when the case was carried to the 
Supreme Court. 

In the session of 1911 Mr. Lennon was elected Speaker 
pro tem,- and for three weeks, during an illness of the 
Speaker he served as Speaker. His presence in that session 
was due to his triumph over the advocates of County Option in 
the liquor traific who made a bitter fight on him at the election. 
In that session he served on the special committee appointed 
to investigate the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, and 
wrote the report submitted by the joint committee of the 
two houses. The investigation was renewed in the session 
of 1913, when Mr. Lennon was dean of the House, and he took 
a prominent part in the discussion it awakened. 

On December 26, 1877, Mr. Lennon was married at Portage, 
Wisconsin, to Mrs. Amy Giddings. They lost one child at the 
age of three and a half years, and have one living. Captain 
Bert M. Lennon, adjutant in the Minnesota National Guard 
and deputy state hotel inspector. By her first marriage, Mrs. 
Lennon had a daughter, Grace, now the wife of F. .1. Schisler 
of Winthrop, Minnesota, where her husband is a merchant and 
mayor. 



\ 



DR. CYRUS NORTHROP. 



Dr. Cyrus Northrop, late president of the LTniversity of 
Minnesota, did not attain his elevation to the first rank of 
educators in this country without difficulties of a weighty 
and at times oppressive character. But he met the obstacles 
in his pathway with a serene, self-confident and determined 
spirit that kept him always moving toward the goal for 
which he was destined. In early life his mind was omnivorous 
in its appetite for knowledge, but his physique was frail 
and scarcely able to sustain the intellectual force that dwelt 
in and controlled it. He suffered much from uncertain health 
at times, but during most of his boyhood and youth kept on 
with his studies and making decided and permanent progress 
in them; and his field of operations, after he began to exert 
his force in the management of human affairs, covered many 
lines of thought and action, but was always in the educational 
domain. 

Dr. Northrop was born in Ridgefield, Fairfield county, Con- 
necticut, on September 30, 1834, and is a son of Cyrus and 
Polly B. (Fancher) Northrop. He attended the common 
school in his native town until he was eleven years old. 
During the next five years he was a day student at a board- 



ing school taught in Ridgefield by H. S. Banks, a graduate of 
Yale College. In 1851 he was entered as a student at Willis- 
ton Seminary, Earthampton, Massachusetts, where he passed 
one year, and after leaving that institution entered Yale 
College in 1852. At the end of his second term, however, he 
was obliged to leave the college on account of illness. In the 
spring of 1853, having recovered his health in large measure, 
he re-entered Yale, and from tliat great seat of learning he 
was graduated in 1857. The next two years were passed by 
him as a student of law in Yale, and during this period he 
supported himself by teaching in a boarding school kept by 
Hon. A. N. Skinner in New Haven, which is even now well 
remembered by the older residents of that famous old city. 

By the end of the period last mentioned the political agita- 
tion that resulted in the election of Abraliam Lincoln to the 
presidency of the United States and the great Civil war was 
in full activity, and engaged the attention of all thinking 
men. North and South. Dr. Northrop took an active part in 
the campaign for Lincoln, making many speeches in behalf 
of the candidacy of the great emancipator in Connecticut and 
New York. After the election, which resulted in the choice 
of a legislature favorable to his views, he was assistant clerk 
of the Connecticut house of representatives in 1860, and 
clerk of the same body in 1861. The next year he served as 
clerk of the state senate, and at the close of the session be- 
came editor in chief of the New Haven Daily Palladium, one of 
the most influential newspapers in Connecticut at that time. 

But the newspaper field of endeavor was not the one best 
suited to his temperament and abilities. His Alma Mater 
recognized his special fitness for her service and in 1863 
elected him professor of rhetoric and English literature, a 
position which he held for a continuous period of twenty-one 
years, or until he was chosen president of the University of 
Minnesota in 1884. He voluntarily retired from the presi- 
dency of the University on April 1, 1911, after an honorable 
record extending over twenty-seven years and a half. While 
occupying the chair of rhetoric and English literature at Yale 
College he delivered hundreds of addresses on political, edu- 
cational and religious subjects in the Eastern and Middle 
states, and after coming to Minnesota he was in very fre- 
quent requisition for the same purpose throughout the whole 
period of his connection with the University, and the same 
demand for his services in this respect continues to the 
present time. 

Dr. Northrop has always been devoted in his loyalty to the 
Congregational church, of which he has been a member from 
his boyhood. In 1889 he was moderator of its national 
council, which assembled at Worcester, Massachusetts, and 
in 1891 assistant moderator of its international council, 
which held its sessions in London, England. He has been. 
president of the Congregational Home Missionary Society, 
and was for several years president of the American Mis- 
sionary Association. He is vice president of the Congrega- 
tional Sunday School and Publishing Society and of the 
American Bible Society. He is also a corporate member of 
the A. B. C. F. M. — the Congregational Foreign Missionary 
Society. He is president of the Minnesota Peace Society and 
is deeply interested in the world movement for peace. 

The doctor has always been a warmly welcomed orator at 
college commencements and other college celebrations. He 
delivered one of the principal addresses at the Yale Bicen- 
tennial celebration in 1901, and, although he is not a clergy- 
man, he has filled pulpits of almost all tlie church 



414 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



denominations on important occasions. His life in Minnesota 
has brougiit him into association with most of the leading 
citizens of the state, and for those of his eminent intimate 
friends who have passed away — Governor John S. Pillsbury, 
Senator W. D. Washburn, Judge Martin B. Koon, Governor 
A. R. McGill, and many others, he cherishes a very tender 
memory. His work in this state lias lieen mainly that of 
building up the University of Minnesota. But he indulges 
the hope, and with good reason, that the by-products of his 
industry have also been of some value. He is one of our 
state's most esteemed citizens. 



S. K. FOREST. 



Vice president and cashiei of the National City Bank of 
Minneapolis and the founder and president of the Commercial 
National Bank of this city, during its existence has had a 
very creditable business career, covering several different lo- 
calities and lines of effort, in all of which he has been pro- 
gressive and successful. 

Mr. Forest was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1867, and 
graduated from the Brooklyn Collegiate Polytechnic Insti- 
tute in 1884. Went to St. Paul, Minnesota, 1886; left St. 
Paul in 1889 and associated himself with Charles Hamilton 
under the firm name of Hamilton and Forest, lumber and 
coal, with a line of yards on the Chicago, Milwaukee and 
St. Paul Railway. 

At the end of that period he removed to Britton. South 
Dakota, having accepted a position with the Dakota Lumber 
Company. While a resident of South Dakota he sened one 
term as treasurer of Marshall county. He then organized 
the Citizens' Bank of Britton, which later became the First 
National Bank. In 1911 he went to Portland, Oregon, return- 
ing in the fall of that year, and organized the Commercial 
National Bank, over which he presided, until it was merged 
into The National City Bank. Under his enterprising, pro- 
gressive and judicious management the bank flourished and 
grew rapidly, steadily increasing its business and strength- 
ening its hold. 

Mr. Forest was married in the state of New York on 
June 24, 1900, to iliss Frances C. Hall. They have one 
child, their daughter, Margaret E. Her father is a son of 
Samuel A. and Lydia E. (Mortimer) Forest, natives of 
Brooklyn, New York. They had four sons and three aaughters. 
Three of the .seven children are living. The father was a 
pioneer in Winona, having been a merchant and manufac- 
turer there and elsewhere. He died in St. Paul in 1906 at 
the age of 76. In fraternal relations. S. E. Forest is a 
Freemason, and has risen in the order to the rank of a 
Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, and in church affiliation he is a 
Presbyterian. 

Mr. Forest is highly respected as a progressive and pub- 
lic-spirited citizen, with a warm and practical interest in 
the welfare and improvement of his home city. In all projects 
for its advancement he can be depended on to do his part to 
help the cause along, and his views in this connection are 
always guided by wisdom and good jvidgment, and his ef- 
forts are always duly proportioned to the importance of 
the matter in hand. Minneapolis has no better citizen, and 
none who is more highly esteemed. 



HON. WAI.LACE G. NYE. 

Mayor Nye was bom at Hortonville, Wisconsin, on October 
7, 1859, a son of Freeman James and Hannah (Pickett) Nye. 
He traces his descent from Benjamin Nj'e, who came to 
America from England in 1635 on the ship '"Abigail" and 
settled at Sandwich, Massachusetts. Benjamin and his de- 
scendants shared with other colonists the hardships and 
privations of pioneer life and the stress and storm of the 
Colonial wars, the War for Independence, the War of 1813 
and the Mexican war. And when armed resistance threat- 
ened the dismemberment of the Union, the mayor's father 
showed the same patriotic spirit by promptly enlisting in the 
Federal volunteer army, remaining in the service to the close 
of our memorable sectional conflict. 

Wallace G. Nye passed his boyhood on his father's farm 
and obtained his elementary education in a district school. 
When he was sixteen years old he took up the battle of life 
for himself as a school teacher, and with the proceeds of his 
first industry in this occupation began a more systematic 
course of academic training at the normal school in Oshkosh, 
Wisconsin. He completed the course at the normal school, 
teaching at intervals to get more funds, and for a time after 
leaving the institution. 

He learned the retail drug business in Chicago, and in 
September, 1881, came to Minneapolis and opened a drug 
store in the Northern part of the city. This store he con- 
tinued to carry on until 1893, when other duties required 
all his attention. He was, from his youth, an active Repub- 
lican in political faith and allegiance, and in 1888 served as 
a member of the campaign committee of his party. His 
services in this capacity showed him po.ssessed of such superior 
ability for administrative duties that in 1892 he was elected 
city comptroller, an oflice he held through three successive 
terms. 

In 1898 lie served as chairman of the Rejiublican city 
campaign committee, and managed the campaign with ad- 
mirable vigor and skill. Previous to this time, however, he 
was chosen secretary of the park board, beginning his service 
in that position in 1889 and continuing it for four years. 
In 1894 he was elected a member of the board to fill a 
vacancy, serving three years, and in 1904 was chosen to 
membership on the City Hall and Court House commission. 
He was also for some time chairman of the public affairs 
committee of the Commercial club, and in that position ren- 
dered the city notably effective .•service in the promotion of 
its commercial and substantial interests, being elected mayor 
of Minneapolis Nov. 5. 1912. 

Mayor Nye has been active in the fraternal life of tlic city 
as a Freemason of the thirty-second degree and a member of 
the Order of Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order of I'nited Work- 
men and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His 
principal activity in these connections has been in the Order 
of Odd Fellows. He was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge 
of the state in 1890. Grand Patriarch of the Grand Encamp- 
ment in 1893 and a representative to the .Sovereign Grand 
Lodge of the Order for ten years. He is not a member of 
any church organization but is interested intelligently and 
practically in all good agencies for the advancement and 
improvement of the community. In 1881 he was married at 
New London. Wisconsin, to Miss Etta Kudd. They have two 
sons, Marshall A. and George M.. both of whom are in business 
in this city. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



415 



DR. CHARLES HENRY NORRED. 

A Virginian with some of the best blood of the south in his 
veins Dr. Charles Henry Norred has proved through his long 
and honorable career in Minneapolis, his right to his proud 
inheritance. Dr. Norred is a man of tine enthusiasm and 
high principles. Taken together with his splendid integrity 
and fearless in all matter pertaining to his profession these 
characteristics have won for him the enviable place in the 
esteem of his fellow citizens. His name is lastingly identified 
with the sanitary interests of the city. 

His father was William Norred and his mother was Eliza- 
beth Ellen (Dowdell) Norred and the son Charles Henry was 
born in Loudon county, Virginia, .January 19, 1842. While 
he was still a young boy his father moved with his family 
to Springfield, Hlinois, where he acquired large tracts of land, 
a flour mill and a lumber yard. It was during his boyhood 
and early manhood that he acquired a scientific knowledge of 
farming and stock raising and also a practical working knowl- 
edge of lumbering, engineering and milling, and he went into 
the business of buying and selling stock quite extensively. 

It was in the public schools of Springfield that Dr. Norred 
received his early education, attending first the graded schools 
and later attending the Illinois State I'niversity. He was 
not yet twenty when he began his medical studies with Dr. 
R. S. Lord of Springfield. Later he went to Pope's Medical 
College, in St. Louis, Missouri, finishing with the class of 
1865, and also to the School of Anatomy and Surgery in 
Pennsylvania. It was from the last named institution that 
he was graduated. He received the degree of Doctor of 
Medicine from the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia 
in 1886. 

Added to all his other honors. Dr. Norred was also a soldier 
having served his country through the tivil war. In 1862 
he enlisted as a private in the 114th Regiment Illinois Volun- 
tary Infantry and organized the first regimental hospital 
for the soldiers at Camp Butler. After passing an examina- 
tion as senior assistant surgeon before the Illinois State 
Military Examining Board he received a commission as Cap- 
tain of Cavalry. Throughout the war he served in the 
varioas hospitals in charge of the medical department, saving 
many lives and alleviating much suffering, having charge of 
the surgery on board of the floating hospital "Nashville" 
which was a receiving boat at the siege of Vicksburg. Later 
he was placed in charge of the medical department of the 
7th Illinois Cavalry, in which service he remained until 
the close of the war. 

Before coming to Minneapolis he had practiced in Dawson, 
Sangamon county. Illinois, and in Middletown, Illinois, and 
also in Lincoln, Illinois. He came to Minneapolis in 188a. 
It was five years after that the smallpox epidemic swept 
over the city and it seemed for a time that the physicians 
would be unable to cope with the situation. Dr. Norred was 
appointed special quarantine officer and in a short time pre- 
sented the city with a clean bill of health. It was at hia 
suggestion that three large quarantine hospitals were con- 
structed and people of Minneapolis raising about thirty thou- 
sand dollars for the purpose. It was as special quarantine 
officer that he first came into prominence in Minneapolis, 
winning in this capacity the respect and approbation of the 
'entire community. In 1892 Dr. Norred was made consulting 
surgeon and in 1902 surgeon in chief of Soldiers' Home. 

Many of the improvements for the Minnesota State Sol- 



diers' Home in the matter of sanitation and management were 
due to Dr. Norrcd's skill and judgment while he was con- 
sulting surgeon there. Under his direction many changes 
were made that resulted in the betterment of the inmates 
there. He left the institution in splendid sanitary condition, 
after devoting a number of years of his active career to 
that end. 

He held the office of United States Examining Surgeon 
under President Harrison and was at one time medical director 
of the Department of Minnesota Grand Army of the Republic 
and he also acted on the board of United States Examining 
Surgeons, being president of Board No. 1 at the present time. 
For a time he was consulting surgeon of the Minneapolis 
City Hospital. 

He is prominent in G. A. R. circles, being a member of the 
John A. Rawlins Post, Number 126, and the military order of 
Loyal Legion of the United States. He is also a Scottish 
Rite Mason, a Knight Templar and a Shriner and a member 
of the Wesley M. E. Church. 

When Dr. Norred becomes reminiscent he likes to tell how 
his father at one time consulted Abraham Lincoln on legal 
matters and how the great man took notice of the young 
man who went with him. Charles was taken in office of the 
lawyer who was then comparatively unknown and who after- 
ward became so great. This created a wonderful impression 
upon him and had a permanent and determining influence 
upon his ambition during his future life, especially after 
Lin'coln had become so great. He advised him as to his future 
life and conduct. 

Dr. Norred lives at the Rogers Hotel and has his office in 
the Andrus building. 

Lincoln was a friend of the family and often visited at 
their home. 

In 1900 Dr. Norred was selected special quarantine officer 
by the city to clean it of smallpox and after a few months of 
active work gave it a clean bill of health and also erected five 
modern quarantine hospitals at an expense of over $30,000 
which was contributed by the citizens of Minneapolis. 



ORLO MELVIN LARAWAY. 



The late Orlo Melvin Laraway, who died in Minneapolis 
on April 18, 1909, after a residence within the present city 
limits of more than fifty years, was one of the founders of 
the municipality. 

Mr. Laraway was born on September 7th, 1832, in Char- 
don, then Trumbull, but now Geauga county, Ohio, and came 
to Minneapolis to live before the city, or even the village 
which has grown into the 'city, was founded. He was one 
of the earliest merchants in this locality, opening a general 
store in 1857. In 1864 he was a member of the board of 
township trustee's, Cyrus Aldrich and George A. Brackett be- 
ing the other two, and as such helped to lay the foundations 
of the civil and educational institutions of the region. He 
also served as Treasurer of Minneapolis about that time. 

Mr. Laraway was a builder from his advent in thi's section. 
In 1868, in association with C. K. Perrine, he established the 
Minneapolis Plow Works, an important industrial enterprise 
in its day, which did a large business and gave employment 
to a large number of men. He was also instrumental in found- 
ing and building up the Mechanics and Workingmen's Loan 



416 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



and Building Association, which helped greatly in providing 
the newcomers into the locality with homes, or the means 
of building them. He was secretary of this association 
twenty-six or twenty-seven years, and there is ample proof 
of the wisdom and prudence of his management of its affairs 
in the fatt that at the end of its long and useful activitj' it 
liquidated its business at one hundred cents on the dollar. 

Mr. Laraway was also one of the directors of the old Bank 
of Commerce until it was consolidated with the present 
Northwestern National Bank, and because of his zeal, energy 
and intelligence in working for the good of the city, he was 
appointed its postmaster in 1882. He served in this office 
until 1886, and during the four years of his incumbency in it 
the foundation of the present postoffice building was laid. 
It was a period of rapid growth in the history of the city, 
the postoffice receipts being doubled during his four years' 
term of office. 

The next year after he left the office of postmaster Mr. 
Laraway became the successor of .John G. McFarlane in the 
oldest insurance company in Minneapolis, whose history dates 
back to 1857 or 1858. He continued to do business on a 
large scale and with great enterprise until the asthma, from 
which he suffered from early life, so weakened him that he 
was obliged to lay aside his activity and rest from his ardu- 
ous labors. 

For more than a generation of human life, Mr. Laraway 
was an active and honored member of Hennepin Lodge. No. 
19, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons. He was married 
on November 8th, 1857, to Miss Abbie F'. Clark, a native 
of Warren, Ohio. Born in 1837, who is still living. They 
became the parents of two children, both of whom are also 
living: Floyd, who now has charge of the father's former 
business, and Grace, who is the wife of Arthur Von Schlegel, 
and has her home in Detroit. Michigan. 



MATTHEW J. PEPPARD. 



Mr. Peppard was born in the city of Fredericton, the cap- 
ital of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, on November 
10, 1846, and when lie was four years old was taken by his 
parents to the neighboring province of Nova Scotia. There 
he grew to manhood and obtained a common school educa- 
tion, leaving his books at an early age to begin learning 
his trade as a carpenter under the direction of his father. 
When he attained his majority he left his native land for 
the United States, and chose the state of Minnesota as liis 
future home, locating first at Castle Rock, Dakota county. 
Here he became a contractor for building houses and con- 
tinued as such for a short time, until he could mature his plans 
and find a way to work them out. 

In 1869 he entered the employ of George W. Sherwood, the 
railroad bridge contractor, as a workman on the bridge over 
the Cannon river at Hastings, this state, and within a few 
weeks afterward was given charge of all bridge construction 
work then in progress on the St. Paul Railroad in that 
division. His wages exceeded his expectations, and he was 
kept in Mr. Sherwood's employ for six years, during which 
he was always assigned to important duties, among them 
laying the foundations of the bridges now spanning the 
Mississippi at Hastings and La Crosse, and other large jobs 
of great public utility. 



At the end of the period last mentioned he decided to 
undertake similar contracting and construction work for 
himself. He secured contracts on the H. & D. division of 
the St. Paul Railroad, now the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. 
Paul, and built the bridges between Glencoe and Ortonville, 
making his home at Hutchinson, McLeod county. For a num- 
ber of jears thereafter he was associated with Henry &, 
Balch, the well known contracting firm, and during this 
period he began building docks on the Great Lakes, a line of 
work that is still in progress and has been growing in im- 
portance from the beginning of its history. One of his most 
important jobs in this department of enterprise, in magni- 
tude and usefulness, has just recently been completed at 
Ashland on Lake Superior. 

Mr. Peppard remained with Henry & Balch from 1878 to 
1897, and for three years after that was in partnership with 
Mr. Balch. Since 1900, however, he has been operating alone. 
He built the great railroad docks at Marquette, Michigan, 
Escanaba, Gladstone, Ashland, and other progressive and 
growing lake ports. In addition he has never hesitated to 
take a contract for building an entire line of railroad, and 
at times has had more than 2.000 men in his employ. Dur- 
ing the last twenty years he has done all the dock con- 
struction work required by the Northwestern Railroad, and, 
in company with Bernard & Record, built some of the larg- 
est docks on the Great Lakes in addition to those named 
above. 

His extensive work as a buildinj; contractor has kept Mr. 
Peppard busy, but he has still found time to give attention 
to other lines of business. He has loaned money to farmers, 
bought and sold pine lands, farm lands and other real estate, 
and built large business blocks and . residence properties for 
renting purposes. The fine business block at First avenue 
and Tenth street, south, Minneapolis, was put up by him and 
in addition he owns several desirable lots and dwelling 
houses near his own home on Third avenue south, and is still 
extending his acquisitions of this kind. 

While living at Hutchinson Mr. Peppard joined actively 
in the movement to secure railroads to that town, and largely 
through his efforts the Great Northern and Chicago, Milwau- 
kee & St. Paul were extended to it. In recognition of his 
services in this respect he was nominated by his party, the 
Democratic, for membership in the state house of repre- 
sentatives, and his nomination was cordially indorsed by the 
Republican nominating convention. But he declined the 
honor and did not make the race, preferring to devote him- 
self wholly to his business, which had by that time grown 
to large proportions and was steadily increasing. 

While the greater part of his activity has been given to 
Minnesota enterprises since he became a resident of this 
state, he has acquired interests elsewhere also. lie has a 
large addition to the city of St. Charles, Missouri, in which 
he is laying out streets and making extensive improvements, 
pushing the work forward with the energy and dispatch 
which he has always displayed in his undertakings, and 
with the confidence and self-reliance which have always 
characterized him in all things. 

In the public affairs of every community in which he has 
lived or with which he has been connected he has taken an 
intelligent and helpful interest, and to the progress aful im- 
provement of Minneapolis in every way he has been es- 
pecially devoted and a liberal contributor. In its social life 
he has been useful as a member of the Auto, Commercial 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



417 



and New Athletic clubs. He has also been very fond of fine 
horses, but has not found his liking for them profitable. 
In 1893 he was married at St. Charles, Missouri, to Miss 
Maniye Redmond. They have three sons living, Melville, 
George and Edwin. Another son, wliose name was Royal, 
died in childhood. 



nominations and all agences working for the good of his com- 
munity. 

On May 19, 1875, Mr. Leighton was united in marriage 
with Miss Sarah L. Heaton, of Machias, a native of same. 
Seven children have blessed their union and brightened their 
family fireside, Mabelle E., Addie L., Maude A., Lizzie A., 
Lewis L., George E. and Sarah L. The attractive and popular 
home of the family is at 1509 Fremont aveime, north. 



HORACE NEWELL LEIGHTON. 



Mr. Leighton was born on January 8, 185.S, in the city of 
Machias, Washington county, Maine. There he grew to man- 
hood, and obtained his education in the common schools. Tlie 
shop, the mill and the business office were his Schools in his 
preparation for his business career, and they did their work 
well, as his career has been an eminently successful, credit- 
able and useful one. 

In 1876, when he was twenty-three years old, he came to 
Minnesota and took up his residence in Minneapolis. He be- 
gan contracting and building, and to this line of effort he has 
adhered throughout the thirty years whith have passed since 
he came to this locality. His progress in it has been steady 
and continuous, and he now stands in the front rank of his 
business in the Northwest. He is the head of the H. N. 
Leighton company, and among the notable structures which 
it has erected in this city are: The Metropolitan Life build- 
ing, the Palace Clotliing house, the Catholic Pro-Cathedral, 
the old and new postoffices, the Northwestern and the Farmers 
and Meclianics bank buildings, the Pilgrim Congregational, 
Trinity Baptist, Westminster Presbyterian. Wesley Methodist 
and Lyndale Congregational churches, and the Great Northern, 
Advance, Newton & Emerson, Tibbs-Hutehins and Loose, 
Wiles & Company warehouses. Many other imposing and 
artistic structures stand to Mr. Leighton's credit in this 
community and elsewhere, and as enduring monuments to his 
skill and enterprise as a coirtractor and builder. 

His life here has been a very busy one. but its activities 
have been by no means confined to his private enterprises. 
On the contrary he has been very zealous and serviceable in 
his attention to public affairs and in efforts to promote the 
city's welfare by helping to secure for it the best government 
attainable. He has never been fond of official life and lias 
never sought public office of any kind. But he consented to 
serve, under the importunities of his friends without regard 
to party lines, as a member of the city council, from 1898 to 
1902, representing the Third ward, in which he lives, as its 
alderman.' He is also a member of the city board of educa- 
tion, and in its work he is deeply, intelligently, and helpfully 
interested at all times. 

The cause of education lias always had Mr. Leighton's 
cordial support. For years lie has been one of the trustees 
of Windom Institute at Montevideo, Minnesota, an educational 
institution fostered by the Congregational church denomina- 
tion of the state, and he occupies the same relation to Carle- 
ton College at Northfield. Socially he is connected with the 
North .Side Commercial and Athletic clubs. His political faith 
and allegiance are given to the Republican party in national 
and state affairs, but in local matters he is not a partisan, but 
gives all questions a good citizen's consideration, and is im- 
pelled in reference to them by no other influence. In re- 
ligious affiliation he is connected with the Pilgrim Congrega- 
tional cluirch. but he is liberal in his support of other de- 



S. J. NICHOLSON. 

This valued citizen of Minneapolis, who has been a resident 
of the city and engaged in business here for a continuous 
period of twenty-nine years, is the senior member of the firm 
of Nicholson Brothers, merchant tailors, with their prmcipal 
establishment at 709-711 Nicollet avenue. The business in 
which the}' are engaged was started by him in 1884, and the 
partnership between him and his brother, Murdock Nicholson, 
was formed in 1885. Theirs is one of the leading merchant 
tailoring establishments in the city, and has had a prosperous 
career with a growing trade from the start. 

S. J. Nicholson was born on Prince Edward Island, Canada, 
on June 29, 1860, and came to this country in his boyhood. 
He was educated and learned his trade in Ohio, attending 
what in his student days was Wooster College, in the city 
of the same name. He became a resident of Minneapolis in 
1884, and has since built a handsome home for his family and 
himself at 5703 Nicollet avenue, where he owns forty acres 
of land and gives a great deal of attention to raising choice 
peonies, astei's, daisies, and other flowers, and make a specialty 
of producing the finest growths of Japanese Iris, all for the 
market. 

Mr. Nicholson's American ancestors came to Prince Edward 
Island from the Highlands of Scotland, in 1820. and the 
family is one of the oldest on the Island. As soon as he 
was able to look the country over and select a place for 
himself he made Minneapolis his choice, and he has never 
since found fault with his judgment in this particular. He 
has fallen in completely with the genius of the locality and 
has prospered here, having built several residence properties 
for sale or renting purposes. 

Mr. Nicholson has also taken a very cordial and helpful 
interest in the affairs of his home community in public, fra- 
ternal and sporting lines, and although quiet and retiring to 
an almost excessive degree, has established himself firmly 
in the regard and admiration of the people here as a very 
commendable and useful citizen. He was one of the pioneers 
of field sports in this city, having been one of the players in 
the foot ball game of 1886, the first ever played in Minne- 
apolis, the foot ball grounds being at the time at Thirteenth 
street and Nicollet avenue. Fraternally he is a Free Mason 
of the Royal Arch degree, and holds his membership in the 
order in Ark Lodge. Minneapolis, to which he has belonged 
twenty-seven years, and in Royal Arch Chapter. 

S. J. Nicholson was married on January 15, 1890, to MiSs 
Antoinette Clarke, a daughter of Hon. Charles H. Clarke, a 
sketch of whom will be found in this work, and a grand- 
daughter of Charles Hoag, the gentleman who gave Minne- 
apolis its beautiful name. She and her husband are active 
in many organizations for the promotion of the welfare of 
their community and its residents, she being especially active 



418 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



as a member of the Women's club of the city. They have one 
bhild, their son Clarke, now eighteen yeare old and a student 
in the high school class of 1914. 

Mr. Nicholson is sedulously attentive to his business and 
omits no effort to expand it and make his work satisfactory 
to his numerous patrons. The firm employs regularly thirty- 
five to forty persons, and keeps them all busy. He is a 
Eepubliean in political faith, but in the last presidential elec- 
tion, cast his vote for the electors of Woodrow Wilson, his 
desire for the public welfare then, as always, overbearing all 
personal or party considerations, however firmly fixed or long 
adhered to. 



GEORGE R. NEWELL. 



Among the early arrivals in Minneapolis, although not one 
of the first, was George R. Newell, now head of the wholesale 
grocery house of George R. Newell & Company, and he has 
been one of the most enterprising and successful of the 
business men in this city. He began his career here as a 
young man of twenty-one, and in a humble capacity. He has 
lived among this people nearly half a century. 

Mr. Newell was bom in Jay, Essex county. New York, on 
July 31, 1845, and there obtained a limited public school 
education, his attendance at school being short because he 
was ambitious and eager to get into business at an early 
age. He is a son of Hiram and Phebe (Bush) Newell, also 
New Yorkers by nativity, but able to trace their American 
ancestry back to early New England Colonial times. The 
father was a drj- goods merchant, and the son was therefore 
in touch with the mercantile life from the dawn of his in- 
telligence. 

At the age of twelve he left school to become a clerk in a 
general store, and during the next eight years followed this 
occupation under various employers and in various lines of 
trade. 

In 1866 he came to Minneapolis, where his first employment 
was as a clerk in the Nicollet hotel. A short time afterward 
he accepted a position as clerk in a retail grocery, for his 
inclination was still strongly in the direction of merchandis- 
ing, and in 1870, when he was but twenty-five years old, 
became a member of the firm of Stevens, Morse & Newell, 
jobbers in groceries, this firm being the beginning of the 
present extensive wholesale business of which Mr. Newell 
is the head. 

This partnership was dissolved in 1873, and for one year 
thereafter Mr. Newell continued to do business alone. At 
the end of that period he entered into partnership with H. G. 
Harrison, the firm name being Newell & Harrison, and doing 
business on a steadily widening basis and in constantly 
augmenting volume until 1882. In that year the personnel 
and name of the firm again changed and that of George R. 
Newell & Company was formed. Sometime afterward the 
business was incorporated with Mr. Newell as president of 
the company and his son, L. B. Newell, as secretary and 
treasurer. The company now enjoys a trade surpassed in 
extent by that of no house in this section of the country, 
and the business is one of the oldest under one continuous 
management in the city. 

Mr. Newell has always given liis business close and careful 
attention, supervising in person all its details and permitting 



no department of it to escape his notice. But he has, never- 
theless, found time to take part in the management of other 
institutions of magnitude and mingle freely in the fraternal, 
social and civic life of his community. He is one of the 
directors of the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie 
Railroad and a member of the National Grocers' Association 
and the Minnesota State Grocers' Association. For many 
years he has been a Freemason with strong devotion to the 
fraternity. He also belongs to the Athletic and Minikahda 
clubs. In political faith and allegiance he is a Republican, 
but has never sought or desired a public office. 

In 1876, Mr. Newell was married at Wyoming, New York, 
to Miss Alida Ferris. 



EDMUND J. LONGYEAR. 



Having been a resident of Minneapolis for twelve years, 
and of the State of Minnesota for twenty-three, Edmund J. 
Longyear, head of the E. J. Longyear Company, engaged in 
the development of mineral lands, has become closely iden- 
tified with the industrial, commercial, civic, and social activi- 
ties of this city and state, and enterprising and efficient in 
helping to promote their welfare. 

The company of which Mr. Longyear is the president and 
controlling spirit was organized by him in 1911 and incor- 
porated on July 1, of that year; its capital stock was 
$335,000. It is a close corporation and is engaged in the 
investigation and development of mineral lands and proper- 
ties on the Mesabi and Cuyuna Iron Ranges in this State 
and the mining regions of Wisconsin, Michigan, and many 
other states, including also the Arizona Copper district, in 
this country, and the pyrites deposits of t\iba. 

Although the Company devotes itself primarily to diamond 
core drilling on a 'contract or commission basis, using ma- 
chinery of its own manufacture for this work, it frequently 
explores promising mineral lands, on its own account, with a 
view of lease or purchase. A well equipped geological de- 
partment cooperates in this branch of the Company's activi- 
ties and in addition, makes geological examinations and 
reports on mineral properties in any part of the country. 

Mr. Longyear was born in Grass Lake, .lackson county, 
Michigan, November 6, 1864. After due pr.eliminary prepara- 
tion and study in the lower schools, he entered tlie University 
of Michigan to pursue a full course in civil engineering, which 
he intended to make his life work. At the end of his junior 
year in that institution, however, he found liis health giving 
way, and therefore took employment in the Northern woods, 
on a railroad survey for the Iluluth, South Shore & Atlantic 
line. 

Mr. Longyear's cousin, .lohn .M. T^nngyeur, of Marquette, 
Michigan, was engaged in the mining and development of 
iron lands as an associate of tlie Pillsburys and Russell M. 
Bennett, of Minneapolis. Through the inlluence of his cousin, 
Mr. Longyear was induced to turn his attention to this new 
line of endeavor and as a preparation therefor, to take post 
graduate work in the Michigan College of Mines at Hough- 
ton. He afterwards received his degree in the first class that 
gniduated from that institution, which was then new and at 
the beginning of a notable career. 

After leaving school ho was employed by his cousin and 
associates and while in tlicir employ he took the first diamond 





<::^yuly\.--^^p^l,.j^^^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEM'OLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



419 



drill into the Mesabi Iron Range. He has made his career 
eminently successful and highly profitable for himself and 
largely useful to the localities in which it has been worked 
out. 

For a time he acted as superintendent of other companies 
in the same line of development, but in 1895 he began con- 
tracting in this line for himself, and he continued this work 
until 1911, when he organized the company of which he has 
been president from the beginning of its existence. In 1901 
he became a resident of Minneapolis, but for six years before 
that time he lived on the Mesabi Range. Among the regular 
and continuous employes of the company he now controls are 
ten mining engineers and geologists, graduates of various 
well known colleges and mining schools. 

In his religious preference, Mr. Longyear is a Baptist, and 
he holds his membership in Trinity Church, of which he is 
one of the trustees. He is also a member of the board of 
trustees of the Young Men's Christian Association and be- 
longs to the Minneapolis Club and the Civic and Commerce 
Association of the city. His beautiful home is on a farm of 
ninety-two acres fronting on Smithtown Bay, Lake Minne- 
tonka. Here he has an orchard of 400 trees producing many 
kinds of fine fruit. His is one of the attractive residences in 
a region renowned for numerous elegant and artistic homes. 

Mr. Longyear was married at Charlevoix, Michigan, April 
16, 1890, to Miss Nevada Patten, of that city. She is now 
active in the work of her church, in the Woman's Club, the 
Clio Club, and in other improving organizations in Minne- 
apolis. They have six children, Clyde S., Robert D.. Philip 0., 
Margaret, Richard P.. and Edmund J., Jr. The father has 
long been earnestly interested in the cause of education, and 
for a number of years has been a member of the Board of 
Trustees of Pillsbury Academy, at Owatonna, Minnesota. 
He is, however, deeply and helpfully interested in every 
undertaking for the improvement of people in general and 
those of his own community in particular. No public enter- 
prise of value goes without his active and effective support, 
and all his efforts in this behalf are governed and guided 
by intelligence and breadth of view. Minneapolis has no 
better citizen and none whom its residents more highly or 
generally esteem than Edmund J. Longyear. 



FLOYD MELVIN LARAWAY. 

Floyd Melvin Laraway, the only son of Orlo M. Laraway. 
who is now in charge of the insurance business, built up 'by 
his father, was born in Minneapolis on September 5, 1858, on 
the site of the old Pence Opera House, where his father kept 
one of the first stores in the city for many years, at the 
corner of Hennepin avenue and Second street. His life has 
been passed in this city and his education was obtained in 
it.s Schools. In 1882, when he was twenty-four years of 
age, and while his father was postmaster of the city, he was 
made superintendent of the free mail delivery, and he re- 
mained in charge of this branch of the local postal service 
until 1888, serving two years under his father's Sueceasor as 
postmaster, A. T. Ankeny. 

After Mr. Laraway left the ])OstaI service, he joined his 
father in the insurance business, and to that he has de- 
voted him'self closely ever since, his connection with it cover- 
ing a period of twenty-five years. Like his father, he has 



been intelligently and serviceably interested in the growth and 
general welfare of the city, and has been an ardent, practical 
supporter of every commendable undertaking involving its 
betterment. He has, however, taken no direct part in political 
contentions, and has held aloof from participation in public 
aft'airs except as a good citizen zealous for the best govern- 
ment of the city that could be secured. He was married on 
October 25, 1888, to Miss Elizabeth Sophia Oswald, a daughter 
of the late John C. Oswald, and also a native of Minneapolis. 
They have two children, their son, Oswald Melvin and their 
daughter, Elizabeth. The father is a member of the Minne- 
apolis Commei'cial Club, and is devoted to automobiling and 
pleasures on the lake as his principal recreations. 



WILLIAM OUILE NORTHUP. 

William Guile Northup was born in Salisbury Center, 
Herkimer County, New York, July 21, 1851. His father was 
Daniel A. and his mother Louisa (Guile) Northup. Mr. 
Northup senior was a merchant, a member of the State 
Legislature for a number of j'ears and prominent in business 
and social circles in northern New York. The boy was a 
baby under two years of age when his mother died and 
when he was less than sixteen he came to Minneapolis to 
make his home with his uncle. Rev, James H. Tuttle. The 
first constructive thing he did when he arrived in Minneapolis 
was to take a course in business college. Then he went to 
work for the Minneapolis Tribune. Here he was brought 
into daily contact with Hugh G. Green, then editor of the 
paper, and Jacob Stone, who was the business manager. 
This was a fine association for a boy of his age and did much 
for his development. When Mr. Green left the paper young 
Northup went to work for the J. S. Pillsbury hardware 
company. Again he took a short venture into the newspaper 
world, working for a time on the old Times which afterward 
became The Journal. After a few months of newspaper 
work he resigned to go back to the Pillsbury store to learn 
the hardware business. He remained in the employ of this 
company until 1874, when he was engaged by Paris Gibson to 
take charge of the office of the company, which afterward 
became the North Star Woolen Mills. It was two years 
after this that Gibson and Tyler failed in the business and 
Mr. Northup was placed in charge of the company's affairs 
by R. B. Langdon. the assignee. Ever since that Mr. North- 
uji's hand has been at the helm to direct the fortunes of 
what has come to be one of the principal manufacturers of 
woolen blankets in the United States. The New York City 
oflice of the company which Mr. Northup represents is at 
Twenty-first street and Fifth avenue. The great business 
which has been built up is illustrative of the value of Minne- 
apolis as a distributing point for merchandise. 

Mr. Northup is a director of the Northwestern National 
Bank, vice president of the Minneapolis Trust Company, vice 
president and a trustee of the Farmers and Mechanics' Bank 
and a director of the North American Telegraph Company. 
The holding of all the positions of honor and tnist are 
eloquent of the high esteem in which he is held as a business 
man and as a citizen. 

Socially his connections are of the same enviable character. 
He is a member of the Church of the Redeemer and a member 
of tlie Minneapolis. r>afayctte ami Minnetonka Beach Clubs. 



420 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



In 1874 Mr. Northup was married to Leia Tucker, daughter 
of Henry C. Tucker of Providence, Rhode Island. They have 
two children. Marjorie and William G., Jr. 



WILLIAM S. NOTT. 



William S. Xott was born in Dublin. Ireland, on .luly 9, 
1853, the son of Henry and Louisa (Nott) Nott, and in 1858, 
when he was but five years old, was brought by his parents 
to the United States. He obtained a limited academic educa- 
tion in the schools of Chicago and entered upon his business 
career as an employe of E. B. Preston & Company, manu- 
facturers of belting and rubber goods. He remained with this 
house and rendered it excellent service until 1879, learning 
the business and showing unusual aptitude in seeing its pos- 
sibilities and devising means to develop them in serviceable 
and profitable ways. 

But he was not born to be a workman for others all his 
life. There was that within him that called him to a master- 
ship in whatever work he was engaged in, and in the year 
last mentioned he came to Minneapolis and founded the firm 
of W. S. Nott & Company, of which he has been the president 
from the beginninpr of its history. His energy and capacity 
in business have called him to leading positions in kindred 
enterprises, and he is now also president of the Xott Fire 
Engine company; vice president of the Minneapolis Threshing 
Machine company; a director of the Security National Bank 
of Miniipapolis, and connected in a leading way with other 
industrial and financial institutions of ..rreal value to the 
community in which he lives. 

The Nott Fire Engine company was organized in 1900, and 
has been made one of the most successful and impressive 
institutions in the Northwest. It manufactures steam fire 
engines and gasoline pumping engines of high quality and 
great power and popularity, which are known and commended 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The combined companies do 
a large and profitable business, and their business is steadily 
on the increase. 

Mrs. Nott was Miss Jessica Cory, a native of Iowa. They 
have one child, their daughter Charlotte, who is now the 
wife of Conrad G. Driscoll of St. Paul. The father has 
mingled freely in the social life of his community as an 
active member of the Minneapolis and Commercial clubs, and 
has been a liberal patron of healthful recreation as a devotee 
of golf, fishing and traveling. He has given in his own case 
an impressive example of the value of these recreations in 
relieving busy men from the exacting cares apd burdens of a 
strenuous every-day life of toil and efl'ort. 

The excellent and broad-minded business man. whose life 
story is briefly indicated in these paragraphs has also given 
a due share of his energy and attention to promoting the 
general welfare of his community by taking part in its 
governmental affairs and all commendable undertakings for 
improvement along lines of enduring usefulness, moral, in- 
tellectual, social, commercial and material. He has been a 
very progressive citizen, with a mind ever alert and active 
in behalf of the best interests of his city, county and state, 
and a hand ever open and skillful in advancing them. No 
resident of Minneapolis stands in higher personal and general 
public regard among the people, and none deserves to. 



EDWIN WINSLOW HERRICK. 

Closely connected with the development of Minneapolis is 
the name of Edwin Winslow Herrick whose knowledge of men, 
rare executive abilities and affable social qualities won for 
him the high respect and confidence of his fellow citizens. 
Edwin W. Herrick descending from the English family of 
that name, located originally at Beaumanor Park, Leicester- 
shire, England, and represented later in Massachusetts and 
New York state, was born in Sheridan, Chautauqua County, 
N. Y., on the 13th of June, 1837. the son of Alfred M. and 
Caroline Ambler Herrick. He spent his early years with his 
brother and two sisters on his father's farm near the shore 
of Lake Erie. His father was a man of great strength of 
character and prominent in all the progressive movements of 
his time. After his father's death in 1846 young Herrick, 
then nine years of age, lived with his grandfather, Hon. 
David Ambler in Oneida County, N. Y.. and later with his 
uncle. Haven Brigham, his guardian, in his native town. The 
common schools of the county and two terms at the "Old 
Academy" at Fredonia comprised all his school education. 
Realizing that his success in life must depend solely upon his 
own efforts he, at the age of Seventeen, started out to make 
his own way — and at the same time to avoid being railroaded 
into the ministry by his family — a calling for which he felt 
he was not fitted. He turned his hand to anything that offered 
and, having been taught that whatever was worth doing at 
all was worth doing well, progressed rapidly, accumulating 
gradually the wherewithall to go into business for himself. 
This, put with the inheritance turned over to him by his 
guardian, permitted him in 1860 to embark in business when 
he and his older brother, William W., under the firm name of 
Herrick Brothers, established a wholesale and retail Dry 
Goods Business in Ashtabula, Ohio. This business progressed 
steadily during the next eight years during which the Civil 
war began and ended. His heart was always with the Union 
and the cause of humanity and though prevented from enlist- 
ing himself, his means were ever ready to relieve the soldier's 
widow or orphan. 

After the war his spirit of progressiveness and expansion 
seconded by the hope that a 'change of elimat^ might benefit 
the health of his wife, whose tendency to bronchial trouble 
was increasing, induced him to spend the summer of 1867 
prospecting throughout the West where new fields and drier 
atmosphere might offer double inducements for a change of 
base. He visited many cities before reaching Minneapolis, then 
a village claiming eight or ten thousand inhabitants, where 
both the business prospects and resources and the dry, won- 
derful climate appealed to him as being the ideal place to 
"drive his stake." He returned to Ohio and by his enthusiasm 
induced his brother to sell their joint business in Ashtabula 
and on the first day of .Tune, 1868, the two brothers arrived 
in Minneapolis. The real estate firm of Herrick Brothers 
was immediately established and in the early 'seventies 
engaged in many transactions of magnitude and iniportante 
among which was the creation of "Groveland Addition" to 
Minnea[)olis comprising nearly one thousand lots now lying in 
the center of the residence portion of the city. He also became 
a member of the lumber firm of Jones. Herrick & Company, 
and later secured large tracts of timber land in Northern 
Minnesota which were sold some fifteen years later. Another 
important purchase was the real estate and building known as 
"The Academy of Music," then the most important building m 




<^^^^-^l^ .i^tf^^U^iyL^ <^C3 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MLXNESOTA 



421 



the city, situated on the site now occupied by Temple Court. 
The building was thought to be far in advance of the city's 
needs and as it contained a spacious auditorium above the 
second floor, at that time the finest theater in the Northwest, 
Mr. Herrick was forced to take the management of it and 
for the next ten years devoted untiring efforts to bring to 
this far western point the best talent to be had in the dramatic 
and musical world. His constant aim was to cultivate the 
public taste for music and the drama by booking only the 
very best companies. It is needless to say that this was often 
accomplished in the face of the most discouraging circum- 
stances and at personal pecuniary loss. Nevertheless it can 
be truly said that owing to the untiring efforts and oneness 
of purpose of Mr. Herrick, Minneapolis saw the dawn of a 
new era and a higher moral tone in the history of her amuse- 
ments. 

During the seven years of financial depression from 1873 
to 1880 when many good men were forced into bankruptcy, 
Mr. Herrick never for one moment lost faith in the city of 
his adoption and during these years did much to Stimulate the 
growth of the city by the erection of business blocks. On 
Christmas day. 1884, the Academy of Music was partially 
destroyed by fire. Upon the site was ei'ected in the following 
year under Mr. Herrick's personal supervision the splendid 
fireproof office building known as Temple Court, one of the 
very first of its kind in the city. Mr. Herrick was one of the 
first subscribers to the stock of the Soo Railway, recognizing 
the great benefit its completion would bring to Minneapolis; 
and during the period of its construction was one of its 
directors and for a time president of an auxiliary railway of 
that system. 

Mr. Herrick's love of nature and keen appreciation of 
human nature made him an intelligent and ardent traveler 
which pleasure he gratified liberally throughout his life. In 
politics Mr. Herrick was always a republican, though not 
a partisan, always desiring to see the best men in ofli'ee. He 
never aspired to official position but was idealistic in his 
ideas of the simple duties of citizenship. In religion he was 
liberal minded and though expected by his relatives to become 
a Congregational minister, he found a more congenial and 
satisfactory home in the Universalist faith. Since 1869 he 
and his family have been identified with the Church of the 
Redeemer in Minneapolis, in the west transept of which he 
placed a beautiful memorial window in memory of the three 
members of his family, his wife, youngest son, and his daugh- 
ter who died respectively in 1880, 1881, and 1883. 

On .July 29. 1861, Mr. Herrick married Miss .Tuliet C. 
Durand at Westfield, N. Y., and their early married life was 
spent in Ohio. Three children were born to them: Dora G., 
in Ohio, in 1862; Roy Durand, in Minneapolis, in 1869; and 
Edwin Lowry in Minneapolis, in 1875. Mrs. Herrick was 
graduated at Wadawannuc Institute, Stonnington, Conn., in 
1860. She possessed a brilliant literary mind, was practical 
in deed, and in thought was progressive in advance of her 
times. Her mental strength was too great for her frail 
physitjue and while at Jacksonville, Fla., jn 1880, in search 
of better health, passed Suddenly away. Mr. Herrick remained 
a widower until his death in 1911 when he succumbed sud- 
ilonly on May 2d to pneumonia, contracted, it is believed, in 
the northern passes of the mountains on his way home from 
California where he had, as usual, spent the winter. 

In reviewing the character and career of Edwin W. Herrick 
wo nolo particularly his just and active mind, his cordial sim- 



plicity of manner, and his unswerving loyalty to any cause 
he might espouse, especially to the welfare of the city of his 
adoption where he lived the greater part of his life and in 
whose future he had such sublime faith. 



FREDERICK D. NOERENBERG. 

Frederick D. Noerenberg, president of the Minneapolis Brew- 
ing Company, is a son of Carl and Wilhelmina Noerenberg, 
and was born in Bietzicker Provinz Poomern, Prussia, in 
1845. The family came to America in 1860 and located in 
St. Paul, where Mr. Noerenberg earned his living by working 
on farms and as a day laborer. Later he was employed in 
Stahlman's Brewery. From 1870 to 1875 Mr. Noerenberg 
kept a hotel in St. Paul. In 1875 the family made their 
home in Minneapolis, and Mr. Noerenberg engaged in the 
brewing business under name of Zahler & Noerenberg until 
1891, when several breweries consolidated and formed the 
Minneapolis Brewing Company. Mr. Noerenberg was elected 
vice president of this company at the time of organization 
and later became president. 

In 1878 Mr. Noerenberg married Miss Johanna Sprung- 
mann, of Minneapolis. 

Mr. Noerenberg is a lover of nature and has made his 
home at Crystal Bay. Lake Minnetonka, where he spexds 
most of his time. 



FRANK H. NUTTER, 



Frank H. Nutter is a native of New England, having been 
born at Dover, N. H., April 20, 1853. His father, Abner J. 
Nutter, was a school teacher. It would be hard to estimate 
the breadth and scope of the father's influence during the fifty 
years which he devoted to teaching, for the boys and girls, 
who came under his care at the time when character was being 
made and habits were being formed, are now scattered from 
Maine to California, and have passed on to the second and in 
many instances to the third generation, the principles and 
ideals with which he inspired them. Hannah (Roberts) Nut- 
ter, the wife and mother, was the typical New England woman 
of the cultured type. Both she and the father were particu- 
larly ambitious for tlie fullest mental development of their 
son Frank. The son sjicnt much of his early boyhood in and 
around Boston. He attended the public schools there and 
entered the Eliot High Schools. It was after finishing high- 
school that he formed his first association with the eminent 
specialists like Joseph H. Curtis and F. L. Lee and began 
his career as a civil and landscape engineer. He learned all 
that these men had to teach him and after engaging in his pro- 
fession for a few years on his own account there in Boston, 
he came to Minneapolis. This was in 1878. For ten years, 
from 1880 to 1890, he was in partnership with Frank Plummer 
and the firm was known as Nutter and Plummer. Since the 
dissolution of this partnership, Mr. Nutter has been alone as 
a landscape engineer. For 23 years from 1883 to 1906, Mr. 
Nutter held the appointment of Park Engineer, under the 
Board of Park Commissioners. This position he resigned be- 
cause of the press of private business, and his son Frank 
Nutter. Jr., was appointed to fill his place. Mr. Nutter's in- 



422 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 

LEO MELVILLE CRAFTS. M. D. 



fluence is almost as far reaching as his father's although in an 
entirely different way. He has designed beauty for the in- 
spiration of humanity in many of the states of the union and 
also in Canada. Civic work is Mr. Nutter's specialty although 
he has designed private grounds in as many states as he has 
parks. Cemeteries are another angle of his work in which he 
has been particularly successful. 

Mr. Nutter is an active republican and devoted to all civic 
interests. He is a pioneer member of the Minneapolis Society 
of Civil Engineers, and one of the prime movers in the State 
Horticultural Society. He also belongs to most of the prin- 
cipal clubs of the city, including the Commercial Club. His 
church affiliations are with the Congregationalists. and he is 
a member of the Congregational church. His wife was Miss 
Carrie Alden, before her marriage, which took place in April, 
1881. Mr. and Mrs. Nutter have three children, Frank H., Jr., 
Williard A., and Hannah A. 



n 



HON. WILLIS L NORTON. 



Hon. Willis L Norton, lawyer, son of Austen and Eunice 
M. Norton, born in Plainwell, Michigan, April 28-, 1880, at the 
age of seven, with his mother, brothers and sister (his father 
having died when he was four years of age), became a resi- 
dent of Lyon county, Minnesota, spent his early boyhood 
days working on the farm, then removed to Marshall, Minne- 
sota, where he went to graded and high school, working his 
way, and in June, 1899, graduated from the high school. In 
September, 1899, he entered the University of Minnesota, con- 
tinuing to work his own way. In his junior year at the 
University he became interested in business and continued in 
business during the remainder of his University course. He 
is a graduate of the Academic and Law department of the 
University, class of 1906. 

While in the University, he was a member of the Intra- 
Sophomore debating team in a successful contest for a cash 
prize of $75.00. In his junior year he was a member of the 
Inter-collegiate debating team of the University, which de- 
feated the University of Chicago and the University of Michi- 
gan, in 1902, and won the championship of the Interstate 
debating league for that year. His success as an orator and 
debater secured him membership in the Delta-Sigma-Proe, 
an honorary forensic society limited in its enrollment to in- 
terstate debaters and orators selected on demonstrated merit 
and ability, 

Mr. Norton is engaged in the general practice of law in asso- 
ciation with his brother, F. E. Norton. He has taken an active 
part in public affairs. In 1912, he was elected by 1,000 
majority to the House of Representatives from the Thirty- 
ninth legislative, or University, district, comprising the Sec- 
ond and Ninth wards, as the nominee of the Republican party, 
having been selected as such over two competitors at the 
primary election. 

In the legislature of 1913, he was a member of the com- 
mittees on Judiciary, Appropriations, Reapportionment, Tem- 
perance, University and University Lands and Public Libra- 
ries, and rendered conspicuous service in drafting and passing 
important legislation, 

Mr, Norton was married in June, 1903, to Miss Lottie 
O'Urien, of Amiret, a graduate of the Marshall High School. 
They have one daughter, Eunice Marie, 



Colonial and Revolutionary patriots were the American fore- 
fathers of Leo Melville Crafts, M, D., his early ancestors" in 
this country being among the founders of Boston, while his 
parents, Major Amasa and Mary J. (Henry) Crafts, were 
among the founders and builders of Minneapolis, having come 
to this locality in 1853, The father, in 1857, built the first 
brick liouse ever put up in Minneapolis, which stood on the 
site of the present Century building at the corner of Fourth 
street and Marquette avenue. 

The ancestors of Major Amasa Crafts on his mother's side 
were the Stones, who for more than 200 .vears owned the 
beautiful estate "Sweet Auburn" on the banks of the Charles 
river at Boston, which afterward became a part of Mount 
Auburn cenjetery in that city, A portion of the ancestral 
home near Boston is still occupied by a branch of the family. 
One of the early members of the Stone family was one of 
the first graduates of Harvard College, and Mrs. Crafts' male 
ancestors were East Indian traders at a time when the 
merchant marine of this country was of great importance. 

The historical Boston Tea Party started from the house 
of Col. Thomas Crafts. He presided at the meeting in the 
State House when the Declaration of Independence was first 
read in Boston. He commanded the Regiment to which Paul 
Revere belonged. He was also in command of the Artillery 
at the siege of Boston driving the British ships from the 
harbor. His portrait was hung in the old State House at 
Boston in 1913, the subject of this sketch being chieHy in- 
strumental in having this done. 

Dr. Crafts' father, Major Amasa Crafts, was a major in 
the Maine militia about the time of the Mexican war. The 
major's father, Moses Mills Crafts, was a captain in the 
War of 1812. The major's grandfather, great-grandfather 
and five other members of the family took part in the battle 
of Lexington in the Revolutionary war, and the major's great- 
great-grandfather was a soldier at the siege and capture of 
Louisburg, Nova Scotia, in the French and Indian war in 
1758. Seven out of nine generations of the family have given 
military men to the service of their country on this side of 
the Atlantic. In 1793 Lieut. Moses Crafts settled at .Jay 
Hills, Maine, and the house built by him at that time is still 
standing and in a good state of preservation. 

Major Amasa Crafts engaged in lumbering extensively here 
for some years after his arrival, but he suffered a heavy loss 
in 1857 W'hen the spring floods carried thousands of his logs 
down the river. These logs piled against the piers of the 
bridge about where Fourteenth avenue south is now and 
carried the whole structure away only a few minutes after 
he crossed. The loss he thus suffered and the following panic 
of 1857 compelled him to sell his fine old home, which had 
been the center of social life in the community. But under 
the persuasion of his wife, whose faith in Minneapolis never 
wavered, he became possessed of a considerable body of real 
estate, which he continue<l to hold, and lived to realize good 
values from it. One of his tracts was a claim near Powder- 
horn lake, which others have, since his time, platted into 
several additions to the city. 

Earlier in life the major was a member of the (inn of 
Crafts. Perham & Company, woolen merdiants in Boston. 
He advanced large sums to mills which failed, and their 
failure crippled him seriously for a time in a financial way. 
About 1868 he began to ship fruit into Minneapolis, handling 




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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



423 



1,000 to 1,300 barrels of apples a year, which he brought up 
the river from Missouri, supplying grocers and other dealers 
as required, thereby becoming the first wholesale truit dealer 
in Minneapolis. He also took an active part in local public 
affairs, there being no civic enterprise in the early history of 
the city in which he was not prominent. He died in August, 
1893, aged eighty-six, and liis widow passed away in 1896 at 
the age of seventy-six. 

Leo Melville Crafts was born in Minneapolis in 18(5:!. His 
education was obtained in the public schools and at the 
University of Minnesota, from which institution he was 
graduated in the class of 1886. While attending the Univer- 
sity he won distinction as a student and public speaker, rep- 
resenting his class in senior oratorical contest, and, being 
active and skillful in athletics, carried off several cham- 
pionships. 

Dr. Northrop and others urged him to study for the min- 
istry, but from boyhood he was ambitious to become a 
physician, and accordingly he attended Harvard Medical col- 
lege, from which he was graduated in 1890. During that 
year and the next he was house physician at the Boston 
City hospital. Since then he has been active in his profession 
in Minneapolis, and for a number of years was connected 
with the Hamline Medical school, at one time being dean 
of its faculty. He has made a specialty of mental and 
nervous diseases, in reference to which he is an authority, 
and is now visiting neurologist on the staff' of several of the 
Minneapolis hospitals. 

In addition to his professional activity the doctor has been 
active in church and Sunday school work, serving from 1893 
to 1896 as president of the Minnesota State Sunday School 
Association. He has been treasurer of the Hennepin County 
Medical society and chairman of the nerve section of the 
State Medical society. He is also a member of the American 
and Mississippi Valley Medical associations, the American As- 
sociation of Railroad Surgeons and the Board of Censors of 
the Soo Railroad Surgical Association. In addition he is 
consulting neurologist of the Soo Railroad system. In 1911 
he was president of the Minnesota Neurological Society and 
in 1913 a delegate to the International Medical Congress held 
in London, England. He is, besides, a Fellow of the Massa- 
chusetts Medical Association and a member of the Harvard 
Medical College and Boston City Hospital Alumni associa- 
tions. He has also been a member of the Minnesota National 
Park and Forestry Association and president of the Native 
Sons of Minnesota. He is a member of the Sons of the 
American Revolution, also of Minneapolis Society of Fine 
Arts. 

Dr. Crafts has written extensively for the magazines of his 
profession and on Sunday school topics, forestry and state 
history. He is a member of the Athletic club, and, having 
been an athlete himself, is keenly interested in legitimate 
sports, but of late years has enjoyed his vacations next to 
Nature's heart in the pine woods of Northern Minnesota. In 
political affiliation he is a Progressive, and is at this time 
(1914) president of the Progressive club of Hennepin county; 
and his religious connection is with the First Congregational 
church. In 1901 he was married to Miss Amelia I. Burgess, 
a native of Portland, Maine. 



THE NORTHLAND I'lNE CO.Ml'ANV. 

One of the great pine land companies of tlie Northwest, 
localizing its interests in Minneapolis, is the Northland Pine 
Company, whose activities are extensive in cutting timber, 
and manufacturing it into lumber. This company was or- 
ganized in May, 1889, by Jolin B. Kehl, of Chippewa Falls, 
Wisconsin, and William Deary, of Duluth, the first idea being 
to confine its activity to dealing in timber lands. The new 
company was incorporated in 1904 to engage in the active 
maViufacture of lumber, purchased the old Backus-Brooks 
mill and later the Carpenter-Lamb mill. It acquired con- 
siderable stumpage from the Indian Reservation, bought up 
everything that looked desirable and obtainable and soon had 
a supply for eight years cutting in sight. The aggregate 
capacity of the mills was 360.000 feet in ten hours, and 
covered an area of sixty acres. When operating at full 
capacity the company employs 750 men, with a payroll of 
over $45,000 a month. Added to this there were from 500 
to 1,000 men employed in logging in the woods in winter, and 
four traveling men were employed to dispose of the manu- 
factured product in Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, 
Nebraska and North and South Dakota. 

Frederick Weyerhauser of St. Paul was the president of the 
company; R. H. Chute of Minneapolis, vice-president; F. S. 
Bell of Winona, secretary; R. D. Musser of Little Falls, 
treasurer, and C. A. Barton of Minneapolis, general manager. 
The B. B. Fuel Company is a branch and is operated by the 
same management. This company handles all the fuel turned 
out by the great mills, and is capitalized at $20,000 and em- 
ploys about thirty men. 



C. A. BARTON. 



The managerial head of this great company is C. A. Barton, 
whose ability has been recognized by a number of big tirmsv 
He came to Minneapolis in 1888, and entered the employ of 
the Minneapolis Furniture Company, later being with the- 
Bradstreet-Thurber B^irniture Company until 1893. when he. 
became identified with the lumber business. He was book- 
keeper for the Nelson-Tcnny Company for five years, when 
he went to the Mississippi River Lumber Company, later in the 
same capacity. In 1904 at its incorporation, he became the 
general manager of the Northland Pine Company. He has 
recently become identified with the Boise Payette Lumber 
Company of Boise, Idaho, one of the largest concerns recently 
organized in the Inland Empire. Becoming vice-president and 
general manager. 

Mr. Barton is the owner of the Nashwauk Realty Company, 
of Itasca County, with John A. Redfern of Hibbing. as partner. 
He is a director of tlie Merchants and Manufacturers State 
Bank of Minneapolis and 1st vice-president of the Northern 
Pine Manufacturing Association. 

Socially, Mr. Barton is democratic and genial and is much 
devoted to philanthropy and church work. He is a member 
of the Plymouth Congregational Church and is an Kx-Sunday 
School Superintendent. He is a director of Drummond Hall. 
Northeast Minneajjolis. and also of the Plymouth Club. He 
is also a member of a number of other of the principal tlubs 
including the Minneapolis Club, the Civic and Commerce Asso- 
ciation. He was married in 1892 to Cora E. Riddle, of Dodge 



424 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 

They have two sons, Henry W. 



County, Minnesota. They have four children, Everett H., 
Isabel J., Walter A., and Eleanor Rose. 



HENHY OSWALD. 



Henry Oswald was born in Oberach, Canton-Thergau, Switz- 
erland, March 17, 1832, and came to the United States in 
1854. His brother, John C, had been in Virginia for six 
years, where Henry joined him soon, coming to a farm n'ear 
Galesburg, Illinois. In 1857, John C, having come to Minne- 
apolis, Henry came also, bringing John C.'s family. He 
worked for Gottfred Scheitlin, a brother-in-law of .John C, 
buying ginseng root which was shipped to China. Then he 
was in company with John C. in conduct of a store at Twenty- 
t^rst avenue north and Second street. Jolm C. soon moving 
to what is now the location of Northrup, King & Co., on 
Bridge Square, Henry became toll keeper and tender of the 
Twentieth avenue north toll bridge, a draw bridge which 
opened for passage of river boats engaged in logging. He 
held this position during 1859 and 1860, when high water 
carried out the bridge. Then, in company with Matt Notha- 
kor. he bought John C. Oswald's general store, continuing its 
operation until spring of 1872. He then bought a half in- 
terest in the Crystal flour mills at Camden Place, on Shingle 
Creek, operating it in partnership with Jacob Bingenheiraer. 
In the fall of 1872 Mr. Bingenheimer died and Mr. Oswald, a 
year later, buying his partner's interest. Thus continued his 
business for nearly thirty years iintil the mill was destroyed 
by fire in 1890, thus losing about $20,000. The mill was not 
rebuilt. 

Mr. Oswald was a Democrat in his political affiliations. He 
held public office several times, the first being as alderman 
of the First ward, about the time St. Anthony and Minne- 
apolis were united. He was alderman again in 1886. when 
Camden Place came into Minneapolis, he representing the 
Tenth ward in the council. It was largely through his in- 
strumentality that the pumping station and workhouse were 
erected in that section. In 1890 Mr. Oswald was elected a 
county commissioner of Hennepin county, a position in which 
he did excellent service. He was an important factor in the 
political councils of his party, a frequent delegate to its 
conventions and in all instances loyal to his friends. 

In 1857 Henry Oswald married Theresia Sieber, a native of 
Heidelberg, Baden, Germany, who had come to Lancaster Co., 
Penn., in 1849 with her mother, and to Minneapolis in 1856. 
For some years she was employed in the family of the late 
K. I'. Russell. To them were horn three children. Henry A., 
• lohn \V. and Anna Lena, the latter dying in childhood. 

Henry Oswald died July 26, ]'.I06 at his home at 1117 
North Sixth street. 

Henry A. Oswald was born May 14, 1859, when the family 
was living on the banks of the river and the father was toll 
bridge tender. He worked for some years in his father's 
store and in the mill office, acquiring thorough knowledge of 
the ilour milling industry. He attended the high school and 
a commercial college, was in the county treasurer's oHice for 
four years, and in February, 1S07, joined the business forces 
of the Minneapolis Brewing Company, being at first in the 
collection department, then becoming cashier and afterward 
assistant treasurer. In ISS.! he married Antonie Hciiirlcli. a 



sister of Julius Heinrich 
and John J. Oswald. 

Mr. Oswald is favorably known as a careful business 
a social and political worker. He is a well known meml 
of the Elks and is a Republican 




FRAXK PERSHING HOPWOOD. 

Frank Pershing Hopwood, one of the best known and most 
successful business men in Minneapolis, was born in Union- 
town, Pennsylvania, in 1854. He is a son of R. G. Hopwood. 
for years a prominent lawyer of Uniontown, whose ancestors 
came to this country from England and Settled in Virginia in 
the seventeenth century. Frank's grandparents moved to 
Pennsylvania at an early day, being among the first white 
persons to cross the Alleghany mountains as emigrants from 
a Southern colony. They settled on a large tract of land, 
which they received as a government grant, and founded the 
town of Hopwood, named in their honor and still a flourishing 
village located a few miles from the city of LTniontown, in 
Fayette county. 

Mr. Hopwood's early education was obtained in the public 
schools, but his father was instrumental in founding Madison 
College before the Civil war, and Frank's older brother at- 
tended that institution. It was extensively patronized by the 
sons of Southern planters, which was discontinued during the 
war and before he had a chance to become one of its students. 
At the age of fourteen he became a clerk in a general store 
in Uniontown kept by R. H. Newlon. In accordance with the 
custom of that period he was obliged to work from 6 o'clock 
in the morning until 9 at night. 

After working for Mr. Newlon for a time Mr. Hopwood se- 
cured a position in the store of Skiles & Hopwood in the same 
city. In 1873 the proprietors decided to take a trip through 
the West, and informed their clerks that the one who showed 
the best record during their absence would receive a handsome 
prize. Mr. Hopwood proved to be the fortunate one, and was 
given a large silver Waltham watch with a silver chain at- 
tached, which he prized very highly. 

On the trip mentioned Mr. Skiles visited ilinneapolis, and 
he was so well pleased with this region that he determined 
to locate here, which he did in 1875. and tlie next year Mr. 
Hopwood joined him in this city. After passing some weeks 
with Mr. Skiles he entered the employ of G. W. Hale & Com- 
pany, whose store was at Nicollet avenue and Third street. 
Two years later he received an offer of $1,000 a year for his 
services in a dry goods store in Erie, Pennsylvania, and, M 
the salary seemed large, he decided to accept the oiler. In a 
short time, however, he returned to Minneapolis and re-en- 
tered the emploj' of Mr. Hale, with whom he remained until 
1881. 

In the year last mentioned Mr. Hopwood took a position 
in the wholesale dry goods house of Coykendall Bros. & Com- 
pany, located at Second street and First avenue north, and 
was with that firm until 1885. In the summer of that year 
lie was sent by the firm to New York to buy goods, and while 
spending a Sunday in Uniontown. Pennsylvania, his former 
home, he received a telegram announcing the sudden death of 
Mr. Coykendall by drowning in Lake Minnetonka. with a large 
jiarty of other jiersons. The business was bought by Messrs. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



425 



Wyman & Mullen, and Mr. Hopwood remained with the new 
firm until 1892. 

He then helped to organize the dry goods firm of Harrison, 
Hopwood & Cross, which started in business at Third street 
and First avenue north. The firm suffered by the financial 
panic of 1893. and the next year Mr. Hopwood sold his inter- 
est in the business to Mr. Harrison and went back to the em- 
ploy of Mr. Wyman, the firm then being the Wyman-Partridge 
company, as it is now. He remained with that company until 
a short time ago. as a buyer. In 1907 he was elected first vice 
president of the National Wholesale Buyers of Dress Fabrics, 
which was organized that year, serving three years in all 
and twice re-elected. When he left the employ of the Wyman- 
Partridge company he was presented with a complete set of 
mahogany office furniture by the company and his associates 
in its employ as a testimonial to the excellence of his services 
and the high appreciation in which they were held. 

ilr. Hopwood is a charter member of the Interlachen club 
and belongs also to the Minneapolis, Minikahda, Lafayette, 
Commercial and Athletic clubs and the Civic and Commerce 
association. He was married in 1880 to Miss Mary E. Walton 
of Saratoga Springs, N. Y., who died in 1883. In 1885 he con- 
tracted a second marriage, which united him with his present 
wife, who was Miss Margaret E. Corriston of Minneapolis, 
Minn. They have three children, Florence E., Robert G. and 
Wairen J. Florence married the late Charles G. Gates and 
resides in her beautiful home on Lake of the Isles boulevard. 
Robert G. and Warren J. are associated with their father in 
the real estate, loan and investment business, with an office in 
Room 638 McKnight building. The family residence is at 
3667 Lake of the Isles boulevard. Mr. Hopwood is a member 
of the First Presbyterian church of this city. 



C. 0. ALEXIUS OLSON. 



C. 0. Alexius Olson is the Son of Anders and Maria S. 
(Pehrson) Olson, and was born on his father's farm in Long 
Parish in the province of W>st Gothland. Sweden near the 
village of Vara. This was on April 5. 1872. A few months 
later his father died and when the boy was two years old, his 
mother brought him to America and went to live with relatives 
on a farm near Waconia, Minnesota. The following year his 
mother married John Swenson — from her old liome in West 
Gothland, Sweden. The family then moved to Minneapolis, 
but two years later they went to live on u farm near Water- 
town, Minnesota. In 1880 they returned to Minneapolis and 
the son Alexius has been a resident here ever since. He be- 
gan his education in the country schools and continued it in 
the Franklin. Sumner, and North High schools of Minneapolis. 
During his senior year in the North Side High School he won 
the German-American Bank prize for oratory. He entered the 
Minnesota State University in 1891. and was graduated in 
1895. receiving the degree bachelor of science. He received the 
degree bachelor of laws a j-ear later from the same institu- 
tion, and in 1897, the degree master of laws. Being naturally 
of a studious turn of mind, Mr. Cllson has taken advantage 
of every opportunity to acquire knowledge, and from 1S97 to 
IS99, and 1904 to 1907, he took post graduate work in the law 
department and in political science and economics. During 
his student years at the University he was much interested 
in College affairs and was always generous with his time in 



serving these interests. He acted as president of his class, 
then as editor of The Ariel and later as cadet major of the 
University battalion. He was one of the prime movers in 
securing for the University a chapter of the Zeta Psi Fra- 
ternity and was one of the charter members. He is also a 
member of the Delta Chi (law) Fraternity. 

While he was still a student at the University, he took a 
trip abroad spending some time in Europe. Then he was 
employed at the World's Fair in Chicago. After being ad- 
mitted to the Minnesota Bar in 1896, he entered practice in 
Minneapolis devoting his time to real estate- law and to 
Probate court practice. In connection with his legal work 
he also became interested in the real estate business and 
since 1909 he has been connected with David P. Jones and 
Company, investment bankers and real estate brokers of 
Minneapolis, and is at present attorney for this company. 

As a student of political science and economics he has been 
keenly alive to all political matters. He has always been a 
republican. From 1899 to 1901 he served the State in the 
legislature, and was appointed by the judges of the district 
court as a member of the Minneapolis Charter Commission 
and served during the years 1903 to 1907. He was defeated 
by a narrow margin when he entered the race for the legisla- 
ture for the second time in 1908. 

Mr. Olson is a member of the Lutheran Church. 



HORATIO R. OWEN. 



The late Horatio R. Owen, who was an influential character 
in Minneapolis for many years, performed his life's best 
work in this community as the founder and proprietor of the 
agricultural journal known as "Farm, Stock and Home," and 
in connection with that publication left the record for which, 
doubtless, he would best like to be remembered if he could 
make known to us his wishes. 

Mr. Owen was born in Huron county, Ohio, May 4, 1849. 
The story of his early life is uneventful and soon told. He 
was reared on a farm and obtained the common school educa- 
tion available to farmers' sons in his day. As soon as his 
age permitted, he entered a drug store as a clerk, and rapidly 
mastered all the details of the business. A few years later 
he became a traveling salesman for a wholesale drug house, 
and for several years thereafter pursued that calling with 
pronounced success. 

Mr. Owen was always earnestly and sincerely in sympathy 
with the farmers of the country, and his choice of life work 
was as a journalist in their interest. After a good deal of 
experience with journals and journalism, he turned his atten- 
tion to that vocation, and in November, 1884, he founded 
"Farm, Stock and Home." His management of this journal, 
which became so able and influential a voice in behalf of the 
agricultural interests of the country, and so strong and sure 
a light for the men engaged in them, was the feature of his 
career that he was most pleased with. 

This paper was conceived by Mr. Owen. Ho named it ; he 
gave the titles to its several departments of work; he con- 
tributed to each at times and to some at all times, and he 
directed the course of each in every particular. It was his 
inflexible determination that the |)aper should be both clean 
and useful. This was his supreme condition: "Every mother 
must know that her daughter can ojien and read any number 



426 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



of the paper witliout danger of her seeing, in advertisements 
or elsewhere, a single line that would be improper for her to 
read." Another of his inflexible rules was: "Let other 
papers furnish news and amusement, but let us give prac- 
tical, useful, helpful matter only." He was also scrupulously 
watchful of the advertising department. He insisted that 
the income of the paper from this source must always be 
subordinated to the interests of the subscribers. 

One of the most unusual characteristics of Mr. Owen as a 
publisher was that he regarded every subscriber as a personal 
friend, and w<is as desirous of protecting and helping him as 
if he were in fact personally acquainted with him; and if 
the object of his regard was worthy his friendship became 
real and enduring. The cordial warmth with which the 
unknown caller at his office was received was not feigned. 
It was the sincere greeting of a genuine man for another 
whom he believed to be genuine and for whom he felt a 
personal regard. This personal interest in and feeling for 
each subscriber made it easier for him to refuse contracts 
involving large sums of money for advertising schemes which 
might take money from his friends without giving full value 
in return or lead them into doubtful or questionable invest- 
ments. 

It is not easy in these days of intense competition, of tire- 
less pursuit of money at the behest of naught bvit greedy 
selfishness, to inspire confidence in the sincerity of such a 
business policy as was framed for "Farm, Stock and Home." 
Undoubtedly apparent want of appreciation made many diffi- 
culties for the paper in the first years of its career and 
created misgivings for its future among its friends. But 
through all these the faith of Mr. Owen was unfaltering. 
"We may make less money, but we shall build up an institu- 
tion to be proud of, and that will do good for the world after 
We are gone," was the sentiment that inspired him to hold to 
his original designs. His idea of a successful paper was not 
one that would merely make money, but one that would be 
helpful, that would exercise an influence for good, that would 
be highly regarded in the home and ever a welcome visitor 
there ; one that could be depended on as a guide, counselor, 
and friend, a protector as well as an educator. In these re- 
spects Mr. Owen could justly feel that his paper was a 
success, and he was proud of it and of his connection with it 
because it was in conformity with these ideals. 

After this it seems needless to say that Mr. Owen was an 
unselfish man. He was in fact generous to a fault, if there 
be any fault in generosity. This rare characteristic in these 
"degenerate days" inspired and aided him in the execution 
of his meritorious policy in the management of his paper 
and influenced his whole business career. His temperament 
was sanguine and sunny. He was ever genial, seldom im- 
patient, and never despondent. But ho was also resolute and 
persistent. Obstacles did not daunt him. On the contrary, 
they rather urged him to greater effort. To know him in life 
was a pleasure, and since his death the memory of association 
with him partakes of the nature of a benediction. 

March 28, 1893, Mr. Owen married Miss Minnie McMillan, 
of Sparta, Wisconsin. She is still living but no children 
Were bom of their union. Their home life was an ideal one, 
and all their acquaintances were attached to them by the 
strongest ties of admiration and esteem. 

Horatio N. Owen died April 23, 1900, only eleven days 
before the completion of his Slst year. He had not been 
in rolmst health for five years or more before his death. 



and during his last year failed rapidly. Death never met a 
more valiant foe. The grim monster was not resisted by 
him for personal reasons, but in the hope and belief that 
more life for him would mean more happiness and good for 
others. The general estimate of his character was well 
expressed by one of his intimate friends immediately after 
his death, who said of him: "He was worthy of admiration, 
of confidence, and of the sincerest of all tributes — an earnest 
following of his noble example." 



EDWARD N. OSBORNE. 



Edward N. Osborne, vice president of the Osborne-McMillan 
Elevator company, and a prominent factor in the business 
activities of Minneapolis, has been connected with the grain 
and elevator trade for many years, his force of character, 
business ability, studious attention to the grain interest? 
having given him a commanding position and personal success. 

Mr. Osborne was born in Madison County, New York. He 
grew to manhood in La Crosse and there obtained his educa- 
tion. There also he began his business career with the 
American Express company, for four years. When he went 
to W. W. Corgill & Bro., grain dealeils, remaining until 1887. 
He came to Minneapolis that year, forming a partnership 
with J. D. McMillan as the Osborne-McMillan company. The 
business was incorporated with Mr. McMillan president and 
Mr. Osborne in the office he now holds. The company is 
managed with prudence and judgment and is recognfeed as an 
important factor in the grain trade. 

Mr. Osborne is also president of the JSmpire Elevator com- 
pany, the Northland Elevator company and the International 
Elevator company of Canada. He is found earnest and help- 
ful in the support of every worthy undertaking, being ever 
guided by intelligence, and knowledge of conditions. He was 
married in Minneapolis to Mrs. Williams, and they have two 
sons. He is a member of the Minneapolis, Minikahda, La- 
fayette and the Auto clubs. 



EDWARD MORRILL .TOHNSON. 

Edward Morrill Johnson, late judge of the district court, 
an eminent jurist and distinguished citizen of Minneapolis, 
was born in Fishersville. New Hampshire, November 24, 1850, 
but at the age of three years was brought by his parents to 
St. Anthony Falls, Minnesota. There he was reared to man- 
hood, and later the metropolis which succeeded the earlier 
village was the scene of his brilliant and useful career. His 
parents, Luther Gage and Cornelia (Morrill) Johnson were 
natives of New Hampshire and of notable lineage, tracing 
their ancestry to old I'Inglish families whose descendant.^ 
were settlers of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, and 
New Hampshire and important officials of the colonial period. 
Luther Johnson came to Minnesota in 18.54 and in company 
with his brother, Mr. .John C. Johnson and brother-in-law. 
Mr. William M. Kinibiill. started a furniture factory. 
He removed to St. Anthony Falls in a short time where 
he engaged in the mercantile business. He was a prom- 
inent and well known figure in the early history of 
St. Anthony Falls and Minneapolis, where his death occurred 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



427 



at tlie age of t'iglity-two years. Mr. Johnson and liis wife 
were members of the First Congregational church and officers 
of it, wliere the memory of their faithful and generous sup- 
port is a permanent memorial. She was a woman of wide 
influence and her attractive personality won her the popu- 
larity and prestfge of leadership in life of St. Anthony Falls. 
Edward Johnson received his early education in the public 
schools of St. Anthony and then entered the Pennsylvania 
Military Academy at Chester. Pennsylvania. After leaving 
the Academy he matriculated at the University of Minne- 
sota, becoming a member of its first class. He then spent 
three years abroad, travelling extensively during his vaca- 
tions and studying in the Universities of Heidelberg and 
Berlin. He studied law in Germany and on his return from 
Europe he began to prepare himself in earnest for the prac- 
tice of his chosen profession, entering as a student the office 
of the Honorable John M. Shaw, at that time the leading 
practitioner of the city. Here he displayed the remarkable 
capacity for organization, the studiousness, with a fidelity 
and attention to detail, which proved the foundation for his 
success in after years. He completed his legal studies in the 
University of Iowa, graduating from the law department and 
beginning the practice of his profession in Minneapolis, He 
first formed a partnership with the late Edwin C Chatfield. 
This firm soon dissolved and he entered into partnership with 
Claude B. Leonard under the firm name of Johnson & Leonard. 
This connection was broken after a few years by reason of 
Mr. Leonard's failure in health and absence from the city 
and for several years Mr. Johnson continued his practice alone, 
but on the return of Mr. Leonard to the city a new firm was 
organized as Johnson, Leonard & McCune, consisting of the 
two already named and Alexander McCune, Th's arrange- 
ment continued until May, 1897, when Mr, Johnson was ap- 
pointed judge of the district court by Governor Clough. He 
served for one term in this position, where his broad training 
and experience in life and his gift for industrious and pains- 
taking work coupled with a perfect courtesy and kindness of 
heart contributed to his success and popularity. At the 
expiration of his term of office he resumed his practice and 
during this period he enjoyed a long vacation which he spent 
travelling in Europe with his wife. In the next few years his 
health gave way and he was finally compelled to close his 
offices in 1904, and in 1908, accompanied by his wife, he again 
journeyed abroad in the hope of regaining his strength. This 
hope proved futile and after several months he quietly slipped 
away from life at Nauheim in Germany, .lune 19, 1909. .Judge 
Johnson was a scholar and practitioner of wide repute but 
his activities were by no means confined to his profession, 
few men have had as large a share of influence in so many 
channels of public life or have left as many memorials of 
public service in a community. As a member of the city 
council his initiative and leadership were soon recognized by 
his associates and he originated many of the policies which 
made for the progressive growth and best interests of the 
city, among them the revolving fund scheme, assessment for 
building public improvements and the transfer ordinance. 
He was twice elected president of the council and the greatest 
monument to his thought and untiring effort during this time 
19 the steel arch bridge at Bridge square. He was a member 
of the court house and city hall commissioners from 1889 
to the time of his death and for the greater part of this 
time was president of the board and he gave freely of his 
time and energy to the erection and the preparing aiid press- 



ing forward of legislation for the completion of the present 
splendid edifice which houses the city and county offices, 
that it might be a credit and ornament to the future. And 
for his faithful supervision the citizens of the county and 
metropolis owe him a debt of gratitude. He was early a 
director of the Atheneum library board and gave all his 
influence toward the securing of a public library, framing the 
legislative act under which the library now exists. He was 
a member of its first board of directors and was repeatedly 
reelected to the board of which he was secretary for a number 
of years. His efficient services in the many positions of 
public trust and responsibility and his marked administrative 
abilities gave him a large political prestige and drew to him 
the active political forces of his party and he was repeatedly 
called upon to conduct electoral campaigns in which he dis- 
played a notable genius tor leadership. Aside from the 
discharge of his public and professional duties, Judge Johnson 
found opportunity for a successful business career. During 
the early days of his law practice he became interested in 
the establishment of the Northwestern Casket company, 
which had a small beginning in the present plant of the 
Minneapolis Office & School Furniture company, which lie 
organized when it became necessary to remove the North- 
western Casket company into larger quarters. He continued 
his relation with these companies, being president of the 
latter at the time of his death, .Judge .Johnson was a man 
of splendid attainments and his life was one of inestimable 
value to the community in which he lived. He found great 
pleasure in scholarly pursuits, was a proficient German student 
and intensely interested in the fine arts, having made a 
choice collection during his travels of pieces of sculpture and 
porcelain. The last winter of his life was spent amid the 
art treasures of Rome. Judge .Johnson was married in 1880 
to Miss- EflBe F. Richards of Waterloo. Iowa, whom he met 
while a student in the University of Iowa. She is a daughter 
of Doctor W. 0. and Julia A. Richards. 

The .Judge was a great lover of flowers and spent much of 
his leisure time in his gardens. 

Mr. .Johnson was chairman of the ordinance committee dur- 
ing the enactment of the high License law and Patrol limit 
law and was very active in the support of both of these 
measures, which made him very unpopular with tlie liquor 
element of the city and his life was threatened at times. He 
was ever on the side of temperance and the rigid enforce- 
ment of the laws governing the sale of liquors and was a 
leader of the council. 



.JAMES K. OGDEN. 



The first Ogdens in America were among the pilgrims, 
their genealogy being traced back to 1453 in England. In 
America there are records of them as early as 1643, when 
Governor Kieft's stone church in New Amsterdam was built 
by .John Ogden, the pilgrim, and Richard, his brother, of 
Stamford, Connecticut, Later .John settled in Northampton, 
Long Island, and in 16,50 was granted the exclusive privilege 
of killing whales in the South Sea, within the boundaries of 
the town, for seven years. 

After twenty-four years on Long Island, John Ogden, at 
the age of fifty-four years, removed to New .Jersey, in 1664, 
receiving, with others, a grant of land from Governor Nicholls, 



428 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



representing the Duke of York. He was the first of sixty- 
five men to swear the oath of allegiance to King Charles II, 
in 1665. Governor Carteret made him a member of his 
council and deputy governor, and in 1668 lie was made a 
burgess. He with twenty companions was here also granted 
the exclusive right for three years to take whales along the 
coast. It was about this time that he was made schout, or 
sheriff, by the Dutch, now exercising sway over this part of 
the country. In 1673 his name led the list of eighty accred- 
ited to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and he was soon virtually 
governor of the English towns in New Jersey under commis- 
Bion from the Dutch. The Ogdens came to be the foremost 
families of this region, as attested by the fact that in the 
church yard of the First Presbyterian church at Elizabeth- 
town, there are ninety-one tombstones, including that of John 
Ogden, which bear the name. The date of the death of this 
illustrious ancestor is given on this old tombstone as 1682. 

The Ogdens continued in their leadership of industry as 
well as in their prominence in whatever community they 
resided. The line traces down to tlie nineteenth century and 
stands out prominently as that of an early manufacturer of 
pottery in Cincinnati, Ohio, whose grandson was J. Oscar 
Ogden. His grandfather and father had been rich and suc- 
cessful, leaving large property in which J. Oscar Ogden shared. 
He came westward, and early settled in Milwaukee, where he 
became one of the best known citizens, noted as a close 
student, a book worm, and some said, a "walking encyclo- 
pedia." 

James K. Ogden was born in Philadelphia March 7, 1868, 
but the days of his boyhood were spent in Milwaukee. He 
entered the business world when he was seventeen, and in 
1887 sold paints over the Northwest. In 1889 he organized 
the Twin City Varnish Company, being its president and 
manager, with a factory in the Midway district. There he 
built up a large business, which ranked well with other 
manufacturing concerns of the Twin Cities, the output selling 
all over the Northwest and on the Pacific Coast. Mr. Ogden 
continued actively in the varnish business until 1910, when 
he retired, erecting the Ogden Apartments, one of the finest 
buildings of its kind in Minneapolis. 

Mr. Ogden married Amanda Drysdale. They have no chil- 
dren, but there are two sons by a former marriage. Sherman 
S., a student in the Blake School, and Harvey R., a student 
in Shattuck School. Mr. Ogden is active in the social and 
club life of the city, being a member of the Elks and the 
new Athletic club. 



ALBERT NEWTON OZIAS. 



In the late Albert Newton Ozias were combined the qualities 
of an educator, the attainments of a scientist, and the genius 
of an inventor. For about a dozen years he was principal of 
high schools in Minneapolis, and supervised this feature of 
the city's educational system during its growth from the 
centralized, one-school unit |o the expansion of several high 
schools, each of which included in its curriculum far more 
than had formerly been considered the study course of a high 
school. He had for years been an educator, but had found 
relaxation in the construction of mechanical devices which 
utilized the principles of science. 

Mr. Ozias was bom .July 3, 1848, in Preble County. Ohio, 



and died April 16. 1912, in Minneapolis. His early education 
was completed in the Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio. Then 
he attended the Ohio University, where he received both 
scientific and Master of Arts degrees. From the University 
(and even before) he engaged in teaching, and taught at firat 
in country schools, then in Xenia, Ohio. From here he went 
to Des Moines, Iowa, where he taught science in and was 
principal of the High School. In Des Moines he married, in 
1877, Miss Marie Louise McKenzie, who also was a teacher 
of Latin and history in the Des Moines High School. She 
was bom in Wyandotte County, Ohio, and was a graduate of 
the State University of Iowa, at Iowa City. A year after 
his marriage Prof. Ozias went to Columbus, Ohio, to teach 
science in the High School. He continued as an educator in 
Columbus for eigliteen years, and then came to the North- 
west again, to be principal for three years of the Racine, 
Wisconsin, High School. In 1899 Mr. Ozias came to Minne- 
apolis as principal of the South High School, a position which 
he filled for nine years, and then was transferred to the 
principalship of the new West High .School, in recognition of 
his good service in the South High School. 

During these years of school work in Minneapolis Prof. 
Ozias was rather a supervisor than a teacher. After three 
years in West High School he retired, and thereafter until his 
death gave his attention to scientific work. Several valuable 
commercial devices are the results of this portion of his life 
work. He was an inventor of telephone improvements and 
he gave attention to other utilizations of scientific principles. 
One of his chief devices is a compensating balance for com- 
puting scales, which is manufactured by the Dayton Com- 
puting Scale Company. It was this device which made pos- 
sible the present spring scale, as it provides for the effect of 
heat expansion and cold contraction. The device is in general 
use on the Dayton scales, and gives the Ozias farailj' a steady 
royalty. Mr. Ozias also invented a metal thermometer for 
use in stove ovens, and it was to enter actively into the 
manufacture of this thermometer that Mr. Ozias gave his 
attention after retiring from school work, and in which enter- 
prise he was active up to his death. The device is now being 
manufactured in Chicago by a company of which his son-in- 
law is vice president and general manager. 

He was in considerable demand as a lecturer among edu- 
cators. He took part in civic work in Jlinneapolis, was for 
many years a trustee of the Mystic circle, and was a worker 
in and superintendent of the Sunday school of Hennepin M. E. 
church for a time. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Ozias were born three daughttrs. They 
are Helen Louise, now Mrs. D. L. Fairchild, of Chicago; 
Alice, now Mrs. R. V. L. Haxby of Minneapolis; and Mildred, 
who lives with her mother and is a vocalist, having spent two 
years in Berlin under noted teachers. Mrs. Ozias lives at 
2516 Colfax avenue south. 



EDMUND JOSEPH PHELPS. 

Colonial patriots were the forebears of Edmund Joseph 
Phelps. It is the altruistic spirit which must ever blaze the 
way for civilization, and it was this that brought his English 
ancestors to the New World and that which also sent hil 
parents out into the West to help with the upbuilding of j 
great cities. William Phelps, the first of the family in 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



429 



America, settled in Dorchester, ilass., in 1630. He came from 
Tewksbury, England, and after staying in Dorchester for a 
number of years, finally settled in Windsor, Connecticut. 
Joseph Edmund Phelps, father of Edmund J., married Ursula 
Wright, a daughter of another old American family, and took 
his young wife to Ohio. The elder Phelps established himself 
on a farm in Breckville near Cleveland, Ohio, and it was here 
that the son, Edmund J., was born on January 17, 1845. The 
son grew up on the farm and there came to vigorous manhood. 
Always of a vital, energetic type, his early enthusiasm and 
ambition, marked him for success. He was always a doer 
rather than a dreamer, or at least a practical dreamer who 
made his dreams come true. He began his education in the 
public schools of Breckville. Ohio, and later entered the pre- 
paratory department of Baldwin University at Berea, Ohio. 
Later he was at Oberlin College and in the preparatory depart- 
ment, and later took a commercial college business course. 
After finishing his business course he was ofl'ered a position 
as teacher in the Northwestern Business College of Aurora, 
Illinois. This he accepted and remained there for two years. 
He was then engaged by the banking firm of Volintine and 
Williams, at Aurora, 111. Here he gained his first practical 
experience in the banking business. 

The furniture business was the next enterprise to engage 
Mr. Phelps' attention. He resigned his position in the bank 
and organized the firm of E. J. Phelps and company. This 
was in 1870. Eight years later he disposed of the business 
in Aurora and moved to Minneapolis, purchasing the furniture 
business of J. B. Hanson and soon after formed a partnership 
with J. S. Bradstreet, the firm name lieing Phelps and Brad- 
street. This firm built up a successful business in the artistic 
furniture and house furnishings. Their trade extended out 
through the Northwest and their taste and artistic' skill 
marked a long step forward in the progress of domestic art 
in the city. In 1883, Mr. Phelps withdrew from the firm and 
from the furniture business. 

In 1883, in company with E. A. Merrill, organized the 
Minnesota Loan & Trust Company, which has developed into 
one of the greatest financial institutions in the city and the 
Northwest. For many years Mr. Phelps was secretary and 
treasurer of this institution. A fine fire-proof office building, 
the first in the Northwest, with safety deposit vaults, was 
built on Nicollet. The business grew rapidly from the first 
under the able management of Mr. Phelps and Mr. Merrill. 
It was the pioneer organization in this line of financial busi- 
ness and has been the model for many similar institutions as 
the years have passed. 

For more than a decade he directed the activities of the 
Minnesota Loan and Trust Company and then he withdrew 
from the great financial institution which he had done so much 
to create, and went into the elevator business. In this he 
was associated with the Peavey interests and became presi- 
dent of the Belt Line Elevator Company. These two are 
the interests in which he has been personally and actively 
interested, but his other business interests have been large 
and varied. He was one of the prime movers in the estab- 
lishment of the Minneapolis Business Union and was presi- 
dent of that organization in 1892. This is the organization 
whith has done so much to induce manufacturers and job- 
bers to establish themselves in the city. The idea of holding 
a great harvest festival in Minneapolis as an expression of 
gratitude and joy at the abundant harvest of 1891, was 
fcst suggested by Mr. Phelps, and it was he who actively 



supported the enterprise and made a success of it. Other 
institutions to which he has lent his co-operation and Sup- 
port are: The Minneapolis Threshing Machine Companj^; 
The Brown and Haywood Glass Company, (purchased in 1897 
by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company) the Northwestern 
Elevator Company; the National Bank of Commerce; and the 
Moore Carving Machine Company. 

Mr. Phelps' tastes and inclinations have not led him to 
take an active part in politics, but he has always been the 
most public spirited of men. He lias been a leader and active 
worker in most of the commercial enterprises of the city. 
It is to men of this stamp, who have given their enthusiasm, 
energy and indefatigable devotion to the city of their choice, 
that Minneapolis owes her phenomenal growth and develop- 
ment. Because of his devotion to the interests of the city he 
has been repeatedly chosen to represent Minneapolis, in her 
relations with the outside world. When the millers of the 
United States sent a steamship load of flour to the famine 
sufl'erers in Russia, he was chosen to oversee the delivery 
and distribution of the cargo. When the fairness of the cen- 
sus was challenged by the citizens of St. Paul, and a re- 
enumeration was ordered, he was chosen to represent the 
citizens and gave weeks of laborious work to the complex de- 
tails of re-enumeration. He was also active in securing the 
National Republican Convention in 1892 and was elected 
treasurer. 

In 1905 he was elected a member of the park board and at 
the expiration of his first term was reelected, his second 
term expiring in 1917. and for two years was president of the 
board. 

Mr. Phelps is socially one of the most genial and democratic 
of Minneapolis' prosperous citizens. He is a member of 
practically all the principal clubs of the city, including the 
Minneapolis Club, the Commercial Club, the Minikahda Club, 
the Lafayette Club, the Automobile Club, the Minneapolis 
Whist Club and the Society of Colonial Wars. He was 
actively identified with the activities of the Commercial 
Club and was its president in 1899, at the time when the 
consolidation was effected, he being one of the promoters and 
workers in the movement. He is also a member of the Minne- 
tonka Yacht Club and was for a time its commodore. 

On September 16, 1874, Miss Louisa A. Richardson, of 
Aurora, 111., became Mr. Phelps' wife. Mrs. Phelps is the 
daughter of Charles R. and Ruth (Shepperd) Richardson, and 
inherits the best blood of colonial forefathers and revolution- 
ary patriots. Her parents came from Salem, Mass. The 
family of Mr. and Mrs. Phelps consists of a daughter Ruth, 
and two sons, Richardson and Edmund J., Jr.; two children 
died in infancy. 

The Phelps home on Park Avenue and Twenty-fourth 
Street, is one of the older of the handsome houses of Minne- 
apolis. It was built in 1884, and is the best of the types of 
that period. The charming home is often the scene of some 
handsome social functions, for Mr. Phelps' family, as well as 
he, is socially inclined. 

In all the prosperity and success that has come to Mr. 
Phelps, he has never for one moment forgotten his obligation 
to his fellowmen. His life watchword is "service" and he 
never fails to take advantage of an opportunity for service. 
His example as a citizen is an inspiration to younger men. 
That the ri'chness of his domestic life, as well as his material 
success has been well earned is the verdict of all those who 
know him intimately, either socially, or in a business way. 



430 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



p. J. LYONS. 

P. J. Lyons, president of the Bull Tractor Company, Min- 
neapolis, was born in Westchester, Pennsylvania, in April, 
1860, the son of Cornelius and Hannah (Cronin) Lyons, na- 
tives of Ireland ^ho came to the United States in their youth. 
Their son, Patrick J., passed his boyhood on a farm near 
Pecatonica, Illinois, where he was taken as a child. He at- 
tended the public Schools there and afterward moved to Page 
County, Iowa, where he lived for three years, and from there 
went to Denver, Colorado, where he remained until 1883. 
From Denver he removed to Steele, Kidder County, North Da- 
kota, where he spent twenty-four years actively engaged in 
promoting the progress and development of the slope country 
and especially Kidder County. He was enterprising, keen of 
perception, recourceful, a thorough farmer and a good judge 
of conditions necessary in successful diversified farming. Soon 
after his arrival in Kidder County he purchased the Park 
Hotel which was afterward burned down, a total loss, in 1885. 
He then became an extensive dealer in real estate and farm 
implements, established a stage route over the prairies to 
Washburn, a point on the Missouri River, made an exhaustive 
study of the resouCces of that county and opened up a big 
farm which in later years absorbed the famous Steele farm 
once owned by W. F. Steele, the founder of the town. He 
brought to the notice of the Northern Pacific Railway Com- 
pany proof of the fertility of the soil on their lands adjacent 
to the Missouri River and co-operated with them in establish- 
ing its value for general farm purposes, which resulted in their 
making a sale to a large land company of over three million 
acres of land which today is highly productive under cultiva- 
tion, growing all kinds of farm products and well settled, and 
is worth from $23.00 to $50.00 per acre. 

In the spring of 1906 his attention was called, through the 
daily newspapers, to a small and crude but practical gas 
tractor which was the invention of D. M. Hartsough, of Min- 
neapolis, and was being operated on a farm in Barnes County, 
North Dakota. Going to see it, the first time he realized the 
possibilities and future of such a machine in the development 
of the prairie country in the great Northwest. He immedi- 
ately sought Mr. Hartsough. and made arrangements in a 
very short time to exploit the venture in Minneapolis and put 
that city on the map of manufacturers of farm traction 
engines, a position it occupies today and its product is sold in 
every civilized community in the world. He established the 
Big Four Gas Traction plant on Univei'Sity Avenue and brought 
that crude engine, which he found in the fields of North Da- 
kota, within a period of five years, to the foremost place in 
the whole world of farm traction power and then sold the 
entire plant to the Emerson- Brantingliam Company for about 
$3,000,000.00 in cash, a sum which startled the whole North- 
west in its magnitude and worth. 

About eight months ago Mr, Hartsough, the inventor of the 
former successful tractor, called Mr, Lyons' attention to an- 
other tractor (a smaller one) that he had built and was try- 
ing out on a piece of farm land near Minneapolis, He took Mr, 
Lyons out and showed him the machine working. He again 
had an opportunity to use his judgment as to the future of 
this tractor. He immediately made an arrangement with Mr, 
Hartsough to put the tractor on the market and they chris- 
tened it the "Bull Tractor," In .January, 1914, a company 
was formed for $1,000,000.00. for the purpose of manufacturing 
and distribviting this little tractor broadcast over the United 



States, and called the Bull Tractor Company, Mr. Lyons being 
placed at the head of it as its president and its stock was sold 
from his office. Within two months from the time this com- 
pany was formed its stock was oversubscribed and has 
steadily raised in price until at the end of ninety days invest- 
ors were calling for the stock at $1.50 for $1.00 but could 
not purchase any at that price. Over one thousand of the 
engines are now in the field and the largest manufacturinjr 
plant west of Chicago is turning out fifty of them daily and 
soon expect to go to one hundred per day, to supply the de- 
mand of the United States alone. It is proving every day its 
superiority over all other known power now in use in the 
operation of a farm. It can be truthfully stated that D. M. 
Hartsough, as an inventor, and P. J. Lyons, as a builder, have 
done more to bring deserved recognition to Minneapolis, as a 
manufacturing city, than all the rest put together, as they 
were pioneers and blazed the trail, and the development of the 
Bull Tractor has done more for the Northwest farmers, tribu- 
tary to Minneapolis, than all the machinery that has been 
invented and manufactured by man in the past quarter of a 
centur}-, and through their industry, progressiveness and abil- 
ity are giving employment to more people than any other in- 
dustry in the city, Mr, Lyons says he will make the Bull 
Tractor industry mean to Minneapolis what the Ford automo- 
bile works is to Detroit, Mich, 

Mr, Lyons resides in his well-appointed, comfortable home 
at 518 Ridgewood Avenue and his family, Helen, Mae and Rus- 
sell, with him. Their grandmother, Mrs, L, M, Wadsworth, 
is in charge of his home and children. Mr, Lyons is a Shriner 
and a member of Zurah Temple, a member of the order of 
Elks and a K, P.. democratic in his everyday life and believes 
where there is genuine industry there is abundance of happi- 
ness and contentment, 

Mr. Lyons was a Democrat in politics until the second 
presidential term of Grover Cleveland, He served four years 
as deputy United States marshal finder D, W, MaiTata, was 
county judge of Kidder County for six years, public adminis- 
trator for two years, chairman of the Republican County Cen- 
tral Committee twelve years, was elected a nu'inber of the 
legislature in 1902, During his services in that body he se- 
cured the enactment of many important laws, among them 
the personal injury bill and many others. In 1896 he secured 
the co-operation of a few other men like himself in the county 
and took the political control of Kidder County from the 
politicians who had run it into debt beyond the legal limit. 
Lender his inspiration suit for back taxes was brought against 
the Northern Pacific Railroad, The case was carried to the 
Supreme Court of the United States and was decided in favor 
of the county, ffnd the county collected $75,000,00 back taxes 
from the railroad company, a sufficient sum to pay off its 
indebtedness and leave the county in excellent financial condi- 
tion. Mr. Lyons is a close friend of Alexander McKenzie and 
assisted that forceful and resourceful pioneer in his fight for 
progressive ideas in the administration of North Dakota gov- 
ornment. He was a member of the official staff of Governor 
Sarles with the rank of colonel. He was always in close touch 
with the editors of the leading newspapers of the state and 
nuide frequent contributions to the cohimns of their papers. 
His caustic artitles, arraigning official derelicts, had a good 
influence and won him a state-wide reputation as an earnest 
advocate of clean official administration. He owned and oper- 
ated at Steele one of the best appointed farms within the 
state and used by the government and Northern Pacific Rail- 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



431 



way to determine the resources of the Missouri slope country 
in its early development. 



CURTIS HUSSEY PETTIT. 



Was venerable in years, having reached the outpost of four 
score years as designated by the psalmist, and stood high 
in the regard of all sections of the city lie helped so materially 
to develop and improve, and with a long record in business 
and public life to his credit. Curtis H, Pettit was one of the 
interesting figures in the history of Minneapolis, and from 
every point of view an honor to American citizenship. He 
had many opportunities to be useful to the community around 
him, and employed them to the best advantage for thijt purpose 
while pushing his own fortunes with all the industry and 
ability he possessed. 

Mr. Pettit was a contribution of Ohio to the development 
of the Farther West, having been born in that state on 
September 18, 1833, at Hanover. Columbiana county, not 
over twenty miles from the Pennsylvania line, and died in 
Minneapolis, May 11, 1914. His parents were .Joseph and 
Hannah P. (Hussey) Pettit. and they were eager to give their 
offspring the best educational facilities they could provide for 
them. Their son Curtis was sent first to the Friends' or 
Quaker school at Sandy Spring, but afterward attended the 
public school in his native town. After a due course of pre- 
paration he was sent to Oberlin College, in the city of the 
same name, in his native state. His intention was to pursue 
a full collegiate course, but a serious illness prevented his 
purpose. After the recovery of his health he determined on 
another course of action, and began his business career as a 
bookkeeper in the Forest City Bank of Cleveland, which had 
just been started, with his uncle, Joseph G. Hussey, as presi- 
dent, and with which he remained about one year. 

At the end of that period Mr. Pettit went to Pittsburg in 
the employ of C. G. Hussey & Company, and he remained in the 
service of that company until the spring of 1855. In the 
fall of that year, he again changed his base of operations, 
coming West on a prospecting tour for a location in which to 
work out his business designs. He reached Galena. Illinois, 
by whatever route he could at the time, and then journeyed 
by boat and stage coach to Minneapolis. The prospect for big 
business at this point looked good to him. and he determined 
to "stick his stake" and try his fortunes here. 

Before the end of the year Mr. Pettit established himself in 
the banking and real estate business, which he conducted 
jointly until 1860, when he disposed of liis banking interests 
and turned his attention to the hardware trade, in which he 
was profitably engaged until 1866. By that time the busy 
little mart in which he was located was absolutely groaning 
with its activity in the lumber business; and, being alert to 
his opportunities, he gave up everything else and became a 
lumberman as a member of the firm of Ankenv, Robinson & 
Pettit. 

Always keeping himself abreast of the tide of advance- 
ment and prepared to ride on its crest, a few years later 
Mr. Pettit joined the flour milling industry when it showed 
signs of becoming great, and built the Pettit mill, which was 
operated by the firm of Pettit, Robinson & Company until 
It was destroyed in the great mill explosion which caused 
such havoc in 1878. The mill was immediatelv rebuilt, and 



Mr. Pettit retained an interest in it until it became the 
property of the Northwestern Consolidated Milling company 
in 1891. 

While pursuing his own business and pushing his interests 
forward with his utmost energy and application, he was not 
indifferent to the general welfare of his community or the 
state of which it is so important a part. In his days of 
activity he always took an earnest interest in public affairs, 
giving his adherence firmly to the Republican party and fre- 
quently serving as chairman of its state and congressional 
committees and at all times as one of its energetic and 
efficient workers in the field. He was a member of the 
board of directors of the state training school for boys and 
girls for a continuous period of thirty-two years, and from 
1866 to 1872 represented his district in the state senate. 
Afterward, from 1874 to 1876, and again in 1887 And 1888, 
he was a member of the state house of representatives. 

In his legislative career Mr. Pettit was of great service not 
only to his constituents, but to the whole state by his energy 
in supporting and getting others to support progressive legis- 
lation and looking after the public interest in general. He 
was the author of the patrol limit law governing the estab- 
lishment of saloons in Minneapolis, which he introduced and 
had passed by the house of representatives in 1887, and which 
has shown itself to be one of the best methods of controlling 
the liquor traffic ever employed in cities. During the same 
session of the legislature he prepared, introduced and secured 
the passage of the law under which the present courthouse 
and city hall in this city was erected. 

On .June 3, 1857, Mr. Pettit was united in marriage with 
Miss Deborah Williams of Minneapolis, who was born on 
October 28, 1833, and is a daughter of Captain Louis H. and 
Tabitha P. (McKeehan) Williams. They had five children, 
four of whom have died. The one living, Bessie Tabitha, is 
the wife of George P. Douglas, and resides in Minneapolis. 
Mrs. Pettit is now the only surviving charter member of West- 
minster Presbyterian 'church of Minneapolis. Mr. Pettit was 
elected one of the first board of trustees of this church. He 
filled this office continuously from the organization of the 
congregation, and in many other ways was one of the church's 
strongest and most serviceable pillars. 



GEORGE ODLUM. 



His devotion to his pursuit as a real estate dealer for 31 
years has made George Odium master of his department of 
trade and established him as a widely recognized authority 
on everything connected with it. By his intelligence and 
persistency he has also wrought out a very successful business 
career. 

Mr. Odium was born in Ogdensburg, New York, February 
28, 1853, and came to Minneapolis to live in 1SS2. He began 
his connection with the transfer of real estate in this eity 
in the abstract offices of George W. Chowan, and later was 
associated with Bryant & Leland in the same line. His next 
business engagement was with the Minnesota Loan and Trust 
Company, which he served five years as conveyancer. At the 
end of the period mentioned he resigned from the employ of 
the Loan and Trust Company and became the local manager 
of investments for an Eastern corporation. In this position 
he had a business of his own, but it was not wholly satisfao- 



I 



432 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



tory to him. He made the business profitable to himself and 
the corporation he worked for, neglecting no chance to advance 
and protect its interests. 

In 1909 he went into business on his own account, with 
the purpose of confining his operations principally, if not 
entirely, to dealing in Minneapolis business properties. He 
has made striking progress and large achievements in carry- 
ing out his original purpose. During the last four years he 
has handled deals involving more than $2,500,U00 in a way 
that has been entirely satisfactory to both sides in every 
transaction and brought great benefits to the business in- 
terests of the city generally. 

Through the character of his business Mr. Odium is neces- 
sarily deeply interested in the growth and improvement of 
the city. He has every incentive to work for the good of the 
community in all lines of wholesome development. His public 
spirit and practical effectiveness are highly commended, as is 
his elevated, serviceable, and representative citizenship. 

In the public afifairs of Minneapolis Mr. Odium lias long 
taken an earnest interest, but solely as a good citizen zealous 
for the general well being, but not in any degree as a politician 
looking for honors, emoluments, or personal advantages of 
any kind for himself, and is a member of the Civic and 
Commerce Commission of the city. He is a Freemason of 
the thirty-second degree and is also a member of the Order 
of Elks. 

November 24, 1897, he was married to Miss Maude Kurtz- 
man, of Sparta, Wisconsin. They have two sons, George 
Odium, Jr., aged twelve, and Jerome, aged eight. 



JAMES E. O'BRIEN. 



Lawyer, and influential force in social, civic and business 
life, James E. O'Brien is justly esteemed a valuable citizen. 
He was born at Lake City, Minnesota, .January 6, 1870, and 
is the son of Richard and Margaret (McShane) O'Brien, the 
former a native of St. Lawrence county. New York, and the 
latter of Ireland. They were married in Wabasha lounty, 
where they are still living. The father located on a. farm of 
1,000 acres near Lake City, in 1864. He began operations with 
one team and $300, but finally became an extensive land- 
owner and farmer, still owning about 1,200 acres. For fifteen 
years he was chairman of the board of town supervisors and 
has also held other public offices. 

James E. O'Brien remained on the farm until the age of 
twenty. He attended the Lake City high school and was 
graduated in 1892 from the academic department of the 
University and from the law department in 1895, and received 
his degree of A. M. in 1896. He was admitted to the bar upon 
graduation in 1895, and since then has been continuously en- 
gaged in the practice. While he is deeply interested in public 
affairs and the general welfare, he has never sought or de- 
sired a public office. He has devoted himself entirely to his 
professional work, taking part in other interests only in ac- 
cordance with the demands of good citizenship, and with no 
regard for personal advancement. 

Believing firmly in the principles of the Democratic party 
a8 embodying the best theories of government, Mr. O'Brien 
has taken active interest in campaign work, as a member of 
the executive committee. He belongs to the Minneapolis Ath- 
letic club and the Civic and Commerce association. He has 



made a special study of political economy and social questions, 
and is a close student of American history and the great prin- 
ciples underlying the constitution. 

Mr. O'Brien was married July 8, 1897, to Miss Agnes 
Byrnes. She was born in Springfield. Massachusetts, and 
came to Minneapolis at the age of thirteen, was graduated 
from the University of Minnesota, class of 1894, later becom- 
ing a teacher in the city schools. They have two sons, twins, 
Richard and Jolm. The parents are Catholics in religious 
faith and members of the Pro-Cathedral congregation. 



JAMES ALFRED KELLOGG. 

James A. Kellogg, attorney at law, who is held in high 
estimation as a man and lawyer, also bears distinction as a 
soldier and one whose ancestors were soldiers. 

His grandfather was a soldier under George Washington; 
and, his son Hiram Tyre Kellogg, father of James A., was a 
volunteer against England, in 1812. James A. Kellogg, wag 
but a boy of 11 years when the Civil war began, but he was 
old enough to take extraordinary interest in the great con- 
flict. The record of his father and grandfather moved him 
to still deeper interest; and when he had reached his fifteenth 
year, he enlisted, in February, 1864, in the celebrated Iron 
Regiment, shouldering his musket with the sturdiest of his 
comrades, and served in the Army of the Cumberland until 
Sept. 10. 1865. Mr. Kellogg retains relations to old com- 
rades as a member of Morgan post, G. A. R., and had recog- 
nition of his military record by being honored with appoint- 
ment to the staff of General Russell A. Alger, when he was 
governor of Michigan, and assembled a staff composed entirely 
of scarred veterans. 

A granite monument on the campus at Hillsdale college 
erected to the memory of the soldier students who were 
members of the Alplia Kappa Phi Society. Mr. Kellogg was 
born in New London, Huron County, Ohio, December 12, 
1849. His father was H. T. Kellogg, his mother Emeline 
(Fiske) Kellogg, the former a native of Slieffield. Berkshire 
County, Massachusetts, and the latter of Hoc Pen Ridge, 
Connecticut. 

James attended tlie district schools of Hillsdale. Michigan, 
continuing through the high school and into Hillsdale college. 
There he was a classmate of Will Carleton. the poet; and a 
member of the Alpha Kappa Phi Society. Having finished the 
course he began to teach, reading law while so employed. 
He also engaged in farming and teaching near Ottawa. Illi- 
nois, clinging tenaciously, however, to his purpose of becoming 
a lawyer. In September, 1872, he was admitted to the har in 
Berrien Springs, Michigan, and opened an office at Niles, 
where his father then lived. Being first appointed circuit 
court commissioner of Berrien County, he was twice elected, 
but declined a third nomination. In 1880, and again in 1882, 
he was prosecuting attorney of Berrien County, and in 1S87 
he declined the nomination for circuit judge. 

In October of that year, he came to Minneapolis and has 
since been engaged in the practice, holding an enviable posi- 
tion in the local Bar. He has taken a prominent part in the 
councils of the Republican party, and is accorded recognition 
as maintaining high ideals of citizenship, his influence being 
. ever cast for better civic conditions. 

In May. 1870, Mr. Kellogg married Frances Virginia Ball 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



433 



at Ottawa, Illinois, who died in 187T. Their only surviving 
child is Frances Virginia Knox of St. Paul. In 1879 he mar- 
ried Alice Cooper, of Corunna, Michigan. Their son Alfred C. 
is of Philadelphia. The present Mrs. Kellogg was Misa 
Jennie L. Heath of Plattsburg, New York. Their four chil- 
dren are James A. of Los Angeles, Cal. ; Hiram Tyre, Frederick 
Heath and Samuel Fiske. 



JOHN SARGENT PILLSBURY. 

Mr. Pillsbury was born in Minneapolis on December 6, 1878, 
a son of Charles Alfred and Mary Ann (Stinson) Pillsbury, 
whose life story is recorded on other pages of this volume. 
He was educated in the schools of Minneapolis, attending 
first the graded schools and afterward being graduated from 
the Central High School in 1896. From the high school he 
went to the University of Minnesota, and from that institu- 
tion he received the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1900. 
Flour milling was the destined occupation of Mr. Pillsbury 
at the start of his career, and he began his connection with 
it by working in subordinate capacities in its several de- 
partments of employment for sis years in order to acquire 
a complete mastery of the industry. At the end of the 
period named he passed two years in travel, and a few 
months after his resumption of work in 1908 he was elected 
vice president and general sales manager of the Pillsbury 
Flour Mills company, one of the largest operators in the 
manufacture of flour in the world, if not, indeed, the most 
extensive. He is still occupying those positions and giving 
the affairs of the company his close and 'careful attention. 

But, exacting and numerous as his duties are, his activities 
have led him also into other business enterprises, his connec- 
tion with which is very useful and highly valued. He is 
one of the directors of the Wisconsin Central Railroad, the 
Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis and the Atlantic 
Elevator company. He is also a trustee of the Pillsbury 
Settlement Association, one of the riclily benevolent insti- 
tutions of his home city founded by the liberality of his 
parents. Together the brothers donated to the Association 
its large, attractive and finely equipped home, Pillsbury House, 
at 320 Sixteenth avenue south, which they had erected as a 
memorial to their father and mother. The Pillsbury Settle- 
ment Association is one of the best uplifting agencies of its 
kind in this country, and its benefactions have already been 
extensive and noble, although it has been in operation but a 
few years in comparison vfith many others of like character 
and aims. 

Having always a keen and serviceable interest in all the 
public agencies at work for the good of his state and city, 
and the improvement and enjoyment of their citizens, Mr. 
Pillsbury served a number of years, until 1904, in one of the 
battalions of the Minnesota National Guard, holding the 
position of adjutant with the rank of first lieutenant. He has 
also been earnestly and practically interested in social organ- 
izations, having long been a member of the Minneapolis and 
University clubs of his home city and the University clubs of 
New York and Chicago, besides several country clubs in 
different localities. 

The political principles and theories of government pro- 
claimed by the Republican party have always had Mr. Pills- 
bury's support since the dawn of his manhood, but he has 



never been enamored of public life, and has not at any time 
in his career sought or desired any of the honors or emolu- 
ments of official station. Yet he has never neglected or 
slighted the duties of citizenship, whether they have been 
political in character or lain in other domains of manly 
endeavor; and in connection with all commendable under- 
takings for the advancement or betterment of his community 
his mind has always been active and his hand open with the 
foremost in helping to promote and wisely direct them. 

On December 5, 1911, Mr. Pillsbury was united in marriage 
with Miss Eleanor J. Lawler, of Minneapolis. They havfe a 
very attractive home at No. 2200 Stevens avenue. 



JAMES S. O'DONNELL. 



Mr. O'Donnell was born in Butler, Pennsylvania, on April 
13, 1856, and died at Minneapolis Nov. 16, 1912, he was 
therefore some five months over fifty-six years old when he 
died. He obtained a limited common school education in his 
native place and there learned the carpenter trade. After 
completing his apprenticeship he left home to seek work at 
his craft, with his clothes tied up in a handkerchief and his 
toes out of his boots. He walked eight miles to a po'int 
where he found employment, and then devoted three years of 
hard service to his employer. At the age of twenty-four he 
came to Minneajjolis. arriving early in 1880, and here he 
passed the remainder of his days. 

Mr. O'Donnell soon found work at his trade after coming 
here, and when about two years had passed he began to take 
contracts for large jobs. One of the most important of his 
early contracts was for the erection of the Donaldson Glass 
Block at the corner of Sixth street and Nicollet avenue. The 
contract called for the erection of the completed building in 
90 days. He put 80 men at work on the structure and turned 
it over to its owner ready for occupancy in 76 days. This 
achievement fixed his standing as a builder of capacity and 
dispatch, while his close personal attention to every detail of 
the work, and his unyielding insistence on absolute compli- 
ance with the specifications in every particular established 
him as altogether reliable in all respects. 

His later energies were devoted mainly to the construction 
of attractive and substantial store fronts. He could draw 
high-grade plans, give architects useful practical suggestions, 
and perform every part of the work in hand if necessary. 

Mr. O'Donnell had limited educational facilities, but he was 
a great reader of solid literature and possessed a fine analyti- 
cal mind and a great memory. In the course of his life he 
acquired a large fund of general information and became 
well posted on all subjects of current thought and comment. 
But he had no use for light literature or trivial matters of 
any kind. His habits were abstemious in full measure. He 
did not drink, smoke, chew tobacco or indulge in games or 
the other frequent recreations of men. His genuine manliness 
showed itself in his great love of children. All of his own 
offspring died in infancy or childhood, but he took a keen 
interest in other people's children, and was very genial, 
chummy and liberal with them, and hosts of them were 
devoted to him. 

On November 16, 1904, Mr. O'Donnell was united in marriage 
with Miss Catherine McDunn of Barnesville, Minnesota. She 
took up a homestead in North Dakota and finally proved up 



434 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



on It. Her native place was Hastings in this state, but her 
parents came here from Pennsylvania. For a number of 
years she taught school in Omaha and other places, being well 
educated and of a studious nature. Because of her attain- 
ments and taste for good literature she was a congenial com- 
panion for her husband and of considerable assistance to him 
carrying on his business. Both were devoted to their home, 
and their domestic life was a very peaceful and happy one. 



EZRA C. PRATT. 



Ezra Gary Pratt, late president of the Pratt Express Com- 
pany and pioneer citizen of Minneapolis, was born at Dix- 
field, Maine, November 7, 1834. His death occurred Novem- 
ber 7, 1901, at the end of a long and successful career 
marked by many years of useful citizenship. He was reared 
in his native State and there learned the trade of ship car- 
penter, becoming a skilled workman. He was engaged in this 
occupation at Bath, Maine, until 1855. when he came to St. 
Anthony Falls. In the following year he established the 
express business between Minneapolis and St. Paul which 
prospered with the rapid development of the Twin Cities as 
one of their most important enterprises. At first he operated 
one team, which he drove himself and delivered the products 
of the Pillsbury mills to the merchants of St. Paul, trading 
with them for supplies which they received by the river boats 
and which he sold in turn to dealers in Minneapolis. At the 
end of thirty years the amount of transportation handled 
by the company assumed proportions which demanded rail- 
road shipping facilities. Mr. Pratt then made a switching con- 
tract with the Great Northern Railroad Company and leased 
cars which ran between the cities, with offices and distributing 
depots in both Minneapolis and St. Paul, employing about 
thirty men. He later leased the cars of the Milwaukee & St. 
Paul Railroad company. The express company now represents 
an investment of $100,000 and does an annual business 
amounting to $112,000. It handles all classes of freight and 
Ships from 1.400 to 1,500 cars each year, the largest percent- 
age of this line of business in the city. 

Mr. Pratt continued to be prominently identified with his 
company throughout the forty-five years of his career. He 
was ever interested in matters of public importance and de- 
voted his efl'orts and inlluence to the promotion of civic 
welfare. He was prominent in the circles of the Masonic 
order, a member of Cataract Lodge, became a Knight Tem- 
plar in 1877, and later attained the Thirty-second degree. 

He was married in St. Anthony to Miss Mary Eliza Barrnw.s. 
sister of Fred C. Barrows. He is survived by liis wife and 
four sons, Charles M.. Ernest C, Richard H. and (ieorge A. 
The three younger sons have svicceeded to their father's in- 
terest in the Pratt Express Company. Ernest C. Pratt was 
born in St. Anthony in 1861. and has been associated with 
the company since 1880, becoming its vice president in 1904. 
He was niaiTied in 1885 to Miss lidith V. Weeks. He is a 
member of the Masonic order, a Knight Templar and Shriner; 
is also a member of the St. Anthony Commercial Club, the 
Boating Club and other prominent social organizations. 
George Albert Pratt, secretary and treasurer of the Pratt 
Express Company, is a native of Minneapolis, born in No- 
vember, 1875. He received his early education in the city 
schools and then became a student of engineering in the 



University of Minnesota, graduating in 1898 as a mining 
engineer. In the same year he accepted a position with a 
mining company in New York City and was sent to Sandia, 
Peru. Three years later he was engaged in the construction 
of a smelter for the United States Mining Company in Salt 
Lake City and then returned to Minneapolis, entering his 
father's business and since 1902 has given eilicient Service 
to its interests as secretary and treasurer. He was mar- 
ried to Miss Mary G. O'Donnell of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901. 



OLOF LUDWIG BRUCE. 



Descended from Scotchmen and Finlanders, Olof Ludwig 
Bruce is a native of Sweden and a citizen of the United 
States. He was born in Vermland, Sweden, March 23, 1873, 
and came to Minneapolis when he was nineteen years old. 
His father was a tiller of the soil, but was for years "NSm- 
deman" (a representative of his district in a judicial capacity, 
as a sort of associate judge). He and his wife were honored 
and respected in the community in which their family grew 
up ; and the home, although that of people in moderate cir- 
cumstances, was ideal in its atmosphere of piety and virtue. 
It was located in the picturesque and beautiful Upper Verm- 
land, where the elements of natural scenery seem to con- 
spire to charm the eye. The father, Lars H. Bruce, was a 
descendant of Finlanders who emigrated to Sweden during 
the reign of Charles XII. The Scotch blood comes from the 
mother's side. The mother, Anna Bruce, was the only child 
of Olof Bruce, a member of a .Scotch family, some of whom 
held seat in the Riksdag for years, and some of whom have 
held positions of honor and trust in .Sweden for a long period 
of time. These ancestors were owners of the mines and 
smelters at Langbanshyttan, Vermland. 

There were professional warriors and military men in the 
ancestry on the mother's side. Carl Roos, Avlio was a trained 
soldier and an officer from Sweden, and a counsin of the 
grandfather, Olof Bruce, came to America a number of years 
prior to the Civil war. When the Civil war broke out, 
Carl Roos, though at that time fifty-nine years of age, be- 
came filled with patriotism and a desire to render his adopted 
country his services in the preservation of the Union and in 
defense of the Hag, and enlisted in Company D of the Third 
Minnesota Regiment at the beginning of tlie war; and .served 
throughout the war, until close to the end, when he took 
violently ill from exposure and hardships, when he received 
his honorable discharge. He kept a very complete and neatly 
written diary of his experiences from the beginning to the 
end of the war. This diary is well preserved and in the 
possession of a son, Carl Roos, still residing on the old 
homestead at Vasa, Minnesota. 

ilr. Bruce began his education in Sweden, completing his 
public school course at the age of thirteen, and then "read- 
ing for the ministry" until the customary requirements for 
a religious education were fulfilled. 

About this time, great numbers in Sweden were emigrat- 
ing to the land of promise in the West; and by the time the 
father had died, in 1887, the four older children of the family 
had come to America and won a place for themselves in 
their new homeland. Five years later the niotlier brought 
the five younger children to America to join the other mem- 
bers of the family in Minneapdlis. Olof L. Bruce, who Imd 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



435 



not given up his ambition to gain a better education, at once 
entered the Northwestern Collegiate and Business Institute, 
of which institution he later became a member of the 
Board of Trustees. He studied there for three years, where- 
upon he took a full course at the Minneapolis Academy, and 
graduated there in 1901. At this institution lie won several 
honors, among them a gold medal in oratory and debate. He 
at once entered the law department of the University of 
Jlinnesota. After finishing the regular law course, he took 
up post graduate work and received a degree of Master of 
Laws, in 1905. While he was finishing his course at the Uni- 
versity, he was also acting as general manager of the Minne- 
apolis Weekly, a religious and political paper of Minneapolis. 
In 1906 he resigned his position with the paper and began 
the active practice of law. This practice has been successful 
to a very gratifying degree. His practice is not confined to 
Minneapolis alone, but occasionally he is called to other 
places to try cases. Politically, Mr. Bruce is a "Republican, 
but he supports the right men in preference to party. He 
gives a due share of his time and thought to political mat- 
ters, and is strong in his principles and convictions. Civic 
matters also hold his interest, and he is always ready to 
assist in whatever may improve conditions in his city. He 
is a member of the Minneapolis Civic and Commerce Asso- 
ciation and many other organizations which tend to promote 
good city government. 

Mr. Bruce is a member of the Tabernacle Church of Min-. 
neapolis. He is a strong member and has served on the 
Board of Trustees for a number of years. He has served as 
president of the Young People's Society for years; and 
also as Superintendent of the Sunday School. He was 
one of the prime movers in the organization of the Young 
People's Covenant of the Northwest, and has held office in 
that organization until other duties made it impossible for 
him to devote any time thereto. The Scandinavian Union 
Mission of Minneapolis, of which he is one of the founders, 
has had him for its president for a number of years. 

Jlrs. Bruce is the daughter of the Reverend Erik Wallgren, 
of Chicago. She is a woman of refinement, who previous to 
her marriage to Mr. Bruce, in 1909. had won a reputation 
as a pianist of considerable talent. 



GEORGK F. ORDE. 



One of the foiindere and vice presidents of the National 
City Bank of Minneapolis, was born in Ontario. Canada, in 
1864. He is the son of Charles Bertranj Orde, and lived in 
Ontario until he had passed his majority a year. He moved 
to Chicago, in 1886, and entered upon the career which hail 
efficient banking as its aim. and in 1895, he was made cashier 
of the Northern Trust Company of Chicago. 

.\ftcr ten years in this |)osition Mr. Orde \v:is attiaiti'd tu 
Minneapolis and he was made cashier and director of tlie 
First National Bank. Five yeai-s later, in 1910, he was ad- 
vanced to vice president of the bank, one of the largest finan- 
cial institutions in the West, with which he continued until 
February 1, 1914, when he resigned his position and a.ssisted 
in the organization of the National City Bank. 

Thus, on the face of things, it would appear, from Mr. 
Orde's steady progress iipward. that banking is his whole 
uitpri'st. But the men and women who are foremost in the 



civic affairs of Minneapolis know him as one of their most 
earnest associates. His social tendencies have led him to 
membership in the Minneapolis club, as well as in the Mini- 
kahda club. And his love of athletics has taken him to the 
Lafayette club, and — because he clings to the Canadian love 
for curling — to the Minneapolis Curling Club. He is an 
enthusiastic member of golf organizations as well. But above 
these ranks his activity in such an organization as the Minne- 
apolis Civic and Commerce Association. Mr. Orde is a director 
of this association. In the civic work of the association, he 
finds much to busy him. But his most active part is taken 
as chairman of the association's committee on streets. On 
this committee he has gathered equally active associates, and 
under his leadership the committee has been doing the city 
a service in efforts toward bettering the physical condition of 
Minneapolis thoroughfares and bringing them up to a high 
standard of cleanliness and beauty. 

Mr. Orde is a Republican in politics, an Episcopalian by 
church affiliation. He was married in 1887 to Miss Charlotte 
J. Carnegie in Peterboro, Ontario, Canada. 



FRANK MOODY PRINCE. 

Frank M. Prince, president of the First National Bank of 
this city, is a native of New England. Mr. Prince was born 
at Amheret, Massachusetts, on July 33, 1854, and is a son of 
George H. and Sarah E. (Nash) Prince, also New Englanders 
by nativity. The father was a successful mei'chant at Am- 
herst and a man of prominence and influence in the public 
affairs of his city and state. He was highly respected by all 
classes of the people there, and so conducted his business, 
public activities and private life as to deserve the esteem so 
universally bestowed upon him. 

His son Frank grew to the age of twenty in his native 
city and obtained his education in its public schools, finish- 
ing with a complete high school course. After leaving School 
he clerked in a store until he reached the age of twenty, then 
came to Minnesota to work out a career for himself. He 
first located in Stillwater, where he was employed for a 
year in the general store of Prince & French. He then 
taught school for a short time, after which he secured em- 
ployment as a general clerk in the First National Bank of 
Stillwater. This position gave him his first experience in the 
banking business, which pleased him so well that he de- 
termined to devote his life to that line of endeavor. He 
has done this and made an admirable record. 

In -July, 1878, Mr. Prince came to Minneapolis and accepted 
a position in the First National Bank as correspondent and 
teller. He filled this position until November, 1882. when 
he resigned and returned to Stillwater to take the respon- 
sible post of cashier in the First National Bank there, in 
which he had been pri'Viously a clerk. The aptitude he had 
sliown in the business, however, his superior capacity in 
connection with it and his unvarying fidelity to duty were 
well lemembered by the officials of the bank, and they felt 
confident they were wise in offering him the cashiership. 

He gave the Stillwater bank excellent service as its 
cashier for ten years, then, in 1892. he resigned the office 
to become the secretary and treasurer of the Minnesota Loan 
and Trust com))any of Minneapolis. Two year^ later he 
again entered tlie employ of the First National Bank of 



436 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Minneapolis, tliis time as its cashier, and since that time, 
August 1, 1894, he has been continuously connected with 
this bank, and throughout the period has borne a large 
part o( the burden of its management. On January 1, 1895, 
he was elected vice president of the bank, and in Jahuary, 
1904, was elevated to its presidency, a position he has held 
ever since. 

He is also one of the directors of the First National Bank 
at Cloquet, the First National Bank at Carlton and the 
First National Bank at Sleepy Eye, all in this state, and is 
also one of the trustees of the Hennepin County Savings 
Bank and one of the directors of the Des Chutes Lumber 
company of Minnesota. 

Mr. Prince has also found time to give the benefit of his 
membership and services to several of the leading social 
organizations in his community, including the Minneapolis, 
Commercial, Minikahda and Lafayette clubs, and the Minne- 
apolis Society of Fine Arts. In the welfare of all these 
organizations ,and others to which he belongs, he takes an 
intelligent, practical and helpful interest, seeking always to 
give the proper trend and impulse to their activities with the 
view of making them as valuable and enjoyable to their 
members as possible. 

In the general welfare of his community, and everytliing 
that would minister to its progress and improvement. Mr. 
Prince has alwaj-s felt a deep and abiding interest; and he 
has made this feeling manifest in his cordial support of all 
worthy undertakings designed to promote the advancement 
of his city and county and the general well-being of their 
residents. In the use of his influence and material aid in this 
behalf he has always shown good judgment and broad intelli- 
gence, and his advice has ever been valued highly and usually 
followed closely. He was married first in 1883 to Miss Belle 
Russell of Minneapolis. She died in 1888, and in 1898 he 
contracted a second marriage which united him with Mrs. 
Margaret (Macartney) Townshend of Stillwater, Minn., who 
still abides with him. The residents of Minneapolis of all 
classes regard him as one of their best business men and 
most useful and representative citizens. 



PAUL F. OCHU. 



Paul F. Ochu, cashier of the Market State bank, is a native 
of Minnesota, born in McCloud county, October 9, 1881. His 
father, Theophile Ochu, was a native of Quebec, Canada. He 
married Miss Josephine Conley of Minneapolis and for a 
number of years served as foreman of the lumber mills in 
McCloud county, Minnesota. He and his wife now make their 
home in Minneapolis, residing at 1118 Knox avenue, north. 
Their sons, John B. Ochu and Paul F. Ochu, have won success 
and prominence in the city in their chosen vocations, the 
former as an attorney at law and the latter as cashier of the 
Market State bank. Paul F. Ochu was reared in McCloud 
county and later was employed in a bank in Canby, Minnesota. 
He came to Minneapolis in 1905, and accepted the position 
of manager of the Savings bank of Minneapolis of whith 
Mr. Adaii Hannah is president. Mr. Ochu continued to be 
associated with the Savings bank for several years and then 
became interested in the project of establishing another bank- 
ing institution near the central market, believing that it 
would prove a most profitable venture. He interested others 



in the enterprise and the Market State bank was organized, 
December 17, 1910, with a capital of $25,000 and Mr. Adam 
Hannah as president. The bank is located at 2nd avenue 
north and Seventh street and its record of prosperous growth 
during the few years of its existence has attested notably 
to the business judgment of its founders and tjie efficiency of 
its management. As cashier, Mr. Ochu has been in charge of 
all the details of business and his services in this position 
have been characterized by competency and marked executive 
ability, qualities that have won him recognition among the 
younger members of the financial circles of the city. 



ERNEST LUNDEEN. 



Ernest Lundeen, attorney-at-law, was born on a home- 
stead near Beresford, South Dakota, August 4th, 1878. a 
son of Rev. Charles Henry and Christine C. (Peterson) Lun- 
deen. He attended common school in the Brooklyn district 
near Beresford, South Dakota, and at Harcourt, Iowa. Grad- 
uated from the Dayton, Iowa, High School, in 1895. Gradu- 
ated from Carleton College in 1901, receiving the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. 

As a student of Carleton College, in 1900, he won the 
state championship in oratory, and represented Minnesota 
in tlie inter-state oratorical contest the same year. While 
at Carleton College, he played on three State champion foot- 
ball teams; was Captain of the College Track Team, and 
Editor of the College paper. He stood valiantly for Minne- 
sota in a large number of struggles for supremacy in debate, 
oratory, rifle and general atliletic contests. In 1903, he was 
one of the representatives of the University of Minnesota 
in debate against the Northwestern University at Chicago, 
and has been awarded more than forty gold, silver and bronze 
medals, won in contests. Mr. Lundeen studied law at the 
University of Minnesota, and was admitted to the bar May 
21st, 1906. He was a member of the National Champion 
Rifle team in 1909, and has long been recognized as one of 
the country's most skillful athletes. 

These things have been indicated to show what nature and 
training have done in the way of physical and mental en- 
dowment and development, rather his career as lawyer and 
legislator is our cliief concern. He was elected by large 
majorities from the Forty-second district to the House of 
Representatives in 1910, and again in 1912. He has always 
been found on the side of the people and in accord with 
progressive theories of political thought. He is a Republi- 
can, and has shown great loyalty to the people regardless of 
political considerations. 

He is the author of the law, which in the session of 1911 
increased the value of human life, when lost in the indus- 
tries, from $5,000 to $7,500: also of the law which pro- 
vided a purchasing department for Minneapolis; he is au- 
thor of a law permitting a municipally owned electric light 
plant. 

In tile session of 1912, he made a strong fight for two 
amendments to the United States constitution, the National 
Income Tax and the Direct Election of Senators by the people. 
Both of these bills passed. In the sanu' session he was 
author of a recall bill which passed the House of Represen- 
tatives by a 93 to 3 vote. This bill failed in the Senate by 
only six votes. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



437 



In the session of 1913, among other important work done, 
he was author of the hxw for State Insurance at cost on 
Public Buildings, which saved at once to the State a third 
of a million dollars. After three hard-fought defeats, he 
finally secured the passage, in 1913, without a single dis- 
senting vote, of the Presidential Primary Law, Minnesota 
being one of the first States in the Union to take such stand 
as to the choice of President, thereby eliminating boss rule 
in National Conventions. He was also chairman of the 
Soldiers' Home Committee during this session. His cliorts 
also amended the Workniens' Compensation Act, securing for 
injured employees $200 (during the first ninety days), for 
medical and surgical attendance, hospital charges, medicine, 
nurses, crutches and artificial limbs. For these and other 
important services, he received indorsement and approval 
from the State Progressive League and the Minnesota State 
Federation of Labor. He is in close touch with his party 
as far as it is in Une with progressive ideas, and was elected 
without opposition, alternate delegate from Hennepin county 
to the National Republican convention at Cliicago. in 1913. 

Mr. Lundeen still maintains his connection with Univer- 
sity and College associations as a member of tlie Athenian, 
Shakopean, and Delta Sigma Rho fraternities. He served 
several years with the military as first lieutenant of Com- 
pany F, Minnesota National Guard. He enlisted and served 
as a volunteer during the Spanish-American war. In fra- 
ternal circles he belongs to the Masons. Odd Fellows, Knights 
of Pythias, and the Si)anish-American War Veterans. He 
is a genuinely progressive, upright and far-seeing citizen 
and has consistently supported Progressive and Labor Legis- 
lation. He is a member of the Minneapolis Athletic Club 
and the Civic and Commerce Association. 



AMASA C. PAUL. 

Amasa C. Paul, senior member of tlie firm of Paul & Paul, 
who are specialists in the practice of the law governing 
patents and trademarks, has been a resident of Minneapolis 
for thirty years; and, is actively identified witli many of the 
activities that make for general betterment. 

He was born at Wakefield, Carroll County, New Hampshire, 
Sept. 12, 1857. After preparation in the lower schools, he 
passed two years in Dartmouth College, and then became a 
teacher in the Franklin pulilic school in Washington, D. C, 
continuing for four years till January, 1881. 

Meantime he liad taken a course in the Law Department 
of the National University at Washington, being admitted to 
the Bar, upon graduation in 1880. Two years later he took 
a post-graduate course in Columbian University, receiving his 
degree. 

January 1, 1881, he was appointed assistant examiner in 
the United States patent office, where he acquired such famil- 
iarity with patent law as to cause his subsequent devotion 
to that special line of practice. 

Clioosing Minneapolis, he became a resident in 1884, entering 
upon a practice that has constantly broadened and extended, 
and now reaches into all of the states of the northwest. 

He is the author of a legal treatise on the law of trade- 
marks which has had a wide circulation and which is con- 
sidered, a standard work on the subject. A second edition is 
now in preparation. 



Mr. Paul was married on May 11, 1881, to Miss Ella M. 
Williams, of Washington, D. C. Mrs. Paul died Dec. 18, 1908. 
She was a member, with licr husband, of Plymoutli Congrega- 
tional Church. 

Mr. Paul is identified with various social activities including 
the New Athletic, Minneapolis, Minikahda and Automobile 
Clubs. He was formerly active in the Commercial Club, of 
which he was President in 1901 and 1902. He is a life mem- 
ber of the Minnesota Historical Society and of the Minneapolis 
Society of Fine Arts, and is a tliirty-second degree Mason, a 
Shriner and an Elk. 



ROBERT" PRATT. 



Mr. Pratt was a resident of Minneapolis for nearly forty- 
two years, although born and reared in a locality far distant 
from this state, and he was therefore thoroughly imbued 
with the aspirations and tendencies of this section, and one 
of its most representative citizens. He was born in Rut- 
land,- Vermont, on December 12, 1S45, a son of Sidney Wright 
and Sarah Elizabeth (Harkness) Pratt. The parents were 
of the industrious, frugal and energetic kind, and their 
moderate circumstances in a worldly way compelled them 
to live as modestly as they could. Their son, Robert, 
obtained his early education in the district schools of Rut- 
land, and later took up more advanced studies at Brandon 
Seminary in the city of the same name in Rutland county, 
the place of his nativity. 

About the time when he was nearly ready to leave school 
the Civil war began, and he was fired with patriotic desire to 
help save the Union from dismemberment. He, therefore, 
when less than sixteen years of age. enlisted in Company M, 
Fifth Vermont Infantry, in which he served throughout the 
war, entering the service as a private and being mustered 
out as a captain, a rank to which he rose by promotion for 
gallantly and skill in the field, although he was but twenty 
when he was discharged. He was in the very thick of the 
conflict, serving under Generals McCIellan, Burnside, Hooker, 
Meade and Sheridan, in tlie Army of the Potomac, and tak- 
ing part in all the principal engagements of that great fight- 
ing force after the first battle of Bull Run. 

Mr. Pratt's military experience was one of hardship and 
constant duty, but it fitted him well for his subsequent strug- 
gles in business, which were numerous and long continued. 
He came to Minneapolis in November, 1866, and, having been 
reared on a farm and inured to hard work, he accepted the 
first employment he could secure, and in ten years saved 
enough to start in the lumber business on his own account, 
although during the period mentioned he was the sole sup- 
port of an invalid brother. He began working by the day, 
started his lumber trade in 1876, and in 1878 became also a 
dealer in coal and wood. To the last line of merchandising 
he gave his principal attention after a few years, and 
adhered to it until his death on August 8, 1908. 

He became in time one of the most extensive retail 
dealers in coal and wood in Minneapolis and occupied a 
prominent place in the commercial life of the city. He 
acquired numerous real estate holdings in different parts 
of the community, and was one of the organizers and a di- 
rector of the German American Bank, and also an active 
and valued memlier of the Minneapolis Commercial club. 



438 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Fraternally he was connected with the Grand Army of the 
Republic, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, the Order 
of Elks and the Masonic order. 

The welfare and progress of Minneapolis was always an 
object of great solicitude to him, and he was connected in a 
leading and very serviceable way with all the forward move- 
ments in the community. He was elected a member of the 
city council from the Third ward in 1884, and served the 
city well and faithfully for three years. In 1888 he was 
chosen a member of the school board and remained on it until 
his death, filling the office of president for a number of 
years. His services in these two positions were so signal 
and so highly appreciated that in 1894 he was nominated 
and elected as the candidate of the Republican party for 
mayor of the city, and in 1896 he was again nominated and 
was re-elected by an increased majority, having almost no 
opposition for the nomination and sweeping -everything be- 
fore him at the election. As mayor he was ex-ofhcio a mem- 
ber of the park board and the library board, and for six 
years was a member of the city hall and court house com- 
mission. He was also one of the prime movers in the 
organization of the Juvenile Protective League and its presi- 
dent for one term. 

On August 30, 1871, Mr. Pratt was united in maniage 
with Miss Irene Lamoreaux, and by this marriage became 
the father of six children. Roberta, Helen Clare, Sidney, 
Robert, Jr„ Sara and Thomas. Sidney died in 1898, in the 
Philippine Islands, where he contracted typhoid fever while 
serving as a member of the Thirteenth Minnesota Infanti-y 
in the Si>anish-American war. Mrs. Pratt, the mother of 
these children, died in the fall «1 1903. 



SWAN .1. PETERSON. 



."swan .J. Peterson, a well known contractor with offices at 
300 West Lake street, was born in Sweden, April 18, 1871, 
In 1886, a lad of fifteen, he came to America and has here 
built his successful business career, steadily rising through 
liis ability and energy to liis present position as a prominent 
and substantial business man and thorougli American citizen. 
On coming to this country he first located at Dubuque but 
two years later removed to Minneapolis where he found 
employment in construction on a railroad section for a few 
months and then spent the following winter in the wilds of 
the lumber camps, hauling logs to the river for a Duluth 
lumber company. In the spring of 1889 he returned to Min- 
neapolis where he industriously turned his hand to any profit- 
aide employment, working as day laborer on a .street railway 
and driving a team for sewer excavations. In the winter, for 
several years he contin\ied his employment in the lumber 
camps. He made a modest entrance in the contracting busi- 
ne.ss in 1903. For many years he was associated with Pike & 
Cook, leading contractors, in some of their most important 
undertakings. In those early days, Mr. Peterson was alert to 
every opening that could benefit his business venture and 
was even first in the field with a competitor who was an 
alderman for the sale of dirt to the city street commission, 
Hi.s business developed rapidly to its present prosperous busi- 
ness with contracts for the largest buildings, and requires 
equipment for handling several big jobs at the same time, 
employing one hundred men and teams. He also operates a 



large force of workmen on railroad and street gradings and 
engages in the fuel and transfer business. He has erected 
several buildings, double houses and large tenements which 
he owns, his real estate interests including a farm and timber 
land in Pine county. Mr. Peterson is a director of the Min- 
neapolis State bank and the Bankers Security company and a 
member of the West Side Commercial club and the Auto club. 
He is ex-chairman and a member of the board of directors of 
the Swedish-American club, and a faithful supporter of the 
Zion Lutheran church, its financial secretary and treasurer. 
He was married to Miss Anna C. Peterson of Minneapolis, 
May 20, 1899 and they have one daughter, Ruth. 



LEVI E. LEIGHTON. 



The business history, the moral records, the religious life 
story, and the social chronicles of Minneapolis, whenever 
written, would be incomplete without some account of the 
career and services to the community of the late Levi E. 
Leighton, who died at his lionie here, 337 East Sixteenth 
.Street, July 24, 1899, after a residence of thirty-si.x years 
in the city and in the 72d year of his age. He had finished 
his work and retired from business some years before his 
death, and was passing his time in looking after the wel- 
fare of his extensive propertj' when the summons came, but 
all his preparations had been made and he was ready, 

Mr. Leighton was a native of Athens, Somerset County, 
Maine, where he was born in September, 1828, and where 
he was reared to manhood and educated. In 1850 he made 
a long and trying journey to the gold fields of California, 
enduring all the dangers and hardships of the trip with 
courage and fortitude. The youthful Jason (he was only 
22} was not disappointed. He found tlie golden fleece he 
went for. In five years in the modern Eldorado he secured 
by placer mining a considerable amount of the precious 
metal, and returned with his treasure to his native State. 
Soon afterward he was united in marriage with Miss Addie 
Hutchins, also a native of Maine, who died in Minneapolis 
some years prior to his death. In the fall of 1863 they came 
to the Northwest and located in what was then the town of 
St, Anthony, but a few months later they moved across the 
river into Minneapolis, and there passed the remainder of 
their days in successful efforts for their ow-n advancement 
and the expansion and improvement of the city they had 
chosen as their home. 

It was not long after Mr, Leighton located in Minneapolis 
before he got into business actively and progressively. For 
11 few yi'iirs lie cMnied on an enterprise, wholly his own, in 
the lumber trade, and early in the decade of 1870, forujed a 
partnership in the same trade with the late Duncan !). 
McDonell, the firm name being Leighton & McDonell, They 
remained in business together for a number of years, and 
their industry grew to large proportions and profits. When 
Mr, Leighton retired from the firm he '-ptired from business 
altogether, and thereafter occupied himself in looking after 
his property. 

Among the valuable pieces of real estate owned by him 
at the time of his death were the Leighton Building, a four- 
story brick structure erected by him on Third Street, near 
the corner of Second Avenue South, and a double-front store 
building on XicoUet Island, which Is now occupied by Ott(> 




^.JLAJX, I Jj .J!^._^J~\X^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



439 



Witte. He owned many other properties and was possessed 
of considerable wealth. He aided materially in developing 
new additions to the city and improving old sections, and thus 
was of great service in promoting its progress and augment- 
ing its power and influence. 

In religions faith Mr. Leighton wn, n Fnr Will Baptist 
and very warmly devoted to the denomination. He became 
a member of the Minneapolis Free Baptist Church by bap- 
tism, April 28, 1869, and thereafter until his death was one 
of the most zealous members of the congregation. He served 
as its treasurer for a number of years and for a long time 
as one of its trustees and deacons. So well was he known as 
a zealous churchman that during many of the later years 
of his life he was familiarly called "Deacon Leighton," a 
title with which he seemed well pleased, although he was 
far too modest to take credit to himself for anything he did. 
He was particularly active and energetic in connection with 
the erection of the new church edifice for the congregation, 
giving all the work of construction his personal attention 
and supervision. 

Mr. Leighton was quiet and unostentatious in his ways, 
generous in his disposition and charitable toward all man- 
kind. He was ever desirous of opportunities to do neighborly 
acts of kindness, never waiting to be asked, but always ready 
to offer his aid wherever he knew it to be needed. His 
second marriage was in Toledo, Ohio, July 17, 1907, and was 
to Miss Emma Sargent, a native of that city. She and their 
one child, Martha Lord Leighton, are still living in this 
city. Mr. Leighton was universally regarded as one of the 
best representatives of true manhood and elevated American 
citizenship that Minneapolis ever registered among its resi- 
dents. 



alive by him by serviceable participation in the activities of the 
Chi Psi Greek letter fraternity, of which he is still a working 
member, and his devotion to the social agencies around him 
finds expression through his active membership in the Minne- 
apolis, Minikahda, Automobile, Lafayette, Town and Country 
and Roosevelt clubs of Minneapolis. On December 7, 1901, 
he was united in marriage with Miss Nellie Pendleton Winston 
of this city. 



EDMOND A. PRENDERGAST. 

Was born in St. Paul on October 16th, 1875. He is the 
son of Patrick and Brigget Prendergast, pioneers of Minne- 
sota, who settled in St. Paul in 1856. 

Edmond A. Prendergast received his early schooling in the 
Parochial scliools of St. Paul and continued it by a six years' 
course in St. Thomas' College, graduating with, the class of 
1894. He then spent two years in Montreal in post grad- 
uate work after which he entered the Law Department 
of the State University of Minnesota from which he was 
graduated in 1899. 

Since his admission to the bar he has followed the general 
practice of his profession, and is retained as counsel for 
some of the larger corporations of the city among which can 
be mentioned The Northwestern Telephone Exchange and the 
Wisconsin Central Railroad Company. 

In politics Mr. Prendergast supports the principles of the 
Republican party, but has never been a candidate for public 
office. 

He is a director of the Associated Charities, and is also 
interested in other charitable enterprises. He also holds mem- 
bership in the Minneapolis club. 



CHARLES STINSON PILLSBURY. 



Is a native of the Northwestern metropolis in wliich he is 
carrying on his operations. He was born in Minneapolis, 
Minnesota, on December 6, 1878, and is a son of Charles A. 
and Mary A. (Stinson) Pillsbury, a sketch of whom will be 
found in this work. 

Mr. Pillsbury was well educated in the schools located in 
his native city. He passed through the graded schools and 
was graduated from the Central High School in 1896. He 
afterward attended the University of Minnesota, and from 
that institution he received the degree of Bachelor of Science 
in 1900. Immediately after leaving School he began his busi- 
ness career. It has included the milling and other manufac- 
turing industries, dealing in land and lumber extensively 
and banking in connection with one of the leading banks of the 
community in which he has his home. He is at this time 
(191^) a stockholder in the Pillsbury Flour Mills company; 
the Union Elevator company, and one of the directore of the 
Northwestern Knitting company, the Gull River Lumber 
(onipany and the Swedish American National Bank. 

In political faith and allegiance Mr. Pillsbury is a Repub- 
lican. H,. i,s earnest ami loyal in his devotion to his party, 
but he has never yet sought a political oflTiee by election or 
appointment, or expressed a desire for one. In church aflilia- 
tion he is a Congregationalist, and liberal in his attention to 
the work and needs of the congregation to which he belongs. 
The memories and associations of his University life are kept 



ALVIN HENRY POEHLER. 

Having been in touch with mercantile life from his boy- 
hood, Alvin H, Poehler, now president of the H, Poehler 
Company, wholesale dealer in grain and seeds, in Minne- 
apolis, was well prepared for his work when he began his 
business career. His father, the late Henry Poehler. a 
sketch of whom is published in this volume, was a merchant 
for many years, first at Henderson in this state and after- 
ward, until his death, in Minneapolis, and the son was asso- 
ciated with him in his merchandising from an early age. 
He was taught the rudiments of trade by that esteemed 
gentleman, who was a thorough master of them, and his 
own natural aptitude for this line of endeavor enabled him 
to take in the lessons easily and to his lasting benefit, 

Mr, Poehler was born at Henderson, Minnesota, on .Janu- 
ary 15, 1864, the first of the three sons of Henry and Eliza- 
beth (F'rankenfield) Poehler, and obtained his education in 
the elementary and high schools of his native town and 
the Shattuck Military School at Faribault, being graduated 
from the last named institution in 1883 as the valedictorian, 
or honor student, of his class. He began his active career 
in the banking and elevator business in October, 1883. For 
two years he was teller in a bank at Gaylord, this state, 
and afterward was associated with his father in general mer- 
chandising and the grain trade at Henderson. 



440 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



In 1885 he came to Minneapolis to live and at that time 
became connected with the grain trade on an extensive 
scale in this city. Four years later, when his father moved 
the family to Minneapolis, he made this his permanent home, 
and he has ever since been connected in a leading way with 
the business his father then founded here. When his father 
died in July, 1912, the son succeeded to the presidency of 
the H. Poehler company, incorporated, and to various other 
business relations enjoyed by the father. The company 
of which he is the head has a branch house in Duluth and 
its trade is very extensive and active. But Mr. Poehler 
manages it with enterprise and skill, and the company 
keeps on steadily gaining ground, as it did under the man- 
agement of its organizer. Mr. Poehler is also vice presi- 
dent of the Pacific Elevator company, organized by his 
father; a member of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, 
of which he was one of the directors for eight years: a 
member of the Duluth Board of Trade and the Milwaukee 
and Chicago Boards of Trade. 

Mr. Poehler has been close and constant in attention to 
his business enterprise."*, and has made them profitable on 
an enlarging scale. But he lias also been zealously attentive 
to the welfare of his home city and earnest and active 
in his efforts to promote it. No undertaking of value for 
the improvement of MinneapolLs or the greater comfort and 
increased conveniences of its residents has gone without 
his energetic aid in counsel and material assistance. He is 
as far-seeing and broad-minded with reference to public af- 
fairs as he is in business, and his support of any project for 
the advancement of the community is always sure to be 
guided by intelligence and good judgment as well as im- 
pelled by an energetic force of character and determination 
to make whatever is in hand entirely successful. 

In the social life of his locality Mr. Poehler is a strong 
potency for good and the widest usefulness. He is a charter 
member of the Commercial club and also belongs to the Min- 
neapolis and Minikahda clubs. He was one of the organizers, 
and first President of the Interla'chen Country club. His 
interest in all these organizations is strong and his member- 
ship in them is very helpful to their activities in many ways. 
He is a devotee of outdoor sports and recreations, and adds 
to the enjoyment of his fellow clubmen by his enthusiasm 
over these forms of relief from the burdens and exactions 
of business. His specialties in sports are hunting, fishing, 
golf and curling, and he takes advantage of every opportunity 
to enjoy them. Fraternally he is a Freemason of the Knights 
Templar degree in the York Rite and of elevated rank in 
the Scottish Rite; in political relations he is a Democrat of 
positive convictions and energetic service to his party, and 
in religious affiliation he is an Episcopalian. 

While ardent in his devotion to his political party, Mr. 
Poehler has never held or desired a political office either 
by appointment or election. But he has a taste for military 
life, acquired while he was at the Sliattuck Military School, 
where he was captain of Companj' B in the military organi- 
zation of the students, and he indulges his taste in this re- 
spect by membership on the staff of Governor Eberhart, with 
the rank of tolonel, the same as he held on the staff of the 
late Governor .lohnson. He is also one of the trustees of his 
Alma Mater, the Shattuck School. On February 19, 1896, 
he was married in Minneapolis to Miss Eugenia L. Cole, a 
daughter of the late Emerson Cole, for many years one of 



tile liighly esteemed residents of this city, who died in 1907 
at the age of 70 years. 

Mr. Poehler is a gentleman of robust healtli and tine 
physique. He is very enterprising and energetic, and with 
the high order of business capacity he possesses he gives 
promise of many years of usefulness to his community and of 
reaching a still greater altitude in its commercial life. At 
the same time his genial and obliging disposition, engaging 
manners, comprehensive intelligence and high character arc 
sure to preserve for him the extensive and cordial popularity 
he now enjoys. Among the business men of Minneapolis 
none stands higher than he does in public esteem and none 
is more deserving of a high place in the regard of the people. 



DLTNCAN D. McDONELL. 



The late Duncan D. McDonell, who passed fifty-two of the 
eighty-one years of his useful life in Minneapolis, and died 
here .January 26, 1910, after making an admirable record in 
business and attaining to prominence and influence in citi- 
zenship, was a Scotchman by ancestry and a Canadian by 
nativity. But before he lived long in this country and State 
he became a thorough American in his political theories and 
sympathies, and a devoted, loyal citizen of Minnesota. He 
was thoroughly American in his business ideals, methods, 
enterprise, and large and self-reliant resourcefulness. 

Mr. McDonell was born in County Glengarry, Province of 
Ontario, Canada, in 1829, and was there reared and educated. 
There also he began his business career, remaining in the 
Dominion until he reached the age of 28. In 1857 he came 
to Minnesota, and his business ability was so manifest and 
his personality so strong, that he deeply impressed the lead- 
ing lumbermen of the State at that time and became closely 
associated with them. After a residence of four years in 
this State he returned to his old Canadian home, where 
he remained one year. In 1862 he came back to this State 
to remain, and at once renewed his close relations with the 
magnates of the lumber trade. 

After his return to Minneapolis Mr. McDonell spent some 
time in the employ of other men who were already in the 
lumber business and conducting it on elaborate scales. They 
sought his aid in large operations of a confidential nature 
and found him always ready for the limit of service in amount 
and high quality. He continued to work in this way to hie 
own advantage and the satisfaction of his employers for a 
number of years, and then decided to go into business for 
himself. 

With this end in view he formed a partnership with Levi 
Leighton. under the firm style of McDonell & Leighton. and 
together they carried on a steadily expanding lumber trade 
which in time grew to great magnitude and became very 
profitable. After Mr. Leighton retired from the firm. Mr. 
McDonell gave greater attention to dealing in timber lands 
and stumpage than to making and selling lumber. He also 
made investments from time to time in city real estate, and 
acquired several properties that proved to be very valuable. 
These are still owned by Mrs. McDonell, and one of them is 
a block on Eighth Street, between Nicollet and Hennepin 
Avenues, 

Mr. McDonell was of a retiring disposition and never 
sought or desired a public position of any kind, although 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



441 



he was well qualified to lill almost any office with credit to 
himself and benefit to the public. He had a strong Scotch 
proclivity for attending to his own business, and he indulged 
it to the fullest extent. Yet he was by no means indifferent 
to the public welfare, and never withheld any effort he 
could make to aid in promoting it. He was an earnest, in- 
telligent and energetic sui>porter of every undertaking de- 
signed to advance the interests of the city, and the people 
among whom he lived and carried on his business. 

Bv birth and religious training Mr. McDonell was a Roman 
Catholic. But his mind was active, comprehensive, and in- 
quiring, in religious matters as in all others, and during the 
greater part of his residence in Minneapolis he attended the 
Universalist Cliurch of the Redeemer. When, however, he 
realized that he was approaching the end of his earthly 
race, the spirit of his teachings in youth reawakened within 
him. and he ended his days as he had begun them, closely 
enfolded in the embrace of the Mother Churcli. 

September 18, 1884, Mr McDonell married ^liss Linda 
Lord, a native of Skowhegan. Maine, whose family, running 
back in clear and unbroken lines to Colonial days, has pro- 
duced many men of action and renown. The first member of 
this family that settled in Maine was a major in the Colonial 
Army during the Revolutionary War, and his wife was a 
daughter of the celebrated Colonel Goff, of Goffstown, New 
Hampshire, The spirit of resolution and independence of 
this couple descended to their posterity, and has been mani- 
fest in every generation of the family since their day, al- 
though shown in many different walks of life and lines of 
work. 

Mrs. McDonell became a resident of Minneapolis in 1880. 
Xo children were born of her marriage with Mr McDonell, 
but she has had so far an active, fruitful, and very useful 
life. Many agencies for the improvement of her home com- 
munity have had the benefit of her zealous and effective aid, 
for, whatever her liand has found to do that would be help- 
ful to others she has done with industry and energy guided 
by intelligence. She united with Mrs. T. B. Walker and 
another lady in keeping the old Northwestern Hospital in 
service for many years, and she has been potential in the 
support of many other institutions and organizations of 
great public utility. 

In religious faith Mrs. McDonell. having experienced the 
benefits of Christian Science in her own restoration to com- 
plete health (after years of suffering) through the applica- 
tion of its tenents and teachings, became a convert to them, 
and is now numbered among the most devout, sincere, con- 
sistent, and inlbicntial followers of Mrs. >L-iry Baker Eddy 
in Minneapolis.and holds her membership in the Second Church 
of Christ 

Mrs. McDonell has also been an important factor and an 
effective worker in literary, musical and social circles, and 
has been instrumental in founding several organizations de- 
voted to the cultun- such circles foster. She is a lady of 
cultivated taste and wide attainments herself, always in 
quest of knowledge and doing a great deal of traveling to 
get it. Nothing gives her greater enjoyment than visiting 
strange or new localities, which are out of the ordinary in 
features, customs and suggestions. During a recent visit 
to Honolulu she toured the island in an auto she took with 
her, and found great delight in the beauties of nature there 
displayed in forest, field, and ocean. Later she found equal 
delight in the more bold. Weak, and nigg.d scenery of 



Alaska But while Nature lies close to her heart and speaks 
to her always with a persuasive voice, the works of Man, 
(iod's liighest creation, afford her gratification to the same 
extent. In all the manifestations of Omnipotent power she 
sees proof that "the hand that made them is divine." 



GEORGE WRKJHT PEAVEY. 

Although ardently and sincerely devoted to his native 
land and its civil, educational, social and religious institu- 
tions, the late George W. Peavey, of Minneapolis, was never- 
theless a great traveler, and an industrious and fascinating 
writer on the natural beauties, material wealth, industrial 
activities and governmental theories of the lands he visited, 
and the manners, customs, employments, conditions and ten- 
dencies of their inhabitants. His articles of travel were 
published numerously in magazines of general literature and 
special works particularly devoted to this kind of writing, 
and they won for him a high place in the current literature 
of this country. 

Mr. Peavey, whose very useful and interesting life ended 
on June 8, IQl,!, when he was but little over thirty-six years 
of age, was born in Sioux City, Iowa, on May 20, 1877. 
He was the only son of the late Frank H. and Mary D. 
(Wright) Peavey, a sketch of whom will be found in this 
volume. In that sketch the brilliant career of the father is 
shown somewhat in detail. The scm came to this city with 
his parents in 1884, and here he had his home from that 
time until the close of his life. 

After obtaining an excellent education Mr. Peavey was 
associated with his father in the grain business until the 
death of the parent on December 20, 1901. and after that 
event his remaining years were passed in company with his 
l)rothers-in-law, Frank T. Heffelfinger and Frederick D. 
Wells, also Charles F. Deaver, in the management of the 
great business interests started and built- up by the father, 
which comprised the most extensive grain trade ever known 
in the world. 

But. while Mr. Peavey never neglected his business, or any 
other work that came to him with the command of duty, he 
was enamored of travel and indulged his taste for it exten- 
sively. He did not travel, however, solely for his own en- 
joyment, and not even for his own improvement alone. He 
was keenly alive to the refining, harmonizing and expanding 
inMuences of general society — of intercourse with minds which 
have profited by a large comparison of nations, climates and 
customs — of the inspiration given by the grand, the wild, 
the picturesque beauties of nature, and well knew the value 
of comprehensive and accurate knowledge of the world in 
which he lived. But he believed that all he acquired through 
these channels of development he held in trust for the 
benefit of his fellow men, and that it was as much his 
duty to dispense the knowledge he gained for the good of 
others as it was to use his opportunities for his own pleas- 
'ure and improvement. 

Firmly fixed in this conviction, Mr. Peavey was, ns has 
been indicated a diligent, free and glad dispenser of what he 
learned among persons less favored, and many of them re- 
joiced in his advantages because they shared most help- 
fully and ])leasingly in the results of his work. The world 
of .Science and Lidters also recognized his value and accorded 



442 



•HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



him the rank to which it entitled him. He was chosen a 
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of England, and 
his membership in many other organizations devoted to 
liberal studies was cordially welcomed and warmly appre- 
ciated. In his own city he belonged to the Minneapolis, 
Minikahda and several other clubs, and to a number of 
benevolent organizations and societies of different kinds and 
took a serviceable interest in them all. 

Mr. Peavey was married in Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 
25, 1899, to Miss Katharine Semple .Jordan, a daughter oi" 
Hon. Nathan Edmund and Sarah (Sei*ple) .Jordan. The 
mother is a sister of F. B. Semple, one of the esteemed 
residents of Minneapolis. Both parents were persons of 
strong intellectuality and culture, and Mrs. Peavey is a lady 
of the same gifts and attainments. She is esteemed univer- 
sally as an ornament to the womanhood of the city in which 
she Uvea. 



JOHN G. ROBB. 



After a good record as a promoter of industrial and manu- 
facturing enterprises and as a salesman of their products, John 
G. Robb, Alderman from the Fifth Ward, and the oldest mem- 
ber, in years, of the board, retired, intending to pass his re- 
maining days in leisure; but in 1912 he was again elected and 
accepted the position. He finds this public service congenial, 
and gives it close and conscientious attention. In the council, 
he is a member of the committees on bonds and accounts of 
city officials, and taxes, street ear extensions, and health con- 
ditions. He is also chairman of the committee on licenses. 

Mr. Robb was born at McConnellsville, Ohio, February 14, 
1843, and at the age of thirteen with his parents remtived to 
Crawford County, Wisconsin, to aid two of his older brothers 
in improving a new 240 acre grub-land farm. He passed five 
years here at work on the farm, and during the time attended 
two terms of winter school. 

September 18. 1861. he enlisted in the Twelfth Wisconsin 
Volunteer Infantry, helping to raise half of his company. He 
was appointed third sergeant and soon promoted to first 
sergeant. The regiment was ordered to Camp Randall, at 
Madison, and entered the Servi'ee October 31. In .January, 
1862, it was ordered to Western Missouri and received its 
baptism of fire and blood in the battle of Pea Ridge, Ark., 
March fi, following. 

The regiment returned, via Fort Riley, and Lawrence, to 
Leavenworth. Kansas, winning the last day's march over the 
Thirteenth Wisconsin by accomplishing 45 miles in 13 hours, 
a most extraordinary military feat. The regiment was next 
.sent via Cobimbus Ry., to Humboldt. Tennessee, where it 
was placed on guard duty. Later it was assigned to General 
Hurlburt's division and took part in the battle of Hatchie 
River against the Confederates under General Price and Van 
Dorn. where .^.000 ITnion troops defeated 18.000 Confederates. 
It took part in the Mississippi campaign in the fall of 1862. 
passed the following winter at Memphis, and in the Spring 
of 1863 joined General Grant's army at Vicksburg, taking part 
in the long siege of that city and being present at (its sur- 
render. Mr. Robb then secured a furlough and returned home, 
his trip, by steamboat being enlivened by a rebel attack on 
the boat as it passed the mouth of the Arkansas river. His 
health was so shattered that he was unable to return to active 



service and he was mustered out at the close of his term. 
After his discharge Mr. Robb conducted a general store at 
Seneca, Wisconsin, where he was nominated for County 
Register of Deeds, but was defeated at the election. The County 
Treasurer then made him a partner in his hardware store, 
at Prairie du Chien, where he was in charge for five years and 
was a traveling salesman for five years more. As a "drum- 
mer" he sold goods to the leading old-time houses of Minne- 
apolis. In 1876 he formed a partnership in a soap factory 
at Prairie du Chien with an old friend, J. D. Humphreys, 
now of St. Paul, and their partnerehip still continues. With 
Humphreys as the manufacturer and Robb as salesman, the 
firm made a profit of $1,000 a month during the first three 
and one-half years of its existence. This result induced Mr. 
Beach of Dubuque, Iowa, to urge them to join him in the 
same line of trade in St. Paul. But as he had then an ex- 
tensive trade in stoves as well as soap, he declined. 

In 1873 the Minnesota Soap Company was organized, and 
in 1881 its management being taken to St. Paul, Mr. Robb 
acted as salesman. They operating the plant in Minneapolis 
until 1890. Mr. Humphreys had bought a factory in Omaha 
and consolidation was formed with the Newton Brothers of 
Sioux City, and in 1911 the Minnesota Soap company joined 
as Hoskins Bros. & Company, with a capital of $400,000. with 
plants in operation in St. Paul, Sioux City and Omaha. 

Mr. Robb continued in charge of sales until January, 1912, 
being then sixty-nine years of age and a salesman for thirty- 
eight years. He was for six years president of the People's 
Bank of Minneapolis, which closed it doors during the depres- 
sion of 1893. Mr. Robb was then one of the directors and 
being chosen president, had the bank opened and doing busi- 
ness again in thirty days. It has since been merged into the 
Scandinavian -American Bank. 

In the organization of the Minneapolis Retail Grocers' Asso- 
ciation, Mr. Robb also took a leading part; he is still being 
an honorary member. Fraternally he is an active and prom- 
inent member of the Grand Army of the Republic. 

June 22. 1868, he was married at Mt. Sterling, to Miss 
Harriet Gay. They have had nine children, eight of whom 
are living. Emma is the widow of Dr. M. P. Van der Horck, 
late of Minneapolis. Charlotte is the wife of Alfred Mc- 
Laughlin, lumberman. Laura is the wife of Dr. S. Baxter, 
of the Abbott Hospital. Alice died in childhood. Edward is 
a farmer in North Dakota. Ray is a fuel merchant. Walter 
is an insurance man. James conducts a thriving grain com- 
mission business in Calgary. Alberta, and Donald is a student 
at Yale University. 



GENERAL CHARLES McC. REEVE. 

A resident of Minneapolis for more than forty years. Gen 
eral Reeve lias been conspicuously concerned with the de- 
velopment and upbuilding of the city along both civile and 
material lines, in which he has attained to distinction in vari- 
ous positions of trust. He is one of the essentially representa- 
tive citizens of Minneapolis, and in his home state it may 
consistently be said that his circle of friends is limited only 
by that of his acquaintances. 

General Charles McCormick Reeve was born at Dansville. 
Livingston county. New York, on the 7th of August, 1847. 
and is a son of General Isaac V. D. Reeve, a distinguished 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



443 



oliioer of tho L'liiti'd States Army. In the great struggle for 
national independence were found enrolled many representa- 
tives of the Reeve family, ineluding Colonel Isaac Reeve, and 
many maternal ancestors likewise were valiant sohliers in 
the Revolution. 

General Isaac V. D. Reeve graduated from the United 
States Military Academy, in the class of 1835, and continued 
in active service until 1870, when he retired, upon his own 
application. He served in the Seminole Indian war, in Florida, 
and was a gallant olUcer in both the Mexican and Civil wars. 
In the war with Me.vico he received throe brevets for gallant 
and meritorious service at Contreras and Cherubusco and 
after taking part in the brilliant battle of Molino del Ray 
he received the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel. At the close 
of the Civil War he was promoted to the rank of brigadier 
general, and his entire militarj- career was such as to reflect 
honor upon himself and upon the arms of his native land. 
During a considerable period of the Civil War he served as 
mustering and disbursing ollicer, and in 1862-3 he was the 
incumbent of this dual jjosition in New York city, where he 
had charge of providing for all soldiers passing through the 
metropolis and where he retained a clerical force of more than 
seventy persons. His preference was for service in the field, 
but the Secretary of War was insistent in assigning West 
Point men to the important details of executive and official 
service, to which General Reeve was thus called. He was 
in charge of the government military disbursing olTice in 
New York city at the time of his retirement from active 
service, in 1870. In 1871 he joined his son, General Charles 
McC. Reeve, in Minneapolis, and this city was his home 
thereafter until his death, which occurred in 1890. General 
Keeve was a num of impregnable integrity, of distinct and 
positive individuality and of most winning personality, so 
that his name is held in enduring veneration in the city and 
Btatc in which he passed the closing period of a noble and 
illustrious life. In Minneapolis he was one of the prominent 
and influential members of Plymouth Congregational church. 
2R'hen the Minneapolis park system was initiated and a 
loulevard laid out around Lake Harriet, the court commis- 
lioners awarded to General Reeve the sum of $32„')00 for the 
itrip of land which had been taken from him and which 
rdered on the lake. With characteristic liberalitj', he pro- 
losed to donate this land to the city in case the Same was 
tilized in the perfecting of the fine boulevard and park sys- 
tem, about nineteen hundred feet of lake frontage, of the 
original Reeve farm, of two hundred and fifty acres, on the 
south shore of Lake Harriet, the beautiful old homestead 
Ijeing situated on an eminence overlooking that lovely body 
«f water. 

General Charles McCormick Reeve passed the period of his 
childhood and youth in the various military posts in which 
his father was stationed, and as a boy he accompanied his 
parents on a wagon trip of seven hundred and fifty miles from 
the Texas Coast to Fort Bliss, of which po.st his father as- 
sumed tommand. the same having been on the site of the 
present citj' of Kl Paso. The last western command held by 
his father was at Fort Buchanan built by him in New Mex- 
ieo. It is worthy of note that at this frontier post General 
Isaac V, D. Reeve had as his principal aide Captain Kwell, 
who later served as lieutenant general in the Confederate 
army under General Lee. General Longstreet, another of the 
distinguished officers of the Confederacy, likewise Served under 
him prior to the Civil War. 



h 



(Jeiieral C. McC. Reeve graduated at Yule University in the 
class of 1870, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 1873 
his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of Mauler of 
Arts. He was admitted to the bar in 1871. He made his first 
trip to Minneapolis, for the purpose of visiting friends, his 
expectation at the time having been to establish his resi- 
dence in California. In .Minneapolis he fiiund an opportunity 
to purchase the Thornton farm of two hundred and fifty 
acres, on Lake Harriet, and he had the foresight to realize 
the ultimate appreciation in the value of the property. His 
father consented to join him in Minneapolis, and they pur- 
chased the land mentioned, — the same constituting the fine old 
homestead which has long been associated with the family 
name. The brick portion of the old residence was built in 
1860, by Frances Thornton, and the house is one of the land- 
marks of this beautiful section of the city. 

General Reeve was admitted to the Minneapolis bar in 
1S71 and for a short time thereafter he was engaged in the 
active practice of his profession in this city. In 1872 he 
assisted in the reorganization of the City Bank, in which he 
became bookkeeper. Later he was promoted assstant cashier 
and finally he became cashier of the institution, with the exe- 
cutive affairs of which he was identified for a period of eleven 
years, during which perioil the bank never passed a dividend 
nor declared less than twelve per cent per annum, besides 
adding substantially to the surplus. He then became man- 
ager of the Hardwood Manufacturing Company, which was 
engaged in the manufacturing of fiour barrels and which 
operated four heading and stave mills in Wisconsin, more 
than two hundred men being employed in its cooper shops, in 
Minneapolis, and the output having at one time reached the 
enormous aggregate of si.xty-five hundred barrels in a single 
day, — a record never before or since equalled. A. R. Hall, of 
Wisconsin, was at that time president of the Company, and 
with the same was identified its present president, (ieorge H. 
Christian. General Reeve was manager of the Company's 
business, which included the manufacturing of hardwood 
lumber barrel stock and barrels. The General retired from 
the position of manager after the expiration of five years, 
and he then purchased the old Holly Flour Mills, the opera- 
tion of which he continued until the plant was ilestroyed by 
lire, in 1893. Since that time he has not been actively en- 
gaged in business. 

It has been a matter of special .satisfaction to General 
Reeve to aid in the upbuilding of the live-stock industry in 
Minnesota and he has done much to improve the grades of 
stock raised. On his original place, given the name of Sunny- 
side Stock Farm, he gave special attention to the raising of 
fine Ayrshire and .lersey cattle, ami his stock has been ex- 
hibited at Icailing western fairs, including that at St. Louis, 
where it has won many prizes. At one time he had a herd 
of more than two hundred registered Jerseys, including six- 
teen imported cows. 

In association with his brotlu'r-in-law. .Tames W. Lawrence, 
now a representative member of the bar at Santa Monica, 
California. General Reeve purchaseil one hundred and sixty 
acres of the Wilson farm, on Chicago avenue and Lake street, 
and this tract was platted under the title of the I^wrence 
& Reeve's Out Lota, which were sold in five-acre tracts. 

In politics the General is a Democrat, and in ISDO-lU he 
represented his county in the state lepislnturc. having tx-en 
elected in a strong Republican district. He was made chair- 
man of the joint committee on appropriations for the State 



444 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



University, and it was largely due to his earnest and inde- 
fatigable efforts that the University was not denied its much 
needed appropriations, including that for the erection and 
equipment cf the first building for the Medical Department. 
It will be recalled that this so-called "reform" session of the 
legislature was chiefly notable for its efforts to throttle 
advancement and even to deny proper support to the various 
state institutions. The General's experience in the Legis- 
lature proved all that he desired and he did not appear as a 
candidate for renomination. 

General Reeve was appointed a member, and elected Secre- 
tary of the Minnesota commission for the World's Columbian 
Exposition in Chicago, in 1893, and in providing a creditable 
showing for his state he labored with characteristic zeal and 
ability. He devoted eighteen months to preliminary work and 
thereafter was present at the fair in Chicago during a very 
considerable part of the time of its duration. He received 
no compensation for his efforts in securing the Minnesota ex- 
hibits' at the exposition, and at the close of the same, fifteen 
thousand dollars of the original appropriation was returned 
to the state treasury. In the winter of 1891-2 General Reeve 
was one of the three commissioners selected by the Governor 
of Minnesota to assume charge of the contributions of flour 
made by the millers of the United States for the starving 
peasantry of Russia. The Governor of Nebraska also com- 
missioned him as one of those to take charge of its contribu- 
tion of corn. The generous gifts were duly shipped to Russia, 
and General Reeve and the other members of the commission 
representing the two states met the relief ship at the Russian 
seaport of Libau, on the Baltic sea, after which he and his 
associates gave their personal attention to the distribution of 
the greatly needed supplies. About three hundred and fifty 
carloads of food were thus in charge of the commissioners; 
the Russian government provided transportation of supplies 
to the famine districts, and the commissioners worked in 
harmony with the various local committees in its distribu- 
tion. 

In 1899 General Reeve was made Warden of the Minnesota 
state prison at Stillwater, and he retained this office two years, 
during the administration of Governor Lind. He did much 
to bring about needed reforms in the management of the 
penitentiary and was insistent in urging the building of a 
new prison, though this was not effected until the manage- 
ment of the state institutions were severed from politics. His 
management met with the unqualified approval of the Gov- 
ernor and the Board of Prison Managers. 

In 1883 General Reeve enlisted as a private in Company I, 
First Regiment, Minnesota National Guard, and in the same 
he passed through the various grades of promotion until he 
attained the rank of colonel. In 1898, the regiment tendered 
its services to the government and it was mustered into the 
Volunteer service as the Thirteenth Minnesota Volunteer In- 
fantry. In command of his regiment General Reeve went to 
the Philippine islands, where he took part in the capture of 
the city of Manila and other important military operations 
and where he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. 
He was appointed the first military chief of police of Manila 
and in April, 1899, he was honorably mustered out of the 
Volunteer service. He resumed his office of colonel of the 
First Regiment, Minnesota National Guard, and in this posi- 
tion he continued the able and popular incumbent until his 
retirement, in 1911. He was then given further assurance 
of his secure hold upon the confidence and esteem of his com- 



rades, in that they gladly welcomed his promotion to the office 
of brigadier general of the entire Minnesota National Guard, 
comprising three regiments of infantry and three batteries of 
artillery. He did an effective work in behalf of the state militia 
and his final retirement from active association with the same 
occurred in October, 1911. The General is a member of Mili- 
tary Order of the Loyal Legion, the Aztec Club of 1847, the 
Society of Foreign Wars and the Society of the Army of 
the Philippines. He is identified with the Masonic fraternity 
and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a mem- 
ber of the Graduates Club of New Haven, the Yale Club of 
New York, the Commercial Club, the West Side Club, the 
Automobile Club, and the Lafayette Club. Both he and his 
wife are valued factors in the leading social life of the com- 
munity and their attractive home has ever been a center of 
gracious hospitality. They are zealous communicants of St. 
Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church, and the General was 
formerly a member of its vestiy. 

In Minneapolis, in 1873, was solemnized the marriage of 
General Reeve to Miss Christine McLaren Lawrence, daugh- 
ter of the late Captain James W. Lawrence, who was an 
honored and gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war. 
Captain Lawrence was an officer in the One Hundred and 
Seventy-sixth New York Volunteer Infantry and he died while 
in service, at New Orleans. General and Mrs. Reeve have 
no children living. 



SYDNEY II. OWEN. 



It is to the everlasting honor of the late Sydney M. 
Owen, who was called to rest February 2, 1910, after an 
exalted service of twenty-five years as editor of "Farm, Stock 
and Home," the oldest and the leading agricultural paper in 
the Northwest, that he did one thing distinctive and individual 
in life, and did it well. He published an agiicultural paper 
that thoroughly covered the domain of sowing and reaping, 
and which also gave specific and expert attention to the 
larger field of economics, governmental policies, and the 
laws of business as they are related to farming, and was an 
educator, accurate and reliable, of its readers in these 
branches of knowledge. Conducting such a journal involved 
comprehensive learning, ready practical ability, close touch 
with the trend of the times, and a full understanding of basic 
principles, all of which he exhibited in a high degree, as 
many other men have done. But the work also involved 
clear vision, strict adherence to principles, great force of 
will and courage and these he exhibited in a high degree, as 
many other men with equal opportunities and resources 
have not done. He was always true to his convictions and 
brought all the power of his being into their service, 

Mr. Owen was born in Ohio, August 11, 1838, and received 
the common school education of his time and locality. To 
this he added a higher course of study in Oberlin LTniversity. 
In 1860 he married Miss Helen A. Feagles, who is still liv- 
ing. They became the parents of two children, their daughter, 
Jessie A., who died in her eighteenth year, and their son, 
Harry N. Owen, who succeeded his father in the publication 
and management of "Farm. Stock and Home," with the 
avowed liope of making the paper "a living, useful monument" 
to the parent's memory, and who has been realizing that 
hope. 




•^ d2^'i-^-^^<^ 



HISTORY OF MLWEAi'OLIS AND IIENXEPIN COIXTV. MIXXHSOTA 



445 



I 



Sydney it. Owen began his long career of usefulness in 
the service of his country, during the Civil War, as a soldier 
in defense of the Union in the Fifty-fifth Ohio regiment. 
After the war closed he became a merchant in Toledo, Ohio, 
wlieix' he remained for a number of years, then moved to 
Chicago, and there followed the same line of business. But, 
while mercantile life was in many respects agreeable, and liis 
energy and ability made it profitable, his tastes and in- 
clinations were all the time in the direction of literature, 
and his opportunity to follow his bent came in 1884, when 
his brother, Horatio K. Owen (who died in 1000), founded 
"Farm. Stock and Home." 

In July, 1SS5, Mr. Owen came to Jlinneapolis and took 
editorial charge of this journal. In its very first issue under 
his editorial management the paper took a stand in favor 
of a revision of the tariff. Xotliing in Mr. Owen's whole 
record required more courage or showed more clearly his 
unyielding devotion to what he considered right than his 
taking this stand in Minnesota in 1885. If an editor is ever 
justified in carefully feeling his way and avoiding sources of 
controversy and unpopularity, it is when he is starting his 
paper. The side Jlr. Owen took was not the popular one in 
this state then, but he saw with great clearness of vision 
the logical outcome of our tariff system, and he could not 
keep from declaring the truth that was in him, even though 
to have done otherwise would have been the profitable course 
in a material way and for the period. 

Mr. Owen did more than this. He discussed with great 
force and freedom in his paper all economic questions which 
have a bearing on agriculture, and all his views were based 
on fundamental principles and elastic breadth of view. This 
editorial policy made his paper uiiiijue among piiblieations of 
its kind, and gave it a novelty and potentiality which no 
other h;id. It also brought him into such close relationship 
with the FarnuMs' Alliance that, in 1890 he was selected 
as its candidate for (iovernor of Minnesota. The selection 
was made not only without suggestion or solicitation on his 
part, but against his expressed wish, for he was not then 
and never became an office seeker. 

He bowed to the behest of his party, however, and became 
the leader of its fight, and in this, as in everything else he 
undertook, he threw- all his energy into the contest, and as 
a result made the campaign of that year nienu)rable in Min- 
nesota politics. Without money, organization, or newspaper 
support of any kind, even his own paper making no reference 
to the State campaign, he polled over 58,000 votes and very 
nearly caused the defeat of the Republican candidate. 

Between 1890 and 1895 the Populist or People's party en- 
joyed its period of prosperity, and in 1894 Mr. Owen was 
forced against his will to accept its nomination for governor. 
At this time the Democrats felt certain that a fusion with 
the Populists would bring the defeat of the Republicans, and 
were an.xious to give Mr. Owen their nomination also. His 
stern devotion to principle blocked the project. He declined 
to consider the proposition, and informed the committee that 
offered him the Democratic nomination that it was not office 
he wanted, but the development of a party of and for the 
people to combat the party of and for the "money power," 
as it was called in those days, and that he had no more 
faith in the development of the Democratic party than he 
had in that of the Republican party in the direction he desired. 
In this campaign he polled over 88,0000 votes, getting 
more than the Democratic nominee, and it is reasonably cer- 



tain that if he had abandoned principle and allowed per- 
sonal ambition to sway him, he would have been elected. His 
last active political work was as a candidate for Congress 
in the Fifth Congressional District in 1896. He made this 
race wholly as a favor to his friends, and, although he was 
not elected, he gave ample proof that the constituency would 
have been well and wisely represented if he had been. 

It was not in political life, however, that he did his best 
and most lasting work. Agricultural education, as exam- 
plified in the State School of Agriculture and the columns 
of "Farm, Stock and Home" was his real life work. When 
he came to Minnesota there was practically no School of 
Agriculture in the State. What was called one was merely 
a skeleton organization with an ordinary high school course 
of study, and little more. No one then seemed to realize 
that a school course in farming was feasible. The pre- 
vailing desire was to have a school that would "articulate 
with the University." Mr. Owen declared that what was 
needed was "a school that would articulate with the farms," 
and he kept that idea before the people until a course of 
study was mapped out that made the Agricultural College 
such a school — one that would educate boys and girls to- 
ward the farm instead of away from it. He was also an 
earnest advocate of locating the school where it is, in close 
touch with the University and the cities, although the ma- 
jority of his party associates were opposed to this; and it 
was chiefly through his influence and his writings in his 
paper that the present location was selected and the neces- 
sary appropriations to secure it were made. 

In 1893 Mr. Owen was appointed a Regent of the Uni- 
versity to fill out an unexpired term. In 1S9,") he was re- 
appointed for a full term, which lasted until 1901, when he 
retired from the board. But in 1907 he was again ap- 
pointed, through the solicitation of the graduates and faculty 
of the School of Agriculture, and under this appointment he 
continued to serve until his death, giving a great deal of 
time and energy to the affairs of the University, even after 
failing health made such work difficult for him. 

Mr. Owen realized early in his residence in this State 
the necessity for conservation of forest areas, and the de- 
velopment of new growth. In his paper he advocated tree 
l>lanting and told how trees could be successfully grown on 
the prairies of the Northwest. He made a decided impres- 
sion on the public mind and created a strong desire for for- 
est conservation and tree culture, and there can be no doubt 
that many a profitable stretch of woods in this section of the 
country is the result of his efforts in this behalf. He was 
appointed a member of the Minnesota Forestry Board in 
1901, and was its president for several years. 

In the personality of Mr. Owen there was a wonderful and 
ever present charm. He was a man of quick sympathy and 
infinite patience, and he had a deep love for and confidence 
in his fellow man which always led him to think tlie best 
of everybody he knew Ills nature was optimistic and sunny, 
and its influence on others was always wholesome and in- 
spiring. He grew with his work and the progress of events, 
keejiing his face ever toward the rising sun and his thoughts 
in the present as a period of preparation for the future. 
His death, even at the age of seventy-two. was universally 
deplored throughout this State, and in many others where 
he was known either in person or by his work, and his life's 
achievements constitute a proud heritage for the common- 



446 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



wealth in which he lived and labored so long and to such 
excellent purpose and fruitful results. 



PUTNAM DANA McMILLAN. 

Was born at Fryeburg, Maine, August 25th, 1832. He 
was the descendant of illustrious ancestors of the colonial 
and revolutionary times, his great grandfather and grand- 
father on his father's side being Colonel Andrew McMillan and 
officer of the French and Indian wars and General John Mc- 
Jlillan of the War of 1812. Through his mother Putnam 
McJIillan traces his descent from General Israel Putnam 
who stands as one of the most distinguished soldiers and pa- 
triots in the days of the founding of our country. Israel 
Putnam's grandson, Colonel Israel Putnam Dana, a soldier 
of 1812, was the grandfather of Putnam McMillan. 

This remarkable record of military service and patriotism 
which dates from the beginning of American History was 
honorably sustained by Putnam McMillan and his brother in 
the crisis of 1861. 

Andrew McMillan, Putnam's father, was trained for his 
heritage of Military service in West Point, graduating (from 
that institution in the early part of the last century. Later 
he resigned from the service preferring the activities of a 
civilian career, and settled in Danville, Vermont, when he 
engaged in business and farming. He was prominent in public 
life,- a democrat and a member of the state legislature of 
Maine and Vermont. Andrew McMillan died at seventy-two 
year^ of age. 

Putnam McMillan was reared in Danville and at the age of 
sixteen entered his uncle's store where he was employed for 
several years. In 1852 he went to California making the 
journey by water around Cape Horn in a sailing vessel and 
landing at San Francisco one hundred and forty-one days 
after leaving Boston. He Spent about five years in the mining 
districts and San Francisco passing through many interesting 
and exciting experiences for which California during the 
"Gold Fever" was remarkable. The return trip was made 
across the Isthmus of Panama, during the period of Walker's 
Fillibuster. 

In Vermont Mr. McMillan spent several years farming ami 
at the outbreak of the Civil war enlisted in tlie 15th Vermont 
and served as quartermajiter of the regiment. Upon the ex- 
piration of his service in the army not long after the battle 
of Gettysburg he went to South America to engage in a 
sheep ranch enterprise with his cousin. They located in Santa 
Fe, a province of the Argentine Republic near Rosario and 
about two hundred miles above Buenos Ayres on the Parama 
River. He then stocked their land with some five thousand 
sheep and for a number of years met with success and pros- 
perity. Later, however, a civil war was waged between the 
provinces of Santa Fe and Buenos Ayres, Mr. McMillan's 
ranch being part of the time the contending ground. This 
was followed by a war between Brazil and Paraguay and then 
by a horrible scourge of cholera. These disasters wiped out 
Mr. McMillan's property interests and when his wife and 
several members of his household succumbed to the fatal 
pestilence he returned to the States. 

In 1872 after two years in Vermont he i)aid a visit to 
Minneapolis and was so favorably impressed with the city 
that he decided to make it his future home. Soon after 



coming to Minneapolis he established himself in the real 
estate and insurance business. One of his first enterprises was 
the McMillan addition in Northeast Minneapolis. He made 
extensive investments in property erecting a number of 
houses on the East Side and the McMillan Block on Third 
Avenue and Third Street which he still owns. 

His most notable project has been the reclamation of a 
large tract of swamp land in Freeborn County converting it 
into rich agricultural land. After buying the property he 
labored a number of years to secure proper laws for the 
drainage of the immense area and his efl'orts finally resulted 
in the present law under which millions of acres are being 
reclaimed. Hickory Island Farm, Mr. McMillan's estate, has 
been transformed from useless land covered with muskrat 
houses and cattails to a most valuable property and is a 
noteworthy example of what can be done with one sviamp land 
when properly drained. Mr. McMillan has had no desire to 
enter public life and has held but one public oflice, that of 
alderman of the second ward. He is a member of the Grand 
Army of the Rejiublic and the Loyal Legion. Mr. McMillan 
was married in 1858 to Helen E. Davis, daughter of the Hon. 
Bliss M. Davis, a noted attorney of Vermont. Her death 
occurred in South America leaving one daughter Emily. His 
second marriage was with Kate Kittridge, daughter of Judge 
Kittridge of St. .Johnburg, Vermont. They have two children, 
Margaret and Putnam Dana, Jr. Mr. McMillan is a member 
of the F'irst Congregational church of which he has held the 
office of trustee for thirty-three years. 



JAMES S. PORTEOUS. 



The late James S. Porteous, for nearly thirty years a resi- 
dent of Minneapolis and during the last two years of his 
life at Wayzata, on Lake Minnetonka, was born in St. 
Johns, New Brunswick, September 6, 1856. His parents were 
born and reared in Scotland, and one of his brothers, older 
than himself, was a minister of the gospel in Edinburgh. 
When quite young he went to work for the Stuarts of his 
native city, lumber merchants, and superintended shipments 
of lumber for them from that place, Quebec, and New 
York City to English ports. At the age of twenty-one he. 
was transferred to their New York City branch office, and 
while a-ssociated with them made several trips to Eiuope 
on business. In 1881 he was married in Poughkeepsie. New 
York, to Miss Loui.sa (i. McKniglit. 

In December, 1887, he came to Jlinneapolis ]iartly for the 
benefit of his health which had been delicate for a number 
of years. Soon after his arrival in this city he entered the 
employ of Dorilus Morrison as a bookkeeper, but a little 
later became associated in the Same capacity with S. G. 
Cook & Company, and was with them in the erection of the 
Lumber Exchange Building and in its reconstruction after 
its partial destruction by fire in the winter of 1891. He 
was for a considerable time secretary, treasurer, and man- 
ager of the building company. He helped to organize the 
Edison Light and Power Company, which was afterward ab- 
sorbed by the Minneapolis General Electric Company, and 
was its treasurer at the beginning. This company erected 
the Edison building in the rear of the Lumber Exchange, 
which Mr. Porteous and the late H. C. Akeley purchased 
some years ago and afterward sold to the Lumber Exchange 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



447 



interests. He spent two years in the successful litiuidation 
of the accounts of the Flour City National Bank when 
that institution was taken over by the Security National. 

Mr. Porteous was one of the organizers and directors of 
the new' Commercial National Bank; an organizer and presi 
dent of the Federal Securities Company; an organizer of and 
active in the National Building Managers' Association, an 
energetic member of the Minneapolis Real Estate Board. 

He was president of the Y. il. C. A. for si.\ years, a direc- 
tor for a much longer time, and his services to the organi- 
zation were untiring and self-sacrificing. The completion of 
the new building of the Association, on the commodious and 
comprehensive plan followed, were in a measure due to him. 

Mr. Porteous was a member of Westminster Presbyterian 
church, and for thirteen years one of its trustees. He was 
its iSundaj- school superintendent for fovir years, and for a 
long time was president of the Westminster Church Asso- 
ciation. He was active in social life as a member of the 
Minneapolis and Lafayette Clubs. The unexpected death 
of this good and useful man occurred at Eitel Hospital, 
March 23, 1013, and occasioned deep and widespread grief, 
especially in Minneapolis and at Wayzata. In Wayzata 
he had lived for two years, and had been a member of the 
village council. Upon his death the whole community united 
in tributes of praise for the nobility and usefulness of 
his career, his fine business ability, and his elevated and 
sterling manhood. Mrs. Porteous is still living in Minne- 
apolis, where she is highly esteemed. 



I 



ARTHUR R. ROGERS. 



Nature spread her bounties in this section of the country, 
for business purposes and the service of mankind, with a 
lavish hand, and then waited with her imperturable patience 
through long ages for the advent of Man, the true lord of the 
heritage, to come with his commanding might of mind and 
turn tliem into useful and marketable commodities, and dur- 
ing her long wait she kept maintaining and multiplying her 
gifts, ^^^len the time was ripe, the developing spirit came, 
and its representatives were men of caliber and qualifications 
suited to the mighty task before them. 

The interesting subject of this brief review was not among 
the first or even the early comers, but he has been among 
the most potential, farseeing and enterprising of them all, 
and has wrought out here a business career consonant in full 
measure with his large opportunities and his strong, active 
and productive mental faculties and business capacity. When 
he came he found the field white with a bounteous har- 
vest, and with steady progress, even through difficulties, 
he rose within a few years to the first rank of the extensive 
and all conquering reapers. 

Arthtir R. Rogers was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 
1864. His father was Alexander H. Rogers, an employe of the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, and also a native 
of Wisconsin. The son obtained his early education in a 
graded school in his native city and afterward attended a 
high school there for two years. 

In 1882 he left school and began his business career as 
second man in the lumber yard of the Edwards & McCulloch 
Lumber Company, at Valley City, North Dakota, of which 
C. E. Blackwell was Manager, which yard enjoyed a large 



trade. Mr. Rogers remained in the employ of this C<impany 
for about two years when he was made Manager of a lumber 
yard at Sanborn, North Dakota, belonging to what was known 
as the Gull River Lumber Company. Two years later sick- 
ness compelled him to resign his position at Sanborn tem- 
porarily and return to Milwaukee. 

As soon as he was able to attend to business again through 
former Governor John S. Pillsbury Mr. Rogers became ac- 
quainted with C. A. Smith of the C. A. Smith Lumber Com- 
pany and applied to him for a position in the office of that 
company which he .secured and about a year later was placed 
in charge of the retail yard of that compiiny in North Minne- 
apolis; but he was soon afterwards recalled to the main 
office where he served for a time as Credit Man and then 
was given charge of the Sales Department. 

In 18S8 in order to secure a broader mental development 
and business intelligence in a line with which he was un- 
familiar Mr. Rogers became a student in the night school of 
the State University Law Department from which he gradu- 
ated in 1891. 

In 1892. at his suggestion, the Smith & Rogers Lumber Com- 
pany was organized with Mr. Rogers as Secretary and Treas- 
urer, and a line of retail lumber yards was established along 
the line of the "Soo" Railroad in North Dakota. In the fol- 
lowing year, the C. A. Smith Lumber Company was incor- 
porated, with Mr. Rogers as Secretary and Treasurer; and in 
1901 lie was elected Vice President. 

In 1904 the Rogers Lumber Company was organized with 
Mr. Rogers as president. Ln 1905 he sold his interest in the 
C. A. Smith Lumber Company to his associate, C. A. Smith, 
and purchased Mr. Smith's interest in the Smith & Rogers 
Lumber Company. One year later, Mr. Rogers severed his 
entire connection with the C. A. Smith Lumber Company and 
has since, as President of the Rogers LumbiT Com|iany. de- 
voted his time and energy to the building up of that and 
subsidiarj' companies. In the management of this company 
Mr. George H. and .John J. Rogers were asso<'iated, the former 
being its vice-president, the latter its secretary and treasurer. 

The growth of the Rogers Lumber Company has been rapid 
and it is today the largest retail lumber company in the 
northwest, having retail lumber yards in North Dakota, Can- 
ada and Jlontana. 

In addition to the Rogers Lumber Company, Jlr. Rogers is 
(lie president of the Bend Timber Company, a company holding 
large timber interests in the Deschutes Valley. Oregon: is 
president of the Rogers-Voinnans Lumber Company, another 
timber company; and the Okanagan Saw ilills, Ltd., a saw- 
mill company nuinufacturing lumber in British Columbia. 

Mr. Rogers has always taken a keen interest in the growth 
and development of his adopted city, Minneapolis, as well as 
in the Northwest. At the organization of the Minneapolis 
Civic & Commerce Association, he was (against his wishes) 
elected as its first presi<lent and served until the end of the 
first year, the association showing phenomenal growth in num- 
bers and influence during that period. 

Through Mr. Rogers' efforts the North Dakota Better Farm- 
ing Assn. was established. This as.sociation is one of the most 
potent factors in better farming methods in the entire North- 
west. It is retognized as the pioneer of its kind and is 
accredited with doing great work for the betterment of farm- 
ing conditions, not only in North Dakota, but throughout all 
the northwestern states and even in Canada. This association 
is growing rapidly in influence and importance. 



448 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Mr. Rogers was also president of the Minneapolis Club, the 
leading social club of the city, and is a member of the Mini- 
kahda, Lafayette and University Clubs. 

On February 8th, 1S94, Mr. Rogers was united in marriage 
with ifiss Dora Waite. and they have three children, Arthur 
Alan, Dorothy and Donald Waite. 



COLONEL FRAXCIS PETELER. 

Serving as a soldier in the army of the United States in 
two wars, for one of which he enlisted when he was less 
than eighteen ; facing death in many engagements and under- 
going hardships in various forms in botli: engaging in pur- 
suits of peaceful and productive industry when ''grim-visaged 
War had smoothed his wrinkled front," and working out a 
highly creditable career in both military and industrial lines, 
the late Colonel Francis Peteler lived a life of very unusual 
incident, adventure, and variety, and one that was full of 
usefulness in his day and generation in many different ways. 

Colonel Peteler was born in Bavaria, April 19, 1838. He 
died in Minneapolis, April 18, 1910, a few hours before his 
eighty-second birthday. His father was a soldier in the 
Fatherland, and passed many years in the army. During 
his military experience he fought both for and against 
Napoleon, according to the varying commands of his king, 
who was alternately a friend and a foe of the great con- 
queror. Five sons of the senior Peteler came to the United 
States while young, and passed the remainder of their days 
in this country. The colonel was but twelve years of age 
when he followed his brothers, Louis, Oiarles, and Joseph, 
to America, and he was followed in turn by his other brother, 
Phillip. Francis joined his brother Louis, a hotel proprietor 
in New York City, and remained with him for about six 
years. He landed in New York in 1840. and in 1846, although 
he was less than eighteen, he enlisted in the United States 
army for the war with Jlexico. He passed through the 
whole course of that conflict. The privations and hardships 
of his service in Mexico were numerous and oppressive, and 
he was discharged in such poor health that his life was 
despaired of. 

When the war was over Mr. Peteler returned to New York. 
After his health was restored he visited the Middle and 
Western States, and in the spring of 1853 he located in 
Minnesota and took up a tract of government land four 
miles north of Anoka. He continued to live on and culti- 
vate and improve his farm until in 1861. Then his patriot- 
ism impelled him to again seek an opportunity to serve his 
adopted country as a soldier in defense of the Union, to 
which he was ardently devoted. Mr. Peteler raised the 
First Company of Jlinnesota Sharpshooters, which he of- 
fered to the Government. The offer was gladly accepted, 
and the company was mustered into the service at Fort 
Snelling. October 5, 1861, by Captain A. D. Nelson of the 
United States army. It became a part of the First Regi- 
ment of United States Sharpshooters, and was soon en- 
gaged in active field work in Virginia, in connection with 
Auger's Brigade, which, because of its strong advances and 
staunch and unshaken conduct on all occasions, was soon 
called the "Iron Brigade," the first to bear the name in the 
Army of the Potomac. 

He was soon promoted lieutenant-colonel of the regiment 



for gallantry on the field of battle. Soon after his promo- 
tion he was sent to take command of Fort Abercrombie in 
the Territory of Dakota, where he remained until he re- 
signed from the army after about three years' service in 
the war. His administration of affairs at the fort was so 
wise and judicious, and resulted in so much improvement in 
the discipline and general welfare of the men under him, 
that when he left the post strong resolutions commending 
his course Avere adopted by the officers and soldiers of the 
garrison. 

One of the last, as well as one of the most notable events 
in the Colonel's long and distinguished life was the reunion 
of his old company of sharpshooters held at his Minneapolis 
home, 2726 Dupont Avenue South, on April 9, 1910, only 
nine days before his death. The reunion was held in ob- 
servance of Appomattox Day, commemorating the day in 
1865 on which the army of the Southern Confederacy under 
General Robert E. Lee grounded its arms in complete sur- 
render. But twenty of the surviving members of the com- 
pany could be located, and seventeen of these attended the 
reunion. They lunched on army-bean soup and hardtack. 
Just nine days later Colonel Peteler answered the last sum- 
mons. The active pallbearers at his funeral were the old 
comrades who were present at the reunion. 

When he returned from the Civil War Colonel Peteler 
bought a farm in Bloomington township, Hennepin County, 
eight miles south of the court house and three miles south 
of the present city limits, and that continued to be his 
home even after he established his great industry, the 
Peteler Car Works. This enterprise grew out of his in- 
ventive turn of mind, which led him to invent a dumping 
car and make preparations for its manufacture. In order to 
get his products on the market, he started the Peteler Car 
Works, about 1870, in a wheelwright shop on First Avenue 
South, between Washington Avenue and Third Street, em- 
ploying at first but six men. He manufactured cars for 
railroad work and gave every detail of the business his 
personal attention. After several changes of location and 
expansions of the plant, the present site was secured and 
tlie plant now in operation, at Thirtieth Avenue and Fourth 
Street Southeast, was set up in 1890. By this time the 
business of the company had grown so great that a large 
equipment was necessary, and $50,000 was expended in the 
erection of the factory. It stands on five acres of ground 
belonging to the company and 100 men are regularly em- 
ployed. Colonel Peteler was the sole owner of the industry 
until 1905, when it passed into other hands, his advancing 
age inducing him to dispose of it. 

The Colonel never wavered in his loyalty and devotion to 
the Republican party, and he was equally true and devoted 
to Minnesota and Minneapolis. But the whole country had 
his strong, watchful, and serviceable regard, although he 
never held a public office or desired one. He was a zealous 
advocate and promoter of public improvements, doing all he 
could to help them along and always regretting that he was 
unable to do more. He kept in close touch with his old 
army comrades and was ardently attached to his intimate 
friends. One of the most cherished of these was George A. 
Brackett, and others were members of the Winston family. 
He enjoyed music intensely, belonged to no churdi. held mem- 
benship in no .societies, and was a total abstainer from intoxi- 
cants and tobacco. In his years of activity be was a suctess- 
ful and enthusiastic hunter of deer and other large game 




^^^^7^/7 ^^>^ ^^ ^^^^2^2^^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



449 



He enjoyed a close friendship witli Thomas Edison, "tlie 
wizard of Menlo Park," and kept up with all the inventions 
of that vereatile and prolific genius. He had a large number 
of other intimate friends also among the prominent scien- 
tists and mechanicians of the country, with whose minds his 
own was in unison. 

May 3, 18.53, Colonel Peteler wa.s married in New York 
City to Miss Margaret Hynes, a native of that city. Mrs. 
Peteler was born February 27, 1834, and died in Minneapolis 
February 8, 1U07. They became the parents of live children: 
Kdwin. wlio is a market gardener in North Minneapolis; 
Pliilip, who was general superintendent of his father's car 
works, and died at the age of forty-eight; Frank, wlio was 
also connected with the car works for a number of years, 
and who died in Te.\as when he was forty-two; Minnie, who 
is the wife of Edward EUingson, a farmer of Bloomington 
township, and Charles, who was in active connection with 
the car works. 

EOWIX PKTELER, the oldest son of the colonel, was born 
on his father's farm near Anoka, Jlinnesota, October 6, 1854. 
As has been noted, he is a market gardener in North Min- 
neapolis, and has lived in the neighborhood of his present 
residence, 4315 Penn Avenue North, for thirty-six years. 
He was married December 7, 1880, to Miss Ida M. Hooper, 
a daughter of Rev. .John Hooper, a sketch of whose life ap- 
pears in this work. Mrs. Edwin Peteler is a native of Little 
Falls, Minnesota. She and her husband are tlie i)arcnts of 
one child, their daughter Gertrude M., who is now Mrs. E. L. 
Noyes, and also has her home in Minneapolis Jlr. and Mrs 
Peteler have occupied the dwelling they now live in for 
twenty-one years, and in his capacity of gardener Mr Peteler 
has served the Minneapolis markets with his products from 
their beginning. He is well known in all parts of the city, 
and is held in high esteem for his business capacity, elevated 
character, strict integrity, and useful citizenship. 



the sale of farm lands. His business was started on a small 
scale, but through his great enterprise, industry and busi- 
ness capacity it rapidly increased until it grew to large pro- 
portions. It was managed with good judgment, carried on 
with energy, embraced all opportunities presented for ad- 
vancement, laid all sources of expansion under tribute and 
gave its proprietor every advantage his openings and facili- 
ties allowed. 

Mr. Preston was a progressive and public-spirited citizen, 
wherever he lived, and took an active part in all commend- 
able undertakings designed to promote the advancement and 
imiirovement of liis community at all times. He never 
married, and so, having no family ties or duties, he waa 
able to put all the energy of his nature into service to the 
city of his home and work with ardor for the welfare of its 
residents. In business he was very successful, amassing a 
considerable fortune in his operations and building up a large 
trade and an enviable reputation for straightforwardness and 
square dealing in every jjarticular. His only relative in this 
country is his nephew, Alexander P. Drapes, who is carrying 
on the business founded by him, with an office in Koom 418, 
Andrus building. 

Mr. Preston's life closed in Minneapolis on August 6. 1912, 
at the early age of fifty-three, and his death was universally 
lamented. H(^ was an Odd Fellow, a Freemason and a Wood- 
man in fraternal life, a member of the Minneapolis Commer- 
cial club, and an Episcopalian in religious affiliation, holding 
his membership for years in St. Mark's church of that denom- 
ination. He was widelj- known in the Northwest and was 
everywln're highly esteemed as an upright, intelligent, genial 
and companionable nuiii and a very progressive and useful 
citizen. 



DANIEL F. PECK. 



ARTHUR C. PRESTON. 

Mr. Preston was boin in the city of Enniscorthy, County 
L Wexford, Ireland, in 1859. He was reared and obtained 
I a common school education in his native land, in which he 
remained until he reached the age of twenty-two years, 
riien. in 1881, he came to tlie United States unaccompanied 
liy relatives or friends, to take up his residence and work 
his way forward in the world in a new country, amid un- 
accustomed scenes and associations and surrounded by 
strangers. The East in this country did not satisfy his 
desires. He sought the amplitude, openness and freedom of 
the west, and coming to Iowa, accepted employment on a 
farm near Lemars in Plymouth county. 

Soon afterward Mr. Preston transferred his energies to 
the service of the Close Bros. & Company Development com- 
pany, and in 1883 became its resident agent at Pipestone, 
which was the headquartei"s for its operations in Pipestone, 
Murray, Rock and Nobles counties in this state. He remained 
in the employ of this company at Pipestone until 1890, then 
changed his residence to St. Paul and was employed by the 
Farmers' Trust company, of which he acted as general man- 
ager for four years. 

In 1900 Mr. Preston moved to Minneapolis and started a 
business venture of his own, as he had long desired to do. 
In this city he opened an enterprise in mortgage loans and 



For many years one of the leading business men of Minne- 
apolis and also one of the city's enterprising and influential 
promoters of the public welfare, the late Daniid F, Peck, 
who died on Oct. 29, 1912, after some years of failing health, 
held a high place in jiublic estimation and enjoyed the con- 
fidence and regard of all classes of the people of the com- 
munity in a degree and with a steadfastness that proved 
him to be a man of genuine worth and ven' useful to his 
fellow men in his day and generation. 

Mr. Peck's life began in Jackson, Michigan, on September 
13, 1845, and was a son of Dennis L. and Fannie (Lewis) 
Peek, with whom he came to Minneapolis in 1859, when he 
was fourteen years of age. He comideted here the educa- 
tion he had begun in his native state, and as soon as he 
left school entered mercantile life as a clerk in a dry goods 
store. Being of an independent nature, and having some 
initiative of his own. he also kept boats for rent on Lake 
Cedar for a number of years, where he had preempted a 
quarter section of land. 

In the dry goods trade Mr. Peck rose by steady promotions 
made on merit to a position of responsibility and influence, 
and then started an enterprise in that line of merchandising 
for himself, which he carried on for a continuous period of 
sixteen years, prospering in the business and winning ex- 
tensive popularity as a merchant and as a man. His father, 
Dennis L. Peck, was engaged in the real estate business, and 



450 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



its demands on his time and energies became so oppressive 
that he was obliged to have help. The son, thereupon, gave up 
his own enterprise and joined the father in his. 

Mr. Peck, the son, continued his operations in real estate 
until a few years before his death, when failing health caused 
him to retire from active pursuits. 

Mr. Peek also took an earnest interest and a helpful part in 
the organized social life of the community as a zealous member 
of the Minneapolis Commercial club, of which he was one of 
the founders, and aided in giving strength and influence to 
its fraternal forces as a Freemason of the thirty-second 
degree, this degree in the order being conferred on him by 
the father of Dr. Ames. His membership in the Ancient Craft 
branch of the fraternit)' was maintained in Hennepin Lodge 
No. 4. 

On March 31, 1907. Mr. Peck was married to Mii,s Nellie 
Graham of Minneapolis. A daughter of Mr. Peck (Mrs. Arthur 
Clark by a former marriage) is living and has her home in 
Los Angeles, California, and a sister of his lives in il'cMinn- 
ville, Oregon, Mrs. Frank SuUey, a widow. 

In his career as a mercliant and real estate dealer ilr. 
Peck exemplified lofty ideals of business and established him- 
self firmly in the confidence of the community. He was on 
the square in all his transactions of every kind, his word 
was as good as his bond, and he had excellent judgment in 
reference to all business and public affairs. His life in the 
community was an open book, and there was not a stain 
on any of its pages. He lived usefully and creditably, and his 
name is enshrined in the loving regard of the people among 
whom his activities were so long wisely employed. 



GEORGE W. POOLER. 



Besides the duties of the local office he also has charge of 
the messengers on the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad. 

ilr. Pooler possesses a genial and companionable disposition 
and manner, making friends wherever he goes. He takes an 
active part in social life as a member of the Rotary club, 
aiding in its entertainments and being helpful in all its activi- 
ties. Fraternally he is an Elk and a Freemason, being a Knight 
Templar and a Xoble of the Mystic Shrine. His religious 
afliliation is with Gethsemane Episcopal church, in which he 
has been vestryman during nearly the whole of his residence 
in Minneapolis. He is also a musician, favoring the saxophone 
and the cornet for his own use. While living in Sioux City, 
he was a member of the Fourth Regiment band, as also 
band director. 

At the age of twenty-one Mr. Pooler was married in liis 
native county, to Miss Pauline Van Ness. Se died in Iowa, 
leaving two children: Guy V., who is connected with the 
A. G. Spalding company's establishment; and Grate, who 
is the wife of Edward Schempf, and lives at Watertown, Wis- 
consin. The father's second marriage took place in Iowa 
and united him with Miss Kate Nickel of La Porte, Indiana. 
Thev have no children. 



After a varied experience as a merchant for a number of 
years for others and for himself, George W. Pooler entered 
the employ of railroad and express companies thirty years 
ago, to which he has since adhered, now being general agent 
of the Western and United States Express companies, with 
office at 619 Nicollet avenue. 

He was born in St. Lawrence county. New York, .\ugust 2, 
1851, and acquired an academic education in the Normal School 
at Gouverneur. At thirteen he clerked in a store, and at 
nineteen started a general merchandising business at Rich- 
ville. After conducting this store seven years, he went to 
New York 'city where for five years he was with an uncle 
importing Swiss watches. Returning to Richville he again 
engaged in merchandising, which he continued until his store 
was destroyed by fire. 

In 1883 he came to Iowa, where he secured employment as 
a telegrapher. He soon became agent of the United States 
Express company at Sioux City, later serving as traveling 
auditor for the company in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri. South 
Dakota and Minnesota, making his first visit to this state 
in that capacity. 

In 1901 he was stationed in Minneapolis as the general 
agent for the company which then had the largest business 
of its kind in this city, and its operations were increasing 
at the rate of 20 per cent a year. Mr. Pooler then had 
thirty-five employes under his supervision. The business of 
the company was later restricted to fewer lines of road, 
and hence did not so far outrank that of tlie other oiimpanies. 



ANDREW BONNEY ROBBINS. 

By the death of Andrew B. Robbins, Thursday morning, 
June 16, 1910, at Robbinsdale, the town he founded and which 
was named in his honor, Minnesota lost a citizen of the high- 
est type, the Northwest one of its most energetic, enter- 
prising, and successful promoters, and American manhood 
one of its best and most comjnendable representatives. He 
had worked well for his State and country as a soldier, 
legislator, and Christian business man, governing his worldly 
affairs by his religion, which he always found of sustaining 
assistance. 

Andrew B. Robbins was born at Phillips, Maine, April 27, 
1845, the son of Daniel and Mary R. (Shaw) Robbins. The 
father was a leading business man in Phillips and the pos- 
sessor of a considerable estate. The mother was a descendant 
of John Howland, one of the Pilgrim Fathers, and a lady of 
most exalted character. Some of his remote ancestors were 
prominent on the American side in the momentous Revolu- 
tionary war. 

In 1855 Daniel Robbins brought his wife and six children 
to what was then the Territory of Minnesota, and took up 
his residence at Anoka. He built the first steam sawmill in 
that locality, and loaned money to men starting in business. 
Andrew continued in the public schools of Anoka the educa- 
tional training he had begun in his native State, and after- 
ward attended a private academy for two years. By the 
end of that period the Civil war was in progress, and in 1862, 
when he was but seventeen years of age, he enlisted in Com- 
pany A, Eighth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, in defense of 
the Union cause. 

The regiment to which Mr. Robbins belonged saw a great 
deal of active service in the field. In 1864 it was a part of 
General Sully's command in its famous expedition into Da- 
kota against the Indians. This service involved, said Gen- 
eral Sully, the greatest hardships suffered by any expedition 
he ever commanded. The troops had very limited supplies 
of food, and that of an innutritious character, and were often 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



451 



obliged to march for hours without water in a temperature 
of 110 degrees. When this expedition was over, Mr. Robbins 
Went with anotlier to escort Col. Kisk's parly Of Montana 
emigrants to safety, acting as commissary sergeant. Trials 
and hardships of more than ordinary severity were encoun- 
tered on this expedition also. His regiment next went South 
and became a part of Ceneral Scliolield's 2;td Army Corps. 
It took part in the second battle of Murtreesboro (sume- 
iiiics called '"the Cedars") and contributed to the Union 
\ u tory at Franklin, Tenn. Later it was marched to King- 
ston and Raleigh, North Carolina, and formed a junction with 
siii'rman's army. It was continued in active service until the 
t\-AiS of the Southern Confederacy went down in everlasting 
iktVat at Appomattox. At the close of the war Mr. Kobbins 
\ias mustered out, having shown himself to be one of tlie 
lust as well as one of the youngest of soldiers. 

I In his return to his former home, Mr. Robbins accepted 
till- first employment he could find, which was night work in 
a -;iwmill. But he soon became first ticket agent in the first 
.lr|Mit of the St. Paul & I'acific Railway (now the Great 
Xurthern), in old St. Anthony, on the river bank, just above 
the Falls. When the depot was moved to the west side of 
the river he was ticket agent, chief accountant, and tele- 
gra])h operator. When the railroad was extended to Willraar, 
Mr. Robbins was appointed terminal and general agent, and 
t>">k the first train to his new field of duty. 

He became active in all the industrial and mercantile in- 
terests of Willmar, and soon engaged for himself in the 
lumber, the farm machinery, and the grain trade. His busi- 

-- increased so rapidly that he decided to qtiit the service 
tlie railroad company and devote liimself wholly to his 
, :-.onal affairs. In 1879 he founded the Bank of Willmar, 
which, under his management, soon became one of tlie strong- 
est financial institutions of its rank in the Northwest. He 
was also one of the founders of the First Presbyterian Church 
of Willmar, and for many years its Sunday school superin- 
tendent. To this school the children, by whom he was greatly 
beloved, came from many miles around. 

When he was only thirty years old he was elected to the 
State Senate from the district composed of Kandiyohi and 
other counties. He was the youngest member of the Senate, 
but was made chairman of several important committees. 
During his term the grasshopper scourge visited this state, 
and he drew up the first seed-grain law to supply seed 
wheat to the destitute farmers, and canvassed the Senate to 
secure its enactment. He also invented the sheet iron "hop- 
per-doser", to kill grasshoppers. It was very successful, and 
is still used to a limited extent. After the scourge had 
devastated his Senatorial District, he and Thomas I!. Walker 
took quantities of seed of rapidly growing crops througliout 
the country, and distributed it free to the farmers. Many of 
those farmers came to him in after years and told him that 
his interest in their welfare and the help he gave them had 
saved them and their families from destitution if not starva- 
tion. 

While at Willmar Mr. Robbins became more and more in- 
terested in the elevator ami grain trade. He established a 
receiving store there, and often watched the long line of ox 
teams waiting their turn t& be relieved of their loads. The 
line often stretched out toward the west as far as he could 
see, and sometimes the men with the teams had to camp 
until their turn for unloading came. All the while his grain 
and elevator business was increasing, and by 1882 it had grown 



so great that he required more help to handle it. He then 
moved to Merriam Park, where lie organized and took the 
management of the Northwestern Klevator Company, which 
he conducted for fourteen years. During this period he was 
a leading member of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, 
and for four years afterward was general manager of the 
-Minnesota & Dakota Elevator company, which also carried 
on a very extensive business. 

In 1890 he purchased a large tract of land north of Minne- 
apolis, removed thereto, and expended a considerable amount 
of time and money in the development of the town now 
called Robbinsdale. He platted many blocks and beautified 
them by planting a great number of trees on them. I'pon 
the shore of Twin Lake he built a beautiful country home, 
with extensive grounds comprising more than 20 acres. From 
the road he planted, leading to the house an elm drive which 
is now considered the finest in the State. He took great 
delight in planting almost every variety of tree and shrub 
suited to the Minnesota climate. He also built the street 
railway to the town, made other extensive improvements in 
his country seat, which he made his home for the remainder 
of his life. While living here he served as State Surveyor 
General of Logs and Lumber, and was again elected to the 
Legislature as a Representative from Hennepin County. In 
his last years Mr. Robbins was actively engaged in the real 
estate business and the promotion of street railway building. 

He was a member of tlie Masonic order (in which he had 
attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish rite), and 
of Butler Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was 
a Past Commander. In 1905 he was chairman of the Memo- 
rial Day Committee of his post. In religious affiliation in 
later life he was a member of Westminster Presbyterian 
Church, in Minneapolis. He was a director of the old Minne- 
apolis Business Men's Union. He was fond of outdoor life 
and gave expression to his love of nature by planting trees 
extensively wherever he lived. In all the organizations to 
which he belonged he was prominent and active, and his 
membership was highly valued because of its usefulness. 

In 1869 ilr. Robbins was married in Minneapolis to Miss 
Adelaide J. Walker, a sister of Thomas Barlow Walker, the 
great lumberman, and a niece of Judge Barlow, of Ohio. 
Mrs. Robbins is still living, as are live of the seven children 
born of their union; their only son and a daughter, Helen, 
died a number of years ago. The living children are: F.dith, 
the wife of Lester Daniel: Amy, the wife of John Roland 
Ware; Adelaide, the widow of Ralph P. Gillette: Ruth, who 
became the widow of Sterling Loomis and is now the wife 
of Dr. Fred C. Rodda; and Lsther, who is the wife of William 
Wright Scott. All the daughters are graduates of the 
University of Minnesota, and they all live at Robbinsdale, 
except Mrs. Gillette, whose home is in Minneapolis, and 
Mrs. Scott, who resides with her husband in North Dakota. 

Mr. Robbins' death was not unexpected when it came, 
but the event shrouded the whole of this community and 
many others in gloom, and his funeral obsequies were very 
impressive by reason of the high tributes paid to his worth. 
During tlie funeral services business houses were all closed 
in Robbinsdale. and every tlag hung at half mast. Such 
was the esteem felt for the departed friend of the town and 
all its residents, that not a team nor an automobile passed 
in either direction, the long funeral procession in its 
progress from the home of the deceased to the city limits, 
all drivers waiting respectfully until it had passed. 



452 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Mr. Robbins lived in service to his God and his fellow 
men, and he died at peace with both. He felt throughout his 
life that he and his fellows were going the same way and 
had better go hand in hand. He loved the best in music and 
literature. He was passionately devoted to his family and 
his home, and was happiest at his own fireside. The beauties 
of nature brought him great enjoyment and peace, and he 
constantly looked up through them to their Creator, on 
whom his faith was always firmly fixed. 



FRANK PECK. 



For a continuous period of fifty-seven years this gentleman 
has been a resident of Minnesota, and during the last eigh- 
teen has had his home in Minneapolis and been engaged in 
the real estate business. 

Mr. Peck was born October 1, 1854, near Galena, Illinois, 
and when he was but two years old his parents, Julius and 
Caroline (Child) Peck, moved to Goodhue county, this state, 
and located on a farm of 200 acres on the Zumbrota river, 
two miles and a half northwest of the town of Zumbrota. 
Frank was reared on that farm, and educated in the district 
school in the neighborhood. He assisted his father in culti- 
vating it as soon as he was able, and he continued his man- 
agement of it until 1895, when he moved to Minneapolis, 
where he has ever since had his home. 

Julius Peck was a native of Vermont, where his life began 
in 1807. Wlien he was eight years old his parents moved 
to Genesee county, New York, and in 1831, when he was 
twenty-four, he came farther West and located in Pontiac, 
Michigan. In November, 18.38, he was married in Detroit 
to Miss Caroline Child. In 1847 they changed their residence 
to Jo Daviess county, Illinois, and in 1856 they settled on 
the Goodhue county, Minnesota, farm already mentioned. 
The first school taught in that neighborhood, which was a 
Subscription school and conducted by Charles Locke, was 
krpt in Mr. Peck's primitive shanty which he cheerfully gave 
uji for the purpose. He also suported the school in other 
ways. On this farm he died in 1889, in the eighty-third year 
of his age, just eight months after his wife passed away, end- 
ing a married life of over fifty years which they had enjoyed 
together. 

In 1856, when the elder Jlr. Peck came to this state from 
Illinois he brought with him the first span of horses and 
owned the fii'St reaper used in bis township. When he and 
his wife died they were among the oldest citizens of the 
township. They were the parents of six children: William, 
Elijah, Charles, Louisa, Frank and Asa. 

Of these six F'rank is the only one now living. Williaiii 
and Elijah served in the Union army in the Civil war. Wil- 
liam was in the Firtt Minnesota regiment. He was wounded 
in its furious and heroic contest at Gettysburg, and died in 
a hospital July 27, 1803, at the age of twenty-three. Elijah 
was in the Seventli Minnesota, and took part in sujipressing 
the Indian outbreak of 1862. He was on guard the night 
before the thirty-eight Indian leaders of the insurrection 
were executed, and died at New Ulm, December 27, 1862, only 
eighteen years old. Charles moved to Minneapolis in 1893 
from a farm in Sibley county, and during his residence in 
this city acquired the ownership of several pieces of valuable 
property, among them the site of the new Lake Harriet Bank. 



He died near Lake Harriet, in January, 1911. His widow is 
now living at Hudson, Wisconsin. Louisa married Latimer 
Doxey and died young. Frank and Asa were partners in own- 
ing and cultivating the old family homestead in Goodhue 
county, until Asa died in 1894. 

The next year after the death of his brother Asa, Frank 
was married to Asa's widow, who was Miss Carrie Rogers 
before her first marriage and a native of the state of New 
York. By her marriage with Asa Peck she became the 
mother of three children, Mary L., Charles Scott and William 
R., all of whom are living at home. No children have been 
born of her second marriage. Mr. Peck has dealt in real 
estate in a quiet way, and has had his home located at 4410 
Upton avenue South, in the Lake Harriet district. He is a 
Republican in politics but not an active partisan. 



HON. FRANK L. PALMER. 



This esteemed citizen, member of State Legislature and 
promoter of city extension and improvements has been a resi- 
dent for twenty-five years, and during that period has been 
tireless in expending his energies in making Northeast Minne- 
apolis a desirable and populous section, for both residence 
and business purposes. 

Mr. Palmer was born in Brooklyn, Jackson county, Michi- 
gan, June 34, 1860. When twelve years old his father died, 
his mother also dying three years later, so that he was 
thrown on his own resources at an early age. He was able, 
however, to secure a good education, being graduated from 
the high school at Napoleon in his native county. At nine- 
teen he entered the store of his brother in Kalamazoo, later 
securing a position in the postoffice, through the influence of 
Hon. J. C. Burrows, then in Congress. 

When the estate of his father was settled in 1882, Mr. 
Palmer was married to Miss Mary A. Hogle, and the next 
spring took up a homsetead in Kidder county, North Dakota, 
on which they remained until title was secured. Repeated poor 
crops and severe wintei"s made it unsatisfactory, and in 1888 
he moved to Minneapolis. He secured employment in tlie 
office of John D. Blake, an extensive real estate dealer, and 
spent a year at St. Louis Park, in the interest of Haywood & 
Boshert, 

In 1896, Mr, Palmer opened a real estate office in Northeast 
Minneapolis, then New Boston, but which was without trana- 
poitation facilities and sparsely settled. This has since be- 
come well 'connected with the city, has fine street railway 
facilities, is a desirable residence section, has business inter- 
ests of considerable magnitude, and schools, churches, paving, 
sewerage and other improvements which make it compare 
favorably with other new ])art3 of Minneapolis. 

Mr. Palmer has been a potential factor in promoting every 
such advance. He has served as president of the St, Anthony 
Commercial club, is one of its directors, and is a member of 
its public imjjrovemcnts committee. In the fall of 1910 he 
was elected from the 39th district to the State House of 
Representatives, and re-elected in 1912, In his first terra he 
was chairman of the committee on temperance, and a member 
of the committees on towns and counties and elections. He 
was instrumental in securing the enactment of the law reg- 
ulating the sale of malt, and was deeply interested in legisla- 
tion on insurance, forestry interests, elections and labor. 



J 



HISTORY OK MINXEAIN^LIS AND IIENXKPIX COIXTY, MINNESOTA 



453 



In till' lattrr si'ssiun hf was iliaiiman of the coinmittic on 
cities, wliicli consists of seventeen members, and which passed 
upon all legislation relative to cities, and a member of the 
committees on insurance, legislative expenses, towns and 
counties, and labor and elections. He has made earnest efforts 
to secure greater economy and efficiency in the management of 
the legislature, and is the author of the law allowing rail- 
road and commercial men, and others whose duties keep them 
away from their homes a great deal of the time, to cast their 
votes for presidential electors and state officials at any poll- 
ing place where they happen to be on election days, and safe- 
guarding the transmission and counting of the votes they cast. 
The initiative, referendum and recall have also earnestly en- 
gaged liis attention and been carefully studied by him. 

When ilinneapolis decided to secure a better water supply, 
Mr. Palmer was one of a sub-committee of five selected from 
a committee of twenty-three, to visit a number of ditTerent 
cities to collect information on the subject, the recommenda- 
tions made by this sub-committee being adopted by the city. 
Mr. Palmer's knowledge of real estate values has been fre- 
quently called into requisition in appraising property con- 
demned for park, boulevard or other public use. He was one 
of the appraisers of the property designed for the Gateway 
Park, the Mall, the Lake of the Isles Boulevard, the Jlinnehaha 
Falls Park and the East River Drive. He has also served on 
the e.^cecutive committee of the Real Estate Board, and as 
one of the directors of the Xew Boston Commercial club, which 
he helped to organize. 

In fraternal relations, Mr. Palmer is a thirty-second degree 
JIason, and his interests in the fraternity made him diligent 
in working for the erection of a Masonic building for Arcana 
Lodge, No. 187. His religious affiliation is with Trinity 
Methodist Episcopal church, serving on its official board for 
twenty-five years. His family consists of two daughters, 
Merle B., at home and Floy M., wife of D. G. Campbell, who 
is associated with him in his real estate business. 



CMXTOX MORPJSOX. 



Mr. Morrison died on March 11. VJUi, aged seventy-one 
years, one month and twenty days, and for fifty-eight years 
resided in Minneapolis. He was born at Livcrmore, Maine, on 
January 21, 1842, moved to Bangor in 1844, and lived there 
until he was thirteen, laying the foundation of his education 
in the famous Abbott school. His parents, Dorilus and Har- 
riet Putnam (Wliitniore) Morrison, were of the same nativity 
as himself, and possessed, in large measure and controlling 
force, the New England characteristics. The father was the 
first mayor of Minneapolis, and gave the municipal bantling 
an excellent business administration of its affairs, starting it 
on a lirni basis of governmental wisdom, broad- viewed pro- 
gressiveness anil financial strength. 

In 185">, wlien the son, Clinton, was less than thirteen years 
old, the family moved to Minnesota and located on the banks 
of the Mississippi at St. Anthony Kails. For a few years he 
attended the old Union .school, which stood on the site now- 
occupied by the present city hall and court ho\ise, later he 
attended siliool at Raeine, Wis., ami there completed his edu- 
cation so far as schooling and text books were ciineerned. 

Accordingly, lie left school at an early age and began doing 
business under the guidance of his father. He was an apt 



pupil uf an excidlent teacher, and soon showed an admirable 
grasp of business conditions and requirements. At the age of 
twenty-one lie united with his brother, George H. ilorrison, 
in an enterprise for outfitting lumbermen, and, as an out- 
growth of this business, they became interested in the pur- 
chase of pine lands, mills and lumber. They operated a 
water power sawmill on the platform at the Falls and con- 
ducted a lumber yard in the lower part of the city. They 
did an extensive and profitable business until the death of 
<uM>rge H. Jlorrison in 18H2, after which Clinton turned his 
attention to the extensive business interests of his father 
and assisted the latter in managing them._ 

At this time the Minneapolis Harvester Works, which the 
father had assisted in organizing, and which had been run 
as a stock company, began to show signs of failure. He and 
his father took over most of the capital stock of the com- 
pany, assumed charge of the business and started the resur- 
rection of the institution. 

Under the advice of the younger Mr. Morrison the company 
adopted the twine binder invented by Mr. Appleby, who was 
Connected with the Harvester Works, and this invention 
proved to be very profitable. The whole industry was sold in 
1892 to the Walter A. Wood Harvester company, organized 
in St. Paul, and for years afterward continued to be a big pro- 
ducer of business. 

Mr. Morrison was also a potential factor in building up 
the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank of Minneapolis. 
He was elected president of this bank in 1876, and several 
times while he was at its head it was brought face to face 
with great financial panics and' severely tried as to its 
soundness and strength. But it withstood every storm with 
Gibraltar like resistance, and came forth from each with 
millions to the good, proving itself to be one of the strongest 
financial institutions in the Northwest. Two or three times, 
also, it has withstood "run.s" generated by mi.schievoua 
tongues, but always with increased vigor, crcilit and popular 
approval. During Mr. Morrison's administration of its affairs 
as trustee and president the bank erected its handsome build- 
ing on Fourth street near First avenue south. He was also 
extensiv<'l}' interested, in connection with his father, in the 
construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad. 

For some years before his death Mr. Morrison was occu- 
pied mainly with the management of his extensive private 
interests. But he continued to serve as president of the 
Great Western Elevator company, the Northwestern Knitting 
company and the North American Telegraph company, and 
vice president of the Xorth Star Woolen Mill company. His 
political affiliation was with the Republican party. In re- 
ligious belief he was a Univer.salist, and his local connection 
in the sect was with the Church of the Redeemer, of which 
he was a regular attendant for many years. In social rela- 
tions he was long a valued member of the Minneapolis club. 

In February, 187,!, Mr. Morrison was united in marriage 
with Miss Julia Kellogg Washburn, a daughter of Nehemiah 
and Martha (Parniclee) Washburn. .She died in 1883, leaving 
two children, her son, Dr. Angus Washburn Morrison, and 
her daughter Ethel, who is now the wife of John R. Vander- 
lip. a Minneapolis lawyer. The father was alway.'* intensely 
interested ill the advancement of his home city and bore a 
large part of the burden of building it up anil improving it. 
^lis public benefactions were numerous and various, and his 
private contributions to worthy persons in need of help, 
although alwaj'S entirely unostentatious and never mentioned 



454 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



by liim, were munificent. And when death closed his long 
and higlily serviceable record, warm tributes to his genuine 
manhood and sterling worth, to his great liberality and public 
spirit, to his unobtrusive way of living and doing good, were 
poured out in voluminous measure from all classes of the 
people. 

One incident that brought him into greatest prominence 
here and made him known in artistic circles abroad was his gift 
of the site for the new Minneapolis Art iluseum, which is now 
in course of construction. With his usual modesty he esti- 
mated the value of the property he gave for this purpose at 
$200,000, when it was worth at least $50,000 more. It was 
his father's renowned residence known as "Villa Rosa," which 
has long been famous in local history and in which many 
notable men of the country have been entertained. The 
tract comprises ten acres and is admirably located for the 
new use to which it is to be devoted. Jlr. Morrison con- 
veyed this property to the Minneapolis Society of Fine 
Arts, as he stated in his letter making the tender, "without 
cost or incumbrance, to be a memorial to my late father, 
Dorilus Morrison, the first mayor of Minneapolis, with the 
simple condition that it become one of the parks of the city, 
to be used only for the erection and maintenance thereon of 
such a museum." It will be a fine memorial to the first mayor 
of the city, but it will be no less an enduring monument 
of the filial affection, large-hearted generosity and elevated pub- 
lic spirit of his son, suggesting always the high traits of char- 
acter of both and indicating in a Substantial manner the value 
of their citizenshp. 



EDWIN PAGE STACY. 



The career of the late Edwin Page Stacy, who was, when 
he died, the head of tlie best known wholesale fruit and 
produce house in Minneapolis, was rounded out by consistent 
and steady advances from a humble and obscure beginning 
on a farm to prominence as the foremost merchant of his 
branch in this part of the country. His father, Isaac Stacy, 
was a tiller of the soil near De Kalb, St. Lawrence county. 
New York, and his mother, before her marriage, was Miss 
Orpha Page. 

Edwin P. Stacy was the youngest son of his parents, and, 
was born on May 31, 1831. Farming in St. Lawrence county, 
New Y'ork, was much as it was elsewhere at that time, 
although an unusual number of the state's and nati(m's fore- 
most men were native there. Mr. Stacy's father had been 
reduced in circumstances through illness, but the son managed 
to secure a fair education, and while getting it kept looking 
to the time w-hen he might enter remunerative business. He 
attended the public schools in De Kalb and the Gouverncur 
Academy until he reached the age of eighteen years. 

In 1850, deeming it time for him to get to work, young 
Stacy secured emploj'ment with Stacy, Golden & Company, 
in Utica. So apt was he that he was selected a year later 
to go to Lafayette, Indiana, to take charge of a branch 
house. This move was but one of a series, each bringing 
him nearer the city in which the fruit of his business carter 
was to mature. In 1854, with an elder brother, he estab- 
lished himself in Dover, Illinois, where for seven years they 
operated a general merchandising, grain and lumber trade. 



Edwin P. Stacy then passed four years at Stacyville, Iowa, 
and at the end of that period went to Mitchell, in that state, 
and entered upon a business which finally led to his becoming 
a resident of Minneapolis. 

Mr. Stacy remained at Mitchell, however, for nearly twenty 
years engaged in general merchandising, and during this 
period was also active and prominent in the civic and political 
life of the community, serving four terms as mayor, and is 
remembered as Superintendent of the Congregational church 
for years. In 1879 his oldest son, Arthur P. Stacy, was taken 
into partnership with him, the firm becoming E, P. Stacy 
& Son. As the merchandising business and the produce com- 
mission lines were closely related, and they were doing a 
considerable amount of business in Minneapolis, they decided 
to establish a branch house here. 

Another son, Harlan B,, then became a member of the firm, 
and he and the father, in 1883, came to Minneapolis and 
established a house which has constantly grown in com- 
mercial importance. The parent house and the branch kept 
up their relations as such for two or three years. By the 
end of that period the Minneapolis end of the business at- 
tained such proportions that the firm decided to concentrate 
all its interests here, and the youngest son, Clinton L. Stacy, 
was then taken into the partnership. 

The growth and expansion of the business have surpassed 
all expectations, the firm now having twelve branches in 
North and South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota, through which 
it makes available to the great farm states of the Northwest 
the products of this and foreign countries. The firm stands 
in the front rank among the fruit and produce houses of 
America. 

Early in his business life in this city Mr, Stacy became 
actively connected with business organizations. He was a 
leader in the .Jobbers and Manufacturers' Association from 
its organization, and was equally active in the Produce 
Exchange, and a member of the Commercial club and other 
business and social organizations. His membership in all 
was highly valued, for he was a gentleman of great breadth 
of view and progressiveness, and conspicuously and wisely 
energetic in whatever he undertook or was interested in, 

Mr, Stacy was tAvice married. His first wife was Miss 
Elizabeth E, Leonard, of Gouverneur, New York, whom he 
marrried on December 10, 1856, Her children are the three 
sons mentioned above. She died on January S, 1S74, and 
six years later Mr. Stacy married Mrs, Amelia Wood Kent, 
in Naperville, Illinois. She was a native of A'ermont and a 
descendant of William Bradford, one of the Pilgrim Fathers 
and Governor of Plymouth colony. Mr. Stacy died in Minne- 
apolis on March 11, 1909, she dying a few months later. 

He was a working member of Plymouth Congregational 
church. 

Since 1885 he spent each winter in Los Angeles, Cat., and 
there formed a wide acquaintance among men especially m 
his line of business. The first car of oranges brought to 
Minneapolis from California was shipped by him in 1885, 
This was one of the first cars of fruit shipped east from 
California. One of his characteristics was to make warm 
friends and was of a congenial optimistic nature. From early 
life he made it a practice of keeping a diary in which he 
persisted till his very last months. 




0CCc<no^, y^tiSf/^aC' 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



455 



WASHINGTON PEIRCE. 

Washington Peirce was born in Lancaster county, Penn- 
sylvania, Kobriiary 22, 1831. April 21, 1855, he arrived at 
Minneapolis, joining his brother, Thomas W. Peirce, who 
had come hither two years earlier, pre-empting a tract of 
land on Lake Calhoun. Their father, Levi Peirce, being a 
carpenter, all of his six sons learned the same trade. 

Soon after his arrival ilr. Peirce pre-empted a claim on 
Cedar Lake, and which bordered also on the Lake of the 
Isles. He then went back to his old Pennsylvania home, and 
on February 20 following was married to Jliss Caroline JI. 
Paxson, a lady of English ancestry but of the same nativity 
as himself, and born May 30, 1834, a descendant of one of 
three brothers who came to this countr)^ in early days and 
each of whom used a different spelling of the family name. 

They arrived in Minneapolis on June 7, 1856, being met by 
her brother-in-law, Thomas W. Peirce, who took the new 
arrivals out to his home, now the location of the new Warner 
Home. 

Mr. Peirce worked at his trade and built a dwelling at 
what is now the corner of Hennepin avenue and Twelfth 
street, meantime living in an old law office at Helen street 
near Second avenue south. 

They moved into their home in April, 1857. and occupied it 
sixteen years, Mr. Peirce meantime becoming a contractor 
and builder. During the next winter Mrs. Peirce kept boarders 
at Seventh and Hennepin avenue. One of them was the late 
Thomas Lowry, who came fresh from Knox College with a 
letter of introduction to Rev. Dr. Tuttle, of the Church of the 
Redeemer, who directed him to her house, where he secured 
his meals but sleeping in his law oHice. 

The Peirces occupied four years a new residence at Fifth 
avenue and Fourteenth street, removing to the intersection of 
Portland and Franklin avenues, where they lived until 18H0, 
when they took possession of the home in which Mrs. Peirce 
is still living, at No. 155 Seventeenth street north, and in 
which she has resided continuously for thirty-four years. 

Mr. Peirce continued contracting and building until 18S0. 
when he was appointed to a position in the municipal court. 
This he held until March 5, 1902, an unbroken period of 
twenty-two years, the longest term of service ever enjoyed 
by any official in the court house. He had an extensive 
acquaintance and was popular, being much sought as ii 
violinist, and was in great demand for balls and other social 
entertainments. He began playing the violin when he was 
^_eight years old and kept it up until his death, which occurred 
March 5, 1902. 

August 8. 1862, Mr. I'eirce enlisted in the Sixth Jlinnesota 
Volunteer Infantry, and servc<l in the I'nion army three years 
and two (lays, until his regiment was discharged. He left 
tlic service with the rank of second lieutenant, to which he 
was promoted for meritorious service. He was Commander of 
Morgan Post, Grand Army of the Republic, for one year, 
and when he died his remains were consigned to their last 
resting place by his old comrades in arms with the honors due 
to a faithful and gallant soldier. 

Mrs. Peirce is a charter member of the Univcrsalist Church 
of the Redeemer, and was a teacher in its Sunday school for 
twenty-one years. She still retains her membership in the 
church and her helpful interest in all its uplifting and 
benevolent work. For sixteen years she was an active worker 
in the Humane Society, and about 1880, in association with 



Mrs. Russell, of the Kussell CofTee House, she started the 
first Rescue Home for girls, on Eighth avenue north, which 
later became the Florence Crittenden Home. She has also 
been zealous in the work of the La<lie8 Auxiliary of the 
Grand Army of the Republic and that of the Women's Chris- 
tian Relief Corps. 

Mr. and Mrs. Peirce became the parents of two children. 
Flora K., who was born Dec. 8, 1856, on the shore of Lake 
Calhoun, is the wife of H. K. Lawrence, a leading official in 
the city water works and who served as a member of the 
Court House Commission. Carroll Washington Peirce, was 
born December 12, 1862, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 
his mother having lived at the home of her father during 
the Civil war, and died .July 17, 1913, He served in the 
Thirteenth Regiment in the Philippines, He was a member 
of the First Minnesota regiment fifteen years, was a civil 
engineer, and helped make the survey for the Northern Pacific 
Railroad, under the direction of Colonel Clough. Later he 
was employed in the Minneapolis postolfice for thirteen years. 



JOHN P. PETERSON, 



Secretary of the Metropolitan Milk Company was born in 
Sweden, and is a Son of R, H. Peterson, a tailor now of Van- 
couver. John P. came to Minnesota in 1891, and obtained 
his education in country schools and at Glenwood Academy. 
His first engagement was with the Pine Tree Lumber com- 
pany for four years. He served as deputy sheriff of Morrison 
county, but soon resigned and w-orked for the Great Northern 
Elevator company, at Superior, Wisconsin, until 1900. 

Coming to Minneapolis he worked for the McLane-Bovey 
Lumber company, and then opened a small milk establish- 
ment on F'ranklin avenue until he joined the Minneapolis 
Milk company, as its treasurer. He was secretary of the 
Company four years and holds the same relations to its 
successor, the Metropolitan Milk Company. 

Mr. Peterson has taken an active |iart in [)ublic affairs but 
not as a politician or oflice seeker, being content with dis- 
charging his duties to the community as a good citizen. 
In 1899, Mr. Peterson was united in marriage with Miss 
Annie Peterson. They have three chihlren: Evelyn Helen, 
Elinor Hilda and Milton. Mr. Peterson is a member of the 
Order of Modern Woodmen, and the Swedish Lutheran church. 



ALBERT II. P.\KKS, M. 1), 

Giving assiduous attention to one ni the most useful pro- 
fessions; taking a helpful part in public affairs; aiding in 
advancing social activities, and striving to promote the sub- 
stantial and enduring welfare of all in moral, educational, 
political and material interests, Dr, Albert H. Parks is a 
serviceable and progressive citizen. 

He was born near Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1880, passing 
the first fovirteen years of life on his father's farm, lie at- 
tended a preparatory school and entering Albion College, was 
gradimtod from the U, & M. with the degree of A. B. in the 
class of 1904. He afterward received his Master's degree from 
the Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, and in 
1906 graduated as an M. D. from the same institution. Dur- 



456 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



ing the year following he was interne in St. Luke's hospital, 
Chicago. 

In 1907 the doctor selected Minneapolis, and locating here, 
began a general practice with surgery as a specialty. For a 
time he ignored all inducements to take part in action outside 
of his profession, and, as it was making extensive demands on his 
time and energies, he was inclined to devote himself exclusively 
to it; but, conditions and circumstances, in combination with 
his natural interest in public and social affairs, determined 
another course. 

There was a strong demand for Something definite and in- 
fluential in the way of a business organization in the Lake 
Harriet section of the city, and the doctor heeding this, joined 
with others in organizing the Lake Harriet Commercial club 
in November, 1901). He was president for two years, during 
which a fine club house, costing $30,000, was erected. The 
club has enjoyed great prosperity and made rapid progress, 
and now has over 450 members. 

Dr. Parks has Served as assistant city physician, superin- 
tendent of Hopewell hospital and assistant superintendent of 
the City hospital, of which he is associate surgeon. He also be- 
ing on the surgical staff of Asbury Hospital. He is a skillful 
physician and surgeon, and his superior ability in his profes- 
sional work being generally recognized and appreciated, while 
his activity in other lines has won him regard and well es- 
tablished popularity. For a time he was zealous in the work 
of the Good Koads Commission of the Civic and Commerce 
Association. 

His industry, and breadth of view soon won recognition, 
particularly in his own ward, the Thirteenth. He showed him- 
self to be alert, enterprising and capable, so that in the fall 
of 1912 they elected him alderman, and his record in the 
council has fully justified their faith. The campaign was 
made on the good roads issue, where his stand was clear and 
his fidelity and ability had been proven. He is chairman of 
the committee on good roads and a member of the commit- 
tees on ways and means, health and hospitals, street railroads 
and electrical franchises. 

Dr. Parks is an enthusiastic Freemason, being a charter 
member and was the first Worshipful Master of Lake Har- 
riet Lodge, No. 277. Is an Elk and has served as national 
president of the Phi Beta Pi. The College Medical So- 
ciety. The doctor's religious affiliation is with the Con- 
gregational church, and his principal recreations are hunting, 
fishing, automobiling and other outdoor enjoyments. He was 
married in 1910, to MisS Catherine Barrett, of Staples, Min- 
nesota. They have one child, Jean. The doctor is a Republi- 
can, but in local elections is strictly non-partisan. 



HEMAN W. STONE. 



Mr. Stone was a representative of one of the sterling 
pioneer families of the old Badger state, which he claimed as 
the place of his nativitj'. He was born at Waukau, Winne- 
bago county, Wisconsin, on the 7th of July, 1849, his parents 
having emigrated from the Dominion of Canada to Wiscon- 
sin in the early '40s, and having there passed the residue of 
their lives. Heman W. Stone passed his boyhood at Eureka, 
a pioneer village of Winnebago county, Wisconsin, and there 
he received his early educational discipline in the public 
schools. This was supplemented by an effective course in 



Lawrence University, at Appleton, that state. In 1870, shortly 
after reaching his legal majority, Mr. Stone came to Min- 
nesota and established his residence at Beaver Falls, Ren- 
ville county, but one year later he removed to Montevidio, 
the judicial center of Chippewa county, where he erected 
the first business building in the town, and in the same be- 
came associated with his brother. Lane K. Stone, in the 
general merchandise trade, in connection with which they 
conducted a banking business. When the railroad line was 
built through Benson, county seat of Swift county, the 
brothers there established a general store, in the meanwhile 
continuing their business operations at Montevidio. Their 
partnership alliance continued until 1886 and about a de- 
cade previously they founded a bank in Benson, this proving 
a valuable adjunct to tlie business activities of the county 
and being the pioneer financial institution of that section. 
Heman W. Stone was appointed receiver of the United States 
land office at Benson, and of this office he continued the in- 
cumbent until Cleveland was elected president of the United 
States, this change in national politics bringing about his 
retirement. He continued in the banking business at Benson 
and his principal associate in the same was Senator Z. B. 
Clark. The institution was known as the Swift County 
Bank, and its operations were developed from modest limita- 
tions until it became one of the strongest and most influential 
of the small-town banks of the state, with assets of fully a 
million dollars. Of this bank Mr. Stone continued to serve 
as president until his death, and his personal integrity and able 
management did much to make the business one of such sub- 
stantial order. His elder son, Frank L., succeeded him in the 
jiresidency and still retains this office, in which lie is well 
upholding the high prestige of the family name. 

Commanding secure place in popular contidenee and esteem, 
Mr. Stone was naturally called upon to serve in various offices 
of public trust, and he was a zealous and effective worker in 
behalf of the cause of the Republican party, though he made 
no pretentions to ability as a public speaker. He served as 
president of the village council of Benson and as treasurer 
of the board of education, and he made an admirable record 
of service in both the house and senate of the state legislature, 
in which his efforts were manifestly dominated by a high 
sense of civic loyalty and progressiveness. He made special 
efforts to further the improvements of public highways, but 
his work in this direction did not bring about the practical 
results which he desired, thjugli at the present time the good- 
roads movement in Minnesota is being successfully promoted. 

Mr. Stone became the owner of a large landed estate in 
Swift county, and on a fine farm near Benson he found great 
pleasure and profit in the breeding of high-grade live stock, 
as one of the leading representatives of this important line of 
industry in that section of the state. He was a progressive 
and successful breeder of short-horn cattle and none was more 
enthusiastic in the raising of standard-bred horses. A number 
of horses bred on his farm gained distinction on the trotting 
turf, and he also became prominently concerned with the 
raising of thorough-bred horses in Tennessee. He was a 
genuine lover of good horses and greatly enjoyed driving the 
fine animals which he himself raised. He exhibited horses at 
the horse shows in New York city, and one horse bred by 
him was purchased by the well known capitalist, George Gould. 
He accumulated a large estate and was known as a business 
man of mature judgment and utmost circumspection. In 
addition to his extensive interests in Minnesota he was largely 




^r^cO. 



HISTORY (IF MIXXKAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



457 



concerned in the manufacturing of yellow-pine lumber, with 
mills in Texas and Oklahoma, besides which he had valuable 
timber holdings in British Columbia. 

For a number of years prior to hi> death Mr. .Stone was a 
prominent figure in the commission grain trade in Minneapolis, 
and in this field of enterprise his principal coadjutor was 
n. G. Atwood, who is now a resident of Peoria, Illinois. In 
1907 was adopted the firm name of Atwood, Stone & Company, 
and under this title the business was continued on a very 
extensive scale, the enterprise being exclusively on a com- 
mission basis and no elevators being owned by the firm. 
Mr. Stone was a stockholder in a number of banking institu- 
tions aside from those already mentioned, and was one of 
the resourceful and representative bankers of the state. He 
was associated with his elder son, Frank L., in the ownership 
of valuable real estate in Alinneapolis and its environs, and 
they platted several additions to the city, including the 
Mississippi Park addition and the Carter & Stone addition, 
besides which they gave attention to general real-estate opera- 
tii>ns. with which the son is still identified. The finely 
iinjiroved farm of Mr. Stone adjoining the village of Benson 
< Miitinued to be his place of residence imtil 1908 and the 
li'uutiful homestead is now occupied by his son Frank L. In 
tilt' year mentioned he removed to Minneapolis, and here he 
■ -tablisliod his residence in a home at 407 Oak Grove 
-tret, wliere his widow still resides. During the latter 

as of life Mr. .Stone, in company with his wife, customarily 

i-sed the winter seasons either in Florida or California, and 
iH- died at his home in Minneapolis, on the 7th of April, 1913, 
liis remains being interred in beautiful Lakewood cemetery. 
Ill Minneapolis Mr. .Stone was a member of the Chamber of 
I nmmerce, the Civic & Commerce Association, the Minneapolis 
I lub. and the Minneapolis Automobile Club, besides which he 
« as atliliated w ith the Masonic fraternity. He was not 
inrmally identified with anj- religious organization but was 
lilicral in his support of church and charitable work, his wife 
and children being communicants of the Protestant Episcopal 
rliiirch, in winch Mrs. Stone is a devout communicant of tlie 
parish of St. Paul's church in Minneapolis, where also she is 
a popular figure in the representative social circles in which 
?lic moves. 

As a young man Mr. .Stone was united in marriage to 
-Miss Clara L. Lowell, of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, of which 
>late her parents were pioneer settlers. Tliree children survive 
tlie honored father, — Frank Lowell .Stone, concerning whom 
more specific mention will be made in an appending paragraph; 
Albert I.ane Stone, who resides at Benson and is assistant 
lashier of the Swift Covmty Bank; and Pauline, who is the 
"lie of .lohn M. Dillon, a prominent iron and steel manufac- 
turer at Sterling, Illinois. 

FRANK LOWELL STOXK was born at Benson, Minn., on the 
5th of April, 187G. and his early educational advantages were 
those afTorded in the public schools. Under the efTective 
direction of his father he received the most careful training 
and excellent opportunities in connection with practical busi- 
ness affairs. He entered the Swift County Bank, at Benson, 
in 1892, and in the same he held the position of cashier until 
the death of his father, when he was advanced to his present 
olTice of president, besides which he is vice-president of the 
commission corporation of Atwood, Stou't & Company, of 
Minneapolis, of which his father was president, as already 
noted in this article. He gives close supervision to his various 
eapitahstic interests in Minneapolis, but still resides in the 



fine old homestead at Benson, as has been previously stated. 
He is president of the State Bank of De OralT, .Swift county, 
and a stockholder in banks at other points in the state. In 
the Minnesota metropolis he holds membership in the Min- 
neapolis, the Interlaclien. and the Athletic Clubs, and his 
political proclivities are indicated in the staunch allegiance 
which ho accords to the Republican party. 

In 1900 was solemnized the marriage of Frank L. Stone to 
Miss Frances Eleanor Thornton, who is a daughter of Frank 
M. Thornton. Jlr. Thornton was identified with the building 
of the old St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, and later became one 
of the prominent and inlluential citizens of Benson. .Swift 
county. His father was a sterling pioneer of Minnesota and 
owned the fine farm of three hundred and twenty acres later 
]iurcliased by (leneral McC. Reeve, on Lake Harriet, much of the 
tract being now located within the city limits of Minneapolis, 
as may be noted by reference to the biography of General 
Keeve, on other pages of this publication. Mr. and Mrs. Stone 
have three children, — Lowell Thornton, Elizabeth Eleanor, and 
Ileman Ward. 



LEONARD PAULLE. 



Accepting the lot of common labor when a boy. by his 
sagacity, industry and integrity, Leonard PauUe has climbed 
high on the ladder of success in the business world. Take 
him all in all he is a unique man and his counterpart would 
be diflRcult to find. Coming to Minneapolis wholly unknown 
and without money, i)restige or friends, he worked at manual 
labor until he had saved enough to go into business for him- 
self. When this was accomplished he still worked at his 
bench until the success of his venture was assured, and busi- 
ness was established upon satisfactory financial basis. His 
first investment in the show case and store fixture business 
was the five hundred dollars he had saved by hard labor in the 
employ of .Jesse Copeland and Sons. His present investment 
is .$100,000. He has branches of his business all over the 
west, beside the extensive business he carries on through his 
Minneapolis headquarters, at 26 North 2nd Street. When he 
first went into business he employed three men; he now em- 
ploys from 90 to 12,5. His annual output was about $5,000, 
now it runs from $1(10,000 to $l.><0,00n. At present he has 
three large buildings with a floor space of 90,000 square feet, 
devoted to the business. It is still growing and promises 
to be one of the big enterprises of the city. All this for a 
poor boy who came into Minneapolis. 41 years ago with nothing 
in his pocket. 

Leonard PauUe was born fifty-seven years ago in IS.'Jj. April 
2."!, in Bufl"alo, New York. He is of French decent, his father 
having served in the wars of France in the campaign of 
Napoleon 1. The father lived to be over ninety years old, 
thus fullilling the record of longevity of the family. The 
mother of Leonard Paulle had a family history of a like 
peculiarity. On both sides the original stock was German. 
The boy received his early education in the parochial schools 
of Buffalo, and when he was but twelve years old began his 
industrial career by being apprenticed to a trade at $2.50 a 
week. Later he was raised to three dollars a week and then 
to four. In 1865 the family moved to St. Paul and remained 
until '69 when tluy returned to Bulfalo, but Leonard re- 
turned in 1H72. 



458 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



^Vhen but seventeen years old }ie came to Minnesota with 
the intention of buying land and raising cattle. He took a 
tract of land in Sherburne County, but after three months 
came to Minneapolis. His first factory was at 311 Nicollet 
avenue. This was on the site of the Loan and Trust building. 
One of the interesting things connected with the history of 
Mr. Paulle's business career is that the first show case pur- 
chased by William Donaldson when he first went into business 
in Minneapolis, was made by the Paulle Show Case and Store 
Fixture establishment. This was bought on credit. 

In politics Mr. Paulle is a Republican, not of the demonstra- 
tive type, but always firmly and quietly adhering to his be- 
liefs. He has had no time for seeking political honors and no 
inclination. He is not a politician. 

Simple and unostentatious in his mode of life, his demo- 
cratic inclinations have made him popular in the circles in 
which he moves. He is particularly prominent in Masonic 
circles being one of the oldest 32nd degree Masons in the city, 
having belonged to the order here since 1876. He is also one 
of the board of directors of the Masonic Temple having been 
one of the original promoters of the building project. He is 
a member of most of the clubs of the city including the Com- 
mercial club, the Elks club, the Athletic club and the Automo- 
bile club. His chief amusement is hunting. In this way he 
gets most of his relaxation from the press of business cares. 
He has built and owns a number of business buildings. \Vlien 
John Lind was governor Leonard Paulle held a colonel's com- 
mission on his staff. He is one of the vice-presidents of the 
Germania Bank. 

In 1905 Mr. Paulle was married to Miss Minnie Crozier of 
La Crosse, Wisconsin. They have no children. 

Mr. Paulle's spirit of good citizenship has given him a part 
in every public enterprise that make for the betterment of 
tlie state and municipality. He is a self-made man. but 
very humble in the matter of the credit he gives himself 
for his achievements. 



LUMAN C. PRYOR. 



Lunian C. Pryor was born .January 8, 1864, at Milwaukee, 
Wis. His father came west from Rochester, N. Y., in the early 
fifties, thus being one of Wisconsin's pioneers. His home- 
stead was located a short distance from the townsite of 
Milwaukee and is now included within the city limits. Here 
Mr. Pryor was born and lived until twelve years of age. 
In that year both his mother and father passed away and lie 
removed with the family to Waupun where two years later 
he commenced work in one of the printing offices and there 
learned the printer's trade. On leavinj; Waupun ho located 
first at Madison. Wis., and later at Minneapolis, arriving in 
the latter city in April, 1882. He resided in Minneapolis 
for several years, then removed to St. Paul, where he re- 
mained until 1891. In that year he returned to Minneapolis 
and early in 1892 took the management of one of the im- 
portant printing firms. He resigned that position a few months 
later, having meanwhile acquired possession of the business 
of the Farm Implement Pub. Co., publishers of "Farm Im- 
plements" a trade paper devoted to the interests of the im- 
plement bu.siness in the northwest. This business was taken 
over by him in March, 1892, and ho has ha<I charge of same 
continuuiislv since that lime. 



Jlr. Pryor's education was obtained in the graded schools 
at Milwaukee and later in the high school at Waupun. His 
training in the printing trade he regards as a most liberal 
education in itself. 

Mr. Pryor was married in 1888, while residing in St. Paul, 
to Miss Lulu Marion Judd of that city. They have one 
daughter, Marion Georgia, wife of Walter H. Gooch of Min- 
neapolis. 

Mr. Pryor is a member of the Minneapolis Club, but is not 
associated with any of the religious or civic organizations of 
the city. In politics he is republican, but takes no active part 
in political afi'airs. Some four years ago he took up his 
residence on a fann at Wayzata, Minn., near the beautiful re- 
sort. Lake Minnetonka, and has since made that his home. 
He continues, however, his active business pursuits in Minne- 
apolis. 



HUGH N. McDonald, m. d. 

In the twenty-three yeai-s during which he has been engaged 
in the practice of his profession in Minneapolis, Dr. Hugh N. 
McDonald has won an enviable reputation as a physician and 
surgeon and a high place in the confidence and esteem of 
the people. He ever aimed at high ideals, and having attained 
tliem at an early period, his chief practice now is as con- 
sulting physician individually and in connection with various 
medical institutions. 

Dr. McDonald was born in Ontario, being reared and 
educated in the Dominion. He graduated from McGill Univer- 
sity, Montreal, as an M. D., in 1889, then served one year 
as interne in the Montreal General hospital. 

In April, 1890, he came to Minneapolis and for several 
years was professor of diseases of the chest in the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons, which became the medical depart- 
ment of Hamline University. 

He is an active member of the American Medical Associa- 
tion, the Minnesota State Medical Society, the Hennepin 
Coimty Medical Society and the Western Surgical and 
Gynecological Society. 

He has not sought or hold public olliee. 



JOHN B. EUSTIS. 



Although not born in Minneapolis, but in a locality that 
was at the period of his birth far distant from this city in 
both length of way and the time required to traverse it, but 
is now not far away in time though still as remote as ever 
in stretch of country, .John B. Eustis, president of the Eustis 
Loan and Realty company, has lived here from his infancy and 
has no recollection of any other home. He has shown his 
intense and practical interest in the community, too, by his 
intelligent cfTorts to aid in promoting its progress, improve- 
ment and welfare in every way. So that he is, to all intents 
and purposes, as much a Minneapolitan as if he were native 
here and all his family history had been enacted in this 
region. 

Mr. Eustis came into being at Kingfield, Franklin county. 
Maine, on November 12, 1S.'>2, and is a son of Samuel S. and 
Emily S. (Clark) Eustis, the former a native of New Hamp- 



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IIISTOHY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



459 



sliirf mill the liittcr of Maine, nnil hoth (li'steiuleil from olil 
F.iifjlisli families which settled in this country in early Colonial 
ilays, the father's ancestors in the state of New York and 
the mother's in New Enfjlaiid. They were themselves pioneers 
also, coming to Minneapolis in lHr)4, when their son .lohn was 
but one year and a lialf old. They located on a farm in 
what is now Midway, and this has since been converted into 
trackage and freight yards for the railroads' to a considerable 
extent, leaving only a small part devoted to residence and 
farming purposes. 

The parents were farmers in Jhune. and they turned their 
attention to the same industry after their arrival in this city, 
but they did not buy their Midway farm until 3 864, ten years 
after they came hither. On it, however, they passed the 
remainder of their lives, the father dying on it in 1887 at the 
age of sixty-nine years and the mother more than twenty 
years later at the age of ninety. She came of a family 
distinguished for mental force and business capacity, and for 
a time after the death of her husband, managed the estate 
he left successfully and profitably. 

The eight children born to her and her husband were: 
Warren C, a graduate of the University of Minnesota in its 
first class, the only other members of the class being H. F. 
AVilliarason. now a resident of Washington. Warren w'as a 
physician and surgeon at Owatonna. Minnesota, and died there 
in May, 1913, aged sixty-seven. Samuel S., Jr., is a retired 
farmer living in Minneapolis. John B. is the immediate subject 
of this review. Fred and Frank (twins) were formerl}' both 
partners of John B. in business, and Fred is still associated 
with him in that way. Frank was actively connected with 
the Loan Company until his death in 1903. Kiimia 10. is 
the wife of E. F. Talbot and has her home in South Fast 
Minneapolis. Nellie, the wife of John Uccke, lives at Seymour. 
Wisconsin; and Ida, a maiden lady resides in Minneapolis. 
John B. Fustis was educated at the I'niversity of Minnesota, 
as all the other children were. His father's death obliged liim 
to aid his mother in managing the estate at an early age, 
and as an assistance in this work he organized the Fustis 
Loan and Realty company, which was incorporated in 1S94. 
Originally this company had charge of all the family interests. 
It laid out a large part of the old farm in streets and lots 
and sold a considerable extent of it to the railroads for track- 
age and switching service. The freight yards of the Great 
Korthern cover a portion, and many lots have been devoted 
to residences and small farms. The company has also laid 
out additions to Minneapolis and St. Paul and been interested 
in building thr'm up into desirable residence or business 
sections, and has, in addition, been interested in projjerty in 
Duhith. 

This company originated and developed the Eustis Park at 
Midway, one of the attractive breathing places for the residents 
of that picturesque and rapidly growing locality, and has also 
erected ninnerous residences, apartment houses, business blocks 
and other properties for renting purposes. Its business has 
long been extensive and active, and almost all its energies 
and financial resources have been employed in expanding and 
improving the choice and valuable section of the state in 
which the Twin Cities are located. It has assisted in securing 
the location of many factories in this section, and in many 
other ways has contributed substantially to its ailvancemcut. 
In addition to his interest in the business of the company 
of which he is the head, they own several farms near the 
Twin Cities and other valuable property. For twenty-eight 



years he was actively engaged in farming, but has not beer, 
now for some years. Until his mother died ho maintained a 
residence with her, which was the old family home. He is 
active in local public alTairs but not a politicnin, although 
he is a firm and loyal member of the Kcpublican piity and 
sujjports it in all national elections. His religious afliliatiou 
is with the Presbyterians, and he is an elder in St Andrew's 
clmrch of that sect, having filled this office in it for a con- 
tinuous period of over thirty years. The members of the 
Eustis family have belonged to that church from the beginning 
of its history. 

Mr. Eustis was once fond of hunting and fishing, but he 
does not indulge in them or other sports now. Neither is 
he a society man. He is unmarried, and lives quietly, modestly 
and serviceably, and he is everywhere highly esteemed as an 
excellent citizen and a man of genuine worth in every respect. 



GEORGE HERBERT PRICE. 



The late George Herbert Price, who died at his summer resi- 
dence at Manitou, Lake Minnetonka, on Sunday, May 12, 
1912, after an illneSs of only a few hours and in the lifty- 
first year of his age, was cut off in his prime, but had al- 
ready achieved far more in actual and substantial results 
than many men of twice his years of activity. He was a 
resident of Minneapolis about thirty years, and during the 
greater part of that jicriod was a large and potential factor 
in the lumbering industry. In his later years he turned his 
attention to building, and in that line also contributed largely 
and directly to the expansion and improvement of the city. 

Mr, Price was born in New Brunswick, October 19, 18G1. 
He obtained a common school education and at the age of 
twenty located at Hayward, Wisconsin, where he worked in 
the lumber woods, as he had done in his boyhood and youth 
in his native land. About 1881 he came to Jlinneapolis. 
where his first work was hauling building material for the 
Soo Railroad shops. In a short time, however, he entered 
into partnership with his brother Elijah, who had accom- 
panied him. and they took contracts to get out cedar timber 
at Grand Rapids. Tlie lirm name was Price Bros., and the 
partnership lasted until Elijah's death which occurred about 
1903. 

The operations of this firm were extensive. They included 
supplying logs from the pine woods on Prairie river for C. A. 
Smith, H. C. Akeley and other Minneapolis lumbermen, some- 
times for many as a dozen at a time, and often required 
the regular employment of 500 men. The Price Bros, 
were, in fact, the heaviest operators in their line in 
this locality. Both members of the linn were trained woods- 
men and went into the forests to- give the business their 
personal attention. While they were contracting for the de- 
livery of logs they also made purchases of pine lands and 
carried on lumbering extensively on their own account. The 
greater part of these lands were sold prior to the death of 
Mr. Price, who continued the business three years after the 
death of his brother Elijah, finally retiring because of fail- 
ing health. He then turned his attention to building, erect- 
ing several residence structures near his own home, at 2207 
Polk street northeast. These are still owned by his widow 
and are valuable for renting purposes. 

Mr. Price was eminently successful in his business under- 



460 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



takings. He began operations with almost no capital, but 
made every day and every opportunitj- tell, his prosperity 
being progressive and continuous. He gave his attention 
almost exclusively to business, never taking an active in- 
terest in political contentions and never holding, seeking or de- 
siring a public office of any kind. But he was alive with the 
keenest interest to whatever was designed to promote the 
public welfare. In politics he gave his allegiance to the Re- 
publican party. 

On October 1, 1890, Mr. Price was married in his native 
land to Miss Grace Murphy, who was also there born and 
reared. They had two 'children, George Wilber and Phyllis 
Grace, both of whom are living with their mother. The 
father was a wide-awake, progressive and patriotic Christian 
gentleman and business man. He was a member and for 
years a vestryman of St. Matthew's Episcopal church and a 
Freemason of high degree in the Scottish rite, belonging also 
to the Mystic Shrine, with membership in Zurah Temple. In 
his Lodge, which was Arcana, No. 187, he was president of the 
board of directors; and he was also president of the Masonic 
Temple Building Association taking a very active part in 
the erection of the new Masonic Temple. His club member- 
ship was confined to the New Boston Commercial club. His 
death was due to apoplexy, with which he was suddenly 
stricken while making garden at his summer home at Manitou 
about twelve hours before he died, and his early demise was 
sincerely and very widely lamented. 



16. 1848. He was the son of prosperous parents, but it may 
lie truthfully said of him that he is a self made man. He 
married Jlrs. Ella Sturges Lawlcr of St. Paul, and one of 
his stepdaughters, Jersuha, is the wife of .John Pillsbury. 



EDMUND PENNINGTON. 



Choosing his life work just after he had attained his 
majority, Edmund Pennington has climbed from the lowest 
to the highest rung on the ladder of success in railroad 
circles. He began his active career as warehouse-man in 
1869. He remained in that position for one year and from 
that moved steadily upward through the various grades of 
work until he came to be assistant superintendent of the 
Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railway. The young man 
was particularly well constituted by nature for the advance- 
ment that, came to him so rapidly, for he has patience, good 
nature, bodily health and powers of physical endurance which 
at times during his business 'career have seemed tireless. His 
capacity for W'ork and his executive ability have always been 
a marvel to his associates. 

It was these valuable characteristics which won for him 
the position of superintendent of the Minneapolis, St. Paxil 
and Sault Saint Marie Railway, which position he held until 
June, 1888, after which he became general manager of the 
same road. Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Saint Marie 
has proved the sphere of his active business life for after 
acting as vice president and general manager for a number 
of years be was elected president of the road in rebruary, 
1909. 

Those who have long been associated with Mr. Pennington 
in a business way are the readiest to bear witness of his 
splendid qualities of heart and head. His kindly disposition 
makes him a great favorite in the social world although he is 
of retiring and modest tendencies. He and his family are 
actively Socially and his beautiful home on Summit avenue 
is frequently the scene of some handsome social functicm. 

Edmund Pennington was born in La Salle. 111., September 



CHARLES N. ROBI>JSON. 



Charles N. Robinson, president of the Bardwell-Robinson 
Manufacturing Company was born in New Jersey, in 1853, 
and is a son of S. B. Robinson, who became a resident of 
Minneapolis in 1858, and founded a profitable business in the 
manufacture of doors, sash, moldings, and kindred products, 
of which he was the head for many years, and of whom 
further mention is found elsewhere. Charles N. Robinson was 
educated in the public schools and early learned the carpenter 
trade, at which he worked until 1892, when he entered the 
employ of the company of which his father was then and 
he is now the head. He acquired a thorough practical knowl- 
edge of the details of production had when his father died 
he succeeded him as president. This company has Ijeen an 
important factor in the building of Minneapolis. Its prod- 
ucts being used with wood work and finishing of most of its 
leading buildings public and private. Mr. Robinson has also 
taken an earnest interest and practical part in the general 
building up and improvement and in all efforts to secure the 
best government. He is not an active partisan but an earnest 
citizen, whose zeal and activity in this behalf, have proven of 
some benefit. He belongs to the Masons, the Elks and the 
North Side Commercial club. In 1872, he was married to 
Miss Kate Eveland. Their three sons are Frank S., Levi C. 
and Howard. 



SUELL J. BALDWIN. 



As a farmer, a L^nion soldier, a mechanic, a dairyman, an 
enterprising and successful man, Suell J. Baldwin, president 
of the Metropolitan Milk company, has put in fifty-three 
years of active manhood, forty-eight of them being in Minne- 
sota and all but one of that number in this city, except por- 
tions of seven years, Avhile acquiring a homestead in Chijipcwa 
county, Wisconsin. 

Mr. Baldwin was born in Sandy Creek, Oswego co\inty, N'ew 
York, January 14, 1839. He is the eldest of five childreu. of 
Sidney and Mary (Maxham) Baldwin. One of his brothers 
is still living in New York. .Jabez C. Baldwin was foreman 
in B. F. Nelson's paper mill, where he met with a fatal acci- 
dent. His widow, son, and three daughters are still residents 
of this city 

Mr. Baldwin's mother died early. Sidney Baldwin had come 
to New York from Vermont with two of his brothers. Zebulon 
and George Baldwin, and there Sidney died at the age of 
eighty-seven. Suell grew to manhood on the family home- 
stead and securing a common school education began his o'*D 
business career as a farmer. 

In obedience to the first call for volunteers to defend the 
Union he enlisted in Company G, Twenty-fourth New York 
Volunteer Infantry. His regiment reached Washington July 
4, 1861, and he heard the cannonading during the disastrous 
first battle of Bull's Run. The day after that battle the regi 



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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



461 



iiient was ordered to the front and reached Bailey's Cross 
Konds in one day's march, witli all its guns and ammunition 
soaked with water and rendered useless. The command was 
kept on railroad guard along the Potomac, and passed its 
first winter in a camp on L'pton's hill. During the winter 
all of a party of foragers sent out from this brigade were 
captured. 

In the spring of 1862 the regiment was in tlie advance on 
I'ledericksburg, and this division of the army drove the Con- 
federates out of that city. It was kept in that neighbor- 
hdod and used to strengthen weak places. It was in the 
j-ciund battle of Bull's Rim, but Mr. Baldwin being on special 
detail duty did not participate. He was wounded at South 
Mountain, Maryland, August, 1862, and sent to General hos- 
pital at Washington from where he was transferred to 
Elmira. New York, and was disduirged with his regiment at 
the end of his term, bearing such evidence of service that 
kept him from re-enlisting and gave him enough of war. 

He returned home and resumed work on the farm. In the 
fall of 1865 he came to Minnesota, arriving in Minneapolis 
October 22, in the midst of a severe snow and hail storm. 
Two of his wife's uncles were living thirty miles farther up 
the state, but the roads being reported impassable, he and 
iiis wife, remained in this city a few days, then went in an 
open stage to Rockford, where he bought a farm and built a 
log house in which he lived that winter, the ground not 
freezing and potatoes being dug from the hill in the spring. 

In .July, 1866, they returned to Minneapolis and he worked 
as a carpenter. That summer he took a trip to St. Louis on 
a lumber raft. He then worked two years in the livery 
stable of Deshon & Levi on Bridge Square. Mr. Baldwin has 
lived in Minneapolis since except during the years on a 
homestead in Wisconsin. While there lie was elected town- 
ship supervisor and served as chairman of the board. 

For seven years before previously he operated a dairy at 
his present home at Twenty-first avenue soutli and Tliirty- 
sixth street, and On return resumed this industr}- continuing 
it three years longer. lie helped organize the Minneapolis 
Milk company some twenty years ago, and served long as its 
vice president and secretary. When it was reorganized in 
1913 as the Metropolitan Milk company he was elected 
president. 

Mr. Baldwin has taken an active interest in public affairs 
in behalf of good government, and has frequently been 
solicited to become a candidate for city council. But being 
averse to official life he refused the use of his name as a 
candidate. lie was married in New York to Jliss JIarion A. 
Harmon, who died here in 1877. Their only son died in child- 
hood. May 25, 1881, Mr. Baldwin married Miss Jlelissa II. 
Osmer, daughter of Datus and Esther (Green) Osmer, who 
came from Watertown, New Y''ork, in 1867. Mr. Osmer was 
a cattle dealer, and soon after his arrival bought ten acres of 
the Nathan Roberts homestead, where he and his wife died, 
she in her seventy-fourth year and he in his eighty-eighth. 
.\ part of this place is the present home of Mr. and Mrs. 
lialdwin. 

The coming of this family was due to the keenness of Mrs. 
Osmer. who overheard remarks which led her to believe this 
I ity was destined to become large and important. She pos- 
^isse<l a strong mentality and remarkable business sagacity. 
Slic bought propertj' on her own account with full faith in 
the future of the city, and lived to realize handsomely on 
her investments. She and husband were the parents of eight 



children, seven now are living, and six being in Minneapolis. 
Thomas Osmer, is a builder of homes. Jane is the widow of 
the late David Howlaud, a fanner at Medicine Lake. Cor- 
nelia is the widow of the late dairyman Egbert Monroe. 
Antoinette is the wife of Harry Bady, a machinist, and Ida 
married Albert Rliunke, late president of the Minneapolis 
Milk company. 

-Mrs. Baldwin, whose portrait we present, ablj' illustrates 
the value of excellent parentage, the business traits that 
distinguished her mother being prominent in her own life. 
It was she who turned the meagre rill of income from the 
old style of home butter-making into abundant stream fed 
by the modern dairying operation. She despite the warn- 
ings of the mere conservative sought customers for milk and 
finding such disposition of milk more satisfying, continued 
till they had ready sale for the product of twenty-five cows. 
Her example led others, including Mr. Rhunke, to set their 
boat out on the same stream to the end that hundreds of 
people are now receiving benefits from this determination of 
this woman to find a more satisfactory way than to merely 
follow the path so long trod by others. For 15 years she 
also has been actively and successfully engaged in building 
homes and operating in real estate. She has either erected 
new or rebuilt about a dozen homes in that part of the city 
where tliey live and is recognized as a capable manager, an 
agreeable neighbor and a loyal friend. 

Mr. Baldwin is a iiioiMl)er and Past Commander of Appo- 
mattox Post No. 72. Grand Army of the Republic, and also 
belongs to All Saints Episcopal church, of which he is one 
of the original members. Mrs. Baldwin was led, some thir- 
teen years ago, by personal experiences and direct benefits to 
become a Christian Scientist. She is active in the First 
Orthodox church of the sect in this city, at Second avenue 
south and Fourteenth street, which has about 200 members 
imdcr the leadership of .Abbott E. Smith. They have one 
daughter, Marion B.. wife of James Wilder, who also has a 
daughter, Dorothy Carlson Wilder. 



ALFRED PETERSON. 



Although his life ended before he reached the age of fifty 
years, the late Alfred Peterson, one of the enterprising and 
progressive builders and contractors of Minneapolis for six- 
teen or seventeen years prior to his death, made a record for 
himself as a business man and citizen in this comnninity that 
is highly creditable to him and was of substantial and endur- 
ing benefit to the city. He was born at West Jutland. Sweden, 
February 3, 1866, and died on March 28, 1912, at Albuquerque, 
New Mexico. 

At the age of fourteen, Mr. Peterson was apprenticed to the 
cabinet making trade, and at the close of his apprenticeship 
came to tlie LTnited States accompanied by his sister, Mrs. 
Anna .Johnson. They located at Lake City, Minnesota, where 
he worked for three years on the railroad as a section hand 
and for two at house carpentering. He then moved to Minne- 
apolis, and, for a time after his arrival here, was in the em- 
ploy of C. W. Lundquist, afterward becoming foreman for Eric 
Rhode. 

About 1895 he began business for himself as a contractor 
and builder, and in this line of useful endeavor he passed the 
rest of his life. His work was all done in Minneapolis. It in- 



462 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



eluded two new apartment houses at Twenty-ninth avenue and 
Tyler street, both double structures, and both belonging to 
him at the time of his death. He took a cordial and helpful 
interest in the welfare of the city, and for four years had the 
street sprinkling contract for his ward, in conne'ction with 
which he performed his duties in a manner satisfactory to the 
people of the ward. 

jVIr. Peterson was married on March 20, 1893. to Miss Julia 
Bang, of Austin, Minn. Three children were born of the union, 
Agnes G., Elvin N., and Alfred P. R. The father was a member 
of the Norwegian Lutheran church at the corner of Monroe 
and P'ifteenth streets, and also belonged to the St. Anthony 
Commercial club. He lived for a number of his last years in 
the house he built for himself at Xo. 1523 Jefferson street 
Northeast, which is still occupied by his widow and children. 
Ho was devoted to his business, but periodically sought recrea- 
tion and relief in hunting and fishing trips, although he 
never allowed these to interfere with his serious duties in life. 
He was a sturdy and serviceable citizen, and was well es- 
teemed as such in all parts of the city. 

About ten (10) years ago he built the .Swedish Baptist 
church on Madison and 13th avenue Northeast. Dnring the 
year of 1911 he erected the Norwegian Lutheran church on 
Monroe and 15th avenue Northeast. This was the last 
structure built by him and also one of the finest structures 
that he ever erected and for which he deserves great credit. 



CHARLE.S A. QUIST. 



Charles A. Qui.st was born in Denmark, on the 5th of May, 
lSfi6, and was aft'orded the advantages of the home schools 
and there he also gained practical experience in landscape 
gardening. At the age of sixteen he came to the United 
States in company with his elder brother, .Julius, who is now 
a successful railroad contractor at Everett, Washington. 
Landing in New York City on the 27th of April, 1883. they 
came to St. Paul, where Charles A. secured employment as a 
landscape gardener. Remaining three years in St. Paul and 
with a capital of thirteen dollars, he opened an oflice at the 
Union depot, Minneapolis, and tvuned his attention to the 
handling of western lands. He directed special care to pro- 
tecting and making provision for immigrants, particularly those 
of his own nationality. John H. Thompson, then the leading 
merchant tailor took a deep interest in Mr. Quist and his 
work, and through him the latter formed the acquaintance of 
Judge Vanderberg, of the Supreme Court. This distinguished 
jurist secured to Mr. Quist free privileges of the Athaneum, 
then the principal library of Minneapolis, and it is needless 
to say that he fully profited by the advantages thus af- 
forded. 

By degrees, he finally developed a substantial and profitable 
real-estate business, in which line of enterprise he has con- 
tinued to be identified. He aided greatly in the establishing 
of a Danish colony in Redwood county, where he obtained for 
the settlers lands from the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad 
Company. His reputation became established and finally im- 
migrants of all nationalities sought his advice and aid in 
securing land. 

Mr. Quist is well fortified in his political views and is a 
stalwart Democrat. He has been specially active in connec- 
tion with municipal alfairs. Being impressed by the state- 



ment of a school-girl that Minneapolis had no parks for the 
use of the people, the "keep off the grass" signs being in 
evidence in the various parks, and policemen were stationed 
to enforce this and other stringent rules, Mr. Quist be- 
lieved that such restrictions defeated the very ends for 
which public parks exist, and he determined to bring about a 
reform, if possible, by opening the parks to the full use of the 
public and also by providing band concerts therein during the 
summer months. He finally brought the appointment of a 
private civic commission, he being one of the three members, 
appointed by the mayor, the others being Walter Boutelle 
and Edward P. Capen. Through public subscription provision 
was made for band concerts in the parks, in the evenings, 
and soon the obnoxious signs of "keep off the grass" were 
removed. He has served as delegate to city, county and state 
conventions and while he has been zealous in the promotion of 
the party, he has not sought personal preferment, although 
he was made the nominee for the state senate. As foreman of 
the grand jury, Mr. Quist was active in investigation of 
municipal affairs several years ago. He was a staunch sup- 
porter of William J. Bryan, and also supported Hon. John A. 
Johnson for governor. He has served as a member of the 
state central committee, and in 1912 was a member of the 
Democratic national committee, having done much to swing 
Hennepin county into line in support of President Wilson. 
He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention of 
1895. 

Mr. Quist was the leading spirit in the organization of the 
Minnesota Danish society formed for the purpose of in- 
forming prospective immigrants concerning conditions and ad- 
vantages in America, and the building of this society, in 
Minneapolis, was saved largely through his liberality and 
efforts in 1893, when foreclosure was theatencd. He was the 
first president of the Danish Aid Assotiation of Minnesota, 
organized for the promotion of Danish customs, language, etc. 
He was a leading factor in the organization of the Odin 
Club, being one of its fifteen charter members. Of these 
he was the only Dane, seven being Swedes and seven Nor- 
wegians. 

On the 14th of .June, 1899. was solemized the marriage of 
Mr. Quist to Miss Helen C. Ryan, of Columbus, Ohio, They 
have no children, but in their home they are rearing as their 
own, a son and a daughter of Mr. Quist's sister, Leo L. 
Quist, a student in the high school, and Helen Alberta Quist. 



FRANKLIN STEELE. 



It was natural that Franklin Steele should be a leader of 
men. For he came of distinguished lineage, of a line of lead- 
ers. For three generations before him the Steeles had been 
residents of Pennsylvania, his native state. His grandfather, 
William Steele, a native of Wales, settled in Lancaster county, 
Pennsylvania, in 1750. Mrs. Steele was of Scotch parents of 
the name of Kerr. And the William Steeles reared a re- 
markable family. Two, Archibald and .John, were officers in 
the Revolution, and men of distinguished bravery and leader- 
ship. William, another son, was high in the councils of his 
native state. James was a general in the war of 1812, being 
inspector general of the Pennsylvania state troops throughout 
the war. 

Franklin Steele was the son of General .Iamc<S Steele. He 



HISTORY OF .MIXXKAPOLIS AND IIENXKl'IX COrXTV, .MIXXESOTA 



4G3 



was born May 12. 1816, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, and 
passod )iis early life in the association of the leading families 
of the time. That he was one of the representative young 
men of the state is attested by the fact that he was chosen 
by his associates to go to General Andrew Jackson, when 
that doughty warrior became presiilent. and to pay the re- 
spects of his associates to the president. It was during this 
visit that young Steele attracted more than piussing notice 
on the part of the president, who, noting Mr. Steele's fine 
((ualities, both mental aiul physical, counselled with the young 
nmn that he go west and take a part in carving common- 
wealths out of the rich wilderness. The young man acted 
upon this advice, and in 1837 came to the territory that iu)w 
includes Wisconsin and Minnesota. lie came, early in that 
year, to Fort Snelling. 

First of his enterprises was his settlement at the Kalis of 
St. t'roix. To this point he pmcceded by canoe from I'ort 
Snelling, down the Mississippi to the mouth of the St. Croix 
and up that river to the falls. He laid claim there to the water- 
power site, and erected a claim cabin of logs. Meanwhile 
General Dodge was making a treaty with the Indians, to cover 
cession of land about the two rivers. And in Sejitember of 
that year, while Mr. Steele was at St. Croix, the Indians 
went to Washington and there signed a treaty which ceded 
lands about F'ort Snelling. Mr. Steele was one of the first 
to take advantage of the opportunities which the treaty 
opened up. One story has Iiim hurrying by canoe in 1838, 
from St. Croix down the river of that name and up the Mis- 
sissippi to Fort Snelling. and thence, by night, up the Missis- 
sippi farther, even to Meeker's Island. It is the account which 
has him pacing out the boundaries of his claim on the east 
side of the river, along the Falls of St. Anthony, and erect- 
ing a claim cabin by moonlight, before the dawn. Other ac- 
counts of the first Settlement are not so dramatic, but seem 
to be better accepted as facts. It is definitely stated, at any 
rate, that it was on .Tune 20, 1838. that news reached I'ort 
Snelling that the United States senate had ratified the treaty 
with the Indians, but it was not until July 15 that official 
notice arrived. And it was in September that Mr. Steele be- 
came definitely identified with St. Anthony to the extent of 
disposing of his holdings at St. Croix and centering his for- 
tunes at St. Anthony. Land which is now the principal part 
of the military reservation of Fort Snelling came into his 
possession; and it w-as at the Fort or adjacent to it that he 
made his home. 

For the first decade of his life in the west, with the ex- 
ception of visits to the Fast. Mr. Steele gave his attention 
to trading. F'or a long time he was the greatest trader of 
the region; indeed, his business came to be of such a volume 
that it exceeded the combined business income of the mer- 
chants down the Mississippi as far as and including Galena. 
It was not until 1848 that Mr. Steele began to develop the 
holdings on the east bank of the Mississippi river, near St. 
Anthony F'alls. He erected there the first sawmill on the 
east side of the river. 

Beside his leadership in commercial alVairs. Mr. Steele was 
one of the foremost men of culture and refinement, who looked 
to the creation of the finer institutions of the state. It was 
he who, in IS.Il, obtained a site for the preparatory depart- 
ment of the University of Minnesota, and he was the largest 
contributor toward the erection of its first building. 

Along with his other enterprises, Mr. Steele was siitler at 
Fort Snelling, and his life there was lived in contaict with the 



foremost soldiers and t)tlicrs who had a part in making Uie 
territory out of the wilderness. His business extended from 
Lake Superior to Galena, and from the Mississippi river to 
the Missouri. He traded in great volumes of commodities of 
the time, with the Indians. And he clung to his principle 
that it was given to him to lead men in the development of 
a great manufacturing city at the Falls of St. Anthony, 
with their enormous possibilities in water power. 

During this decade following the Indian treaties in 1838, 
.Mr. Steele held fast to his claim and to ownership in lands ad- 
jacent to F'ort Snelling. The government was slow to open 
it or at least to give title. And at times it was only as a 
squatter that Mr. Steele held to his land, but his pertinacity 
was rewarded at last by the giving of complete o\niership. 
His foresight was no greater than his grasp of things of the 
time. It was when he decided to erect a sawmill at the F'alls 
that he sent east to Maine for Ard Godfrey to come west and, 
as a millwright, to direct the building of his mill and water- 
power. But Mr. Steele did not wait for Godfrey; he had the 
work started and well under way as to the waterpower dam, 
before Godfrey arrived. 

To the west side of the river, in 184!), came John H, 
Stevens. At fir.st he lived at F'ort Snelling. and was employed 
by Steele, the Sutler and trader. Then he came up the river, 
and in partnership with Steele he establislied himself on the 
west side. It .is worthy of note that the two men went into 
partnership here, and the fourth store which bid for the 
trade of the settlers was that of Steele and Stevens. 

It was Franklin Steele, who. beside heading the movement 
to erect the University, likewise, after running a ferry for 
many years at the F'ort, set about to have a bridge constructed 
linking St. Anthony and Minneapolis. The suspension bridge 
was built — the first bridge to span the great river between 
Lake Itasca and the Gulf of Mexico. And this, too, even 
when Jlr. Steele did not know whether full title to the land 
on the west side of the river would be given by the govern- 
ment. But he went ahead with the suspension bridge work, 
and it was to his energy that the people of the young cities 
by the Falls owed its completion, to the joy of the people who 
used it and to the pride of the people who lived at its ter- 
minal on either side of the river. 

So continued Franklin Steele's life until the time of the 
Civil War. And it was when the Sioux Indians rose to mas- 
sacre the whites that Franklin .Steele placed himself fearlessly 
at the head of an expedition sent out to the relief of the 
fugitives and refugees. 

Meanwhile the institutions of the primitive city and the good 
interests of the territory attracted Mr. Steele's attention. Be- 
side helping to build the first school or college building erected 
at the University, Mr. Steele was the first president of the 
board of regents of that college. He took an active part in 
affairs connected with the public ofiices, though never ac- 
cepting office himself, except for the regency oflice. He gave 
generously to the churches, not limiting himself to the Pres- 
byterian church, in which he had been brought up and educated. 
From the time of the early sixties, and e.specially as soon as 
the country had begun to recover itself after the terrible years 
of the Civil War, Mr. Steele was one of the first citizens of 
Minneapolis in every movement for the upbuilding, for the 
bettermi'nt of the city. 

Mr. Steele's life was marked not merely by industry and by 
public spiritedness as well as by the hardships that char- 
acterized existence in the wild country, but by romance that 



464 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



made life in the new country the finer for its companionships. 
In 1843, after he had passed the better part of four years in 
the wilderness and at the fort, Mr. Steele went east and mar- 
ried, in Baltimore, Miss Anne Barney, daughter of William C. 
Barney and granddaughter of Samuel Chase, one of the sign- 
ers of the Declaration of Independence. His bride was in her 
eighteenth year; she was a reigning belle of Washington, 
Baltimore and the East, and her family connections were 
among the most aristocratic in the land. Mr. Steele brought 
his bride to Fort Snelling, and there for a time they lived, 
figuring in all the brilliant social events — brilliant for 
the time — that marked life at the frontier post. To them 
were born five children. And as these grew up, they played a 
prominent part in the social life of the community. Mr. 
Steele's Sister had married General Henry H. Sibley, one of 
the early officers in the new territory. Another was the 
wife of Gen. R. W. Johnson, famous among the nation's soldiers. 
And naturally the Steeles were among the first families of the 
fort and of the settlements at the Falls. 

F'or four decades Franklin Steele's hand was one of those 
which guided the destinies of the settlement, of the villages, 
of the city, at the Falls of St. Anthony. He took part in the 
large councils of the times; he was sought out for business 
as well as political advice; and he became one of the great 
real estate operators of the period. He amassed two for- 
tunes; and when he passed away he left what was estimated 
at the time to be <\'orth two millions of dollars. He has been 
honored by the giving of his name to one of the counties of 
Minnesota, and in his city there is a beautiful park which is 
known as Franklin Steele square. 

Mr. Steele's death occurred September 10, 1880, in the city 
for which he had done so much, and in which his Interest 
centered. True, he had become a resident of Georgetown, a 
suburb of Washington, but this was in order that his family 
might have the advantages of life in the East. Mr. Steele 
himself continued to speak of Minneapolis as his home, and 
it was while he was on a business trip to this city in 1880 
that he was fatally stricken, while riding down Hennepin 
avenue with an old friend, Captain John Tapper, the man 
who ran the first ferryboat across the river at Minneapolis. 
He was buried in the beautiful Oak Hill cemetery at Wash- 
ington. His wife followed him there within six months. 



DANIEL S. B. JOHNSTON. 



In the personality of Daniel S. B, Johnston, of St. Paul, 
long one of the leading citizens of Minnesota, all who have 
knowledge of him recognize a remarkable force, and none is 
surprised that he has had an influence notably broad, deep 
and far-reaching in the development and progress of the city 
and state of his home and their institutions. And if his excep- 
tional intellectual power, readiness in resources and 
unyielding firmness of fiber are inherited, he is deserving of 
no loss of credit on that account, for he has used them to the 
best advantage for himself and the community around him, 
and made their fruitage all that his circumstances have 
allowed. 

Mr. Johnston's progenitors in the paternal line were early 
New York and New Jersey colonists of Revolutionary service 
and rank and of Scotch and Dutch origin. He was born in the 
state of New York on May 17, 18.32, and from his very boy- 



hood a vigorous ambition distinguished him from most of 
his associates. He was educated at the Delaware Literary 
Institute, at Franklin, New York, and at the earliest possible 
age began teaching school as a means of earning his living 
and making his way in the world. The West seemed to hold 
out an inviting hand to him and he came to Galena, Illinois, 
at the time a transportation center and a place of consider- 
able im])ortance, and from there he made a trip to St. Paul 
on the '"Lady Franklin," arriving on July 21, 1855. From St. 
Paul he came to St. Anthony, and here he soon afterward 
opened a school which became the germ of the present State 
University. 

In 1856 the .young pedagogue, whose vision swept regions 
of constructive action and development far beyond the range 
of ordinary country school teaching, undertook, in company 
with four of his friends, the project of starting a new town 
in the wilderness, where the Bois des Sioux and Otter Tail 
rivers unite to form the Red River of the North, which they 
designed to call Breckenridge, and near which the town of 
that name has since been built. Only three of the five adven- 
turers made the trip to the proposed townsite, and they and 
the oxen which drew their wagon suflfered untold hardships, 
joui-neying for thirty-one days in an extremely cold season 
through snowdrifts often eight feet deep, fifteen rods wide 
and crusted to a depth of four inches. The experiment was 
altogether disastrous except in its psychological eflfect upon 
Mr. Johnston's development in judgment and financial acumen. 
The next encounter with Fate which Mr. Johnston experi- 
enced was as conspicuous in success as his former one was 
in failure. Journalism was one of his especial talents, and he 
turned to it with ardor. He was first associated in this field 
with Judge Atwater, who later sold his interest in the enter- 
prise to him and C. H. Slocum. They were together for 
about three years, and during this period their paper. The St. 
Anthony Express, became very successful and widely and 
favorably known. Next Mr. Johnston investigated the possi- 
bilities of the milling industry, but, instead of engaging in 
it he accepted a position aS bookkeeper for Orrin Curtis, 
who was agent of a steamboat company on the levee, and 
also a prominent insurance agent in those days. 

In that position he gained a broader business experientee, 
and it fitted him well for the next post he assumed, which 
was that of state agent in Minnesota for the Phoenix Life 
In>iurance company of Hartford, Connecticut, the salary 
attached to which was $1,000 a year, a good one for the 
year 18fi4. His success in the work brought him an advance 
to $2,500 a year as state agent for the same company in 
Kentucky. He worked in Kentucky until he had the affairs 
of the company in that state in good condition and then 
resigned to take the position of special agent for the Mutual 
Life Insurance company of New York, with headquarters 
in St. Paul. 

In 1808 Mr. Johnston was made Western superintendent 
of the Widows and Orphans branch of this company's busi- 
ness at a salary of $5,000 a year. His field was at that 
time enlarged to twelve states, which rendered a central 
location at Richmond, Indiana, the most advisable. In that 
region fever and ague so impaired his health that he was 
compelled in 18T2 to return to St. Paul. He then became 
vice-president and general manager of the Minnesota Mutual 
Life Insurance company, of which General H. H. Sibley was 
president and some of the most prominent men in Minnesota 
were directors. But his health did not materially improve. 




>^(MZm^ 




/\J. ■ y^/rf // ji f//i 1^ /(■ A iij/< 1/ 






HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



465 



and in 1875 un aecount of it he was obliged to resign liis 
j>osition. He then started a t'aim loan ageney, and in that 
business he loaned nearly $2,500,000 for Kastern investors. 
This loan ageney was the foundation of the land business in 
wliii'h he and his sons are now engaged. 

In the fall of 1S98 Mr. Johnston and his sons bought 
470,000 acres of land east of the .James river in North Da- 
kota. Their holdings previous to that mammoth purchase, 
together with what they have since acquired, have aggre- 
gated about 200,000 acres more. Since 1898 they have dis- 
posed ol about all but 140.000 acres and have placed a 
jiopulation of more tlian 30,000 persons in Minnesota and 
the Dakotas. Mr. Johnston is president of the Urm, which is 
known as the D. S. B. Johnston Land company. Its other 
successful enterprises include a large lumber yard, a bank and 
two grain elevators (70,000 bushels capacity) at Marion, North 
Dakota. 

Mr. .JolmstonNi activities are not bounded by his business 
atl'airs. but extend into many spheres of religious, benevolent, 
litrrary and municipal work. He is one of the founders 
and zealous workers of the People's church, was co-worker 
with his first wife in organizing the Woman's Christian 
Home of St. I'aul, built the Mary .Johnston Memorial Hos- 
[lital in Manila, and donated to the Young Women's Chris- 
tian A.ssociation of St. I'auI tlie costly site on which its 
imposing building now stands. Among the most .valuable 
of the publications of the Minnesota Historical Society is his 
elaborate and accurate "History of Minnesota Journalism," 
a highly important work which but for his inteiest and dili- 
gence in its |)roduction would have been neglected until too 
late for its accomplishment. Many other lines of useful 
public service have been made vital and efficient tlirou;,'h liis 
efforts. 

Mr. Johnston's lirst marriage was with Miss Hannah C. 
Stanton. To them were born two sons, Charles and A. D. 
S. Johnston, who are now their father's closest associates in 
liusiness. Their mother died in 1879, and two years later 
the father married Miss Mary J. King, of Canandaigua, New 
York. Her death occurred in 1905, and in 1909 Mr. John- 
ston contracted a third marriage which united hira with Miss 
ICda Worth, also of Canandaigua, New York. 



MRS. D.\NTEL S. B. .JOHNSTON. 

Hannah Collin Stanton, who bciume the lirst wife of Daniel 
S. B. Johnston, of St. Paul. Minnesota, on .January 1, 1859, 
and whose name is reverc<l as that of one of the noblest and 
most useful women who ever lived in this state, was born 
in North Carolina October 10, 1839. She was of Quaker 
lineage and the daughter of Dr. Nathan and Ruth H. 
(Coffin) Stanton. Soon after her birth her parents moved 
to near Richmond, Indiana, and from there they came to St. 
Anthony in the summer of 1855. In August of that year 
Miss Stanton was a pupil of her future husband in the pre- 
paratory department of the T'niversity of Minnesota, the 
building in which the school was kept being on the site on 
which the Minneapolis Exposition building was afterward 
erected. 

The life work of this noble woman culminated in the 
organization of the Women's CIirLstian Home, one of St. 
Paul's most beneficent charitable institutions. To its estab- 



lishment she devoted so much of her physical strength, men- 
tal energy and nervous force that her life was ended on 
January 10, 1879, at the early age of thirty-nine, but she 
lived long enough to see the creation of her foresight and 
benevolence and child of her ardent hopes lirmly fixed on 
a solid foundation, from which it has since grown to large 
proportions. 

The Woman's Christian Association was started by Mrs. 
Johnston in June, 1872, and organized on July 22, the same 
year, and she was elected its first president. The membership 
soon numbered 117 and was made up of active lady mem- 
bers of the different churches of St. Paul. An industrial 
school, said to be the first in the city, was organized, and 
there were about fifty girls in attendance at various times 
during the first year. A Helping Hand Society also was 
started, and some thirty women and children were assisted 
before the close of its first year. 

These enterprises opened the way to another, the great 
need of which soon became manifest. One day in December, 
1872, a girl of sixteen went to Mrs. Johnston for help. Her 
father had died when she was six months old and her 
mother when she was two years old. She was homeless, with 
no kin on earth that she knew, betrayed, and a vicious out- 
cast, untruthful, foul-mouthed and thievish. Mrs. John- 
ston helped and saved her. One by one other tempted and 
fallen girls came, until in August, 1873, five inmates of 
houses of ill fame came in a body, seeking help to turn from 
their evil ways. Then Mrs. Johnston saw that either a 
refuge for such girls had to be provided or they had to be 
told that the Christian women of St. Paul could do nothing 
for them. Her line of duty lay plain and open before her, 
and without hesitation she determined to enter upon it at once. 

On August 27, 1873, at a meeting of forty members of the 
Woman's Christian Association called for consultation, over 
which Mrs. .Johnston presided, and which her mother. Mrs. 
Ruth H. Stanton, addressed, steps were taken for the selec- 
tion of a board of managers for the Christian Home of Min- 
nesota, the board to be composed of twelve ladies. At the 
election of officers which followed on August 31, Mrs. D. 
H. Valentine was chosen president of the board, but she 
declined to serve and Mrs. Johnston was obliged to take 
Iicr pl.ice. She could not do justice to both positions, and 
feeling Specially called to rescue work, she resigned the 
presidency of the Woman's Christian Association. 

The Home was opened October 20. 1873, with two inmates. 
Soon another applicant for help eamv from one of the dens 
of the city, then another and othei^ until the little house 
was crowded. Aid came in financial contributions from 
business men and other sources. Init still the drains on the 
treasury were heavy, and by February. 1874. it was empty. 
I'nder the advice of William P. Murray, whose wife was a 
member of the board of managers, an appeal was made to 
the state legislature, then in session, for aid, the appeal be- 
ing based on the ground that the institution was statewide 
in its aims and helps. The pleadings by this band of 
devoted women brought a state appropriation of $1,500, 
which, with the sum of nearly $400 made by selling meals 
at the state fair. lifted the institution temporarily out of 
its difficulties. 

On November 5, 1S74. Jfrs. .Johnston was re-elected presi- 
dent. In December, at the solicitatiim of her husband, who 
saw the disastrous etfeet of the strain on her health, she 
tendered her resignation, but the managers opposed her 



466 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



retirement from the office so earnestly that she was induced 
to remain in it. Another year of increased work and re- 
sponsibility followed, and as the next annual meeting and 
election approached, Mrs. Johnston again resigned and made 
her action imperative. She got no vacation, however, for she 
was placed at the head of the board of managers, and her 
work went on. 

On July 14, 1877, Mrs. Johnston and Mrs. C. D. Strong 
were appointed a committee to go out into the state, present 
the interests of the Home and establish auxiliary societies 
where they were most desirable. Such societies were estab- 
lished at Mankato, St. Charles, Farmiiigton, Stillwater, Lake 
City, Northtield, Hastings, Wabasha, Rochester, Reed's Land- 
ing, Red Wing and Winona. From this long tour the com- 
mittee returned with a bill of only $11.73 for traveling ex- 
penses. Mrs. Johnston was again elected president January 
3, 1878, although she protested against the action, and 
December 5, 1878, she was once more chosen. But she was 
already engaged in a desperate struggle for life in her last 
illness, and on January 10, 1879, she died, a martyr to the 
work of founding and building up the St. Paul Woman's 
Christian Home. As a mark of respect for her worth her 
place as president was not filled by election until the next 
annual meeting in November. 1879. On January 14. that 
year, at a special meeting of the members of the Home, the 
following resolutions were adopted, with many expressions 
and manifestations of grief and heavy personal loss: 

"Resolved, That in the death of our beloved president, 
Mrs. D. S. B. Johnston, the Woman's Christian Home has lost 
a most zealous and earnest supporter and untiring friend. 

"Resolved, That while we recognize the hand of God in 
removing this valued friend and co-worker from our number 
we sincerely mourn the loss of her example in the exercise 
of that loving charity and Christlike forgiveness and for- 
bearance, which ever emanated from her life, and that it 
shall be our prayer that her death be Sanctified to our good 
in the exercise of greater zeal and faith and to the eternal 
good of the inmates of the Home and of that class for whom 
she so faithfully labored and prayed. 

"Resolved, That in her death the poor, tlie unfortunate 
and the erring have lost a faithful friend and every good 
work a waiin advocate. 

"Resolved, That we extend to the bereaved family our warm- 
est sympathy in their affliction; that while they mourn the 
light and joy gone out from their family circle, they mourn 
not as those without hope, knowing that their loss is her 
infinite gain. 

"Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the 
bereaved family, and that copies be sent also to the city 
papers for publication." 



RICHARD .JUNIUS MENDKNHALL. 

Surveyor, land agent, banker, horticulturist, florist and pro- 
moter; zealous in church work and active in efforts to ad- 
vance the welfare of others, and an exemplar of elevated 
and useful citizenship, the late Richard J. Mendcnhall, who 
died in Minneapolis October 19. 1906, when he had almost 
completed his seventy-eighth year, contributed to the growth 
and improvement of this city in many ways. 

Mr. Mendenhall's first American ancestor came to this 



country with William Penn. His great-grandson was Richard 
Mendenliall, an extensive tanner at Jamestown, North Caro- 
lina, whose wife was Mary Pegg, a member of a Welch 
family that came to America in early Colonial days. They 
were the parents of Richard .Junius Mendcnhall. He was 
born at Jamestown, North Carolina, November 25, 1828. He 
attended a boarding school at New Garden, and a Friends 
school at Providence, Rhode Island, passing his vacations in 
the White Mountains, where he met Cyrus Beede. A warm 
friendship resulting they later became partners in business 
in Minneapolis. He taught for a time at West Falmouth, 
Massachusetts, and there first met the lady who became his 
wife. 

Richard Fox, of Jamaica, Long Island, employed him to 
go to Ohio to take charge of the books, time records and 
supplies of a crew of men building a railroad tunnel, and he 
was later engaged on similar work in North Carolina, in asso- 
ciation with his brother. Dr. Nereus ilendenhall. His next 
engagement was with a surveying company in Iowa, carrying 
the surveyor's chain, but in one month was at the head of 
the party. In 1856, he came to St. Paul by river and thence 
to St. Anthony by stage, his baggage being brought across the 
river in a wheelbarrow. 

Cyrus Beede came to Minneapolis a year later, and tlie firm 
of Beede & Mendenhall, loans and banking, was then formed. 
This firm passed the panic of 1857 successfully, preserving its 
credit without abatement, and continued business on an ex- 
panding Scale. In November, 1862, Mr. Mendenhall became 
prtisident of the State Bank of Minnesota. This was later 
merged into the State National Bank of Minneapolis, of 
which he was also president until 1875. The State Savings 
Bank of Minneapolis was started in 1866, with him as presi- 
dent. In 1873, owing to the panic, it was forced to suspend, 
and was then merged in Mr. Mendenhall's private bank. He 
assumed all its liabilities and in time paid off nearly all the 
claims against it. In 1862 he was town treasurer, and he 
also served as secretary and treasurer of the board of educa- 
tion for four years, and was trustee of the Minneapolis Female 
Seminary. 

February 11, 1858, he married Miss Abby G. Swift, a 
daughter of Captain Silas Swift, of West Falmouth, Massa- 
chusetts, and on his wedding tour visited his old North 
Carolina home. Mrs. Mcndcnjiall was one of the corps of 
ladies who collected and distributed clothing and other sup- 
plies to the victims of the Indian outbreak. She assisted in 
forming an aid society, out of which has grown the Women's 
Christian Association. The Northwestern Hospital for 
Women and Children had its origin in the Friends' Meeting 
of which she was a member, and in 1875, in company with 
Mrs, T. B. Walker, Mrs. Van Cleve and other ladies, she 
helped to establish the Bethany Home, of which she was a 
ti'ustee, guardian and treasurer until her death. Slie was also 
for many years clerk of the Friends' Quarterly Meeting and 
one of its delegates to district and national conferences. 
There were no children, but the home was ever open to all 
comers, and an abiding place of the kindliest sympathy. The 
lady of the household was full of cheer and an exemplar of 
all that was good and beautiful in the social amenities of 
life. Her death occurred .January 9, 1900. 

Mr. Mendenhall passed the last twenty years of life at 
his home at Stevens avenue and Kighteenth street. There he 
had a block devoted ,to the cultivation of flowers, and at 
other places had fifty greenhouses for the same work, rais- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



467 



ing their products for tommercial purposes and employing.' 
reguliirly thirty to fifty persons. During one severe winter 
his eoal bill was about $8,000. He was the pioneer llorist of 
the Xorthwest and his sales extended all over this part of 
the country. One of his greenhouses was given up entirely to 
palms and anotlier to orchids. Of the latter he had an ex- 
cellent variety, sparing no expense to make it as complete 
and choice as possible, even paying as much as $1,000 for 
a particularly desirable specimen. He continued his extensive 
operations as a lloriculturist until about a year before death, 
which came on October 19. 1906. Throughout his life he was 
deeply and practically interested in all advanced ideas, helped 
to organize and build the Milwaukee and the Minneapolis cS: 
St. Louis railroads, contributed to all clubs and musical and 
literary societies, and, although he and his wife were Quakers 
of strong conviction, even the Catholic churches reserved pews 
for them. 

In February, 1.S8-4, he and wife made a trip to old Ifexico, 
and while there visited a mission thoy had establislied at 
Gomez Farias, and which they supported until her death, lie 
afterward made a second trip to Mexico and Yucatan in com- 
pany with his brother, Dr. Nereus Mendenhall, of North Caro- 
lina, and, while in Merida, Yucatan, they were guests of the 
American consul. lie became interested in old Aztec his- 
tory in connection with his favorite Studies of entomology. 
horticulture and floriculture. But he was an omniverous 
reader and had a wonderfully retentive memory. He was a 
member of the State Horticultural Society and, at one time 
owned a farm of 4,000 acres near Hector. 

Mr. Mendenhall claimed descent from Pocahontas, and lie 
had some traits of the Indian character. His feelings toward 
the red men were cordial and their chiefs held councils in his 
ofTice. He was also an intense opponent of human slavery, 
and, at one time bought a slave boy of fourteen from an 
uncle in North Carolina in order to free him. After the Civil 
war he brought other negroes north and some of them lived 
with and worked for him. He was one of the fcmnders of 
Lakewood cemetery, in which his remains were intered. 

Mr. and Mrs. Mendenhall had no children, but they reared 
Abby Wiggins, a daughter of Mrs. Sarah C. (Swift) Wiggins, 
a sister of Mrs. Mendenhall, whom they took into their fam- 
ily when she was eight years old. She is now the wife of 
George S. Murtfeldt, who was manager of Mr. Mendcnliall's 
greenhouses for many years, but now is in credit department 
of Donaldson's store. His sister. Miss Mary Murfeldt, of St. 
Louis, was a celebrated government entomologist and the 
author of several text books on the subje'ct. She died in 
February, 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Murtfeldt were married in 
October, 1889, in the Friends' meeting house at Eighth street 
and Hennepin avenue, according to the rites of the Society 
of Friends. They have one daughter, Gertrude, a student 
I in the high school. 



CLARENCE M. RAWITZEK. 

ICIarence M. Rawitzer is the son of William Kawitzer a 
ivil War Veteran who won honor and promotion from the 
Inks in the Forty-First Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteers, 
iter the war he engaged in the mercantile business at 
naha. His wife was Sophia Erdiiian. i)f I'lattville, Wiscon- 



Their son, Clarence M., was born in Omaha, Nebraska, 
November 2, 1868. He was educated in the public schools 
of Omaha and while he was still young engaged in the tent 
and awning business. He organized a company in 1886, and 
operated a factory there for several years and until he 
decided to come to Minneapolis, in 1897. 

The American Tent and Awning Company (then at First 
avenue, North and Second street), which is one of the pros- 
perous concerns of the city, at once engaged his attention 
and he assumed its active management. Six years later the 
capacity of the plant had been so thoroughly outgrown that 
it became necessary to secure the present location at 307, 
309 and 311 Washington avenue, where a three-story build- 
ing, 66 by 70 feet in area, is wholly utilized. The business 
extends over the West and Northwest and has become one of 
the largest in the line west of Cliicago. The trade has so 
expanded that a force of traveling salesmen is necessary, 
so that the American Tent and Awning Company stands in 
the front rank of Minneapolis business enterprises. 

Jlr. Rawitzer is of domestic tastes and thoroughly demo- 
oratic in disposition. He is popular among business associates 
and is an active member of the Minneapolis Athletic Club. 
He is a thirty-second degree Mason, a Knight Templar, and 
an active Shriner. He is also a member of several social 
clubs, including the Rotary, the Interlachen, the Auto, and 
the Minneapolis Uoat and Athletic. He is also past com- 
mander of tlie Minnesota Division of the Son of Veterans of 
the Civil War. 

Mr. Rawitzer married an Omaha girl. Miss Lizzie M. Keclcr, 
and they have one daughter, Genevieve. 



ERNEST RLBIiERT. 



For a man to enter an untried business or craft for whifeh 
he has had no training and of which he has neither practical 
nor technical knowledge and yet make a striking success of 
it is very unusual in human experience. And yet. that is in 
brief the business record of Ernest Rubbert of Minneapolis, 
secretary and superintendent of the Flour City Ornamental 
Iron Company, whose progress has been phenomenal and 
whose business is now one of the most extensive of its kind 
in the Initcd States. What this company has achieved and 
the expansion it has enjoyed is set forth at some length and 
with details in a sketch of William Burns, its vice-president 
and sales manager, which will be found elsewhere in this 
volume. Mr. Rubbert's work in connection with it, besides 
being an essential element in its success and highly tredit- 
able to American art and enterprise in general, is particularly 
creditable to him and worthy of special mention. 

Ernest Rubbert was born in Niagara county. New York, on 
July 17, 1865, and is a son of August and Fridiricka Rubbert, 
natives of Germany. In 1873 they brought their family to 
Minnesota and located on a farm in Washington county, where 
his father died; his mother M still living there. Their son 
Ernest received a common school education and at the age of 
twenty, began learning the carpenter trade. In a few years 
he became a building contractor and carried on a profitable 
business as such until he tame to Minneapolis to become 
connected with his present business. 

Mr. Rubbert began studying ornamental iron work practi- 
cally as an apprentice, his brother-in-law, Eugene Tetzlaff, 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



468 

who married his wife's sister, being president of the company 
and eager to give the new comer every advantage he could 
for liis advancement. To state tliat Mr. Rubbert has been 
the secretary of the company during the last nine years and 
the superintendent of its work for nearly the same length of 
time would give some idea of his importance in connection 
with it. 

It was through his efforts that his company established a 
night school for the use of its employees. In this school in- 
struction is given in drawing and mathematics which are very 
essential in the work of the company. This instruction is of 
great value to both the employee a.nd the company and a large 
class is now attending. There are no tuition fees and any 
employee may attend, but it is especially intended for the 
instruction of the apprentices. 

The company encourages all its employes to offer sugges- 
tions for the advancement of its interests and the perfection 
of its work, and has in use a system of profit sharing for its 
employes which adds substantially to the wages of many of 
them, some drawing salaries that would be tempting to many 
professional men. The detail production work of the multi- 
tudinous designs and articles of manufacture passes directly 
under Mr. Rubbert's supervision, but he has able assistants 
in each department. 

Mr. Rubbert was married twenty years ago to Miss Augusta 
Haase, a native of Washington county, Minnesota, and a sister 
of the' wife of his partner, Eugene Tetzlaff. They have three 
Children, Adolf, Myrtle and Clarence. The parents have been 
careful in rearing their offspring, giving them the best at- 
tainable practical education and impressing them with the value 
of warm interest in the welfare of their community and of 
square dealing in all their transactions. 

Mr. Rubbert himself is a very progressive and public- 
spirited man, and his citizenship is highly valued by the 
people around him. He is not an active partisan in political 
affairs, although firmly attached to the Democratic party in 
national elections. In local affairs he considers first and almost 
solely the welfare of his city and county. 



WILLIAM BVRNKS. 



The late William Byrnes, who died on his farm within 
what i.s now the limits of Minneapolis, in 1S67, was one of 
the best educated and most inlluential residents of St. 
Anthony and Minneapolis in their early history. He helped 
to organize the township in which he lived, served it well in 
several local offices, put the forces in motion for the found- 
ing of its schools and gave the land on which some were con- 
ducted, and in many other ways contributed essentially and 
liberally in time, labor, and material assistance in laying the 
foundations of its civil institutions and starting it on its 
career of rapid progress and vast industrial and commercial 
power. He was well known and highly esteemed by all the 
residents of the township in his day, and enjoyed extensive 
and well deserved popularity throughout the county. 

Jlr. Byrnes was born in Ireland in 1825 and obtained a very 
good education in his native land. In his young manhood 
there- he was employed in making government surveys as a 
civil engineer, and during the progress of this work in the 
County Kilkenny he became intimately acquainted with Miss 
Catherine Campbell, who according to a previous mutual 



agreement, afterward followed him to America, and became 
his wife. He came over in 1849 and located at Rome, New 
York, where he again engaged in civil engineering. The next 
year Miss Campbell joined him at Rome and their marriage 
took place in that town. 

While living in the State of New York, by a lucky chance 
or in the order of Providence, Mr. Byrnes formed the ac- 
quaintance of Judge Isaac Atwater, later the renowned 
Minnesota jurist and brilliant historian of Minneapolis, and 
by' that eminent man was, in 1850, persuaded to transfer his 
residence from the banks of the Mohawk to those of the 
Mississippi and become a resident of St. Anthony. For a 
time after his arrival in this locality he was employed as a 
log scaler and lumber salesman by Farnham & Lovejoy. In 
1851 he pre-empted 160 acres of land on what is now Hum- 
boldt Avenue and West to Penn Avenue, around the inter- 
section of Chestnut Street and Sixth Avenue North. He 
made his home on his claim in a little log shanty, and was 
always there on Saturday night, although absent most of 
the time. About 500 Sioux Indians camped in the neigh- 
boring woods, and on one occasion killed a deer in his cow- 
pen and gave his wife some of the venison it yielded. 

After three or four years he began to cultivate his land and 
soon had sixty acres under the plow. When the Civil war 
was in progress he enlisted in Company K, Tenth Minnesota 
Volunteer Infantry, of which company he was the first lieu- 
tenant. In 1862 his company formed a part of General 
Sibley's expedition against the hostile Sioux Indians, and 
during during its continuance Mr. Byrnes slept in the same 
tent with George A. Brackett. He participated in the capture 
of several hundred of the Indians, including the thirty-eight 
braves who had been particularly infamous during the up- 
rising and was in command of a company of guards at then- 
execution in Mankato, where they were all hanged on the 
same scaffold. 

In the spring of 1863 Lieutenant Byrnes was sent to the 
South with his regiment. The men in his company had en- 
listed largely through his infiuence. nearly all of them being 
of Irish nativity or ancestry. After much active and gallant 
service, he was discharged from the army in Aug\ist, 1865, 
and returned home in time to take part in the election of 
county officers for Hennepin County. He was elected sheriff 
on the "Soldiers' ticket" and took charge of the office in 
.Tanuary, 1867, but he did not live to complete his term. His 
health had been shattered by the hardships of his military 
service, and in November, 1867, he died at the age of 42, 
leaving to his widow the care of seven children, the eldest 
of whom was a daughter sixteen years. 

Mrs. Byrnes assumed her great responsibility with courage 
and met all its requirements with constancy and fidelity. 
She retained the farm, kept her children together and edu- 
cated them in the city schools, increased the value of her 
property, and added to the expansion and improvement of 
Minneapolis by laying out on her land Byrnes' Addition, of 
twenty-three acres. Her husband had sold twenty acres to 
the Episcopal Church for a cemetery, but the land was never 
used for that purpose, and at the time of her death, in 1906, 
the whole farm was within the city limits. She was a devout 
and zealous member of the Church of the Immaculate Con- 
ception, and was very charitable in her disposition, ever 
thoughtful of the poor and always had some person outside 
of her family under her special care. 

Mr. and ilrs. Byrnes were the parents of seven children. 



i 




HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND IIENNEIMN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



469 



six of whom are living. Kllcii is now the wife of Bernard 
iiarnurd, a clotliier in Minnvapolis. Anna is the wife of R. 
L. Whitney, and also a resident of this city. Mary married 
W. L. McCirath, of .St. Paul, and died in 1906 Theresa is 
Mrs. C. C. Schuyler and lives in Fargo, North Dakota. Wil- 
liam J. is one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Minne- 
apolis, a sketch of him appears elsewhere. Hugh is a 
ranchman in Idaho, and Celia is the wife of A. S. Hefl'clfinger, 
of Minneapolis. 

Mr. Byrnes was always a zealous promoter of the cause of 
public education. The first school north of the center of 
Minneapolis was started on his farm and kept for a number 
of years in the front room of his house. Children from 
Crystal Lake, Golden City, and other localities attended it, 
and from it have developed all the schools in the western part 
of the city, the Harrison, Sumner, Bryn ilawr, and Lincoln 
schools all being located in the original district. After the 
Civil war he donated land for a school in District No. 89. 
The house in this district was burned down in 1ST2 and later 
a new one was built farther back. 



J. WARREN ROBERTS. 



.J. Warren Roberts conducts the business of a funeral 
director from his choice and well equipped establishment at 
913 First avenue south, where he has been engaged in it 
during the last four years, after having followed it for an 
equal period at another location in this city, and for nearly 
thrice that length of time in other states in a distant 
section of the country. 

Mr. Roberts was born in Granville, Massachusetts, on March 
24, 1872, and until he was thirty-three years of age lived in 
New England, or that vicinity. He obtained his academic 
education in his native state, and there also acquired practi- 
cal and technical knowledge of his calling, which he followed 
four years in Norwich, Connecticut, and seven in Burlington, 
Vermont. He also passed a short time in it in the state 
of New York. He became a resident of Minnca])olis in 
1905, armed with embalmers' licenses issued in Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, Vermont and New York, and at once began busi- 
ness here as a funeral director at 710 Hennepin avenue. 
where he remained until early in October, 1909. 

With the fifteen years of active practical experience which 
he had enjoyed when he built his new establishment, enriclied 
with attentive study of the requirements of his work, Mr. 
Roberts constructed, arranged and equipped it with particular 
regard for completeness in every detail, and made it one of 
the most comprehensive, satisfactory and up-to-date in the 
Northwest. The interior is finished in mahogany and 
adorned in excellent t<aste for its purposes. There is (irst a 
reception room, and this leads into a large parlor that is 
used for a display room, and can also be converted into a 
chapel for funeral services when needed for that purpose. At 
the rear of the parlor Mr. Roberts has his private oflice and 
a room for the care of cases brought to the establishment 
for his attention. In addition there arc other large rooms for 
trimming and upholstering, and also sleeping roonn for the 
accommodation of assistants, who are in attemlance at all 
hours of the day and night. 

The skill and ability of this master of his craft have been 
duly recognized and appreciated wherever he has put them 



in service. Wlilli- living in the East he conducted some of 
the largest static and military funerals in that part of the 
country, and he has also had charge of many large funerals 
since coming to Minneapolis. He lias been a student and 
a teacher of his work for years, taking a prominent part in 
state and national funeral directors' associations, and making 
addresses in their meetings wliich have bi>en highly appre- 
ciated and widely publisheil. 

Mr. Roberts is an experienced embalmer and thoroughly 
understands all the sanitary requirements for the protection 
of the public in extreme ea.ses. Although independent in 
politics he has always shown an eager, practical desire for 
good government, and done what he could to aid in securing 
it. Fraternal interests have also engaged his attention in a 
serious and helpful way. He is a Freemason of high degree 
in both the York and the Scottish rites, and a Noble of the 
Mystic Shrine, and is also a valued member of the Minne- 
a])oIis Lodge of Elks. His religious afTiliation is with Geth-' 
semane Protestant Episcopal church. 



CHARLES H. ROBINSON. 



Charles H. Robinson is not only a native of Minneapolis 
but one of its most loyal and patriotic sons and supporters. 
In the city's affairs he is a leading business man and a 
worthy representative of the best elements of citizenship 
among its people. 

Mr. Robinson was born in Minneapolis, May 20, 1866, the 
son of Jabez M. and Martha B. (Day) Robinson, natives 
of Maine, who came to St. Anthony in \Hli6. They were 
married here in 1857, and here they reared a family and 
died after long j'ears of usefulness to the community. The 
father died September 8, 1U05, and the mother, October 1, 
1908. The latter was a niece of the late Leonard Day. of 
Minneapolis, her mother having been a sister of his wife. 
Her father was also Mr. Da}''s cousin. She came to St. 
Anthony, with her parents. 

While on a business trip. Jabez Robinson met Thomas B. 
Walker, and his description of the ])romise of Minneapolis 
so impressed Mr. Walker that he soon afterward became a 
resident and started the career here that has made him 
famous. After his arrival at St. Anthony, the elder Mr. 
Robinson worked for a time for the lumber firm of Hurlburt 
& Day, of which Leonard Day was a member. When he was 
prepared to go into business for himself he formed a jiartner- 
ship with William Ankeny and Curtis Pettit, and under 
the firm name of Ankeny, Pettit & Robinson they continued 
to manufacture lumber until 1886 or 1887. 

Mr. Robinson was an expert and gave his personal altcii- 
tion to the operation of the mills controlled by the firm, lie 
also engaged in the manufacture of fiour in association with 
Mr. Pettit under the firm name of Pettit & Robinson. He 
and bis wife were the parents of three children, Adeline U., 
Charles H., and Irene B. Adeline is the wife of Charles 
Morse, of Minneapolis, and Irene is unmarried. Their mother 
was one of the most energetic and valued workers of the 
Church of the Redeemer during her life. 

Charles K. Robinson has so far passed his life in Minne- 
apolis. He received a high school education here, and in his 
prst business venture was associated with his father in 
leasing iron ore lands. Subsequently he engaged in the 



470 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



leasing of cut-over pine lands on the Mesaba Range, wliicli 
contains a considerable amount of productive land. Mr. 
Robinson is still interested in the leasing business, but he 
has otlier lines which engage hira extensively, and is one 
of the directors of the Belt Line Brick Manufacturing Com- 
pany of Minneapolis. It manufactures 10,000,000 brick an- 
nually as a regular output, and often far e.\ceeds that amount. 
Its plant is at New Brighton, in Ramsey County, where the 
raw material for the product is found in great abundance and 
of the finest quality, and it is one of the largest and most 
completely equipped brick factories in this part of the 
country. He is interested in Arizona copper mines and is 
president of the Calumet & Copper Creek Mining Company 
of that state. 

Mr. Robinson from his youth has taken an earnest and 
helpful interest in the advancement and improvement of 
Minneapolis. All undertakings designed to increase the city's 
industrial and commercial greatness, all agencies for moral, 
educational, and social betterment, and all lines of public 
improvement have had his hearty approval and his influential 
assistance. He belongs to the Commercial, the Minneapolis, 
Interlachen, Lafayette, Athletic, Auto, and Dead Lake Clubs, 
the last named being an organization in the interest of hunt- 
ing and fishing, to which diversions Mr. Robinson is and 
long has been an ardent devotee. 

January 3, 1889, Mr. Robinson married Miss Jessie P. 
Smith, a daughter of Thomas J. Smith of Minneapolis, who 
is well known as a post office official of the city for many 
years. Mrs. Robinson was born in Charlotte, Eaton County, 
Michigan, but completed her education in a Minneapolis high 
school. They have four children; Charles J., the oldest, is 
a student in the Scientific School of Yale University, and 
belongs to the class of 1914. Elizabeth Irene is a student 
at Graham Hall, and the other two children are Martha B. 
and Jane S. Mrs. Robinson is a working member of Plymouth 
( 'ongregational Church and also active in social work. She 
belongs to the Travelers' and Study clubs.' She and her hus- 
band have visited most points of interest in the United 
States. 



SUMNER C. ROBINSON. 



For forty-si.v years Sumner C. Robinson, who died in 
1903, was a resident of Minneapolis, and one of the leading 
business men and manufacturers during more than half of 
the period, being engaged in contracting and building through- 
out the first twenty years after his arrival in this locality. 
He was born in New Jersey in 1831, and there was married 
to Miss Mary H. Dare, who was also a native of that state. 
They came West in 1856 and, after passing one year in 
Kansas, moved to Minneapolis in 1857. 

Mr. Robinson was a carpenter and soon became a leading 
contractor and builder. Nfearly all the residences on the East 
Side, built previous to 1876, were erected by him. In that 
year, in company with Charles S. Bardwell, he began the 
manufacture of sash, doors and interior finishings. The firm 
of Bardwell & Robinson has been an important factor in the 
city's growth. About 1SS5 they bought at Second street and 
Twenty-second avenue north, building the plant now used 
at present operated by two sons of the founders of the busi- 
ness, which was incorporated in July, 1903. 



Mr. Robinson and wife were among the original seventy- 
four persons who started the Hennepin Avenue Jlethodist 
Episcopal church. Mr. Robinson was a Sunday school worker, 
and a member of the official board of the church, from 1858 
to the end of his life, rendering longer service of this char- 
acter than any other man in the city. He was also active 
in starting the Asbury Hospital, furnishing a room in his own 
name, and was a member of its board of directors until death. 

Mrs. Robinson, now living at the Hampshire Arms, has 
ever been active in all church eft'orts and particularly so in 
connection with hospital work. She has been a member of the 
controlling board of Asbury Hospital from its founding as 
she was long a member of the official staff of the North- 
western Hospital before Asbury was established. She is also 
connected in a highly serviceable way with the Deaconess' 
Home and other institutions of a beneficent character. 

She and her liusband were the parents of two children. 
Charles N., president of the Bardwell & Robinson company, 
and Mary R., wife of William Wolford. 



FREDERICK WEYERHAEUSER. 

Frederick Weyerhaeuser, of St. Paul, died at Oak Knoll, his 
winter home in California, on Saturday, April 4, 1914, at the 
age of seventy-nine years, four months and thirteen days. 
This simple statement chronicles the passing away of one of 
the business men of our day. He was remarkable in the ex- 
tent and success of his business operations; remarkable in the 
cleanness and regularity of his private life, and remarkable 
in his reticence concerning both and his strong aversion to 
newspaper comments, biographical notices and all other pub- 
licity touching him and his affairs. 

His life story has been distorted and falsely colored, his 
wealth greatlj' exaggerated and his motives and methods mis- 
represented. The truth remains, however, that he was a man 
of high integrity, lofty purposes and correct business methods 
in every particular. But he was in reality only a minority 
stockholder in most of the large corporations with which he 
was connected, and hy no means so extensive a holder of con- 
trolling interests as has been popularly believed. In addi- 
tion, he was liberal to approved agencies for good to an extent 
never made known and therefore vastly underestimated. And 
his refusal to talk for publication about himself was due to 
no ill-nature, unfriendliness to his fellow men or other censur- 
able motive, but to the genuine modesty of real merit. He 
had .a stiong sense of duty and he obeyed its commands. It 
inspired him to make the utmost of his opportunities and he 
did it. For the rest, he preferred always to let his work 
speak for itself wherever it had a right or reason to be heard. 

Frederick Weyerhaeuser was born on November 21, 1834, in 
a snuill village on the Rhine near the city of Mainz, in Ger- 
many. He was the son of John and Katharine (Gabel) 
Weyerhaeuser, and the only son of their eleven children who 
survived to maturity. The father owned a farm of fifteen 
acres, and the son was needed in the cultivation of this patri- 
mony as soon as he was large and strong enough to work. 
His education in the schools was therefore cut short when he 
reached the age of eleven years, but prior to this time he at- 
tended a Protestant school, in which he acquired the funda- 
mentals of learning and a considerable amount of informa- 
tion about the Bible and catechism. In 1848 he was confirmed 





'^^^21£- 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COI'NTY. :\nNNESOTA 



471 



in the Gprnian Ri'fornipd cliiirrh, ami after coming to tliin 
country joinoil the Lutlieran cliuioh, of which he was a mem 
ber for a number of years. He then united with the Presby- 
terian House of Hope in St. I'aul, with wliich he was con- 
nected until his death. 

Times became hard in Germany and the spirit of emigration 
to the New World received a quickeninfj impulse tln'rcby. 
\\'hen Mr. Weyerhaeuser was eighteen, ancj an orphan through 
the death of his father, one of his sisters and an aunt came 
to the United States and located in Pennsylvania. They wrote 
back to the village on the Rhine glowing accounts of the new 
country, and the rest of the family packed up and came hither 
also. The family located at Northeast. Krie county, Pennsyl- 
vania, and there Frederick decided that he would become a 
brewer and went to work at .$4 a month. The second year 
lie got a raise to $9 a month, but he soon gave up brewing 
and turneil his attention to farming, in which he received a 
salary of $13 a month. He came of the thriftiest kind of 
German stock, and from his earliest beginnings his financial 
progress was steady. • 

In 1S5C the family moved to Coal Valley, Rock Island 
county. Illinois, Frederick carrying with him his share of his 
father's estate, which had just been settled in Germany, and 
which he afterward described as "a very small amount of 
money," though he had his savings in addition to this. 

Soon after his arrival at Rock Island J[r. Weyerhaeuser 
got a jiosition as night fireman in the sawmill of Mead, .'^mith 
& Marsh, but he was not otherwise, connected with the lumber 
industry until two months later, when there was an opening 
in the force of the mill and he was given a place as tallyman. 
One day while eating his lunch in this capacity he made a 
shrewd sale of lumber to some farmers. This pleased his em- 
ployers, and they promoted him.. But not long afterward the 
firm went into bankniptcy, the sawmill at Rock Island of 
which he had been made manager was shut down, and he 
lost his position. 

In this emergency Mr. Weyerhaeuser and F. ('. A. Denck- 
man, who afterwards became his brother-in-law. decided to 
go into business for themselves. They di<l not have much 
money but their reputations were clean and they were able to 
get credit. They leased the silenced mill for a year, and by 
skill and energy in making sales they made some money, and 
then leased the mill for another year. Later they got to- 
gether enough capital to buy the mill outright. The enter- 
prise, piudence and economy with which they conducted their 
business involves too many details for enumeration. They 
saved every log and made the utmost of everything they 
handled. Their frugality was striking and their enterprise 
was on the same scale, and they prospered in full measure. 
It was a time of great activity along the Mississipiii, the raw 
material for the lumber industry seemed practically inex- 
lia\istible. and every economy was used to their advantage. 

.•\l)out 1870 or 1871, to cut out losses caused by duplication 
of work and delays in delivery, and al.so to keep the logs of 
various owners within accurate means of identification, Mr. 
Weyerhaeuser organized the Mississippi River Logging com- 
pany, (if which he was president for forty years. This was 
really the genesis of his business in the himber trade. He 
saw the limits of the timber supply. He saw its frontier re- 
tiring rapidly. He saw also the inevitable result — increase in 
tlie price of timber — and the years that followed were em- 
ployed in the acquisition of timber lands. 

Later on Mr. Weyerhaeuser and his associates p\ircliased the 



Chipiiewa Room and l.iimlier ciirnpaiiy, of which he was made 
jiresident, and operated at Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, what 
was then the largest sawmill in the northwest. His com- 
lianies also owned interests in dams, factories, warehouses 
and planing mills. He was a director in many banks. He 
and his associates also owned boats, rafts, railways for han- 
dling lumber, machine shops, lands and other properties. One 
of the banks of which he was vice president for some years 
was the National (ierman American of St. Paul, and in this 
bank's building, dviring the latter years of his life, he had 
his modest little ofiice from which he transacted his business. 

On October 11, 18,')7, Mr. Weyerhaeuser was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Elizabeth Bloedel, who had come from his 
native town in Germany and settled in Erie, Pennsylvania. 
Slie died in November, 1911. and many tributes have been 
liaid to her genuine worth as a mother who wisely reared a 
family of seven children and conducted a home of refinement 
.and simplicity as successfully as her husband did his business. 
The seven children of the household are all living. .John P. is 
the oldest. Elise is the wife of Dr. William B. Hill of the 
faculty of Vassar College at Poughkecpsie, New York. Jlar- 
garet is Mrs. J. R. Jewett. Her husband is a professor of 
Semitic languages at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 
AppoUonia married S. S. Davis, who is head of the Rock Island 
Plow Co.. Rock Island, 111., and Moline Water Power Co. 
Charles A.. Rudolph M. and Frederick E. have been associated 
with tlieir father in biisiness, as .lohn P. also has, each be- 
glnniiig the connection at the dawn of his manhood if not 
before. 

Frederick Weyerhaeuser moved to St. Paul in 1S91, and dur- 
ing the twenty-three subsequent years of his life was a resi- 
dent of this city. He had a comfortable home at 226 Summit 
avenue here, and during the last few years another for winter 
occupancy at Pasadena, California. He was deeply and serv- 
iceably interested in tlie welfare of his home city and state, 
and a liberal contributor to the religio\is and beneficial insti- 
tutions in them and elsewhere. His religious connection was 
with tlie House of Hope Presbyterian church, and his bene- 
factions to it were numerous and large. He also contributed 
liberally to the Yale Forestry school. But of his deeds of this 
character he seldom spoke, and no list of them has ever been 
compiled. He was a man of great mentality and force of 
character, and amassed a competence. But he always main- 
tained his simplicity oi life and unostentatiousness of man- 
ner, resting ipilctly on achievements and forbearing all show 
of anv. 



ANDREW A. U. RAHN. 



Andrew A. 1). Rahn, vice-president of the Rainy River 
Timber Company, was born in Valparaiso, Indiana, on Oct. 
8, 1877, and is a sim of Carl and Elizabeth (Snelling) Rahn, 
who moved to Minneapolis in 1880. where the father died in 
1901 and the mother in 1913. Andrew was educated in the 
Garfield and Adams .schools and in the South high school. 

Leaving school he was employed by the Hardwooil Manu- 
facturing Company of this city for ten years when he opened 
an establishment of his own at Princeton, Minnesota, which 
he ctmducted for one year. He then became connected with 
the Shevlin-Carpenter Co., as manager of the Shoshone Lum- 
ber Company, a subsidiary torporation whose business was 



472 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



dealing in timber on a large scale in Northern Idaho, and in 
which Company he is still interested. Mr. Rahn is also, vice- 
president of the Lake of the Woods Cedar and Tie Company 
and of The Lakes Company, Limited of Fort Frances, Ontario. 

In 1905 he was chosen by state officials to superintend the 
taking of the census of that year. Funds failing the Minne- 
apolis Commercial Club, through its committee on public af- 
fairs, raised the necessary amount and a thorough census 
was thus obtained. 

Mr. Rahn is a Republican and in 1903 and 1904 was secre- 
tary of the county central committee in which position he 
showed such energy and capa'city as an organizer as to win 
praise from the part}' leaders. He is a member of the new 
Minneapolis Athletic Club, and the Athletic and Boat Club 
of Minneapolis, and the Spokane Club of Spokane, Wash. 
He is a Scottish and York rite Mason including membership 
in the Mystic Shrine, and is also a member of B. P. 0. E., 
No. 44 of Minneapolis and other fraternal organizations. In 
1905 and 1906 he served on the Finance committee of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

Mr. Rahn was married Oct. 27, 1897, to Miss Annie Sophia 
Anderson of Minneapolis. They have three children, Carl 
Anderson, Robert Loren and Andrew A. D., Jr. The family 
residence is at Lake Minnetonka. 



.JOHN H. RIHELDAFFER. 



John H. Rihcldaffer was bom in St. Paul, in 1859, and is 
a son of Rev. John G. and Catherine C. Riheldaffer. The 
father was a leading and influential Presbyterian clergyman 
in the early days, and. is highly commended by those who 
remember him. He located in St. Paul in 1850, and left 
an impress on the religious life in organizing the Central 
Presbyterian church there, and erecting its first church edifice. 
He died at Redwood Falls, 1893. 

John H. Riheldaffer was educated in the public schools of 
St. Paul and in the University, being a member of the class of 
1882. After spending one year in the office of A. M. Rad- 
cliflfe, an architect, he entered the service of the St. Paul 
Warehouse Company, for which he became superintendent of 
elevator "B". He was then associated with J. Q. Adams of 
Minneapolis in the grain business, and in 1893 became con- 
nected with Commons & Company. 

In 1907 he organized the Sterling Elevator Company, of 
which he was vice president and general manager until 1910, 
when he established the J. H. Riheldaffer Grain Company. He 
has served on the board of appeals of the Chamber of Com- 
merce for eight years, and was a director of tlic Cummercial 
Club for years. 

Athletic sports have always had an attraction for him, 
and for years he has been a leading spirit in the Minneapolis 
Curling club. He is a Republican, but not an active partisan, 
although he has ever taken an earnest interest in public 
affairs. His devotion to American institutions is shown by 
his long, serviceable membership in the Sons of the American 
Revolution, the Minnesota branch of which he served as 
president for one year. 

In 1883, he was united in marriage with Miss Susan Timer- 
man. They have six children. Helen is the wife of Carl E. 
Austin and Kathryn is the wife of L. II. Chmgh. All the 
family belong to the Grace Presbyterian church. 



CHARLES W. RINGER. 

Serving in his thirty-first year in the city fire department, 
and having risen by successive promotions based on meri- 
torious work to the position of chief, Charles W. Ringer has 
given long continuance of faithful and valuable service and 
made a record creditable alike to the city and to himself. 

He was bom in .Wisconsin, January 1, 1861, the son of 
Rev. Adam Ringer, an itinerant circuit riding Methodist 
minister. In 1868, he located in Stillwater, preaching in 
and about that city till 1870 when he moved to Sunrise 
where the son obtained a limited country school education. 
His spirit was courageous, however, and the lessons of expe- 
rience have richly supplied what no school could give, making 
him self-reliant, resourceful and ready for all emergencies. 

In 1877, when he was sixteen years old, he came to Minne- 
apolis. He began as a teamster hauling between Minneapolis 
and St. Paul, and afterward worked in the lumber woods, 
being advanced from the more laborious positions to that of 
•a scaler of logs. The work was hard, the life lonely, and 
filled with temporary privation and hardship. His fidelity 
and ability attracted attention and on April 26, 1884, he was 
given a place in the fire department as a pipeman on Engine 
No. 6, at Twelfth street and Third avenue south. In 1887 
he secured his first promotion when Chief Stetson appointed 
liim lieutenant, and in 1892, he was made captain of Engine 
Company, No. 17, directly under the chief. He was appointed 
fire marshal in 1902, and chief of the department, .January 1, 
1911, by Mayor Haynes. 

In all public affairs, Mr. Ringer has ever been deeply 
interested and an energetic worker for progress and improve- 
ment. No worthy project has gone without his cordial and 
helpful support, his activiti«s in this respect having been 
guided by breadth of view and intelligence. He is a member 
of the Athletic club, the Civic and Commerce Association. 
In fraternal relations,, he is a Knight Templar and Shriner, 
an Elk, an Odd Fellow and a Knight of Pythias. March, 1886, 
Mr. Ringer was married to Miss Fannie Marden, a native of 
the city. They have one son. Waller M. 



WILLIAM J. BURNETT. 



^Manager and proprietor of the Northwestern Hide and Fur 
Company, was born at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1842, while 
the family were enroute to Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1638, 
his ancestor, Thomas Burnett, said to be of the same family 
as the celebrated Bishop Burnett of England, settled at 
Salem, Massachusetts, removing in 1643 to South Hampton 
Madison, New Jersey, the last town of importance planted 
by the Puritans, was settled by two of his descendants, and 
here William J.'s father, Virgil Justice Burnett, a black- 
smith by trade, was reared. The panic of 1837 created gen- 
eral disaster, and he being financially embarrassed, joined the 
immigration westward, finally reaching Terre Haute with his 
last dollar exhausted. He operated a black smith and car- 
riage-shop, and, being an expert workman, .soon was in good 
circumstances. He had been well educated, and, being in- 
clined to literature, became widely known as the "learned 
blacksmith," quite similar to the famous scholar. Elihu 
Burritt. In 1856 he served in the State Legislature, being a. 
colleague of such men as Henry S. Lane, and was instrumental 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



473 



in securing for liuliaiiu tlic free school system aiul tlie im- 
portant Indiana liijuor law. Maine's famous restrictions had 
but recently been secured, Indiana being the second state to 
attempt drastic liquor legislation. He died in 1S58, his widow, 
Harriet S., surviving to the age of ninety-four. As a boy, 
William J. Burnett learned, at Terre Haute, the details of 
the hide and fur business, to which he has been devoted for 
more than half a century. He operated at several other 
places before coming to Minneapolis in the fall of 1890. He 
then established at 417 Main St. South East, the Northwest- 
ern Hide and Fur Company. The growth of trade necessitat- 
ing greater facilities, he finally erected the store and ware- 
house at First Street and Second Avenue North. By wise 
and original advertising, much of which is exceedingly educa- 
tional, pertaining to the domestic and wild animals. — how to 
trap wild animals, how to properly take olT and care for the 
hides and skins of all animals so they will bring highest 
market value — he built up a large and lucrative business. 
His illustrations are used in the agricultural schools to teach 
farm-students. As an advertiser he is a past master, having 
a national reputation. His large shipping business direct from 
the farmer and trapper is largely the result of this unique 
and instructive advertising. Appreciating the vast unex- 
plored and almost unknown region to the north, abounding in 
thousands of lakes, vast forests and rivers, Mr. Burnett, some 
twenty years ago, assumed the burden and responsibility of 
sending explorers into its wilds. Valuable information so 
acquired was then given the newspapers, also embodied by 
him in a "Hunters' and Trappers' Guide," which has done 
much to disclose an undreamed natural source of wealth. 
He derived financial returns in the North's increased yield of 
enlarged stocks of furs and pelts, and a higher satisfaction in 
the development now going on in agricultural resources, and 
its vast wealth in timber and minerals. By the information 
obtained thousands of homes now exist where, before his 
revelations, \Vere but wild animals and boundless forests. 
His interest in that region has enhanced with the increase 
of population. He has taken active part in extension of 
educational privileges and particularly so in the establish- 
ment and maintenance of Sunday Scliools. A Sunday School 
worker all his life, he is State Vice-President of the American 
Sunday School Union, has encouraged the missionaries in 
sparsely settled regions; he sees in the common schools, sup- 
plemented by Sunday .Schools, the solution of serious social 
and political problems, especially as affecting thinly settled 
comnuinities. Realizing the value of past efforts, as he ap- 
proaches the end of a beneficial career, he has made in his 
will a liberal provision to the support of s>icli work through- 
out the Northwest. Sarah E. Tremble of Mattoon. Illinois, 
was the first wife, dying some fifteen years after marriage, 
and leaving one son, Warner F. Burnett, now in San Fran- 
cisco. In .Tune, 18S8, he married AUeda Suits of Huron, 
South Dakota, and they have one daughter, Harriet Alleda, a 
student in La Salle Seminary, Auburndale, Massachusetts, 
With literary tastes, Mr, Burnett finds greatest enjoyment in 
the companionship of books, the master minds of the world, — 
being represented on the shelves of a well-chosen library. 
He is an official of Como Congregational Church ; a member 
of the Congregational club and of the Civic and Commerce 
Association and active in all good work pertaining to the 
rity, State and Society. Although now 71 years of age his 
average health is most excellent, and he feels that he is good 
for ten or twenty yeare more. He longs to sec the day when 



no litjuor uill be maiuifactured or sold in this country and 
when segregated vice will be a stench in the nostrils of all 
decent men. 



ALONZO COOPER RAND. 



Eminently successful in life and mournfully tragic in the 
manner and suddeimess of his death, the late Alonzo C. Rand, 
one of the leading business men of Minneapolis for more 
than ten years, showed in his active and brilliant career the 
great power of a strong and well trained intellect and the 
utter helplessness of man in combat with the superior forces 
(if nature. He was one of the unfortunate passengers on 
the Afinnie Cook, a private jileasure boat, when she sank 
witli all on board on Lake Minnetonka in a sudden storm 
on Siniday afternoon, July 12, 1885. 

This dreadful catastrophe ended the lives of ten persons, 
several of them numbered among the most prominent, influ- 
ential and esteemed residents of Jlinneapolis, and threw the 
whole community into a universal grief too deep for utter- 
ance, and in which the only mitigating circumstances were 
that the tragedy could not be foreseen or prevented, and that 
some of those who perished in it had already achieved enough 
in life to leave shining records behind to keep their memory 
green in the hearts of the people among wliom they had lived 
and triumphed, and who were the beneficiaries of their great 
and useful work. The persons who went down on the ill- 
fated boat with Mr. Rand were his wife, his daughter, Mary, 
and son, Harvey, his nephew, Frenk Rand, aged nineteen, 
Mr, and Mrs, John R. Coykendall and their little daughter 
Luella, Master Hussey, a young friend of both families, and 
George McDonald, the engineer of the boat. She sank off 
Breezy Point only about 800 feet from the shore. 

Alonzo Cooper Rand, at the time of his death, was the 
president and one of the principal owners of the Minneapolis 
Gas Light company. He had been mayor of the city for 
three j'cars from April 3, 1878, and had given the people an 
excellent business administration of their public affairs, mani- 
festing a determination for the strictest and most impartial 
enforcement of the laws, and an admirable industry and 
clearness of vision in looking after and promoting the best 
interests of the city and all its residents. He was kind, 
benignant and generous in private life, benevolent* to the 
poor anil a helpful friend to many worthy families. But as 
a public official he knew neither friend nor foe, only the 
command of duty and the public welfare. And he must have 
impressed himself forcibly on the public mind of the com- 
munity within a short time after his location in it, for he was 
a resident of Minneapolis biit four years before he was 
chosen its chief executive. 

Mr. Rand was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1H31, 
and while he was yet a boy moved with his father to 
Buffalo, New York, where the father died on June 17, 1859, 
in the fifty-seventh year of his age. The son was educated 
in the common schools, and at the age of twenty was married 
to Miss Celina Johnson of Buffalo, About one year after 
the death of his father he moved to Union City, Pennsylvania, 
and for three years was very successful in the oil business 
there. From Union City he moved to the city of New York, 
where, prompted and guided by information he had acquired 



474 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



in the oil fields, lie perfected a process for manufacturing 
illuminating gas from oil. 

Mr. Rand remained in New York four years working on 
his invention and preparing to commercialize it, then located 
at Aurora, Illinois, and there made a large fortune out of his 
valuable discovery. In 1874 he visited Minneapolis in the 
course of a pleasure trip through the Northwest, and was 
so favorably impressed with the city and its business out- 
look that he sold his interests in his Illinois home and became 
a resident here. He at once became connected with the 
gas industry in this city and before long owned a controlling 
interest in it. His new process revolutionized the manu- 
facture of gas in this community, and proved of great benefit 
to the consumers as well as highly profitable to the company, 
of which he soon became the head and controlling spirit. 

Mrs. Rand, whom death found at the side of her husband. 
■was a lady of great culture and refinement, and also possessed 
a vast fund of excellent common sense. Her sympathetic 
heart moved her to constant activity in benevolent work, 
her clear head and responsive brain found the easiest and 
most practical way for the execution of her wishes, and her 
hand was the obedient servant of both in carrying out her 
designs. She was greatly admired, warmly esteemed and 
fen-ently revered for her many excellent qualities, and her 
death brought lasting pain to many a stricken heart. For 
"None knew her but to love her." She was a native of 
Herkimer county, New York, and liad reached the age of 
fifty-one when her life ended. 



JOHN H. ROWE. 



John H. Rowe was born on May 15. 1860. at Downing 
Farm, Dutchess county. New York, seven miles south of 
Poughkeepsie, where the family has been domesticated for 
four generations. He is one of the eight children, five sons 
and three daughters, of Daniel Chase and Susan Ann (Town- 
send) Rowe, also natives of Dutchess county. One of his 
sisters, Hetty Morgan Rowe, is a teacher in Roberts college 
in Constantinople, Turkey, and three of his brothers are 
successful business men in New York city, himself and sister 
being the only ones outside of New York. 

Daniel Rowe was the son of William Roe, during whose 
life the name was changed to its present form, and whose 
brother was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Daniel was 
one of eleven children and at the age of fifteen went to 
New York city, where he became a successful hardware 
merchant; and, after many years of activity as such, retired 
to the Dutchess county farm, on which he died at the age 
of ninety-two, highly respected by all. 

John H. Rowe passed his boyhood on the farm, attended 
the public school and two years at Degarmo Institute at 
Rhinebeck and one at Mount Pleasant Military Academy in 
Ossining. At the age of twenty-one he visited at Cedar 
Falls, Iowa, where he met Robert A. Davidson, an Fast 
Side Minneapolis banker, accompanying him here to take a 
clerkship in the bank, and which he filled for a year and a 
half. He then became a clerk in the office of Captain John 
IMartin's Lumber company, with which he remained five years. 
He was next connected with E. W. Uackus & Company, first 
as bookkeeper and afterward as a member of the company, 
which was then running two mills. Mr. Rowe continue<l his 



connection with this company as an office man and traveling 
salesman to retail yards in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, 
until 1897. 

During the next two years he was a salesman over the 
same territory for' the Northwestern Lumber company, whose 
mills were at Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In 1899 he opened an 
office in the Lumber Exchange and started a wholesale lumber 
jobbing trade which grew to fine proportions, and in 1904 
he started the retail yard which he is yet conducting. It is 
well equipped and fully stocked with all kinds of building 
materials required by the trade. 

Mr. Rowe was married in 1895 to Miss Mabel Wyer, of 
Excelsior, Minnesota. They have three children, John H., Jr., 
Kenneth W., and Elizabeth. The parents attend Trinity 
Baptist church. Mr. Rowe is warmly interested in its 
Sunday school, and in the activities of the Young Men's 
Christian Association. He is also a member of the Minne- 
apolis Civic and Commerce Association. 



DR. M. P. AUSTIN. 



Dr. M. P. Austin, son-in-law of Mr. McDonald, former 
superintendent of the Homeopathic hospital and later on the 
stafi of the City hospital, is a native of Galesburg, Michigan, 
and was graduated from the Homeopathic Medical School of 
the State University. He practiced there until 1882, then 
came to Minneapolis, where he has since been in active prac- 
tice. He was county physician of Hennepin county in 1883, 
1884 and 1885, and also served as professor of surgery in the 
University of Minnesota. The doctor died in Mexico in No- 
vember, 1913. By his marriage with Miss Mary McDonald he 
became the father of three children, two of whom are living. 
Reed S. is engaged in the real estate business and Lynn 
McDonald is connected with the Minneapolis Insurance Agency. 
Ned B., the third son, died when he was twelve years old. 



THOMAS GARDINER. 



Distinctively unique in its facilities and service is the finely 
equipped retail drug establishment founded and for many 
years conducted by the late Thomas Gardiner at 723 Henne- 
pin avenue, which is not only the oldest specific homoeopathic 
pharmacy in the Northwest but is notable in the fact that 
it is confined exclusively to the handling of drugs and med- 
icines. From 1869 to his death Mr. Gardiner was continuously 
engaged in the di'ug business in ^Minneapolis. His death oc- 
curred here on Mar'ch 29, 1914, his career in his line of 
trade in this city covering a period of forty-five years. A 
close student of materia medica and therapeutics, he was 
always well prepared for any requirement of his business, 
and his high reputation in it was the direct result of his 
according to his patrons at all times the best service. Hav- 
ing equipment for the grinding, triturating and mixing of 
root and herb products, he had, in addition to his retail trade, 
nearly one tho\isand customers outside of the city, who were 
wholesale buyers of his products. 

Mr. Gardiner was born at Frederickton, province of New 
Brunswick, Canada, September 12. 1833. At the age of thir- 
teen he obtained a position in a drug store, and from that 




'^^^'^"'^^'^^^ ^e-oO^.. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



475 



early period of his youth he was deiieiuleiit on liis own re- 
sources. In 1857 he came to St. Anthony, and for three years 
thereafter lie had a precarious and uncertain e.\istence with a 
full allowance of adversity. Then Dr. W'illiam H. Leonard, 
one of the pioneer physicians here, desirinjj to devote his 
attention more exclusively to his practice, and knowing of 
Mr. Gardiner's former experience in the drug trade, gave him 
a position, and before the end of the same year an interest 
in the store on condition that he assume its active manage- 
ment. 

For nine years Mr. Gardiner remained with Dr. Leonard, the 
store being located in the Central building, which was de- 
molished by the board of park commissioners in 1913. This 
building then contained the Hales clotliing store and the 
(iardiner drug store was one of the first in it, and had en- 
trances on both Nicollet and Hennepin avenues. For a 
number of years the drug store was in the rear of the Nicollet 
House, then at other locations on Nicollet avenue until 1909. 
when Mr. Gardiner moved to the present site, eacli removal 
taking him further on in the extension of the city as it 
expanded to the west and south. 

In 1864 Mr. Gardiner purchased the residence property on 
which his life ended, and two years later the dwelling he 
occupied was erected. It is on Hennepin avenue opposite the 
City Library. For fifty-seven years he lived on this lot, and 
it has been authentically shown that no other citizen living 
in Minneapolis at this time has occupied for an equal period 
one and the same residence. Mr. Gardiner never courted 
publicity, but, in a quiet and unassuming way, devoted him- 
self closely to business. Yet both he and his wife were well 
known and highly esteemed in a circle of friends coincident 
with that of their acquaintances. 

In 1862 Mr. Gardiner was united in marriage with Miss 
Mary K. Knight, of Dundas, Ontario, who was his devoted 
companion and helpmeet for more than half a century. They 
became the parents of two children: Louise L., who is still 
a resident of the parental home, and Mary, who is the wife 
of Nathan L. Lenham, of Chicago. Mrs. Gardiner survives 
and still occupies the family residence, passing her days in 
quiet usefulness and rich in the cordial regard and good will 
of all who know her. 



LUCIAN ALDKN McREYNOLDS. 

Lucian Aldon McReynolds was born at Boscobel. Grant 
county. Wisconsin, June 13, 1867, a son of James McReynolds. 
The father was a well known dealer in farm implements at 
Owatonna, where he had located during the boyhood of 
Lucian, and who died finally in the state of Washington. 
He was a kinsman of Hon. .J. C McReynolds. the present 
attorney general of the United States, and of ex-President 
Andrew .Johnson. 

He obtained a full high school education, which he extended 
at Pillsbury Academy. He then became a traveling salesman 
for L. B. Wood, of Minneapolis, dealer in buggies and agri- 
cultural implements, covering the states of Minnesota and 
Iowa. A few years later he took up a general line of similar 
commodities for sale on the road, and continuing his efforts 
in this department of commercial life several years. 

In political faith and allegiance Mr. McReynolds was an 
Ardent Democrat, and throughout manhood was a zealous 



worker for the success of his party. He kept well pusti-cf on 
political affairs and was always ready to meet the arguments 
of the opponents and the requirements of any campaign issue, 
wherever he happened to be. Yet, devoted as he was to 
political events and contests, and forced by his employment 
to be absent most of the time, he was ardently attached to 
his home, finding greatest satisfaction with his family. 

On September 16, 1900, Mi-. McReynolds was married in 
Minneapolis to Miss Matilda Lilleby, a native of Renville 
county, Minnesota, whose parents lived in St. Peter, until 
after the Indian outbreak of 1862, then returned to the county 
of her nativity. They were both born and reared in Norway, 
but were married in Minne.sota. Richard McReynolds, aged 
seven, is the only child. The family home is at 1600 Second 
avenue south. 

Mr. McReynolds was fond of fine horses and always kept at 
least one of choice breed and good paces. He greatly enjoyed 
racing on the driveways and ujion the Lake of the Isles. But 
he engaged in the sport of racing only for the recreation and 
enjoyment, and not for profit or for any special feeling in 
the matter except the laudable pride of owning a good horse 
and being able to show its merits. In all respects ho was 
an excellent citizen and universally esteemed as such wherever 
known. His untimely death was widely deplored, and at his 
funeral obsequies just and discriminating tributes were paid 
to his worth and manhood. 



SIMON RA\-ICZ. 



From the humble and laborious condition of a foot pedler 
to the respectable and profitable station as the head of a 
large general merchandising establishment is a creditable rec- 
ord. The steps between these two grades of mercantile life 
are usually many, often rugged and, although inviting, are 
frequently insunnountable. Some men, however, by native 
force, persistent industry, and unflagging ambition, mount 
them steadily, and. in the case we now consider, in rapid suc- 
cession. ( )ne man of this record and caliber who adorned 
the business life of Minneapolis and experienced a creditable 
career was the late Simon Ravicz, who died .laniiary 20, 
1913. The story of his life is interesting, chiefly because of 
the illustration it furnishes of what is possible to pluck, per- 
sistency, and determined will. 

Mr. Ravicz was born in Roumania (one of the Balkan states 
which have recently made so glorious a military record K 
.January 10, 1857: He came to the United States and to 
Minneapolis some twenty years ago. His coming to this 
city was more the result of chance than intention, but when 
here he was so well pleased with the place and its outlook 
that he determined to remain and cast his fortunes among its 
progressive citizenship. Mr. Ravicz started his mercantile 
career as a pack pedler. He was self-educated, and in his 
native land had been a bookkeeper. Going from house to 
house through the country the returns gave encouragement for 
such a business. He soon owned a fruit and tonfectionery 
store at 115 Nicollet avenue, which he conducted to advantage 
for five or six years. He then changed his location to 109 
Washington .-Vvenue South. In his business his .success ex- 
ceeded his expectations, and in 1902 he became a member of 
the firm of McClellan Bros. & Ravicz, wholesalers in general 
merchandise at 19. 21 and 2.'t Third Street North. 



476 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Here Mr. Raviez had personal supervision of the business, 
and the success and extension of the sales enterprising man- 
agement, were considerable and gratifying. He continued his 
connection with this house until 1906, when he retired from 
merchandising and turned his attention to investment in 
real estate. He centered his operations at Twelfth Street and 
Hennepin Avenue, and erected a number of stores. He 
readily imbibed the spirit of American institutions, becoming 
a citizen and then financially aided several of his relatives to 
come to the United States, and they also became respected and 
prosperous American citizens. In political affiliation Mr. 
Raviez was a Republican, in religion a member of the Jewish 
Reform Temple, and in fraternal life a Free Mason and a 
Woodman. The camp of the latter order to which he be- 
longed conducted his funeral, its members giving his memory 
consideration and honor by sympathetic presence. Many 
joined them out of personal attachment for the many excellent 
traits that had distinguished him. 

Mr. Raviez was married in his native land at the age of 
twenty-one to Miss Rosa Koenigsburg, who survives him. 
Their three children are: Harry, a lawyer and member of tlie 
firm of Levy & Raviez; Louis, a student in the Mining En- 
gineering Department of the University of Minnesota; and 
Anna, wife of Louis M. Frudenfeld. Harry was graduated 
from the law department of the State University in the class 
of 1911, and is engaged in a general practice, rapidly attain- 
ing distinction in the profession. The home of the family is 
at 1731 Elliott avenue, where the numerous friends find a 
congenial center of generous and gracious hospitality. 



JAMES Mcmullen. 



The interesting subject of this brief review, who is near the 
ninetieth anniversary of his birth, has lived in what is now 
Minneapolis sixty-four years, having been one of the very 
early arrivals at St. Anthony Falls as a permanent resident. 
He has the distinction of being one of the eight men now 
living who settled in this state before 1850, but two of whom 
preceded him by a year or more in time. The other seven 
are: Charles Stimpson, Eli Pettijohn, John Hingston, Caleb 
Dorr, A. L. Larpenteur, St. Paul, Mr. Durand, of Stillwater, 
and Mr. Randall, of Winona. Mr. Pettijohn settled at the 
Falls in 1842 and Mr. Don- in 1847. Mr. McMuUen became a 
resident here in October. 1849. Among his associates of the 
early days who are still living, but whose arrival in this 
region was later than his own, are James .1. Hill. Loren 
Fletcher, Thomas B. Walker and John B. Gilfillan. all vener- 
able men now, and each with a record of great acliievenients 
to his credit. 

Mr. McMullen was born at Reading, Pennsylvania, on .July 
21, 1824. At the age of eight years he became cabin boy on 
the bark White Oak, and he continued to follow the sea on 
various vessels for seventeen years, in this long sea service 
visiting all parts of the world. During the last tliree years 
of his maritime experience he was captain on vessels engaged 
in the trade between this country and the West Indies. 
Strange as it may seem, and unusual as it is. he tired of 
the sea at last. But he did not locate in the crowded centers 
of population in the East. He had dwelt long in the wilder- 
ness of waters, and when he determined to diange the element 
under his feet, he chose a home in the wilderness on land. 



After he came to St. Anthony Falls Mr. McMullen worked 
for a time at his bench as a carpenter. But he had never 
learned the trade by practical apprenticeship, and really 
knew but little about it. He was resolute and determined, 
however, and always willing to undertake any work that he 
could find to do. As a carpenter he took a contract to erect 
a barn for Major Rawlings. But in his ignorance of the 
trade, he put the roof on wrong, and it fell in. The major 
expressed his feelings on the subject in the most practical 
way by promptly canceling the contract and dismissing Mr. 
McMullen from the job. Some time afterward Major Rawlings 
saw him at work on the Steamboat "Gov. Ramsey" in which he 
was interested and asked the contractor, with no excess of 

amiability, what he meant by having "that d d fool on the 

job." 

Finding himself not highly esteemed as a carpenter, Mr. 
McMullen decided to change liis occupation. He had his 
physical needs to provide for and abundant strengtli and 
energy for the work. He engaged for a time in moving houses, 
and even occasionally moved steamboats around the Falls. 
Then he turned his attention to merchandising at Pine Bend 
in company with H. G. Morrison. Next he built a flour mill 
and later a shingle mill at the St. Anthony Water Power 
company's dam on the site on which a big saw mill was 
afterward put up. 

In the meantime Mr. McMullen took an active interest in 
public affairs locally and served several years in the city 
council. He was also once nominated for the office of county 
commissioner, but he refused to put up money for the cam- 
paign and was beaten by but twelve votes in a district ordi- 
narily giving a Democratic majority of 1..300. He was married 
in 1849 to Miss Charlotte McKnight and has one child living, 
William. Mr. McMullen has lived for twenty-seven years in 
his present dwelling. Years ago he met with an accident 
which kept him on crutches and confined to the house for 
eight years and a half, during which he had to use an arm- 
chair to get about in. 



JONAS GUILFORD. 



The legal fraternity in Minnesota, especially in Minneapolis, 
was dignified and adorned for over forty years by having 
among its members .Jonas Guilford, as American citizenship 
has been elevated and honored by others of the family through 
all the generations to Colonial times. He became a resident 
of this city in 1866, and died here May 9. 1909. During all 
this period he was a prominent and useful citizen, eminent in 
his profession, zealous for the good of the city, and repre- 
sentative, of the best attributes of elevatert and broad-minded 
manhood. 

He was born in Spencer. Worcester county. Massachusetts, 
September. 1839, being the son of Asa and Mary (.\dams) 
Guilford, Asa was the son of Dr. Guilford of Spencer, whose 
father, John, founded the family there in the early colonial 
days and which was founded in America previous to 1650, 
the original one coming from Kent, England. Contemporary 
members of both the father's and the mothers' families took 
active parts in the Revolutionary struggle and the stirring 
events leading to it. 

Jonas Guilford obtained his scholastic training at I^eicester 
Academy and Amherst College, being graduated from the 




/^.^^^-.^^^l^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



477 



latter in 1864. Immediately afterward he enlisted, and served 
to the close of the Civil war. In 1866 he graduated from 
Albany Law School, and at once went to t>t. Louis expecting 
to there practice his profession. An old and prominent lawyer 
in that city advised him to come to Minneapolis, and he acted 
upon this advice. 

He immediately began liis practice, and thenceforth, until 
failing health and advancing years obliged him to practically 
retire from business, he was reckoned among the leading 
lawyers of the state. His clientage included the most prom- 
inent residents and business tirms in the community. He 
carried many cases to the higher courts, state and federal, 
where he won many notable victories embracing principles of 
extensive application and which contributed largely to the 
future construction of legal questions. 

ilr. Guilford had his office on the East Side his attention 
being devoted largely to matters pertaining to tliat part of 
the city. During the last twenty years his home was on 
the West Side, though old clients and friends continued to 
employ him and, till the end, his advice way eagerly sought. 
His parents came to Minneapolis in 1870 and both died here. 
The mother belonged to the Adams family, more prominently 
represented by John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams. 

Nathan Guilford, an uncle of Jonas, was an eminent edu- 
cator in Ohio, and commonly credited as the father of the 
l>ublic school system of that state. For some years he was 
prominent in the legal profession, which he abandoned to 
devote his talents to the cause of public education, and from 
then until his death was consecraated wholly to that great 
work, the greatest need in a Republic. In recognition of his 
services in this behalf Guilford School, Cincinnati, was named 
for him as an enduring testimonial. 

Jonas Guilford was married in September, 1869, to 
Miss Helen Morrill, who was born in Danville, 111., and be- 
came a resident of Minneapolis in 1867. Their children are 
Paul Willis, Harry Morrill, Harriet. The sons arc both grad- 
uates of the University, the former being a lawyer and the 
latter a physician and a member of the health board. The 
daughter is a graduate of Carleton College, and is with her 
mother at 1820 Hawthorne avenue. 

Mrs. Guilford is a member of the Minneapolis Chapter of 
the Daughters of the American Revolution. Like her hus- 
band, she is also descended from Revolutionary forefathers, 
comprising several of the old, distinguished families of New 
Kngland. The home contains many interesting souvenirs, 
each having individual history and valuable as illustrating 
early conditions of life. The first deed given in St. Anthony 
is also found here. Both were early members of the Lowry 
Hill Congregational church. He took an active part in public 
a£fairg, but was not a politician and never sought or desired 
a public office, though he was ever ready to aid in securing 
the best attainable government. 



NELSON H. REKVES. 



One of the most extensive and successful market gardeners, 
Nelson H. Reeves, 3410 Second street north, was born at 
Rochester, Wisconsin. January 4, 18.'j8, a son of N'incent and 
Ida C. (Kelleri Reeves, the former a native of Salisbury. 
Wiltshire, Kngland. and the latter of Columbia county, Penn- 
sylvania, being born near Bloomsburg alKiiit ls;i,"). The father 



was born August 12, 1831, and came to the United States in 
1850, locating near Hartford, Washington county, Wiscon- 
sin, where the mother had come with her parents three years 
before. 

Vincent Reeves was a blacksmith and worked at his trade 
for a time in Chicago and also for ,1. I. Case in Racine, Wis- 
consin, at a time when horse power operated his factory. In 
1863 he moved to Pierce county, Wisconsin, and in 1864 to 
Minneapolis. Here he worked for four years in the black- 
smith shop of what is now the Milwaukee Railroad, then the 
Minnesota Central. In 1868 he began market gardening on 
the land now occupied by his widow and son between Second 
street and the Mississippi and north of Thirty-fourth avenue, 
and which was at that time all woodland. It is a part of the 
original Campbell Bell claim, and the oldest farm devoted to 
market gardening in or about Minneapolis. He worked 10 
acres in garden crops, and continued his activity in this line 
until 1S83, when lie turned the business over to his son Nel- 
son, lie was a member of the city council from the Tenth 
ward for ten yeans, during which period he labored arduously 
and faithfully for the general good of the city. In politics 
lie was a Republican and active in the service of his party. 
In religious faith he was a Spiritualist and in fraternal rela- 
tions a Freemason, holding membership in Minneapolis Lodge, 
No. 19, and at his death was one of its oldest members. The 
lodge conducted his funeral obsequies in an imposing manner. 
He built the house in which he died and in which his widow- 
now lives, in 1874, then being the finest in the northern part 
of the city. His death occurred on September 19. 1910, in 
the eightieth year of his age. 

In the family four children were born. Three of whom are 
living. Nelson H., Martha E. and Julia A. Martha is the 
wife of J. A. Gillard, manager of a large saw mill at La Pas, 
Manitoba. Julia is the wife of W. J. Glenn, of Tacoraa, and 
who is connected with the Northern Pacific Railroad. His 
father, Robert Glenn, was one of the early butchers in Min- 
neapolis. For a time he owned the original Colonel Stevens 
home where the old union depot now stands, but in later 
years moved to the vicinity of the Reeves home, where he 
died. Florence A. Reeves married Charles Roberts, and died 
at the age of thirty-seven. Her two children, Nellie and 
Horatio, are being reared by their grandmother. 

Nelson H. Reeves has lived in Minneapolis since 1865 and on 
his present farm since 1868. He worked for and with his 
father until 1883, when he took upon himself the man- 
agement of the business, his father retiring. He built his 
first large greenhouses in 1892, and to these he has made 
additions until he now lias about 38,000 square feet of floor 
surface under glass. In winter he devotes his efforts to 
raising lettuce, parsley, radishes and cucumbers. Most of hi» 
products are sold to commission men and sent out of this 
state. He also raises large quantities of rhubard by a forcing 
process, a large part of his land being given up to the pro- 
duction of this succulent plant, his anniuil output ranging 
from twelve to sixteen tons. His yearly sales of lettuce aggre- 
gate 12.000 to 15,000 dozen and of cucumbers 3,000 dozen. He 
also grows bedding llowcrs and plants, and keeps a stall in 
the Minneapolis market. His operations compel him to em- 
ploy four men the year round. 

Mr, Reeves was oiu' of the incorporators and is the vice- 
president of the Market State Bank of Minneapolis. He w«« 
married in December, 1909, to Mrs. Anna O. Nelson, a widow 
with one son, George Herbert Nelson, who is a graduate of 



478 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



the State Agricultural College, of the class of 1913,. and asso- 
ciated with Mr. Reeves. By his marriage to Mrs. Nelson, Mr. 
Reeves has become the father of one child, Joseph N. The 
father is an Odd Fellow and belongs to North Star Lodge, 
No. 6. 



JOHN D. McMillan. 



John D. McMillan, president of the Osborne-McMillan 
Elevator company, came to Minneapolis in 1887, and lost no 
time, soon starting a venture which he has since been busily 
and successfully occupied in promoting to high development 
and profitable results. 

Mr. McMillan wa-s born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1860. 
Immediately after leaving school he entered the employ of 
the Cargill Bros. Elevator company in La Crosse, where he 
remained ten years. Soon after his arrival in Minneapolis 
he united with Edward N. Osborne in the Osborne-McMillan 
Elevator company building a large elevator on the line of the 
Soo Railroad. They also built the Empire elevator on the 
Milwaukee Railroad: and the Northland at another location 
on the Soo, the latter operated by the Northland Elevator. 
They also own extensive holdings in the International Elevator 
company, which operates in Western Canada. 

The aggregate of the interests with which Jlr. McMillan is 
connected are large, the management being with such prudence 
and enterprise that every factor contributes to progress and 
prosperity. Mr. McMillan is a director and ex-president of 
the Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Min- 
neapolis, Minikahda and Lafayette clubs, and other organiza- 
tions engaged in uplift work, and is ever ready to give prac- 
tical support to any undertaking for the general good. In 
political contests he has never taken part as a partisan, and 
has had no political aspirations. Mr. McMillan is married 
and maintains a pleasant home at 239 Clifton avenue. 



FRANCIS 8. McDonald. 



The late Francis S. McDonald, who died in Minneapolis 
July 18, 1896, at the age of sixty-one, after a residence of 
forty-two years in the state, proved himself to be a useful 
citizen, rendering excellent service both in times of peace and 
in time of war. He was bom in Cumberland county, Maine. 
June 10, 1835, and at the age of seventeen worked in a cotton 
factory at Saccarappa, and later at Lewiston. After one 
year in Massachusetts, he in 1854, came to Minnesota and 
joined his uncle, John McDonald, in operating a saw mill at 
Otsego, Wright county. The uncle helped to build the first 
saw mill at St. Anthony, later building the one mentioned. 

In 1861 Francis enlisted in the Third Minnesota Volunteer 
Infantry, being soon afterward promoted orderly sergeant. 
He had command of his company in Indian campaigns, and 
for his services and valor was commissioned second lieutenant. 
He re-enlisted in Hatch's Battalion and was detailed as draft 
clerk at Fort Snelling, where he remained until mustered out 
of the service in 1865. In 1866 he was appointed postmaster 
at Fort Snelling. and in 1868 moved to Minneapolis, still 
remaining in charge of the postoHice. 

While living at Otsego, he served as county commissioner 



of Wright county one term and also as tax assessor of Otsego. 
In 1868 he took up his residence in the block containing the 
present home of his widow at 1212 South Eighth street. He 
was appointed deputy by County Auditor Mahlon Black, and 
when that gentleman retired succeeded him, and by successive 
re-elections was continued for twelve years. He was a Repub- 
lican, and active in all undertakings designed to promote the 
general welfare of the city and county. 

November 2, 1857, Mr. McDonald was married at Otsego 
to Miss Elizabeth Spencer, who was born in Bangor, Maine, 
February 7, 1838, and came to Minnesota at the age of 
nineteen with her parents, who located at Otsego. She and 
her husband were the parents of four children, two of whom 
are living: Mary, is the wife of Dr. N. P. Austin, and Nellie, 
is the widow of the late E. L. Fisher, who was a conductor 
on the Wisconsin Central Railroad for thirty years, and who 
was killed in a collision. Mrs. Fisher lives with her mother, 
and has two childi-en, William and Florence. Another daugh- 
ter of the Fisher household. Frances, died when she was six- 
teen years of age. 

Mrs. McDonald's sons were Fiank and Charles. Frank was 
deputy auditor under his father, and after the father's death, 
under Harry Minor. He died in California on Easter Sunday, 
1891, aged thirty-nine. Charles was a locomotive engineer on 
the Milwaukee Railroad, and died March 2, 1899, aged thirty- 
six. The mother is a great lover of her home and lives a 
retired but useful and commendable life, manifesting a 
cordial interest in everything that pertains to the good of the 
city. 

Mr. McDonald died July 18. 1896. His death was due to 
overexertion in making arrangements for an encampment of the 
Knights of Pythias, a fraternity to which he was ardently 
devoted, and was a brigadier general in the military rank 
of the order. He was also a Knight Templar and the Com- 
mandery to which he belonged attended his funeral in a body. 
Each of the other twenty-one fraternities or societies to 
which he belonged was also represented at the funeral, which 
was one of the largest and most imposing ever seen in Min- 
neapolis, the procession being said at the time to have been 
five miles long. No man in the city ever had a wider circle 
of acquaintances or was more popular. After leaving the 
office of auditor he became tax agent of the Milwaukee Rail- 
road. He was very e.xact and painstaking in his work, and 
his superior officer in the tax department of the railroad 
declared that his only mistake during his connection with the 
department was made on the day of his death. 



THOMAS KENNEDY CRAY. 

The late Thomas K. Gray was before his death, which 
occurred on December 24, 190<,), the oldest retail merchant in 
Minneajiolis and the oldest dealer in drugs in the state of 
Minnesota in continuous connection with the trade. His career 
was quiet and uneventful except for the length of its contin- 
uance, his constant fidelity to duty, his conservative adherence 
to the same location for more than half a century and the 
enterprise with which he kept pace with the flight of time and 
the progress of events in business and in local and general 
public affairs. His life flowed on in one continuous current 
of calm, unostentatious goodness, true to the duties ever at 
his hand, furnishing a lofty example of undemonstrative. 



I 





>^^^ 




HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



479 



modest, meritorious manliooil. and working out results of 
enduring value to the eonimunity, and his record is enshrined 
in the admiring remembrance of all who knew him. 

Mr. Gray was born of Scotch ancestry at Jert'erson, Lincoln 
county, Maine, on June 17, is:i3. His parents, Peter T. and 
Elizabetli (Ken edy) Gray, lived originally in Andover, 
Massachusetts, and moved from there to Maine. The father 
was a doctor, and died when liis son Thomas was only f(mi; 
years old. In 1842 tlio mother moved lier family to \\'aIdo- 
boro, also in Lincoln county, Maine, and there the son passed 
three years at Wescosset Academy, completing his academic 
education, and in the meantime acquiring a general jireliminary 
knowledge of drugs by studiously reading tlic incdical l)Ooks in 
liis father's library. 

The yoting student was employed as a clerk in a dry goods 
store for three years, then, at the age of twenty, came west 
to Toledo. Ohio, where he resumed his clerking, which he 
continued in that city until 1855, when he came on to 
Minneapolis in company with his brother Oliver C. They first 
went to what is now Hutchinson, Minn., and there assisted 
in platting the town of Hutchinson having walked from St. 
Paul. John D. Gray, who came on later, became a partner 
of Dr. M. R. Greeley in the drug business in Minneapolis and 
Thomas K. clerked in the dry goods store of D. \V. Ingersoll 
in St. Paul for half a year. Oliver C. Gray went to Arkansas, 
where he became principal of a boys' military academy, and 
at the beginning of the Civil war enlisted in the Confederate 
army. He was promoted in the service until he reached the 
rank of colonel, and after the death of his first wife married 
the wfdow of a Confederate general, and some years later 
died in the South. His second .son, Carl R. Gray, became 
connected with railroading early in his manhood and has 
risen to distinction in official circles in that great industry. 
He was president of the Great Northern Railroad and several 
other corporations embraced in the Hill systems. 

Early in 1857 Thomas K. Gray bought the interest of Dr. 
Greeley in the Minneapolis drug store, and he and his brother 
.John formed a new partnership, under the name of Gray 
Brothers, to continue the business. It was carried oti in 
the firm name until 1874, when .John D. retired from the 
partnership and moved to the Pacific coast. The Gray 
Brothers' establishment was first on Bridge Square, but in 
1858 it was moved to its present location on Hennepin avenue. 
The whole block in which it stood was destroyed by fire in 
1864, and soon afterward the brick structure in which the 
business is now housed was erected. Mr. Gray conducted 
the business until a few years before his death, when he 
decided to leave the details to the care of his son Horace. 
But he continued his connection with the trade until the end 
of his long and useful life. 

Not long after his location in Minneapcdis Mr. Gray secured 
a tract of land at the intersection of Nicollet avenue and Oak 
Grove street, and on this he built a store and an apartment 
house, the latter being the well known Winthrop tiat and 
stores. Near by, at the corner of Oak Grove and Spruce 
streets, he had his own home, and this home has been in the 
family for fifty-eight years, the widow continuing to make 
her home in the same dwelling since his death that she occu- 
pied HO long with him. 

Mr. and Mrs. Gray were married in 1865. She was, before 
her marriage. Miss Julie Allen, a daughter of Rev. Lorenzo 
B. Allen, for some years pastor of the First Baptist church 
of Minneapolis. A brief account of his life will be found 



in this work. Six children were born in the (iray household, 
four of whom are still living. Horace A., the first born, 
succeeded his father in tlie drug business and is still engaged 
in it at the old stand. Edward L., the third son, died in 
early life as the result of an accident. The two daughters 
are Grace Elizabeth now Mrs. A. B. Choate of this city, and 
Marguerite. Mr. Gray was trustee and an active member 
of First Baptist church for many years. 



ALINl'S C. MATTHEWS. 



For a continuous period of :ilmost forty years the late 
Alinus C. Matthews was connected with the Washburn-Crosby 
company of this city, and throughout that long term of 
service proved himself to be an expert and dependable work- 
man in the line of his employment as well as an upright, 
enterprising and public-spirited man in connection with all 
the duties of citizenship. So valuable did his services to the 
company prove in his years of activity that when tlie advance 
of age rendered him less vigorous and alert the company 
insisled on his retiring from active work, but continued him 
on the payroll until death finally ended his labors. 

Mr. Matthews was born at Mayfield, Fiilton county. New 
York, on February 1, 1832, and died at his home in Min- 
neapolis, 1531 East Twenty-fourth street, on February 19, 
1914. He was reared in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and learned 
the trade of mill wright under the instruction of his father. 
Before the Civil war he moved to Altona, Knox county, 
Illinois, and during that memorable conflict he served for 
two years in the Seventeenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. 
While in the service he was promoted from the ranks to the 
position of first lieutenant for bravery on the field, but his 
service in the army was cut short by wounds wliich he received 
in battle, being shot througli his right arm at Fredericktown, 
Missouri, and later through a leg at Shiloh. 

On September 30, 1863, Mr. Matthews was married in 
La Crosse, Wisconsin, to Miss .Jennie Taylor, of Altona, 
Illinois. She was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Illinois 
as a child with her mother. For eleven years after liis mar- 
riage Mr. Matthews lived in Winona, this state, and worked 
at the carpenter trade. In 1874 he moved to Minneapolis, 
and after serving for a short time in the mills of George 
Christian, entered the employ of the Washburn-Ci-osby com- 
pany as a millwright, making his engagement with that 
companj' his anchorage for the remainder of his life, and 
winning a high reputation with it for the superior skill and 
fidelity of his service. 

Mr. Matthews was essentially a man of domestic tastes and 
devoted to his home. When he founded it the location was 
outside of the city limits and the family had very few 
neighbors. He witnessed the growth and improvement of the 
section and did his full share of the work of promoting its 
advancement. He always kept himself well informed as to 
current events, and took a helpful part in public affairs as a 
Republican active in the exercise of his citizenship, but never 
as a politician. On September 30. 1913. he and his wife 
celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage. He was 
a genial and companionable gentleman, always fond of flowers 
and outdoor life, and with a warm heart and open hand for 
everything that was sunny and cheerful. 

Mrs. Matthews survives and still occupies the old family 



480 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



home. Of the twelve children born of their marriage six are 
living: Harry S., Frank M., Ernest L., Winnie (Mrs. W. H. 
Baxter), Adele (Mrs. Thomas M. Garland) and Myrta (Mrs. 
Fred W. Bursell), and there are sixteen grandchildren. Mr. 
Matthews was for many years a regular attendant of Grace 
Episcopal church. Fraternally he belonged to Cataract Lodge, 
A. F. and A. M., and Minneapolis Lodge No. 12, Ancient Order 
of United Workmen. 



CHARLES MORSE. 



Charles Morse, real estate dealer, with offices in the Oneida 
building, is one of the early citizens of Minneapolis, whose 
faithful support and successful effort have contributed to 
the present prosperity of the city. He was born at South 
Paris, Maine, December 30. 1845. and there received the 
excellent educational advantages offered by the Oxford Normal 
Institute. During the Civil war he entered the service of 
his country, enlisting in the fall of 1864. as a recruit in the 
Twelfth Maine regiment stationed at that time at Savannah, 
Georgia, and which participated in the Georgia campaign as 
part of the army of occupation until it was discharged in 
August, 1865. Soon after his return from the war, he engaged 
in the wood and lumber business at points along the Grand 
Trunk railroad in Maine and continued in this trade until 
1875 when he joined his brother, Elisha in Minneapolis. Elisha 
Morse had located here several years earlier and he is found 
in the city' directory of 1877, indicated as a notary public, 
located at 180 South Washington avenue. He was a member 
for some time of the wholesale grocery firm, Stevens. Morse 
& Newell, but was largely identified with his brother, in the 
real estate business. He died in San Francisco p few years 
ago. For a number of years the brothers were associated 
in their business interests, constructing as owners, a number 
of the buildings that were erected in the early eighties, among 
them the old Kurnam hall on the corner of First avenue, 
south, between Washington and Third street, the five story 
section of the National hotel and business blocks on Second 
Avenue, south. Charles Morse then continued in this occupa- 
tion for a few years in partnership with Mr. Charles F. 
Haglin. The trade of this firm expanded rapidly and they 
extended their operations to Duluth and other cities one of 
their contracts being for the erection of the court house at 
Brainerd. Minnesota. They also constructed the foundation 
for the municipal building in Minneapolis. Since 1892, Mr. 
Morse has confined his attentions to the real estate business 
and through his keen financial mind and careful concentration 
on these matters to the exclusion of all other interests, he has 
come to be recognized as one of the best informed men on 
land values in the city and his opinions are accepted as final. 
His success, he attributes in part to the confidence with 
which he has always regarded the future of Minneapolis, never 
hesitating on investments but relying fully on her great 
promises of development. He considers the remarkable 
growth of the city during his residence an ample justification 
of his faith and there is today no more optimistic and 
enthusiastic citizen within its borders. Mr. Morse has exten- 
sive property interests, largely in the resident sections of the 
city, although he owns valuable trackage property occupied 
by wholesale warehouses and has erected several prominent 
buildings. He has been instrumental in the laying out of 



various city additions, preferring in these enterprises to be 
a silent partner, his name having been used in but one 
instance, that of the Morse & Small addition. In considera- 
tion of his services as confidential adviser to the late Elder 
Stewart, he was appointed executor of the Stewart estate, and 
as such has the detail of the management of this property. 
His first wife, Ella Townsend Morse, died in 1893, leaving one 
daughter, Ella T., who is a student in the state university. 
He later married Adeline R. Barber. Mr. Morse is a trustee 
of the Universalist church, and a member of Lafayette and 
Automobile clubs. 



OSCAR 0. MARTINSON. 



Oscar O. Martinson, chief of police since .January, 1913, 
when he was so chosen by Mayor Nye, was born in Stockholm, 
Sweden, December 13, 1877, and came to Minnesota with his 
parents in 1881. The family located at Long Lake, and 
there the son, completed the course of instruction in the 
public school. He then learned telegraphy, and was employed 
as an operator for the Great Northern Railroad for about 
four years. He then became city salesman for the Crescent 
Creamery about five years. Mr. Martinson was appointed a 
member of the police force July 14, 1905, being detailed to 
do special work. He was soon promoted to sergeant on the 
plain clothes force, not long thereafter being named a lieuten- 
ant. His next step was to the rank of plain clothes detective, 
so continuing until he was chosen ciiief. Chief Martinson 
has met all demands in a thorough and satisfactory manner, 
and has given the city an administration of its police de- 
partment that is creditable alike to it and to him. He attends 
to his duties in a quiet and undemonstrative but effective way, 
and thereby is securing the best results. 

The welfare of Minneapolis has ever been an object of 
practical interest to Mr. Martinson, and he has been diligent 
in his efforts to promote it through every channel available, 
his services being recognized and appreciated. He was married 
December 8, 1899, to Miss Fannie Mousso, daughter of Barney 
Mousso of a family that was one of the first to settle in St. 
Anthony. 

They are the parents of three children, Uriel, CeleStine, and 
Francis. 



WALTER HENRY GOIT^D. 



Although his life and usefulness were cut short at the age 
of sixty by long continued maladies which steadily sapped his 
strength, and ended before the ambitions of his aspiring spirit 
were realized and while they were still potential with him, 
the late Walter H. Gould of Minneapolis wrought out a 
very creditable career and made his impress on the body of 
the times here and in a distant Eastern community before 
he came to this part of the country, for all his time was well 
employed on progressive undertakings, and liis indomitable 
will carried him through them all with gratifying and profit- 
able success. 

Mr. Gould was a native of Heath, Franklin county, Massa- 
chustts, where his life began on July T, 1850. His ancestry 
in America runs back to 1650, when the progenitor of the 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



481 



American branch of his father's family landed in New Kngland. 
Hia mother, whose maiden name was Martha Temple, also 
Ix'loiiged to old Colonial families of distinction in times long 
gone by and prominent in her day, Ave of her brothers being 
physicians and surgeons in Boston, and throughout Massa- 
chusetts and other representatives of the house adorning other 
lines of serviceable and productive endeavor. 

Walter H. Gould was a cotton manufacturer. He began his 
connection with the industry as bookkeeper in a cotton mill, 
and by his energy, enterprise and ability soon became the 
half owner of one himself. He made the cloth for calicoes 
and other cotton prints in large quantities and prospered at 
the business. But after conducting his large establishment 
eight years he found life in the factory so seriously detrimental 
to his health that he was forced to give it up and seek a 
change of climate and occupation. 

In May, 1886, he came to Minneapolis, and here his health 
improved so rapidly and steadily that he determined to remain, 
and even deliberated earnestly over the advisability of starting 
a manufactory of cotton batting in this city. The fear that 
the dust of a mill might again prove hurtful to him deterred 
him, however, and he never yielded to the temptation, although 
it was strong Avith him to the end of his life. Instead he gave 
his attention to handling real estate, insurance and probate 
work and acting as the executor of estates and guardian of 
minor heire. This gave him the benefit of an outdoor life 
in large measure, and as he was well informed on questions 
involved in the laws of his business and very particular and 
exact in attending to it, he was very successful and his 
operations were extensive in it. 

In the course of his transactions Mr, Gould became mterested 
in Colorado mining and acquired large holdings in the Radium 
Mine company, of which he was vice president at the time 
of his death. The property of this company lies on the cele- 
brated Moffat Rail Road not far from the entrance to the 
Grand Canyon of the Colorado river. Vanadium is found on 
the property in commercial quantities and availability, and 
it promises to become very valuable, Mr, (!ould was in the 
habit of visiting the mine several times a year to push its 
development, and his services were so highly esteemed that 
he was continued as vice president of the company even when 
his health no longer permitted him to give close attention to 
his duties. He also owned Summit Park farm at Wayzata 
on Lake Minnetonka where he maintained a summer home 
and found considerable enjoyment in farming operations. In 
addition be had cottages at Ste. Albuns Bay, and there too 
the lake scenery and enticements gave him pleasure at times. 
In politics he was a Republican, but he never consented to 
be a candidate for office. He was, however, a strong advocate 
of just and equal taxation for all classes of the people, and 
proclaimed his views on the subject everywhere without fear 
or favor. Fraternally he was an ardent, enthusiastic and hard- 
working Freemason, and gave tlie fraternity, in all its activities, 
the best service of which he was capable. Although he was 
a charter member of Ark Lodge in Minneapolis, and Minnesota 
Lodge No. 324, serving as treasurer eight years, he did not 
confine his energies to the service of that organization, but 
spread them over all, even serving as a member of the state 
charity board of the order. 

On August 30th, 1876, Mr. Gould was married at Bernard- 
ston, Massachusetts, in his native county, to Miss Martha 
Alexamler, who also belonged to old families domesticated at 
Dedliam, in that state, from early Colonial times. Her great- 



grandfather. Dr. Stearns, was the author of "American Herbal," 
the first medical work published in this country. He was also 
a poet of .some renown, Mrs, Gould is still living. On her 
mother's side of the house she had several relatives who were 
prominent in the French and Indian war in this country. 
She was prepared for Holyoke College at the Powers Institute 
in Bernardston, Massachusetts, by one of the eminent educa- 
tors of the period, Professor L, F, Ward, But she married 
young and gave up her expected course in college instruction. 
The questions of the present day interest her deeply, and she 
is a member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, But 
she is constitutionally opposed to the woman suffrage move- 
ment, and is not pleased with the methods of the suffragettes. 
Two children have blessed and brightened the Gould house- 
hold. Frances, the daughter, is an artist and lives at home 
with her mother, Frank, the son, is a member of the firm of 
Lee & Gould, in the livery business in Minneapolis, The 
father was fond of all kinds of animals, and greatly enjoyed 
driving a good horse. 



M, P. McINERNY, 



Maurice P, Mclnerny, an inlluential member of the Minne- 
apolis City Council, was born at Louisville, Kentucky, October 
21, 1867, the son of Austin .1, and Mary C, fConnell) Mclnerny. 
His parents were natives of Ireland and came to this country 
in their childhood. They were married in Louisville and made 
that city their home until a short time after the birth of their 
son, Maurice, when they removed to Lake City, Minnesota, 
where they remained for nine years and then located on a 
farm in Swift County. 

In 1882 the Mclnerny family removed to Minneapolis, and 
here the father engaged in general building and contracting 
\intil his retirement, a few years ago. He continues to make 
his home in Minneapolis and his three daughters and four 
son's are all residents of the city. At the age of sixteen, 
Maurice Mclnerny apprenticed himself to the plumber's trade, 
in the employ of Mr. E. Buffton, and served three years. At 
the end of his apprenticeship he was employed as a journey- 
man for a number of years, rising in his profession until in 
1004 when he established an independent business which has 
prospered and steadily increased. In 1910 he removed to his 
present location, at 414 Sixth Avenue South, He employs 
a large force of workmen, and handles contracts for general 
plumbing and heating. He has alway.s championed the cause 
of organized labor. Possessed of gifts of the orator, and with 
an unbounded enthusiasm for the cause of his fellowmen, he 
is a favorite spokesman of the local labor organizations, repre- 
senting them in many important meetings. In 1910 he was 
chosen alderman for a four-year term, from the Seventh Ward, 
one of the strong labor wards of the city. His membership 
in the City Council has been marked by an intelligent interest 
in every pha-se of eity government and by commendable 
achievements. He is Chairman of the Committee on Roads and 
Bridges and thereby is a member of the Park Board, He is also 
on the committees on the bonds and aecount.s of city officers, 
fire department, license, and salaries, \s Chairman of the 
Committee on Roads and Bridges and as a member of the 
Forestation Committee he has given most valuable services. His 
hearty cooperation with the Park Board Commission in the 
cause of good roads and of the boulevard system and play- 



482 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



ground extension has been of great assistance to the Com- 
mission. As a member of the Committee on Forestation he has 
obtained notable results. 

Mr. Melnerny is a Republican but places good citizenship 
before politics. He was married in 1891 to Miss Margaret 
McHugh of Elroy, Wisconsin. They have had eight children: 
Raymond, a graduate of St. Thomas College of St. Paul, 
and who was killed on the Milwaukee Railroad July 13. 1913, 
aged 21; Helen, a graduate of South High School in 1912; 
Margaret, and Maurice, who are students in the High School; 
Genevieve, Austin. Clayton, and George. Mr. Mclnemy and 
his family are members of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church. 



MINNESOTA LINSEED OH. COMPANY. 

This enterprising and progressive industrial institution is 
one of the leading factors in the conditions which make Min- 
neapolis the greatest linseed oil producing center of the United 
States, and is altogether worthy of the high rank it holds in 
the industrial world. It manufactures old process linseed 
oil and oil cake. The company was originally incorporated for 
manufacturing purposes in 1870, with a capital stock of 
$60,000 with G. Scheitlin, D. C. Bell and J. K. Sidle as in- 
corporators. The capital stock at this time (1914) is $150,- 
000, and the present officers are: W. A. Ramsey, president, 
and George L. Miles, secretary. It is strictly a home com- 
pany, and an important industrial factor its products enjoy- 
ing not only extensive domestic but also a large foreign 
sale. 

The plant occupied, which was erected and equipped in 1904, 
covers an entire block at Third street and Eleventh and 
Twelfth avenues south, and is complete and modern in facili- 
ties and appliances. This company crushes about 750,000 
bushels of flax seed a year, employs regularly about one 
hundred persons and has a pay roll that reaches about $1,200 
per week. It stands in high estimation for the excellence of 
its products, the squareness and uprightness of its treatment 
of patrons, its thorough reliability in respect to the quality 
of its output and its business methods, and the enterprise 
with which it keeps pace with improvements. It is a credit 
to Minneapolis and an element of potency and influence in 
the city's industrial and commercial greatness. 



PETER McCOY. 



Was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on March 27, 1856, 
and came to St. Paul with his father, Patrick McCoy, in 1869. 
The father and three of his brothers were soldiers in the 
Union army during the Civil war, having enlisted in Penn- 
sylvania, where they were all then living. Patrick McCoy 
worked at railroad grading and for farmers for a few years 
after coming to this state, then located on i\ farm of his 
own in Dakota county. But he sold this a little later and 
moved to Colorado, where he died. He was a member of 
the Grand Army of the Republic from its organization to the 
end of his life, and was ardently devoted to it. 

Peter McCoy remained with his father until he reached the 
age of eighteen. He then passed two years and a half in 
the Colorado coal fields in charge of the San .Juan coal mine. 



He has lived in Minneapolis thirty-four years, and during 
that period has been variously employed. During the last 
fifteen years he has been a wholesale coal merchant, and 
during the last two has also carried on a retail trade in this 
commodity, operating two yards. 

In 1898 Mr. McCoy was elected alderman from the Ninth 
ward, and he served in the city council twelve years con- 
tinuously thereafter, giving the ward the longest term of 
service it has ever had from any one councilman. He is a 
Democrat in politics and the ward has usually a Republican 
majority, but he was elected time after time solely on his 
merit and because of his known devotion to the public welfare 
in general and the interests of his ward in particular. 

When he entered the council there were no sewers and no 
gates at the railroad crossings in his section of the city. The 
service in these respects is now extensive and increasing. 
For four years he worked earnestly for street cars for his 
section, and his work was so effective that he finally secured 
what the ward wanted in this respect. 

Fraternally he is an Odd Fellow, a Knight of Pythias and 
a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He also has 
the sporting element largely developed in his make up, and 
for some years was the owner of ''Billie Bobbs," the famous 
ice track racer. 

At the age of twenty-six Mr. McCoy was married to Miss 
Mary Beckley, of Minneapolis. She and the six children born 
of the union have all died, the last one to pass away being a 
son named John, wlio died in March, 1913, aged twenty-seven 
years. Mr. McCoy's second wife was Miss Frances Kessier, 
also a Minneapolis lady. They have two children, their 
daughters Gladys and Marian. 



RIGHT REVEREND JOSEPH GUILLOT. 

Prelate of the Papal Household in Minneapolis. Right Rever- 
end Joseph Guillot, pastor of Notre Dame de Lourdes Catholic 
church, Prince street southeast, and the first Minneapolis 
priest to receive the title of Monsignor. has risen to the 
eminence he occupies in church relations by natural ability 
improved by hard study and zealous and unremitting service 
to the cause to which he has dedicated his life. He was born 
near the city of Lyons, France, about sixty years ago, educated 
at Meximieux, Department of Ain, and ordained to the priest- 
hood on September 1, 1878, at Bourg. diocese of Belley. While 
a student he engaged to some extent in teaching, and after 
his ordination taught one year in ;in institution for the 
education of deaf mutes. 

Father Guillot remained as a teacher in the seminary at 
Meximieux until 1883, when he came to the United States. 
Bishop Grace, of the diocese of St. Paul, at once assigned 
him to work at Watertown, Minnesota, but the next year 
he was placed in charge of the organization at Waverly, 
Wright county, where he remained until 1898, a period of 
fourteen years. He erected the church and school house at 
Waverly and raised the parish to a prosperous condition. 
Other pioneer work requiring his services, he was sent to 
Marshall, Minnesota, where he organized a parish of forty-five 
families. This grew so rapidly that by 1900 it had 200 
families, making it one of the leading and most prosperous 
churches in the diocese. In 1910 he came to his present 
charge, the church of Notre Dame de Lourdes, wliere much 




^V-^^-z^^^^ 




HISTORY OF MIXNHAl'OLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



483 



has since been acconiplislifd in improvinf; iliiiiili ami school 
through his tireless and efficient work. 

This church dates from 1S77. when, under Rev. W. Brunelle, 
the parish bought the buildin-; of the First Universalist 
Society of St. Anthony. Kevs. L. Chandonnet, P. S. Da^'nault 
and .1. A. Souniis succeeded, the church embracing some 450 
families, with about 2.200 communicants. It conducts an 
excellent parish school, with an enrollment of .300 pupils on 
the average, and is ardent with zeal and activity in all good 
work properly included in its field of useful and beneficient 
endeavor. 

From the time when Fatlier Hennepin visited and named 
the Falls of St. Anthony de Padua in 1680 to the present 
time France has contributed liberally of her priesthood to 
advance the cause of Christianity in this section of the New 
World. In 1830 St. Anthony was included in the diocese of 
Milwaukee, and Archbishop Henny sent Father Galtier as a 
missionary to look after its interests. Two years later the 
site of the present church of St. Anthony de Padua was 
purchased by Father Ravoux, then stationed at Mendota. In 
1849 a frame church edifice was erected, and in 1851 Father 
Ledon became the first resident pastor of the parish. 

Father Ledon came from France and the same seminary 
that gave the world Fatlier Guillot, Meximieux, upon the 
invitation of Bishop Loras, of Dubuque. He was a noted 
spiritual adviser and did a great work in building up the 
parish. In 1855 he was removed to St. Peter, and some 
years later returned to France. There, although he had been 
absent a long time, he was again placed in charge of his 
first parish. He was succeeded at St. Anthony by Father 
FayoUe. a college companion and intimate friend of his young 
manhood. In 1860 Father John McDermott took charge of 
the parish, and he was succeeded in turn by Father Tissot, 
who left a lasting and beneficient inflvience in the community. 
He came from France in 1854, was ordained in 1858 ana 
given charge of twenty-four missions, and assumed control 
of St. Anthony de Padua in November, 1S66. For twenty- 
two years he consecrated and devoted himself to the needs 
of his parish, resigning in 1888 and retiring to the Doniinleaii 
convent in South Minneapolis. 

Father Guillot was appointed by Pope Pius X, in March, 
1913, prelate of the Papal Household in Minneapolis and 
received with his appointment to this office in the church 
the title of Monsignor. On Sunday, April 6, 1913, he was 
invested with the insignia of his office, the purple cassock, 
the mantelletta and the rochet. Archbishop Ireland, of St. 
Paul, conducted the investiture and presided over the cere- 
monies, and clergymen from all over tlie Northwest took part 
in the solemn and impressive proceedings. The pontificial mass 
celebrated in honor of the event by Right Reverend .1. •!. 
Lawler, auxiliary bishop of St. Paul, was largely attended. 
The procession, led by acolytes of the church, comprised semin- 
arians, priests, bishops and Monsignor Guillot with Archbishop 
Ireland attended by his chaplains. Rev. Paul Perigonl. of 
St. Paul Seminary, read the brief from Rome announcing the 
appointment, which was signed by Cardinal Merry del Val. 

In the sermon preached by him on the occasion Archbishop 
Ireland paid high tributes to the zeal and services of Father 
Guillot as a missionary and pioneer priest. Sixty priests 
participated in the rites, among them Father Chandonnet, 
the first pastor of the church of Our Lady of Lonrdes. A 
complimentary dinner at the St. Anthony club gave opportunity 
for several congratulatory addresses by visiting clergymen and 



laymen, and a public reception at Holy Cross hall. Fourth 
street and Seventeenth avenue northeast, was eagerly utilized 
by a large throng of admiring friends of the new Monsigrnor 
in extending to him their expressions of high personal regard 
and good wi.shes. The occasion marked a lofty altitude in the 
progress of the church in this locality and was one that will 
always be pleasantly remembered by all who took part in the 
unusual and highly interesting exercises, everybody feeling 
that the honor conferred on Father Guillot was most worthily 
bestoweS. 



EUGENK ADKLliERT MERRILL. 

One of tlie founders of the Minnesota Loan & Trust Com- 
pany, and at present chairman of its board of directors, was 
born at Byron, Genesee county. New York, on August 26, 
1847, the son of Daniel P. and .Jeannette L. (PoUay) Merrill, 
both of the same nativity as himself. The father was a 
farmer and prosperous in his occupation. The farm lands of 
Genesee county in the Empire state are very fertile and 
fruitful, and the elder Mr. Merrill was industrious, enter- 
prising and far-seeing in cultivating them. But the vivid 
accounts of the superior richness of those in the Mississippi 
valley which flooded the East soon after that section of the 
country became somewhat settled and populated, led him to 
seek the larger opportunities they seemed to offer. Accord- 
ingly, when his son Eugene was .ibout ten years old the 
family moved to Genesco. Illinois, in Henry county. In and 
around Geneseo the son grew to manhood, and there he 
continued, in the primitive country schools of the prairie, 
the education he had begun in the more advanced ones of 
his native county. At the age of twenty he entered Hillsdale 
College in the city and county of the same name in Michigan, 
where he pursued a full four years course of study and was 
graduated in 1872 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. 
The same institution afterward conferred on him the degree 
of Master of Science in regular course, and in 1888, that of 
blaster of Arts. 

Immediately after his graduation Mr. Merrill made an 
extended tour of Europe, and on his return entered the office 
of E. L. & M. B. Koon. prominent attorneys of Hillsdale, 
Michigan, as a student of law. He was admitted to the bar 
in 1874. and was soon afterward appointed master of chancery. 
Early in 1875 he came to Minneapolis, and in March of that 
year formed a partnership Avitli .Judge Charles H. Woods, the 
style of the firm being Woods & Merrill. It was as a member 
of this firm that Mr. Merrill virtually began his practice as 
a lawyer. 

The partnership mentioned continued three years, and wag 
then dissolved on the arrival in this city of the late Judge 
M. B. Koon, when the law partnership of Koon & Merrill 
was formed. Two years later Arthur JI. Keith was admitted 
to the firm and its name beeame Koon. Merrill &, Keith. The 
business of the firm was large and profitable from the begin- 
ning, and it soon became one of the leading law firms in the 
city, its members being called into almost every ease of 
prominence or magnitude. 

On January 1, 1883, he ipiit the law firm aiul gave nji the 
profession, at that time uniting with Edmund J. Phelps in 
organizing the Minnesota Loan and Trust Company, which by 
his aid and largidy through the wisdom he has displayed in 



484 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



its management has become one of the most successful and 
widely useful institutions of its kind in the country. He 
was elected president of the company when it was founded, 
and this position he held with great advantage to the institu- 
tion for a continuous period of twenty-seven years. At the 
end of that long service he resigned tlie presidency, to become 
chairman of its board of directors, the position he has ever 
since held in connection with its affairs. He is also vice 
president of the Associated Realty company; treasurer of the 
Monadnock Realty company, and financial otiicer of various 
other corporations that have great weight in the localities in 
which they operate and help to magnify the value of the 
utilities around them. 

Mr. Merrill left an enviable record at Hillsdale College, 
where he obtained his higher education, and that institution 
has watched his career with justifiable pride and pleasure. 
The college authorities elected him some years ago as a 
member of its board of trustees. He has filled the position 
with commendable attention to its duties and been of great 
service to the college in doing so. He has been for a number 
of years also one of the trustees of Parker College at Winne- 
bago City in this state. In the social life of the city of his 
residence he takes an active and serviceable part as a member 
of the Minneapolis, Lafayette and Minikahda clubs. On 
September 6, 1876, he was married in Minneapolis to Miss 
Adelaide Keith. They have four children, Birdette, May, 
Keith and Eleanor. 



DAVID ADAMS SECOMBE. 

David A. Secombe was the fourtli lawyer to practice in 
the village of St. Anthony, arriving in .June of 1851, and 
being admitted to the bar the next year. Those who pre- 
ceded him were: Ellis G. Whitall, J. W. North and Isaac 
Atwater. 

Mr. Secombe was born in Milford. N. H.. May 35, 1837. 
He was the son of David and Lydia (Adams) Secombe. On 
his father's side, he was descended from a long line of Se- 
combes in this country, the first of whom came in 1660, from 
the west of England, and settled in Falmouth, Mass. (now 
Portland, Maine), removing later to Lynn, Mass., where he 
died. His will is still on record in Salem. He was Richard 
Seoombe, and the different branches of his family have 
adopted different spellings of the name, as: Seccomb, Se- 
combe and Secomb. David Secombe's mother, Lydia Adams, 
was descended from the same immigrant ancestor as the 
two Adams Presidents, viz. Henry Adams of Braintree, Mass. 

Mr. Secombe attended the public school of his native town, 
and fitted for college at the academies of Hancock and Pem- 
broke, N. H. He entered Dartmouth College in 1847, but 
did not remain to graduate, leaving in his junior year to go 
to Mancliester to read law in the office of the Hon. Daniel 
Clark, who was at that time an e.\-l'nited States senator, 
and later a United States district judge. 

In June 1851, Mr. Secombe arrived at St. Anthony, and 
began the practice of law, which he followed continuously 
for the remaining forty-one years of his life. 

He was a member of the State Constitutional Convention, 
which met at St. Paul in 1857, and was a representative 
from Hennepin County in the state legislature in 1859 and 
1860, and in the latter year was a delegate to the national 



republican convention in Chicago, which nominated Abraham 
Lincoln. In 1871-2 he was county attorney of Hennepin 
County. 

In 1884, just thirty-five years after leaving college, his 
Alma Mater confen-ed his diploma upon him. This was 
without any solicitation on his part, and was a great sur- 
prise to him. It was in recognition of the success he had 
made of his profession, and the credit he reflected upon his 
college. 

He was for nine years local Minneapolis attorney for the 
Northern Pacific Railway, and at the Directors' meeting fol- 
lowing his death, the following tribute was read: 

"Whereas, This Board has been informed of the recent 
demise of Mr. D. A. Secombe, the Company's Local Attorney 
at Minneapolis, and desires to place upon its records, a suit- 
able expression of respect, therefore. Resolved, That in the 
death of Mr. Secombe, this Company has sustained a loss 
that causes sincere regret, and removes from the field of 
usefulness, one who during his long connection with the 
Company, commanded the highest appreciation of his asso- 
ciates for his personal worth, and his efficient and satis- 
factory attention to tlie important interests in his charge." 

The funeral was attended by nearly all of the Hennepin 
county bar, and all the judges of the district court, they 
having met in the city and marched in a body to his home 
on Nicollet Island. 

At the next meeting of the Bar Association, the following 
beautiful tribute to Mr. Secombe was read: 

"We, the members of the Hennepin County Bar, deem it 
proper and appropriate that we should place upon record, an 
expression of our sense of the great loss to ourselves and to 
our profession, caused by the death of Hon. David A. Secombe, 
which occurred on the 18th day of this month. 

"For more than forty years he has been a resi<Ient of this 
city, actively engaged in the successful practice of the law. 
He had emphatically what is called a legal mind; his mar- 
velous instinct as to what the law ought to be, doubtless 
saved him much labor, which was necessary to those less 
intellectually great. With the principles of the science he 
was familiar; with their resources, he was scarcely less so. 
He was not a 'case' lawyer, hunting for cases and then for 
principles; for he first determined the principles and then 
offered the cases as illustrations. He never mistook the 
grooves and rules of the law for the law itself. He looked 
at the law from above and not from below, and di^ not cite 
precedent where citation was not necessary. 

"He stood among the brightest and ablest lawyers of the 
state. His integrity was never questioned, he was kind and 
courteous towards his brethren, although his keen sarcasm 
and brilliant repartee often-times, to those who did not know 
him well, made him appear otherwise. He never burdened 
the trial of his cases with immaterial matter, he endeavored 
to determine in his own mind, like a great general upon the 
eve of battle, where the real fight was coming, where the 
day might be lost or won, and then to this point he centered 
all his skill and strength. 

In the statement of a legal proposition, or of the facts in 
a case, he was certainly a master, not surpassed by any one 
in his profession. His arguments were always clear, concise 
and logical; no matter how much the court might differ with 
him, he always commanded its undivided attention. 

"He was always self-reliant and self-possessed, and im- 
pressed one as having a wonderful amount of reserve power. 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



485 



"He was never in a hurry and never did anything in a 
hurry. He was dignified and polite under all circumstances, 
aever forgetting tliat he was a gentleman. 

"But he lias been called before the bar of another tribunal 
to answer for his life here on earth. We shall all miss him, 
for he was admireil, respected and beloved by us all. 

"We respectfully ask that this, our brief expression of 
regard for our honored brother, may hr entercil upon tlie 
records of the court. 

W. E. HALE, 
J. B. GILFILLAN, 
J. M. SHAW, 
FRANK IIKALEY, 
ELL TORRENCE. 
Minneapolis, Minn., March 26, 1892." 

Mr. Secombe married February 27, 1855, Mrs. Charlotte A. 
Eaton, daughter of William K. Eastman, who survived him, 
pas.«ing away January 30, 1912. Mrs. Secombe came to St. 
Anthony with her brother, Mr. William W. Eastman, in 1854. 
Mr. Secombe left three children: Carrie, Eastman, wife 
of the late Edward C. Chatfield, and Willis D. Secombe of 
Minneapolis, and Frank Adams, who died in 1909. 



COL. .TOHN HARRINGTON STEVENS. 

The lat« Col. .John Harrington Stevens, was the first 
settler on the west side of the Mississippi river at St. Anthony 
Falls in what is now Minneapolis. When he arrived at the 
Falls he was a young man of twenty-nine, of sturdy New 
England ancestry, trained in the school of self-reliance in 
the new West and seasoned in the Mexican war — a born 
pioneer and promoter. He reached St. Paul on April 24, 
1849, and the Falls of St. Anthony three days later. 

Some of the party accompanying Colonel Stevens became 
discouraged and returned to the East. But he remained, and 
within a month perfected a plan for making a .claim on the 
west side at the Falls. Before the summer was over the 
•consent of the Secretary of War was obtained, the land being 
a part of the Fort Snelling military reservation, and the 
colonel occupied the domain he had selected. During the 
succeeding autumn he began the erection of his house, which 
he completed and occupied on August 6, 1850. It was a 
story-and-a-half frame structure with a wing of one story — 
a. simple and unpretentious farm house, built as a home for 
a young married couple, and without a thought of the varied 
purposes for which it would be used, or that it would be 
preserved in a public park in after years, as a memorial of 
the early days of a great city. 

For six years the occupant of this home had not a line of 
writing to support any claim of ownership to the land on 
which it stood. He had nothing but the consent of the 
Secretary of War to occupy it on condition that he would 
Lmaintain a free ferry across the Mi-ssissippi for government 
troops and supplies. There was, however, an understanding 
' that when the lands west of the river were thrown open for 
settlement his claim would be recognized, and in the course 
of a few years it was. In the meantime he had put some 
of his land under cultivation and begun raising crops of 
wheat, oats and corn which would have done credit, he said, 
to central Illinois. These crops, his fields of waving grain, 
settled the destination of many an immigrant by demon- 



strating the fertility and productiveness of the region, his 
farm being the first on the west side of the river north of 
the Iowa line. He also introduced the first herd of cows west 
of the Falls except those held for the use of the troops at 
the fort. 

John Harrington Stevens was born in Lower Canada on 
June 13, 1820, the second son of Gardner and Deborah (Har- 
rington) Stevens, natives and long residents of Vermont. 
All the immediate ancestors of the family were New England 
people, and many of them occupied prominent positions in 
the national and state governments. The mother was the 
only daughter of Dr. .John Harrington, who served in the 
Colonial army during the Revolution. His father was a man 
of wealth and unusually respected by the community in 
which he lived, and the doctor stood equally high in public 
estimation. He died in Brookfield, Vermont, in 1S04. 

Before young Stevens was of age he became a resident of 
the lead mining region near Galena, Illinois. In 1846 he 
enlisted in the United States army for the Mexican war 
and served through that short, sharp and decisive contest. 
At its close in 1848 he returned to his early home in Illinois, 
and from there came to Minnesota in April, 1849, before the 
organization of the territorial government. On May 10. 1850, 
he was married at Rockford, Illinois, to Miss Frances H. 
Miller, a daughter of Abner Miller of Westmoreland, Oneida 
county. New York. Her parents were from New England 
and descended from Puritan ancestors. The mother, before 
her marriage, was Miss Sallie Lyman, of the Lyman-Beecher 
stock, and her grandfather was a brother of the grandmother 
of Henry Ward Beecher and Mrs. Harriet Beeeher Stowe. . 

It is difficult to fully realize now the conditions under 
which Colonel and Mrs. Stevens began housekeeping on the 
site of Minneapolis but little over sixty years ago. Theirs 
was the only dwelling inhabited by white people between the 
Falls of St. Anthony and the Rocky Mountains, but the 
Indians were numerous around them and at their very door, 
the camp of one tribe being about on what is now known 
as Bridge Square, the foot of Nicollet and Hennepin avenues. 
They did not molest the colonel's stock, but made sad havoc 
with his garden. As a rule they respected the private prop- 
erty of the whites living outside of their own lands. 

In his "Personal Recollections" of the early months at the 
first home in Minneapolis Colonel Stevens says: "The only 
way we could reach the house from St. Anthony was by 
taking a small boat, with two sets of oars, above Nicollet 
Island. The volume of water was so great, and the current 
so strong, we were fortunate if the landing was made any 
considerable distance above the rapids. Pioneer housekeeping 
was not new to me, for I had long kept bachelor's hall in 
the lead mines, but it was a novelty to my wife, who had 
been accustomed to the refining inlluences and conveniences 
of a well regulated New York household. Sometimes for 
weeks we would not see a white person, our only visitors 
being Indians. Mosquitos surrounded the house in such 
swarms that smoke would not banish them. We usually 
received our letters and papers once a week. Fortunately I 
had a pretty good library, and Jfrs. Stevens had a piano and 
other musical instruments, which had a tendency to banish 
from the little house most of the lonesomeness naturally 
incident to pioneer life so far from neighbors," 

In this remote and lonely habitation in the wilds six chil- 
dren were ushered into being for the household. They were: 
Mary Elizabeth, the first white child born in original Minne- 



486 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



apolis, who died in her seventeenth year; Catherine D., who 
became the wife of the late Philip B. Winston; Sarah, who 
died at the age of 24; Gardner, the only son, who is a civil 
engineer: Orma, who married with William L. Peck, and 
Frances Helen, who is now Mrs. Isaac Henry Chase, Rapid 
City, S. D. 

During his long residence in Minnesota Colonel Stevens 
held many high positions of trust in both civil and military 
fields of official duty. In 1890 he published a volume of over 
400 pages entitled ''Personal Recollections of Minnesota and 
Its People, and Early History of Minneapolis." This book 
contains more information about the people who made Minne- 
apolis and their labors in its early history than any otlier 
work. Its material was drawn from his retentive memory 
and voluminous memoranda, and all its statements are un- 
doubtedly true and authentic. 

The colonel was ever busy with his pen during his period 
of activity, and a potent force in shaping and directing public 
opinion in this locality. He wrote many papers and delivered 
many addresses on the early history and agriculture and 
horticulture of this region, and was the proprietor and editor 
of several newspapers, among them the St. Anthony Express ; 
the Chronicle; the Glencoe Register; the Tribune; tlie Cata- 
ract and Agriculturist; the Farmers' Union; the Farmers' 
Tribune, and the Farm, Stock and Home. He was also con- 
nected with and president of most of the state and local 
agricultural and horticultural associations. He was the first 
register of deeds of Hennepin county and was several times 
elected to the legislature. Always, in every position, he was 
a most effective influence in promoting the progress of the 
state. 

The Stevens home "was not only the first established in 
this city, where an example of domestic virtues, contentment 
and industry was given, but it was also a fountain of hos- 
pitality and kindly helpfulness, as well as headquarters for 
all neighborly conferences and primitive organizations," says 
a writer on tlie subject prior to the colonel's death. "Here 
was held the first court in Hennepin county. Here were 
organized lodges, boards and societies; and here travelers, 
prospective settlers and tourists found a cordial welcome. The 
latchstring of the humble abode was always out, and even 
the untutored savage entered freely for refreshments, or 
suffered his little ones to flatten their noses against the 
window panes while they gazed at the wonders of civilized 
life within." 

Colonel Stevens was a patriarch and sage as well as a 
helper of all who were in need. During his residence in 
Minneapolis lie aided its gi'owth and shared with a fond 
enthusiasm in most of its public and private enterprises. In 
the beginning he was very liberal in the disposition of his 
lots, .selling many at low prices and even giving some away 
as inducements for settlement or business, never allowing 
gain for himself to stand in the way of improvements. At 
the end he did not retain even a homestead on his original 
possessions, while other persons grew rich from the large 
pecuniary fruits they yielded long before he died. 

Tlie life of lofty manhood and vast usefulness here briefly 
chronicled was kindly extended into the eighties and closed 
in May, 1900. 



CHARLES W. HASTINGS. 

This enterprising, useful and highly esteemed citizen, who 
died in Minneapolis November 2, 1906, in the sixty-sixtli year 
of his age, after a residence of almost fifty years in Minnesota 
and eighteen in this city, left an excellent name and fine 
business record as a priceless legacy to the members of his 
family. 

Ml'. Hastings was born near the city of Elmira, New 
York, March 25, 1839, the son of Samuel and Abigail Hastings. 
While he was yet a young boy his parents came West to 
Kendall county, Illinois, locating near the village of Oswego. 
Tliere the family remained until 1856, when all its members 
traveled by teams to Steele county, Minnesota, where the 
fatlier look up a preemption. Charles then being seventeen 
years old soon as he reached the required age, took a home- 
stead in that county. 

The parents both died in Owatonna well advanced in years, 
and one of their sons, H. M. Hastings, was a well known 
miller and man of influence in that city, serving for a time 
in the state legislature. As a young man Charles was in the 
habit of hauling wheat to Hastings, sixty miles distant in 
the winter and taking loads of lumber back. His clothing 
was often so covered with patches that it was difficult to 
tell which was the original cloth of which his garments were 
made. This was a common occurrence of pioneer days, and 
nobody found fault witli the condition. 

Mr. Hastings married young Miss Mariette Gould and 
engaged in farming on his homestead. After farming for 
some years they moved to Owatonna, where he was occupied 
in the livery and stage business for a time. While he was 
so occupied his wife died, leaving three children, Sarah E., 
who is now the wife of William Soper, of Owatonna ; Charles 
F., who is a resident of Los Angeles, California; and Luella, 
who is the wife of Charles E. Aiken, of Grand Rapids, Minne- 
sota, the cashier of the bank there founded by his father- 
in-law. 

January, 1871 Mr. Hastings contracted a second marriage, 
ffhich united him with Miss Esther Sheldon, a school teacher 
in Owatonna for three years. She was born near Ogdenshurg, 
New York. 

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hastings bought the 
Arnold Hotel in Owatonna, and won such popularity and 
patronage that the owner of the Park hotel asked them to 
take charge of it almost on their own terms, and keep it 
going or close it, as they thought best. Mr. Hastings was 
an excellent landlord and very popular with traveling men. 
many of whom made his house their regular Sunday stopping 
place. He got an excellent business start in the hotel but 
was inclined to broader fields. About 1880 he sold all and 
moved to Brookings. South Dakota, then a new towu just 
starting but full of promise, the State Agricultural College 
being established there. 

There Mr. Hastings became interested in real estate as an 
owner and dealer and also engaged extensively in selling 
horses, having many shipped to that locality for the benefit 
of farmers. In the fall of 1888 he disposed of his holdings in 
South Dakota and moved to Minneapolis, and soon afterward 
took charge of the Windsor hotel at Washington avenuf and 
First avenue north, the site of the Gayety theater of the 
present day. His popularity as a boniface returned to him. 
His house was full of patrons, and they all became his friends. 
The writer well recalls this hotel us one of the most pojiular 



I 




C^ "^ M:,.X^C^^ 



HISTORY OP MINNEAl'OLIS AND HENNEPIN COFNTY, MINNESOTA 



487 



eating houses in tlic city in those days. Its dining room was 
filled with the best people in the city who took their dinners 
there especially on Sunday. 

While keeping this hotel Mr. Ha.stings turneil his attention 
to banking, starting this cnterpri.se in tlie town of (Irand 
Rapids, this state, and gradually adding banks in other places 
until he had ten. of which he was the president. lli^ 
plan was to interest young men in the business and take them 
into association with himself. Among others he secured 1'. 1*. 
Sheldon, a son of his wife's brother, P. ,1. Sheldon, of Owatonna, 
and who soon took charge of the detail work in tho 
banks, and in time he succeeded liis uncle in tlie presidency 
of all of them. Some of them have been sold, but Mrs. 
Hastings still has interests in six. When her liusband died 
she became the sole executor of his estate, and she has since 
managed the property with sagacity and enterprise and 
with very gratifying success. 

After his banks were well under way Mr. Hastings grad- 
ually retired from the hotel business and gave his attention 
wholly to them. He continued to be the final adviser and 
arbiter in connection with all important matters of business 
growing out of their transactions, and kept himself fully 
posted in order that he might advise his force intelligently. 
He was always active and zealous in behalf of public improve- 
ments and all other undertakings in his community for the 
good of its residents, an<l never withheld his support from 
any project he deemed worthy of promotion or involving the 
general welfare in any way or degree. He passed many of 
his later winters in California, but was always eager to get 
back to Minneapolis in tlie spring. His strong devotion to 
his home, his love of trading, and other characteristics, led 
some of his intimate friends to see in him a resemblance to 
Pavid Harum. and to sometimes jestingly call hira by that 
name. 

By his second marriage Mr. Hastings became the father of 
one child. Clyde C. Hastings, who is a prosperous farmer in 
Wright county, ilinnesota. The hitter's wife died three 
months previous to the death of his father, and his mother 
has taken his three daughters to rear and educate. They 
are: Marie, a student at Carleton College, Northficld: Ferol, 
a student at the Pill.sbury Academy, Owatonna. and Mar- 
garet. Mrs. Hastings has also much interest in a niece, who 
is now the wife of N. C. Larson, of Owatonna. In addition 
to managing the estate of her husband she is also the executor 
of that of her late brother, Horace Sheldon, who lived with 
her a number of years prior to his death Her business cares 
are numerous and weighty, but she carries the burden with 
ease, being a lady of fine business ability, great force of 
character and a broad sweep and comprehensiveness of vision. 



FRANK L. MORRISON. 



Kor nearly forty years the life of this gentleman has been 
passed in responsible connection with the flour milling industry 
in Minneapolis, and it is high praise but only a just tribute 
to well demonstrated merit to say that he has met every 
requirement of his long, varied and oftentimes burdensome 
duties in a masterly manner and to the entire satisfaction 
of his employers and their patrons. He is now head miller 
of the Pillsbury .\ mill, the largest flour mill in the world, 
and is directly responsible for one-half of the whole output 



of the Pillsbury Milling company. No part of the ilirecting 
responsibility of the enormous enterprise, is ilelegated to 
subordinates, Mr. Morrison giving eveVy detail of the work 
his personal attention and direct an<l studious inspection. 

The ordinary daily output of Pillsbury A mill aggregates 
11,000 banels of flour. The working force includes one 
hundred bolters, oilers, grinders and sweepers, and the total 
number of operatives is regularly aliout 450. Mr. .\Jorrison 
handles this large force with the skill of an accomplished 
general and his demeanor toward all the employes is that of 
a courteous, considerate gentleman. He is true and loyal to 
the interests of his employers to (he limit of requirement, but 
he is also fair, just and ecpiitable to the workmen uniler him, 
and always strictly upright and straight -forward toward the 
purchasing and general public. 

Frank L. Morrison was born at Pickwick, Winona county, 
Minnesota, on May 11, 1HG.">. a sun of .1. C. and Emily (Bing- 
ham) Morrison, farmers who came from Pennsylvania to 
this state in the early days, the father having driven a stage 
between Winona and Rochester before the railroads were 
built. Frank's milling career began in the capacity of a 
laborer in a mill at Stillwater when he was sixteen years 
old. He worked in mills in Stillwater and at Eau Claire, 
Wisconsin, until 1S8.5. Before the end of that year he 
became an oiler, at $1.75 a day, in Pillsbury B mill, Min- 
neapolis. Under the supervision of that prince of flour millers, 
J. H. Miller, he progressed steadily through all the stejis of 
advancement, in 1891 being made a bolter in the B mill, and 
was assigned as second miller two years later in Pillsbury 
A mill. His promotion to his present place came on May 1, 
1911, his old superior and instructor having died on February 
28, 1910. 

Mr. Morrison was married in .Minne.npolis in 1903 to .Miss 
Belle Franklin, a native of Michigan. They have one child, 
their da\ighter Vellita. The parents are members of the 
First Congregational church in Minneapolis. While always 
deeply and intelligently interested in the welfare of his home 
community and its residents, and doing what he can to 
promote that in all quiet and unostentatious ways, Mr. Mor- 
rison has never taken an active part in political contentions, 
and has given but little attention to the clubs and fraternal 
societies so numerous in the city. But he neglects nothing in 
which the general well being is involved. 



ELLERY 0. MEAD. 



The late Ellery O. Mead, during his lifetime one of the 
leading builders of Minneapolis, "was born in Hinesburg, Ver- 
mont, on November 16, 1844, and died in this city on April 
16, 1911. In his young manhood he was in the mercantile 
business at Shelburne in his native state. 

Mr. Mead went to Aberdeen, S. D., in 1881 and for many 
years conducted a hardware store on tho corner now occupied 
by the Abci'dcen Ilardw,are company. After doing business 
for some time in a small frame building on that site, he 
moved the structure and replaced it with the building now 
known as the Wells block, which was called the Mead block 
until W. O. Wells bought it a dozen years ago. He aold his 
hardware business at the same time and thereafter devoted 
his time to his increasing property in this city. He owned 
the Ilagerty block for some time, selling it to the present 



488 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



owner, J. F. Hagerty. He changed his residence to Minne- 
apolis in 1906. 

When Mr. Mead came to Minneapolis he bought land on 
Lowry Hill lying between Aldrich and Bryant avenues, and 
reaching from Hennepin avenue to Franklin, to which Bryant 
avenue had not yet been extended. He looked the city over 
to secure the best location for an apartment house, and 
by the thoroughness of his search found what he wanted. 
He then put up the Vermont Apartment, containing twenty- 
six flats, and the next year, which was that of 1910-11, 
erected Aberdeen Court, containing thirty-six flats. 

The locations of these buildings are unsurpassed, and both 
were built in modern, high-class style. The last was just 
about finished when he died. He had built both as an invest- 
ment for himself, and had made them to suit his own elevated 
and exacting requirements in their line. His business always 
interested him, whatever it was, and had his close attention. 
Nevertheless, he was a man of strong domestic tastes and 
devoted to his home. Social life did not interest him to any 
great extent, and he was never active in making acquaint- 
ances. The persons he cherished as friends were compara- 
tively few in number, but his attachment to them was strong 
and sincere. 

Mr. Mead was a great believer in the Northwest and cor- 
dial in his devotion to it and its welfare. He felt great 
satisfaction in the knowledge that he was permitted to be 
one of the builders of its greatness and promoters of its prog- 
ress and development. He also had great confidence in the 
future of Minneapolis, and was earnest and constant in doing 
what he could toward its advancement and improvement. He 
was an industrious reader. His books and his home were 
the sources of his greatest enjoyment. His widow is living, 
and has her home at the Aberdeen Apartments. She, also, is 
warmly attached to Minneapolis, and greatly favors the city 
as a place of residence. 



ALBERT MASSOLT. 



Albert Massolt, president and controlling spirit of the 
Massolt Bottling company is a native of Minnesota and Avas 
born in Stillwater. .June 11, 1863. The company of which 
Mr. Massolt is the head was organized by liim; but its 
business was started by his father. Frederick William Massolt. 
who was born in Germany, emigrating to Pennsylvania in 
1850. Two years later he came to Minnesota locating at 
Taylors Falls, where he remained ten years, being there 
nuirried, March 29. 1861. to Miss Mary Kostman. who was 
born in Prussia. 

In 1862 Mr. Massolt moved to Stillwater, remaining three 
years, when he went to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and began the 
manufacture of mineral water. In 1867 he came to Min- 
neapolis in order to secure a better market and increased 
facilities and started the business which is now beinfj con- 
ducted so successfully. 

The father died February 29. 1892. He was an active 
member of the Odd Fellows, a good business man and a 
highly respected upright, independent and serviceable citizen, 
and true to every duty in all the relations of life. His wife 
survived him ten years, passing away in 1902. They were 
the parents of eleven children, of whom six are still living. 

Albert Massolt early went to work in his father's estab- 



lishment, and when his father died he took charge of the 
business, incorporating the Massalt Bottling Company in 1907^ 

The present officers are: Albert Massolt, president; P. A. 
Benson, vice president; Edward Massolt, secretary, and J. L. 
Michaels, treasurer. The business is the most extensive of 
its kind in the Northwest, manufactures all the leading 
mineral waters, its principal product being "Whale Brand" 
ginger ale. The plant at 116, 128 Plymouth avenue is large 
and well equipped with the latest machinery and devices. 

Mr. Massolt is a member of the Odd Fellows, the Elks, the- 
Foresters and the Knights of Pythias. In 1886. he was 
married to Miss Glendora Bowlby. They have one child,. 
Gertrude, at home. 



OTIS MILTON HUMPHREY, M. D. 

J)r. Otis M. Humphrey, who was one of the oldest phy- 
sicians in Minneapolis at his death July 8, 1911, was born at 
Victor. Ontario county, New York, April 26, 1832, much of 
Ids youth being passed in Steuben county, Indiana, with his 
parents. At sixteen he returned to New York attending 
academies at Bloomington and Geneseo preparatory for col- 
lege. Failing health, however, compelled him to forego a 
college course, but he later studied medicine under the direc- 
tion of an uncle, a physician in New Y'ork. He attended medi- 
cal college in Philadelphia and the Long Island Hospital College 
in Brooklyn. He practicd in Natick, Massachusetts, until 
the outbreak of the Civil war. when he enlisted in the re- 
nowned Sixth Massachusetts Regiment as assistant surgeon. 

The doctor soon received his commission as surgeon and . 
was placed in charge of general hospitals to which th& 
wounded were sent from the battlefields. For a considerable 
time he was in charge of such a general hospital in New 
Orleans, and near the close of the war was director of the 
army medical corps. Then he was staff surgeon with Gen- 
eral Reynolds and General Herron, and served as such until 
Lee's surrender at Appomattox, being soon after discharged 
with the rank of brevet-colonel. 

He resumed practice in Boston, where he remained until 
1870. when health necessitating a change he came to Minne- 
apolis, locating at the corner of Eighth street and Nicollet 
avenue. He continued in active general practice until 1892, 
when yielding to failing health he gave up practice and all 
other active pursuits. He was an active and helpful member 
of the leading medical organizations and served as president 
of the state and local Homeopathic societies. He was edu- 
cated as an allopath but adopted homeopathy of his own 
initiative. His religious adiliation was with Plymouth Con- 
gregational church; and while he took an active interest in 
public affairs never held or sought a public office. He had a 
superior education, academic and professional, and in his life 
illustrated the sterling New England qualities of character 
and manhood. 

Dr. Humphrey was married in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 
l.sfi2, to Miss Sarah F, Dennis, a native of that city, and 
who for over forty years has been a highly respected and' 
useful member of Plymouth church. Their three children are; 
Otis L., of Boston; Frances H.. wife of Lester C. McCoy, and' 
Richard D., of Minneapolis. The doctor erected the present 
home in 1889 at First Avenue and Fourteenth Street and 
which is one of the choice ones in this section of the city. 




OM. HUMPHREY 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



489 



His life devoted to liis liome and liis piolr.ssioii, wus ricli in 
lofty ideals, his activity in all that made for a better citizen- 
ship redounding to the general good, his memory being 
cherished by hundreds who knew his ability as a. physician, 
his character as a citizen and his loyalty as a friend. 



DORILUS MORRISON. 



All honor is due to the men who laid satisfactory founda- 
tions and built them of ample dimensions for future needs. 
Among these men none rendered more substantial, intelligent 
or far-reaching service or aided more in giving character and 
stability to the city government than the late Dorilus Mor- 
rison, the first mayor of the city, who assumed the control 
of municipal affairs in 1807, immediately after the place put 
off the swaddling bands of village infancy and dunned the 
more ambitious habiliments of city dignity. 

Dorilus Morrison was of Scotch ancestry and was born 
at Livermore, Oxford county, Maine, on December 27, 1814. 
He was one of the six children, four sons and two daughters, 
of Samuel and Betsy (Putnam) Morrison, pioneers of Maine 
and New Englanders by nativity. 

Mr. Morrison of this sketch obtained his education in the 
district or common schools of his day and location, eiubracing 
every means of opportunity for mental improvement that 
came his way, but being neces.sarily limited in the range of 
the facilities available to liim. His parents were sturdy 
New Englanders with a keen sense of the value of industry 
and thrift, and it was in consonance with the atmosphere of 
his honu' that the youth began to earn his own livelihood 
and make his own way in the world at an early age. 

The son began his business career as an outfitter of lumber- 
men in Bangor In his native state and remained there until 
1854. In that year he came to Minnesota and the next year 
located at St. Anthony. He took a contract to supply the 
mills on the east side of the river with logs, and for this 
purpose employed crews of loggers. During the winter he 
o])erated on Rum river, delivering his product in the spring. 

After passing a number of years in this work, Mr. Morrison 
operated a sawmill and conducted a lumber yard in Minne- 
apolis. He became a director of the Minneapolis Mill company 
an<l aided in the construction of the first log dam on the 
Mississippi, which this company erected at a cost of $60,000 
for the purpose of supplying water to the numerous mills 
along the river. Mr. Morrison's lumber business expanded 
rapidly and the management of the mill company passed more 
and more completely into his hands as time went by, and 
it continued to receive his sedulous care and intelligent direc- 
tion until it was sold to an English symlicate. 

In the meantnie Mr. Morrison took an active part in the 
general business interests of the coniuiunity. In IS.'ili lie 
was elected the lirst president of the I'nion Board of Trade 
of St. Anthony, and served that organization for some years 
afterward as a director. This board of trade was organized t" 
stimulate the business interests of St. Anthony and the new- 
born town of Minneapolis on the other side of the river. 
Mr. Morrison, also, with loyal devotion to and fond meiuorio 
of his native region, took a leading part in organizing and 
<lirecting a New England society eomi)osed of settlers from 
that section of the country. 

He was prominent and active in connection witli public 



affaii-s also, and in 1864 was elected to the state senate. In 
the legislature his colleagues were such men as Hon. John 
S. I'illsbury, afterward three times governor of the state; 
Hon. Cyrus Aldrich, later postmaster of Minneapolis and 
useful to the community in other official capacities, and Judge 
F. R. E. Cornell, and in a gathering of men of their caliber 
he was recognized as an equal in force, intelligence, judg- 
ment and breadth of view. 

Events were shaping themselves, however, for the employ- 
ment of Mr. Morrison's abilities in a more restricted though 
not less important sphere. Early in the legislative session of 
18G7 Minneapolis was incorporated as a city, and on Febru- 
ary I'J following he was elected its first mayor, and on Febru- 
ary 20 was inducted into the office. He was re-elected in 1869, 
and during the four years of his tenure of the ofTice he 
showed himself to be verj' wise and judicious in shaping 
the city government and giving it substance as well as good 
form and firm legal standing. 

With the keenness of vision that always distinguished him 
Mr. Morrison saw at an early dale the great need of increased 
transportation facilities for this section of the country. He 
becauu> earnestly interested in the matter and was a member 
of the company organized to build the lirst section of the 
Northern Pacific Railway. In this company he was associated 
with Messrs. Brackett, King, Eastman, Washburn and Shep- 
herd of Minneapolis; Merriam of St. Paul; Payson and Cauda 
of Chicago; Balch of New Hampshire, and Ross and Robinson 
of Canada. The first section of the road extended 240 miles 
and was completed in 1872. Mr. Morrison was ehoseii one of 
the directors of the company, and was tontinued in the 
office until the reorganization of the road after the failure of 
Jay Cooke. 

In 1873 he again becauu' a member of the construction 
company and helped to build the second section of the road, 
which extended from the Red river to the Missouri. There 
was no money to pay for this work, so Mr. Morrison took 
up the stock of his associates, paid off the indebtedness and 
received from the company as his compensation a large 
tract of pine lands in Northern Minnesota. 

In 1871 Mr. Morrison's interest in the general welfare of 
his community led to his election as a member of the city 
school board. He was elected for a Second term in 1878, and 
during this term was president of the board. He was also a 
prominent and influential member of the lirst board of park 
commissioners, and for years was deeply interested in the 
Athenaeum and in promoting plans for the expansion and im- 
provement of the Minneapolis public library. 

Mr. Morrison was lir.st married at Livermore, .Maine, to 
Miss Harriet P. Whitmore. They became the parents of three 
children, George H., Grace and Clinton. The last named was 
the only member of the family living in Minneapolis. A 
sketch of his life will be found in this volume. His mother 
(lied in Austria in 1881. and his father was married a second 
time, being united on this occasion with Mrs. H. C. Clag- 
stone, a widow lady of great culture and refinement. In 
political relations he was a pronounced Hepiibliean and in 
religious faith a Universalist enrolled in the membership of 
the Cliurch of the Redeemer of that sect. He died in ISltO. 
and his second wife passed away some years later. His name 
is hehl in grateful remembrance among all t-la«ses of the people 
of the city for whose advancement he did so much, and he is 
regarded on all sides as one of its most worthy, estimable and 
-erviceable citizens and highest types of nun. 



490 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



HARRY L. MOORE. 

Harry L. Moore, alderman from the Seventli ward, is a 
forceful factor in public life, whose ability has been variously 
tried in different capacities, found equal to every requirement, 
and in all the relations of life has been clean, strong and 
helpful. 

He was born in Minneapolis, May 31, 18G8, and is the son 
of Winchester E. and Nellie (McKeene) Moore. His grand- 
father, Joseph Moore, came to Minnesota in 1851 and located 
on a farm at Brooklyn Center, where he died in 1898 at the 
age of ninety-three. Winchester Moore came to Minneapolis 
in 1855, was for many years engaged in the Plaining Mill 
business, and was for a long time engineer of the city water 
works, being now practically retired. 

Harry L. Moore was educated at the Washington School 
and the Central High School, and in 1886, at the age of 
eighteen, passed the civil service examination and was 
appointed to a clerkship in the postoffice. After three years 
of such service he became an employee in the oflice of Fred 
S. Swisher, agent of the Michigan Central and the Monon 
Railroads. In 1891 he was appointed agent of the Monon 
route, having filled that position with credit to himself and 
to the company ever since. He is also the local agent of the 
Western Assurance Company and the Insurance Company of 
North America. 

Mr. Moore's public service lias been characterizeil by enter- 
prise, progressiveness and breadth of view. He was elected 
alderma'n by a handsome majority in 1912. although the 
honors came unsought. 

In the council he has had abundant opportunity to show 
his mettle and render service, to the full satisfaction of his 
constituents. He is chairman of the committees on railroads 
and street railways, and a member of those on public buildings 
and grounds and of good roads construction. 

Mr. Moore has also taken an active part in eivic life as a 
member of the Traffic, Minneapolis, New Athletic, East Lake 
Street Commercial, Athletic and Boat and Powderhorn Clubs, 
and in the fraternal lines by membership in the Masonic order, 
the Royal Arcanum and the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men, He was married January 1, 1900, to Miss May N. 
Martin of Crawfordsville, Indiana. They have one son Stan- 
ley L. They are Methodists in religious affiliation and active 
in church work. 



JAMES H. MARTIN. 



James H. Martin, a leading leather merchant and progressive 
business man was born at Decatur, 111., in 1860. His father, 
Captain I. N. Martin, was one of the pioneer settlers of Decatur 
where he was a well known contractor and builder. He was 
among the first to respond to the call for troops in 1861 
and at the end of the three months' service, reenlisted and 
served throughout the war, receiving honorable discharge with 
rank of captain. When the Grand Army of the Republic was 
organized in 1867, Captain Martin's name was one of the 
first to be placed on the roster of the first post, and he is 
still an active comrade in the fast thinning ranks of veterans. 
James H. Martin attended the public schools in Decatur and 
at the same time engaged in carrying newspapers and in 
working in a photograph gallery in the morning and evening. 



Leaving school, he secured employment with Nebinger & 
Reeser, a leather firm, and during the six years in their 
employ, mastered the business. For the ne.tt seven years 
he was with the Standard Oil company. In 1893 he came 
to Minneapolis and established himself as a leather merchant, 
jobbing in leather and .shoe findings, his success being beyond 
expectations, liis goods finding market throughout the north- 
west. For eight years the location was at 609 First avenue, 
south, but on the erection of a four floor brick building for the 
firm by C. B. Hetfelfinger, it removed to its present quarters, 
30-22 North Fourth street, the building becoming the property 
of Mr. Martin in lull. Aside from the management of this 
establishment, Mr. Martin established the Martin & Adams. 
Leather Co. at Spokane but later sold his interest. He is 
vice president of the I. N. Martin Dry Goods company at 
Peoria, 111., and in 1909 he organized the Progressive Shoe 
JIachinery Manufacturing company, whose remarkable growth 
necessitated the building of a new plant at 32nd street and 
Snelling avenue at the cost of $40,000. Mr. Martin is a 
member of Wesley church, and superintendent of the Sunday 
school, and is president of the Minnesota Sunday School Asso- 
ciation. He is a Shriner and member of the New Athletic 
club and the Civic and Commerce association. He was mar- 
ried to Miss Ida Kain of Decatur, 111. They have two children, 
Edith, and Russell. The family residence is at 1917 Colfax 
avenue, south. 



EVERETT F. IRWIN. 



Now enjoying the evening of life after a useful career, Ever- 
ett F. Irwin, of Richfield township, is highly esteemed for his 
sterling manhooil and enterprising and public-spirited citizen- 
ship. 

Mr. Irwin was born twenty-two miles from Buffalo, Erie 
County, New York. February 2. 1840. and at sixteen came to 
Minnesota with his parents, George W. and Meribah L. (Webb) 
Irwin, both also probably bom in that state. They located 
in what is now Edina, but was then. Spring of 1856, Richfield 
township, seven miles from the court house. They paid $1,200 
in gold for 160 acres of Oak Openings, which he made into a 
fine farm, and where he died. 

The eastern line borders what is now Penn avenue, which 
was laid out soon afterward and became the principal road 
into the city. George W. constructed the buildings which are 
now standing, including a fine two-story barn. The first 
dwelling house erected was built in a hurry and So loosely that 
during storms it leaked, necessitating moving the bed to the 
middle of the room. 

Mr. Irwin died February 21, 1885, in his seventy-fourth year. 
His widow survived him ten years, being about the same age. 
They were among the eleven original membere of the First 
Baptist church of Richfield, which was organized in 1858, and 
of whom their .son Everett is the only survivor. The father 
was chiefly instrumental in establishing the congregation, and 
during life this worthy couple retained an active and pro- 
ductive membership, many deeds of kindness and words of 
sympathy attesting the nobleness of lives grounded in Chris- 
tian faith. For eleven years church services were held in the 
school house and until the erection of the present building in 
1869. 

Mr. Irwin has ever been zealous for the churth welfare, serv- 




(^ "i^-^-^^C^ ^ 



^ )>^^y^-7.^Cn^'^J 



HISTORY OF illNNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



491 



iiig it as clerk for twenty and as deacon for fifteen years. The 
original Irwin family were three sons and one daughter. Levina 
became the wife of Clinton K. Reynolds, a pioneer sash manu- 
facturer of Minneapolis. George H. Irwin is a real estate 
dealer. Judson D. Irwin has for twenty-five years been a 
physician in St. Louis, Missouri. Everett F. Irwin remained 
with his parents until twenty-one. He as a boy grubbed out 
a considerable quantity of land, becoming inured to all other 
kinds of farm labor. 

He attended the first high school in Minneapolis, Prof. Stone 
being principal; and himself taught three winter terms. Se- 
curing eighty acres of prairie in Bloomington township, he put 
in his first crop while living four miles distant, carrying food 
from home. His team consisted of a yoke of oxen and a span 
of colts. This crop netted him, however, a profit of $1,.300. 

One year later he exchanged for another tract on Lyndale 
avenue, where his son John B. now lives. There were new 
buildings, and about forty acres was under cultivation. A 
leading feature of his business was to buy young cattle, feed 
them through the winter and sell at advanced prices. Mean- 
while he kept clearing until he had seventy-five acres under 
lultivation, and buying more as circumstances permitted. 

He was among the first breeders in Minnesota of Holstein 
cattle, and for fifteen years exhibited them at the state fair. 
The Wood-Lake Stock Farm herd of fifty head took one season 
premiums amounting to $700 in competition with thirteen herds 
from other states. Two years Mr. Irwin wa.s elected President 
of the Western Holstein-Friesian Association. His son .John 
B. finally assumed charge of the herd, not only maintaining 
but extending its former importance and reputation. As a 
young man Everett served as Qviarter Master in Capt. E. B. 
Ames' Company of state militia, being an active participant 
in its annual musterings. At the Indian outbreak, in August, 
1862. he enlisted in Ansen Northrup"s Company of cavalry, 
making a forced march from St. Peter to the relief of Fort 
Ridgely. 

Mr. Irwin wius married in 1867 to Miss Martha Borland, of 
Iowa. She was born in the same town in Erie County as 
himself, graduated from the state university of Iowa, in which 
her l)rother was a professor; and was for a time herself 
engaged in teaching. The brother's health failing, .she accom- 
panied him to the then noted St. Anthony Water Cure, located 
on the site of the Exposition building. After marriage she 
entered heartily into all local movements for social betterment, 
was an earnest worker in Sunday school, her natural grace 
and endowments, emphasized by an excellent education and 
intercourse with cultured people, endearing her to the hearts 
of a wide circle of warm friends. She died August IS, 1900. 

Mr. Irwin's second marriage. .lanuary 15, 1902, united him 
with Miss Minnie Manton. <laughter of Rev. .Joseph R. Manton. 
Mrs. Irwin graduated from Burnett's Ladies' Seminary, the 
then leading girls' school of the Northwest, taught for four 
years in the Minneapolis schools; and. at her mother's death, 
devoted herself to the declining age of a loved father. 

When .lr)hn B. took charge of tlie old farm and the cattle 
indu.stry, Mr. Irwin began more actively to improve the 
pleasant farm on which he now lives. He was town super- 
visor eight or ten years, a part of that time being president 
of the board. He was clerk of the school district twenty-four 
years in succession, and was township assessor fifteen. In 
politics he is a working Republican. In all relations of life he 
has been esteemed as a true, useful and representative citizen. 



FRANK LEONARD MORSE. 

Frank Leonard Morse, who died in Minneapolis on April 
22, 1898, was an early arrival and a potential force in help- 
ing to lay the foundation and build the superstructure of 
the city. He was born at Jolmson, Vermont, January 18, 1837, 
and came to Minneapolis in 1858. His first arrival, however, 
was in 1857, when he came with his father, Moses Morse, 
who was a resident of Burlington, Vermont, and sought 
this locality as one in which he could loan money to advan- 
tage. Frank passed a few months in Kansas, but returned 
to Minneapolis in 1858. He became a farmer near Minnehaha 
and also owned a farm near Minnetonka, from which he sold 
wheat at $3 a bushel. He too loaned money and made invest- 
ments. 

His luotlier Henry joined liim in ISOG and passed the 
remainder of his life here. They were both small farmers and 
living in North Minneapolis. The father also came to Minne- 
apolis each summer until 1867. then remaining and died 
lierc in 1872, Frank was one of the first members of the city 
council, beginning his service in that body in 1867 and con- 
tinuing it several years. In 1871 he was elected a member 
of the legislature. 

During liis first service in the council he was its vice 
president and was known as the "great objector," being con- 
stantly on guard against injudicious expenditures of the pub- 
lic monej'. His last service in the legislature was as senator 
from the Thirty-first district from 18'J3 to 1895. He was a 
Republican originally but became a Greeley man in 1872, 
and afterward a Democrat, which he continued to be although 
the free silver issue of 189G caused him much dissatisfaction. 

On June 11, 1878, Mr. Moi-se was married in Chicago to 
Miss Catherine Agnes Cummings. of Burlington. Vermont, who 
came to Minneapolis in 1867. The}' had no children. Mr. 
Morse was a devotee of hunting, fisliing and other outdoor 
recreations. He was warm in his friendships and keenly felt 
the loss of those to whom he was closely attached, and 
others had the same feeling toward him. During the last 
ten years of life he was rather closely confined to his home 
but was free from financial and mental cares. He took life 
easy and enjoyed the companionship of old friends. His home 
was the center of neighborhood societj' for the few persona 
with whom he was on intimate terms. They were mainly old 
whist players and choice companions. The Fiat Poker club 
was organized in his home with a membership made up of 
such well known men as Joseph W. Thompson. R. B. Lang- 
don, Colonel Benton, Judge Welch, George Cadwell. t). M. 
Laraway. B. L. Perry. Major Hellel finger. Dr. A. Barnard, 
Judge William Lochren, S. B. Searles. John Harrison. Ed- 
ward Clement, Horace Henry and Mr. Hubbard. 

This club was locally famous and its members probably got 
as much enjoyment out of its gatherings as any body of 
men ever did in Minneapolis. They became warmly attached 
to one another in bonds of friendship which nothing but 
death could sever. The young peojile of the neighborhood 
also made the Morse home headquarters, and not a day 
passed but it was the scene of rich enjoyment. Mr. Morse 
was an invalid for some years but had little physical suflTer- 
ing. His greatest and almost his only source of grief was 
the death of old friends before him, ealch intensifying to him 
the fact that the circle was narrowing year after year. His 
widow is still living at 1819 Hawthorn avenue. 



492 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



JOHN H. MUSGRAVE. 

John H. Musgrave comes of an old Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 
family, where he was born October 31, 1871. After attend- 
ance at the Western Reserve University, he entered Yale, 
where he was graduated from the Law School in 1893. He 
began his practice at Pittsburg, but in 1900 came to Min- 
neapolis. His father, Samuel Musgrave, had bought, in 1898, 
the old Buell block at Seventeenth street and Nicollet avenue, 
had converted it into fiats, and had decided to live retired in 
Minneapolis, dying here 1910. He had formerly been a 
successful hardware dealer in Pittsburg. 

John H. Musgrave has enjoyed a fine general practice, 
being recognized as among the ablest counsellors at the local 
Bar. He is a stockholder in the Pittsburgh Steel Company, 
and has other important financial interests in that city. 

He finds relaxation from professional cares especially in 
the diversion of driving high class horses. He has owned 
several fine horses, and takes keen delight in participation 
in gentlemen's driving races, such as those on the ice, at 
Lake of the Isles. In politics he is a Democrat, and though 
he has never sought public office, he has been active on 
campaign committees in state and local contests. He is a 
Knight Templar, a Scottish Rite Mason, and a Shriner. 

In 1903 Mr. Musgrave married Elmina Johnson of Pitts- 
burgh. They have two children, John and Zabina Brindley. 
The family attends the Episcopal church. 



WEED MUNRO. 



For a continuous period of twenty- four years the late 
Weed Munro was a resident of Minneapolis and engaged in 
the practice of law here. He rose to high standing at the 
bar and attained wide and well founded popularity among 
the people. As a lawyer he was able, resourceful and in- 
dustrious, and these qualities brought him a large and remun- 
erative practice and made him successful in the trial of his 
cases. As a citizen he was enterprising, progressive, public- 
spirited and knowing, earnest and serviceable in his support 
of projects for the advancement and improvement of the city 
and the benefit of its residents, but always keen in his 
analysis and clear in his judgment as to the value of what 
was proposed. And as a social factor he was genial, com- 
panionable and winning. But for the fact that he was on 
the wrong side of the political fence for this locality he would 
undoubtedly have been honored with high official stations 
and gained an extended reputation for his knowledge and 
wisdom with reference to public affairs. 

Mr. Munro was born in the village of Elbridge, Onondaga 
county. New York, on June 22, 1856, a son of John and 
Evaline (Page) Munro, also natives of the state of New York. 
The father was a prominent farmer of the progressive type, 
giving studious attention to his business and conducting it 
on the most approved modern methods of his day. He was a 
well educated man, a graduate of the University of Rochester 
and a trustee of an excellent academy at Elbridge. He was 
deeply interested in the cause of education and practical in 
his views concerning it, and through his activity in connec- 
tion with the science he rendered the people of his county and 
state valuable and highly appreciated service. 

Reared under the influence of such an example, and in 



constant touch with lofty ideals, it is not surprising that the 
son became a man of superior attainments, high aims and 
sterling worth. He began his academic education in the 
Elbridge Academy and completed it at the University of 
Rochester, as a member of the class of 1875. He then studied 
law, and after a due course of preparation was admitted to 
the bar. He began the practice of his profession in Syracuse, 
New Y'ork, and remained there until 1883. 

Mr. Munro was doing well in his professional work in 
Syracuse, but for some years the great Northwest beckoned 
him with persuasive hand, and in the year last named he 
yielded to the magnetism and came to Minneapolis to live. 
It was not long before he became well established in a good 
practice here, and as he was also active in the public affairs 
of the city and county, he soon rose to prominence and 
influence in the councils of his political organization, the 
Democratic party. He was the nominee of his party for a 
district judgeship and made a strong campaign for the office. 
But the tide was against him, and although he reduced he was 
unable to overcome the large majority the opposing party had 
long had in the district and throughout the state. 

After this election Mr. Munro continued to practice law, as 
he had done before, and remained active in liis profession" 
until his death, which occurred on January 30, 1907. Mr. 
Munro was twice married, first in June, 1887, to Miss (Jer- 
trude Daniels, of Minneapolis, who was very prominent in 
musical circles. Her death occurred September 9, 1894. On 
July 2, 1901, he was united in marriage with Mrs. Georgie F. 
de Camp. Mrs. Munro is still living and maintains her home 
at 1608 West Twenty-fifth street. 



JOHN B. IRWIN. 



Within the last twenty or twenty-five years wonderful 
progress has been made in improving the breeds and breeding 
of cattle in the state of Minnesota, and great credit is due to 
the far-seeing and enterprising men who started the movement 
for this improvement and have kept it in action with steadily 
increasing benefit to the state. One of the pioneers in the 
movement, especially in breeding Holstein-Friesian cattle of 
superior quality, has been Everett F. Irwin, of Richfield. Henne- 
pin county, and one of the leaders of those who have kept up 
and expanded the industry is his son, John B. Irwin, also of 
Richfield, and now living on the farm on which he was born on 
February 16, 1874, the only child of Everett F. and Martha 
(Borland) Irwin. 

.lohn B. Irwin, who is widely known as one of the great 
breeders of Holstein cattle mentioned above, and also as the 
proprietor of Wood Lake and Clover farms, was educated at 
the Pillsbury Academy and the University of Minnesota, and 
was graduated from the latter institution in the class of 1898. 
While attending the Univpi'sity he was a member of the Delta 
Epsilon fraternity, and still holds an active membership in the 
Delta Upsilon Club. 

Two years after leaving the University Mr. Irwin purchased 
his father's old homestead and began raising early potatoes. 
The venture was frowned upon and derided by the knowing 
ones in the neighborhood, but when they saw the returns they 
began to raise the same crop. It has proven to be an excellent 
crop for this locality, and the industry has increased to such 
an extent that it is now the principal source of income for 



I 




HISTORY OF .MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



493 



most of the farmers in Hennepin county south of Minneapolis. 

In 1885 Mr. Irwin's father bt'gan the breeding of Holstein- 
Friesian cattle and thereby liecaine a pioneer in what is now 
one of the state's most important industries. When the son 
bought the farm in 11)00 the Wood Lake herd passed to him, 
and he, starting with a basis of about twenty registered cows, 
in thirteen years has nuide himself an international reputation 
as a scientific and judicious breeder of this line of dairy stock, 
his herd having not only brought renown to Hennepin county, 
but also to the state of Minnesota. 

Mr. Irwin lias three important ideals in mind all the time in 
developing his stock. First, <iuantity ami (|uality of milk and 
Imtter jiroduction; second, animals of strong constitutions; 
and third, a large, smooth, uniform type. His success in com- 
petitive exhibitions is largely attributable to the last named 
characteristic, for which the Wood Lake herd is notable. It 
has been shown with credit at the Minnesota and other state 
fairs almost every season since its establishment, the (piality 
of the cattle being constantly improved and the number 
increased. 

The reputation gained for his herd by Mr. Irwin in local 
contests has been high, and he has also exhibited it in fields of 
international magnitude. At the Louisiana Purchase Exposi- 
tion held in St. Louis in 1904, in competition with some 200 
animals from ten of the leading Holstein breeders. Wood Lake 
herd led by a good margin, winning the Grand Premier Exhibi- 
tor's Championship and the Grand Premier Breeder's Cham- 
pionship, Again, at the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Port- 
land, Oregon, in 1905, where the competition was with a better 
quality of animals than those of the year before, this herd 
carried away the Grand Premier Breeder's Championship; and 
at the Alaska-Pacific Exposition in Seattle in 1909, in competi- 
tion with imported animals, representatives of the herd won 
highest honors in several classes, first, second and third prizes 
going to bulls bred at Wood Lake farm. 

During all the years of the public history of this herd its 
reputation has been well maintained. In 1911 it took the first 
prize at Waterloo and also at the National Dairy Show in 
Chicago. Individual animals bred in the herd and exhibited 
by others than Mr. Irwin have also won important honors at 
numerous state fairs and expositions, and breeding animals 
from Wood Lake have found purchasers in almost every state 
of the American Union, and many have been exported to other 
countries. 

The Wood Lake herd stands also in the front rank in butter- 
fat production tests made under the supervision of the State 
Experiment Station, 'cows from this herd having exceeded the 
world's records of production in different classes. Another evi- 
dence of the pre-eminence of the herd is furnished by the fact 
that Mr. Irwin was the first to supply Minneapolis physicians 
and hospitals with certified milk, the Hennepin County Med- 
ical Society taking the initiative in the matter of securing 
pure milk and choosing the Holstein milk of this herd for 
certification. As recognized by the medical fraternity and 
chemists, Holstein milk is peculiarly adapted to the needs of 
infants and persons of delicate health, it being more readily 
assimilated than any other milk from cows. 

In 1907 Mr. Irwin purchased another farm, which now con- 
tains 480 acres, and is located in Bloomington township, seven 
miles from Minneapolis. On this he is developing the select 
Clover Farm herd. 

Mr. Irwin is a director, and 1912-14 president, of the Minne- 
sota State Live Stock Breeders' Association. He is also a 



charter member of the Minnesota State Cattle Breeders' Asso- 
ciation, and has been its secretary-treasurer from its organiza- 
tion. He was one of the organizers and the first president, for 
two years, of the Minnesota State Holstein-Friesian .Associa- 
tion, and is now serving his second term of three years as a 
director of the National Dairy Show held in -Chicago, and was 
one of the three first stockholders of this show in Minnesota, 
and one of the first three delegates from the National Holstein- 
Friesian Association to the National Dairy Conference in Chi- 
cago, in which representatives of twenty-eight national 
associations and industries allied with the dairy interests were 
assembled. At this conference was organized an association 
representing the whole dairy industry, which, including pro- 
duction, is the most extensive industry in the I'nited States. 

In 1902 Mr. Irwin presented before the National Holstein- 
Friesian Association, in session in Syracuse, New York, a 
strong argument showing the special adaptation of Minnesota 
to the breeding of Holstein-Friesian cattle, and secured an 
appropriation for use by the Minnesota State Fair, in addition 
to its regular fund for prizes, for the development of this breed 
of cattle. This appropriation has been renewed every year 
since. This Association is chartered in the State of New 
York, and Mr. Irwin has served it as vice president, and direc- 
tor, which position he is still filling. 

Mr. Irwin married, on September 22, 1900, Miss Bernite 
Hennings, of Willmar, who was educated at the State Univer- 
sity, and a member of the Delta Gamma sorority. They have 
two children, their sons being .John B.. Jr., and Everett Hen- 
nings. Mrs. Irwin is a school official in Richfield and is a 
member of the State commission to investigate rural schools. 



HENRY LUTHER MARTIN. 



Mr. Martin was brought to Minneapolis when he was less 
than a year old and has since lived at 521 Fourth Street 
Southeast, for a continuous period of 53 years or more. He 
was born in Danville, Caledonia county. Vermont, on July 10, 

1857, the son of Harmon M. and Mary A, (Morrill) Martin, 
who were members of old New England families that settled 
in Vermont in early Colonial days, and members of which 
were prominent in the struggle for American Independence 
before and during the Revolutionary war. In the spring of 

1858, when their son Henry was but a few months old, the 
parents came to the village of St. Anthony, then but a 
straggling hamlet in the wilderness. 

Harmon Martin, the father, conducted a meat market for a 
time, in association with Moses Hayes, and later they united 
in founding the first iron works in this community, the estab- 
lishment now known as the Union Iron Works, After a 
number of yehrs, Mr. Martin sold his share in the business and 
bought the Island Flour Mill, in partnership with Edward 
Brown and William F. Cahill. the name of the firm being 
Cahill. Brown & Company. This mill was destroyed by fire 
about 1871 or 1872. Then, with William Dunwoody and a 
Mr, Tiffany, Mr. Martin leased a mill on the West Side. 
He had a general oversight of all the mechanical and office 
work of this mill and remained in charge until his death, in 
March, 1878, at the age of 62, His wife survived him about 
two years. They were members of the First Congregational 
church, of which Rev. Charles Secombe was the first pastor. 

]\fr. Martin, the elder, bought the home in which his son. 



494 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Henry, now resides, in 1859 or 1860. There was a small 
house on the lot at the time, and this he afterward enlarged. 
The dwelling honse now on the lot was built by the son. 
The father was one of the original stockholders of the North- 
western National Bank, and retained his interest in the in- 
stitution to the end of his days. Early in the decade of 1850 
he and his two brothers went to California as gold-seekers, 
and as they were all resolute, hard-working men. eacli of 
them secured some of the precious metal and took it back 
with them to Vermont. These three members of the family, 
Harmon W., John and Chester, came to Minneapolis about 
the same time. While Harmon Martin was in Vermont after 
his trip to California, he married Miss Mary A. Morrill, who 
■was his second wife and the mother of Henry L., their only 
child. The father had a son by his first marriage, Lyman S. 
Martin, who served in the Second Minnesota Volunteer In- 
fantry during the Civil war. 

Henry L. Martin attended the public schools, and took a 
partial course in the University of Minnesota in one of its 
early classes. For some years after leaving the University 
he was in the grocery trade in partnership with Frederick 
Johnson, the present .J. C. Johnson & Co., wholesale grocers, and 
in 1879 was employed by the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad 
when W. D. Washburn was its president. After two years in 
railroad service, Senator Washburn appointed him clerk of 
the Steamer St. Louis, in service on Lake Minnetonka, to take 
charge of the money taken in on it and direct its office work 
in general. 

In the fall of 1881, Mr. Martin was appointed assistant 
ticket agent of the Great Northern Railroad in the Minneapolis 
depot ticket office, under W. P. Ives. Mr. Ives resigned in 
1883 and Mr. Martin succeeded him as agent, and remained 
in the office until 1903, when he retired from all business. 
During some of the yeai-s when he was ticket agent the ticket 
sales amounted to more than $1,000,000 per annum. Since 
his retirement from the office he has given his attention to 
his lands, live stock, securities, and other property. 

May 13, 1884, Mr. Martin was married in Minneapolis to 
Miss Blanche Woodmansee, a daughter of Daniel and Kate 
(King) Woodmansee, who came from Dayton, Ohio, to Minne- 
sota in 1870, and located in Ramsey county, soon after 
their arrival the daughter entered the State University. Her 
father operated the .stock farm, which later became the 
Commodore Kittson farm, located near this city. He moved 
to Minneapolis in 1877 and managed the Commodore's stables 
until the death of their owner, in 1888, after which he 
leased the estate. He afterward passed several years in Cali- 
fornia, and in that state his wife and one of his sons died. 
He spent the last years of his life in the home of Mr. and 
Mrs. Martin, where he died at the age of seventy-eight. 

Mrs. Martin is the only Survivor of her father's family. 
By her marriage with Mr. Martin she became the mother of 
seven children, all of whom are living. They are: Dean, a 
graduate of the forestry department of the State LTniversity 
and now forest examiner for the Federal government in the 
White Mountains; Ruth, a graduate of the University and a 
teacher in the high school at Mountain Lake; Kate, a grad- 
uate of the University; .lohn, a student at the University; 
Mary and Blanche, students in the high school, and Henry, a 
student in one of the graded schools. 



LUCIAN SWIFT. 

This esteemed citizen of Minneapolis, in the decade follow- 
ing 1885 made an honorable and commendable record in 
American journalism. He was manager of the Minneapolis 
Journal, and one of its four owners until September 1, 1908, 
when the paper changed hands and he retired from the man- 
agement. His career was not begun in the field of journalism, 
nor did it appear to tend in that direction. His relation to 
it was rather accidental than designed, and his success was 
entirely due to strong natural endowment and adaptability, 
impelled by a persistent determination to make the most of 
any situation. 

Mr. Swift was born in Akron, Ohio, July 14, 1848, a son 
of Lucian and Sarah C. (West) Swift. The father was a 
native of Connecticut, where the family was established in 
1635 by an English colonist, who, early in the nineteenth 
century, located in the Western Reserve of Ohio. He was a 
lawyer and one of much force of character, taking an active 
part in public affairs, serving as clerk of the courts of Sum- 
mit County for a number of years and was also State Senator. 
His father, Hon. Zephaniah Swift, was Chief Justice of the 
State Supreme Court of Connecticut for nearly twentj- years 
and was the author of a legal digest and of standard trea- 
tises on several branches of law. 

After several years in Akron the senior Lucian Swift, re- 
moved to Cleveland, where the son had the advantage of ex- 
cellent educational facilities. He graduated from the high 
school and then entered the Department of Mine Engineering 
in the University of Michigan, graduating in 1869, His room- 
mate at the University was Charles F. Brush, whose name has 
been immortalized by the electric ai'c-light which he invented, 
and which is now in univei^Sal use. 

After completing the course at the University, young Swift 
returned to Cleveland, where during the next two years he was 
employed as a salesman. But this occupation not being con- 
genial he determined to come West, where, in the multitude 
of opportunities amid the undeveloped resources of a new 
country, he hoped to find employment more in accord with 
his taste and education. His intention was to locate at Duluth, 
but the prospects in the Zenith City were not then inviting, 
and he came to St. Paul through Hon. Charles Mcllrath, then 
State Auditor and his kinsman. Mr. Swift, secured a position 
with George B. Wright, of Minneapolis, then a surveyor of 
government lands, but who soon became land agent of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad company. 

The young engineer remained in this employment for five 
years, making plats and land grants, rights of way, and other 
transfers of property, visiting various land offices for the nec- 
essary information. While so engaged he once camped on 
the present site of the city of Fargo. At Georgetown, then 
a promising village, on the Red River, he attended an editorial 
convention and banquet, over which the talented literary 
wanderer. Bayard Taylor, presided. 

In 1876 he resigned his position and revisited his boyhood 
home and friends in Ohio. Upon returning to Minneapolis 
he secured a position as bookkeeper at a meager salary, but 
his ability being soon recognized, he was asked to become 
bookkeeper and cashier for the Minneapolis Tribune. He re- 
nuvined in the employ of this paper for a number of years, 
becoming thoroughly conversant with all the details of news- 
paper production. 

In November, 1885, he joined A. J. Blethen, W. E. Haskell, 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HEXXEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



495 



and VV. H. Hawley in the purcliase of the Minneapolis Journal 
at a cost of $130,000, and was at once chosen manager. Within 
six years thereafter the daily circulation of the paper in- 
creased from 10,000 to 35,000 copies, a gain of 250 per cent, 
while the population of the city in that period increased but 
75 per cent. September 1, 190S, the paper passed to new 
ownership and Mr. Swift retired from its management. He, 
however, retained the presidency of the Housekeeper Company, 
which he and his associates had purchased in 1895. This 
magazine became deservedly popular attaining a circulation 
of more than 400,000. In 1910 it too was Sold and tlie pro- 
ceeds from these two publications were invested in Minne- 
apoli.s real estate. 

Mr, Swift is a member of the Minneapolis, Lafayette, Mini- 
kahda, Minnetonka Yacht, the Klks and the Commercial clubs, 
having been one of the original members of the latter. For 
several years he was a member and director of the Board of 
Trade and of the Business Men's tJnion. In 1891 he was 
a director and treasurer of tlie Exposition. This was the 
banner year in the history of that enterprise, the attendance 
exceeding half a million. In 1877, Mr. Swift married Miss 
Minnie E. Fuller, a native of Ashtabula, Ohio, and a daughter 
of Rev, George W. Fuller. Their only child living is Grace F.. 
wife of A. W. Strong. 

Mrs. Swift died in 1903. She was blessed with natural 
charm, enhanced by culture and intercourse, ever radiating 
beneficent influence and exemplifying to a degree, a domestic 
life devoted to service. Her interest in charitable efforts never 
ceased; hundreds cherish her memory in grateful affections. 



HON. SILVANUS ALBERT STOCKWELL. 

Born at Anokii. .hine 8, 1857, and having passed tlie whole 
of life in the state, and been active and enterprising in busi- 
ness and public affairs from the dawn of manhood, Hon. 
Silvanus A. Stockwell has made a record that is creditable 
alike to the commonwealth and to himself. He is a son of 
Silvanus and Charlotte (Bowdish) Stockwell. He a native of 
Worcester county, Massachusetts, and she of Hartwick. Otsego 
county. New York, where they were married, and whence 
they came to Minnesota, in 1856. 

They engaged in farming at Anoka and lived in that town 
until death of the mother in 1889. when she was fifty-eight, 
and the father in April, 1908, when he was eighty-five. He 
was the first treasurer of Anoka county, and so served several 
years. He was also an alderman and filled other public of- 
fices. The mother was a member of the board of education 
for twelve years, being the first woman to so serve, and was 
its president at her death. She began teaching at the age 
of fourteen, and taught in New York and in Ohio until her 
marriage. She also taught in Anoka in both public and 
private schools, and ever maintained a warm interest in the 
cause of education. She was besides a public speaker of more 
than local renown and an earnest participant in the work of 
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Methodist 
Episcopal church. 

Silvanus A. Stockwell remained in Anoka until the age 
of eighteen, being educated by home training and in schools 
sometimes taught by his mother. At eighteen he began teach- 
ing in Sherburne county, afterward continuing this work for 
several years in country and village schools in Anoka and 



Hennepin counties. In 1878 he came to Minneapolis as an 
employe in the office of the American Express company, and 
three or four years later became railroad train messenger, 
remaining with the company eleven years. In 1889 he en- 
tered the life insurance business as agent for the Provident 
Life and Trust company, with wliich he remained about four 
years, then became general agent for the Penn .Mutual, com- 
pleting his twentieth year of such service October 21, 1913, 
Nearly one-half of the business done by this company in 
Minnesota is transacted through his office. 

The Penn Mutual has extensive loan interests in Minne- 
apolis, At one time one-tenth of all its mortgage loans were 
placed in this city, and they then exceeded in amount those of 
any other company doing business here and much of this 
business has been secured within the last twenty years. 

When he was but nineteen he began active work in political 
campaigns, he and another young man organizing and conduct- 
ing a campaign for the mayoralty of Anoka against Captain 
Cutter, in opposition to the saloon interests, their candidate 
being easily elected. 

He has been keenly interested in politics ever since, and 
was himself elected to represent the Thirty-third district, in- 
cluding the Seventh, Eleventh and Twelfth wards of Minne- 
ap(dis and the towns of Ex'celsior, Eden Prairie. Bloomington 
aii<l Kichlield, in the House of Representatives in 1890. He 
was the Democratic candidate endorsed by the Farmers' Al- 
liance. In the session of 1891 he was chairman of the com- 
mittee on labor and author of the present anti-Pinkerton 
law, requiring that all recognized legal officers must be resi- 
dents of the state, imported officials having no authoiity. He 
also served on the committee on education and introduced the 
free text book bill which later became law. In 1892 he was 
defeated, but four years later was again chosen from the 
same district, being the Democratic and Populist candidate. In 
the ensuing session was a member of the committees on edu- 
cation and taxation and secured the repeal of the law exempt- 
ing mines from taxation when they were not in operation. 
He made this question a campaign issue and got the Re- 
piiblieaiis in thi' legislature to endorse and work for it, keep- 
ing himself in the background, and so succeeded in getting 
it enacted. 

In 1898 he was elected to the Senate from the same district, 
but as his party was in a minority he could accomplish little 
in constructive legislation, yet was fully alive in preventing 
much that was vicious. In 1901 he won the establishment of 
the Torrens system of Land Title for Hennepin, Ramsey and 
St, Louis counties, and this over the opposition of thirty 
lawyers. The constitutionality of the measure was after- 
ward savagely attacked, but was sustained by the Supreme 
Court, He was a member of the tominittee on legislative ex- 
penditures, began the fight against the payment of reporters 
for reporting the proceedings of the legislature for their papers, 
which ended in a complete victory. 

In 1900 he was the Democratic nominee for Congress making 
the race on a platform of anti-imperialism, and receiving 
2,000 more votes in the district than Mr, Bryan. He served 
in the extra session of 1902, but was defeated for re-elec- 
tion that year, although reducing the Republican majority by 
more than 1,800 votes. 

Mr. Stockwell is a recognized advocate of the single tax 
system of taxation, so forcibly elaborated by Henry George. 
In 1891 he introduced the first constitutional amendment to 
provide for the referendum, and has ever stood for advanced 



496 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



legislation, including the initiative and recall. He was a 
delegate from the state at large to the Baltimore conven- 
tion which nominated Woodrow Wilson, and having even pre- 
viously organized a Wilson movement, he campaigned vigor- 
ously on the stump as a member of the Democratic county 
executive committee. He was also a candidate for alderman 
favoring municipal ownership of the gas plant, but was de- 
feated at the polls. He is a dose student of modern social 
questions and holds advanced views on all matters relative 
to educational, moral, economical, social or religious advance- 
ment. 

In October. 1887. Mr. Stockwell was married to Miss Maud 
Conkey, a daughter of De Witt C. Conkey, a sketch of whom 
will be found elsewhere in this work. She was born in Mil- 
waukee and brought as a child to Minneapolis, was a member 
of the first class graduated from the old Central High School 
and a teacher in the city until her marriage. For ten years 
she was president of the Women's Equal Suffrage Associa- 
tion and is widely known as an ardent supporter of the cause. 
She is a member of the Women's and Coterie clubs. Three 
daughters were born. Ruth died at the age of nine. Charlotte 
is a graduate of the University in the class of 1913. Eliza- 
beth Conkey is a graduate of tlie high school, attended Gra- 
ham Taylor's School of Philanthropy in Chicago and is now 
connected with the probation office of the juvenile court. 



DR. JAMES EUGENE MANCHESTER. 

Dr. Manchester was born on a farm at East Pitcairn, St. 
Lawrence county, Nevr York, on August 16, 1855. He died 
at his home in Minneapolis of Bright's disease on January 
24. 1913, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. His parents 
were Carlos and Lydia (Gleason) Manchester, both school 
teachers in early life, and later the father taught in the 
public schools of Steele county, this state. The.v came to 
Minnesota in 1862 and took up their residence at Udolpho, 
Mower county. There the father developed a tract of wild 
land into a fine farm, became a man of prominence, held a 
number of township oflSces, and died past seventy years of age. 
The mother's death occurred about a year later on the old 
farm. 

His son, James Eugene Manchester, attended the Winona 
Normal School and afterward the University of Minnesota, 
being giaduated from the latter in 1884. He was principal 
of the Blue Earth high school from 1885 to 1890, and super- 
intendent of the schools at Alexandria from 1890 to 1893. In 
1893 and 1894 he pursued a special course of study in 
mathematics and physics at the University of Michigan. 

The five years following his work in the University of 
Michigan were passed by the doctor and his wife in Europe. 
On that ccmtinent he gave special attention to the study of 
pure and applied mathematics at Goettingen, Heidelberg, 
Leipzig and Tuebingen. and received the degree of Doctor of 
Science. During the same period Mrs. Manchester studied 
modern languages at the seats of learning named above. On 
their return to the United States in 1890 the doctor was 
elected professor of mathematics at Vincennes University, 
Indiana, and his wife to teach modern languages and liter- 
ature in the same institution. From the chair of mathematics 
Dr. Manchester was elevated to the presidency of the Uni- 



versity, and in that office he served it with distinction three 
years. 

At the end of that period he became a member of the 
mathematical faculty in the University of Minnesota. He 
resigned his professorship in our state institution in 1909, 
and after that he and his wife taught for three years at 
Moore, Montana. The doctor was a constant student, always 
working for higher mental development and greater attain- 
ments. He was one of the best mathematicians who ever 
lived in this state, and his superior mathematical ability was 
recognized all over the United States and in many foreign 
countries. The Indiana Academy of Science and the American 
Mathematical Association were proud to have his name en- 
rolled among their members, and so much was he in demand 
among men and women of high attainments in his line that 
he received a special invitation to attend the International 
Congress of Mathematical Societies held in Heidelberg, Ger- 
many but he was unable to do so. 

The doctor's specialty was "Function Theorj'," and he ac- 
quired distinction in connection with it. He was so energetic, 
resourceful and persuasive in liis work that he infused new 
life into institutions of learning with which he was con- 
nected, and his services to them were highly appreciated. His 
relations with his associates in the faculties and the students 
in his classes were always pleasant and helpful to them, and 
his enthusiasm was so abundant and contagious that others 
were lighted by its torch and became enthusiastic themselves. 
He was a good Latin scholar, a master of German, the 
language in which he wrote his thesis for his degree, a pleas- 
ing and illuminating speaker, though not an orator, and held 
a fluent pen, writing many articles for publication on educa- 
tional subjects. He was also a teacher in Sunday schools for 
many years, and his purse was as open as the stores of his 
learning to worthy students in need of assistance. Withal, he 
was a very modest and retiring man, and never sought public 
notice, either through political channels or any other. He 
was a member of the First M. E. Churcli and an officer of 
the same at his death. 

Walking and fishing were the principal recreations of this 
great student, and he indulged his taste for them freely. 
Fraternal life interested him deeply, and his interest in it 
found expression through his active membership in the Ma- 
sonic order, the lodge of which at Austin, where his remains 
were buried, conducted the funeral services when he was 
consigned to his long rest after his active and productive life. 
He was married in Windom township, near Austin, Minnesota, 
on September 3, 1879, to Miss Margaret Smith, a daughter of 
the late David L. Smith of that township. No children were 
born of the union, so Mrs. Manchester was free to indulge 
her own passion for teaching and assist her husband in his 
labors. She taught modern languages and literature at the 
University of Vincennes and other branches in other schools 
and made an excellent record in her work. She is active in 
club life, having been for five years a member of the Ladies' 
Coterie Literary club and during the year 1913 president of 
the St. Anthony Falls club. 



JAMES EDWARD MOORE. M. D., F. A. C. S. 

Professor of surgery and chief of the Department of Surgery 
in the Medical School of the Universitv of Minnesota, .lames 




(^. 77] Ci^K^J^^ 



HISTORY OF MIXNEAI'OLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



497 



Edward Jloore, M. D., F. A. C S.. is oiii' of the best known 
surgeons in America, partly from the fact that he was one 
of the tirst specialists in surgery west of New York City. 
His is an established position of distinction and authority, 
and his skill has won him recognition in the various associa- 
tions of surgeons. 

Dr. Moore traces his ancestry on his fatlier's side to Scot- 
land, on his mother's to Germany. He was born at C'larks- 
ville, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, March 3, 185:2. His father 
being a Methodist clergyman, the family migrated in accord- 
ance with the customs of the church. His early education 
was in the public schools and in the home, till at fifteen 
he entered Poland Union Seminary in Poland, Ohio, where his 
scholarship won a recommendation to General Garfield, then 
in congress, that he be appointed to a cadetship in West Point, 
which was not done because of objection of his parents. 
Becoming a teacher he aspired to a further education, and 
\X'hile so engaged began the study of medicine, soon entering 
the medical department of the University of Michigan, where 
he continued during the years of 1871 and 1872. He then 
became a student in Bellevue Hospital Medical college, grad- 
uating in 1873. He located at Fort Wayne. Indiana, where 
the practice was largely among the laboring classes and 
others who could not pay their bills. He then took a course 
at the New York Polyclinic and studied. He then entered 
practice in Emlenton, Venango County, Pennsylvania, until 
1883, when he came to Minneapolis becoming a partner for 
five years with Dr. A. A. Ames. Attending Dr. Bergmann's 
Clinics in Berlin and the clinics in the Cliaring Cross and 
the Royal Orthopedic Hospitals of London he decided to 
devote his entire energy to the practice of surgery. In 
addition to general surgery he has specialized in orthopedic 
surgery and he is the author of a recognized treatise on that 
subject. He contributes constantly to the better class of 
medical publications and during the year 1906 was the editor 
of the Chapter on Surgical Technique in ''American Surgery." 

Dr. Moore is a Fellow of the American Surgical Association, 
the only living American Honorai-y Fellow of the American 
Orthopedic Association. He is ex-president of the Western 
Surgical and Gynecological Association and ex-chairman of 
the surgical section of the American Medical Association. 
Later honors which have come to him are Southern Surgeons 
and (gynecological Association, is one of the founders of the 
American College of Surgery, and one of its Board of Gov- 
ernors. 

Dr. Moore's political principles are republican, and although 
he has sought no office is much interested in civic affairs 
being generous with his time when it is of public service. He 
is a member of a number of medical clubs as well as of the 
New Athletic. Minneapolis. Lafayette and Minikahda clubs. 
His church relationship is as a member of the Church of the 
Redeemer. In 1874 Dr. Moore married Miss Bessie Applegate 
who died in 1881. In 1884 he married Miss Clara E. Collins 
who died a year later leaving him an infant daughter who is 
now Mrs. Bessie Moore Forssell. The present Mrs. Moore 
was Miss Louie C. Irving, who became his wife in 1887. 



Holland. When he was eight years old he canu- with them 
to America, and with five other families in their party they 
bought a section of land in Silver Creek, Wright County, 
Minnesota, and set to work to wrest their fortunes from the 
soil. This meant hard work for every member of the family; 
and school attendance was only in the intervals so that in his 
first twelve years, Frank had only parts of two years of 
schooling. In 1870 he became a printer's devil in the office 
of the St. Cloud Times where he spent eighteen months, then, 
going to St. Paul, he entered the employ of one of the faculty 
of that greatest university, the newspaper business. This was 
Harlan P. Hall, then director of the St. Paul Newspaper 
I'nion, publishers of ready-printed portions of country news- 
papers. Thus began twenty years' association with Mr. Hall, 
whose name is inseparably linked with the fortunes of the 
publishing business in Minnesota. For some years Mr. Meyst 
continued with Mr. Hall while the latter was at the head of 
the Daily Globe, holding some of the most responsible desk 
positions on the paper, which was for many years the prin- 
cipal organ of the Democratic party in Minnesota. This as- 
sociation of the two men was ])ractically continuous with the 
exception of intervals in which Mr. Meyst made excursions 
into country journalism, founding the Brainerd Dispatch and 
the Osakis Observer, thus adding to the variety of experience 
in the publishing business. When Mr. Hall sold the Globe to 
Lewis Baker in 188.5. Mr. Meyst joined him as secretary in the 
establishment of the Mutual Benefit Publishers' Association, 
an organization which made ready printed sheets for news- 
papers. Two years later the business was sold to the A. N. 
Kellogg Newspaper Company. Mr. Meyst eventually becom- 
ing resident manager. He so continued until the company 
was merged with other interests into the Western Newspaper 
linion, of which he was also chosen resident manager. Through- 
out his association with the jiublishing business, Mr. Meyst 
has been one of the leading sjiirits in organizations of pub- 
lishers and employes. For many years he has been a member 
of the executive board of the Minnesota Editorial Association, 
enjoying, with such a-ssociates as David Ramaley. H. P. Hall, 
C. C. Whitney, Frank MacDonald. the Days. Easton, Master- 
uuin. I.eicht. the Eastmans. Huntington, Pease, and others, a 
remarkable acquaintance among newspaper men. and so among 
all the public men in the Northwest. Mr. Meyst is prominent 
as a 32 degree Mason, as a Knight Templar and Shriner, in 
Masonry, and is an active member of the New Athletic Club, 
and other civic and business organizations. May 26. 1881, Mr. 
Meyst married Lena Furch of Minneapolis. They have three 
daughters. Lillian D.. May E.. and Bessie L., and one son, 
Frank J. Meyst, Jr. 

Mrs. Meyst died October 10, 1913. She was highly educated 
and was active in literary and social clubs, her own home 
being a .social center. Ever 'con8i<lerate for others, her friends 
extending all over the northwi'st have expressed warmest 
sympathy and acknowledgement of her endearing character. 



WlLLl.VM K. MOKISON. 



FRANK JAY MEYST. 



When Frank Jay Meyst was born, .Tanuary 23, 1858, his 
parents. Peter and Nellie (Faber) Meyst. lived in Amsterdam. 



Lack of space confines the story of Mr. Morison's eventful 
life to a mere outline. He was born at Belfast. Waldo County. 
Maine. March 6, 1885, the son of A. .1. and Christiana I Phil- 
brook 1 Morison. The father was a hardware merchant, in 
Belfast and after his death the business was continued in the 



498 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



family, being conducted by William and his older brother 
for a time and afterward by himself alone until he came to 
Minneapolis. 

In 1875 Mr. Morison went to sea as a common sailor, 
making his first voyage from Maine to New Orleans. From 
the latter port he sailed with a cargo of cotton to Eeval, 
Russia, on the Gulf of Finland. The ship in which he sailed 
was on the Atlantic 93 days and was given up as lost; a 
year and a half later it was lost, with all on board, in an 
East Indian typhoon. 

For a few years after his perilous experiences at sea Mr. 
Morison worked for his older brother, in the old hardware 
store, at Belfast and finally in 1882 he became its sole owner. 
He induced a number of country stores to put in small stocks 
of hardware in addition to their other goods, and to buy 
their supplies of him, and the result was an immediate and 
considerable expansion of his trade, and his became the 
leading store in Belfast. 

In 1880 Mr. Morison was married to Miss Evelyn Pendleton, 
the daughter of Captain John G. Pendleton, of Searsport, 
Maine, who came to Minneapolis in 1874, lived here two years, 
made some investments in tlie city, and then returned to 
Maine and his seafaring life. In 1886 Mr. Morison purchased 
a retail hardware store in Minneapolis under the firm name 
of W. K. Morison & Company. The store had been the retail 
department of Janney & Semple and was originally estab- 
lished by Gov. John S. Pillsbury. He organized the firm of 
W. K. Morison & Co. with a capital stock of $100,000, Janney 
& Semple retaining a one-half interest in the firm, but in 1892 
Mr. Morison bought their interest. The hard times of 
1893-94 crippled the business to such an extent that Mr. 
Morison had to start practically anew in 1897, and is now the 
sole owner of the business. In 1900 he secured the premises 
he now occupies, but which he will have to vacate January 1, 
1915. In this he has what competent judges consider the 
finest hardware store in the country. It is one of the six 
largest in the United States. In October, 1905, and again 
July 2, 1907, fire caused a loss in the aggregate of over 
$250,000 in his stock, and each did $25,000 to $30,000 worth 
of damage to the building; yet after each he opened up for 
business at 8 o'clock the next morning. In 1888 he sold all 
the hardware used in the Guaranty Loan building, and this 
sale amounted to more than the whole of his first year's 
business in Belfast, Maine. Later he sold the hardware for 
the City Hall and Court House, and made other large sales. 

The first Mrs. Morison was a leader in the benevolent and 
evangelical work of Plymouth Congregational church and a 
director of its home for children and aged women. .She died 
on June 17, 1907, leaving an adopted daughter, Ruth P. 
Morison. In July, 1909. Mr. Morison contracted a second 
marriage. Mr. and Mrs, Morison have as members of their 
household Miss Ruth P. Morison, .lohn S, Pendleton, a grand- 
son of Captain John G. Pendleton, the first Mrs. Morison's 
father, and Alton B. Jackson, a nephew of Mrs, Morison, and 
who is associated with Mr. Morison in business as vice presi- 
dent of the W. K. Morison & Co. 

Mr. Morison is an enthusiastic yachtsman and a skillful 
sailor. He is a member of the Minnetonka Yacht Club, and 
has been one of its directors for years. He is fond of shoot- 
ing and is a member of the Long Meadow Gun Club. He 
also belongs to the Minneapolis Club, and the Minikahda, 
Commercial, Lafayette, Auto, and Athletic clubs, the Civic 
and Commerce Association and the Masonic order, in which 



he holds the rank of a Knight Templar. He has gone in for 
aviation, has made several notable ascensions and undergone 
some thrilling aerial adventures. 



JAMES McMillan. 



Pioneers who locate in the wilderness of a new country, 
redeem it from its wild condition and plant and people it 
with beneficent activity and enduring happiness and pros- 
perity are always entitled to high regard by those who follow 
them and have the benefit of their hardihood, enterprise and 
daring. Pioneers who establish a new industry and open new 
avenues of trade, giving employment to many workmen and 
comfort to hundreds of patrons; who thereby expand and 
magnify the industrial and commercial influence of the com- 
munity in which they operate and awaken dormant energies 
among its residents, and who give it a name and standing in 
lines of traffic and marts of merchandising where it was be- 
fore unknown, are also deserving of strong commendation and 
grateful remembrance. 

The late James McMiUan of Minneapolis was a pioneer of 
both kinds to some extent, and the cordial esteem in which 
he was held by all classes of the people of the city in its 
more youthful days showed that his worth was justly meas- 
ured by them, and the high place his name still occupies in 
the memory of Minueapolitans of everj' rank and condition 
proves that the estimate of him in his own day and genera- 
tion was a just one. He died in this city on March 24, 1909, 
in the fifty-third year of his age, and after a residence here 
of more than thirty years. 

Mr. McMillan was born in the village of Fryeburg, Maine, 
on October 24, 1856, the son of James Osgood and Caroline 
(Gibson) McMillan. His ancestors on both sides were prom- 
inent in the early Colonial history of New England and in 
our Revolutionary struggles. The mother was a sister of 
Hon. Paris Gibson, one of the leading business men of Minne- 
apolis in its early days, later a United States Senator from 
the State of Montana, and now a prominent merchant in the 
busy and progressive city of Great Falls in that common- 
wealth. Mr. McMillan obtained his academic education at an 
excellent academy in his native town, but left it at an early 
age because he was eager to begin his business career and 
start making his own way in the world. 

Soon after he left school he came to Minneapolis, where his 
uncle, Mr. Gibson, was then operating the North Star Woolen 
Mills. He accepted a place in the employ of the uncle, and 
remained with him about five years. He then determined to 
start a business of his own and founded the firm of .James 
McMillan & Company to deal in hides, furs, wool, pelts and 
kindred articles of merchandise, and also to operate the 
Minneapolis Sheepskin Tannery, which at that time had a 
very small and rather languishing business. 

Mr. McMillan put his heart into his work and applied all 
his fine business capacity to it. His trade began to make 
big strides forward within a few years, and soon laid many 
sections of the country under tribute to its extensive and 
rapidly giowing activities. The firm, which was one of the 
first in the city in its line, bought goods from all parts of 
the United States, and in all other regions where they were 
for sale, and built up the most extensive business of its kind 
in this part of the world. The sheepskin tannery was en- 




^^^^^m 



HISTORY OF MIXXKAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



499 



largeil from time to time, and kept eciuipped with the latest 
and best machinery, and finally reached a capacity of 2,S0O 
pelts a day. Every variety of fur which had a commercial 
value was to be found in the McMillan lofts in the winter 
season, even the rare sea otter and black fox, sometimes 
running in value upwards of $1,000 per skin, being num- 
bered among the treasures stored in them. 

Mr. McMillan located his establishment on Uridge Square 
in 1877, and it was the first of its kind in the Northwest, as 
has been noted. In 18S1 he moved his business to the old 
Harmonia building on First avenue south, and in 1K',)2 l)uilt 
the McMillan block, a large brick structure, substantial in 
construction, commodious in size and imposing in appear- 
ance, which is still an ornament to the locality in which it 
stands and a monument to its builder's enterprise and fore- 
sight, 

Mr. McMillan's first partner in business was Charles S. 
Gibson, who afterward moved to Fort Benton. He was next 
associated with J. F. Radclifle, who died in California in 
April, 1886. His sister, Miss Caroline E. McMillan, was also 
associated with him in business for about twenty-nine years. 
He never married, but lived at 1728 Nicollet avenue with his 
mother and sisters, to whom he was warmly devoted. His 
religious leaning was to the Universalist sect and he was a 
regular attendant of the Church of the Redeemer of that 
denomination. In politics he was not a partisan and never 
took an active part, but in conviction he was an ardent pro- 
tectionist and a leading Republican. 

Great foresight and breadth of view characterized all Mr. 
McMillan's business operations, as they did his activity in 
reference to public improvements and local public afTairs. He 
had extensive real estate interests in various places at the 
time of his death, some of his investments in this line being 
considered chimerical by numbers of his friends. Among 
these were his holdings at International Falls. Minnesota, 
Chelan Falls, Washington, and Great Falls, Montana. The 
first is on Rainy river, which forms a part of the international 
bomidary between this country and Canada, the second on 
the mighty Columbia, and the third on the fierce, reckless 
and headstrong Missouri. These rivers are all great high- 
ways of commerce, and Mr. McMillan considered the towns 
named localities of wonderful promise. Recent developments 
in each have shown that his judgment was correct and that 
in it he was far ahead of his time. 



In 1877 he came to Minnesota to invest in farm lands, and 
William Patrick, a cousin, came with him, P. Frost Spalding, 
also accompanied him, forming a partnership for the purchase 
and cultivation of a tract of 8,000 acres in the Red river 
valley. They converted this large expanse into wheat farms, 
the tract being still intact, Mr. March keeping the West farm 
as his portion when the land was divided. The farms lie near 
Warren, Minnesota, and although maintaining his home in 
Minneapolis, Mr. March personally had charge of the farming 
operations, the improvements and everything connected with 
tlie business proving profitable and congenial. Mr. Spalding's 
son is now living on his father's part of the original tract. 

The farming operations were extensive and exacting, but 
Mr. March still found time to take part in important matters 
in Minneapolis. In company with Dorilus Morrison, S. A. 
Harris, and several other well known men, he engaged in 
street lighting in the outlying districts and had charge of 
the work connected with the undertaking until his death. 

In the line of public service Jlr. March was In-lpfiil t.i tlie 
city. He served as a member of the park board for a number 
of years, and was one of its inspiring and directing forces 
when Kenwood Boulevard was laid out and improved. He 
also served two terms in the .State Senate. In all his public 
service he was most deeply interested in the general welfare 
to which he devoted conscientious energy. In politics he 
was an active and effective working Democrat, but being a 
modest man never claimed credit for what he did in a public 
capacity. He was a colleague of Dr. John Bell in the legisla- 
ture, a warm friendship growing out of this intimate relation- 
ship. 

About 1884 Mr. March located his home where his widow is 
now living, at 2207 Fremont avenue, which was far out at 
the time and in the woods. In fraternal relations he was a 
Freemason and in religious faith an Episcopalian holding 
membership in Gethseniane church, of which he was long a 
vestryman, and from which his remains were laid to rest in 
Lakewood cemetery. He found greatest enjoyment in his 
farm and there passed the greater part of the summer seasons. 
In 1861 he was united in marriage with Miss Adelaide L. 
Church at Clarendon, New York. They had five children, two 
of whom are living, Louise is the wife of E. .S. Gaylord of 
Minneapolis, and lives near the family home, and Samuel A., 
a real estate man. Another son, Harry .1, March, died in 
August, 1911, aged forty-four years, leaving hesfde his widow, 
a son. 



Y 



HON. SAMUEL A. MARCH. 

One of the extensive and progressive farmers of North- 
western Minnesota, and also a vigorous, resourceful and enter- 
prising promoter of the general well being and a stimulating 
force in the progress of ifiTineapolis. the late Hon, .*<aniuel A. 
March, who died .luly '■>. 1K'.)4. was a useful citizen, respectid. 
and admired for genuine worth and !-ervices. 

Mr. March was born at Oakfield, (ienesee county. New York 
September 4, 1840. and came to Minneapolis in I.s77. His 
father died when Samuel was eight years old ami the latter 
passed his boyhood and youth as a clerk in an uncle's store. 
He was educated at Carey Seminary and fieneseo College, and 
in young manhood engaged in merchandising at Oakfield in 
partnership with Geo, C, Church under the firm name of March 
& Church. 



•JOHN MAHONEY, 



Mr, Mahoney's life began in the province of New Bruns- 
wick, Canada, on October 17. 1851, and came to a elo.se in 
Minneapolis on March 31, 1914. and the circumstances of his 
family were such that at an early age he was obliged to begin 
looking out and providing for himself. For a few years he 
worked in the lumber woods of his native country, and lived 
frugally, saving his earnings so as to be able to take ad- 
vantage of expected opportunities for advancement when 
they came. In 1873, when he was twenty-two years old. 
he moved into the United States and located in Minneapolis. 
From here he again found employment in the woods for 
three years as a chopper and a scaler. 

In 1876, inspired by the gold discoveries in the Black 



500 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Hills, he and one of his brothers started for that region. 
But the Indians in the Hills and on the way to them were 
troublesome, and the argonauts from Minneapolis changed 
their plans. They secured contracts in Montana to supply 
cord wood on the banks of the Yellowstone for the steamboats 
that then plied that long and picturesque water highway. 
Hostile Indians were numerous also in the neighborhood of 
their work and their outrages were frequent, the carriers of 
the United States mails being picked off at short intervals. 
Their depredations made mail carrying so hazardous that 
the government paid a carrier $200 a month for the service. 

The little band of wood cutters with which Mr. Mahoney 
was connected was in continual peril from the savages, but 
the two years they passed on the Yellowstone proved very 
profitable to them financially. 

On his return to Minneapolis Mr. Mahoney secured em- 
ployment from Caleb Dorr, the superintendent of the Boom 
company. After a time he was given a contract to take 
railroad ties from the river, pile them up along the track and 
load them on trains. 

Then, in company with .John Woods and Stephen Lovejoy, 
he began taking railroad grading contracts, and he continued 
this line of enterprise for a number of years, his final work 
in it being in connection with E. F. Comstock, with whom 
he became associated in 1886. 

Some twenty-one or twenty-two years ago Mr. Mahoney 
became associate<l with former Senator McGowan, who, in 
company with Henry Schultz, had some years before founded 
a general real estate, loan and insurance business. Soon after 
the death of Mr. Schultz Mr. Mahoney became connected with 
the business, as a member of the firm. 

Mr. Mahoney was united in marriage with Miss Katie 
White, a native of Minneapolis and the daughter of James 
White, an esteemed pioneer who came to this city about sixty 
vears ago, and died in Minneapolis in 1893. 

Mr. and Mrs. Mahoney were the parents of seven children. 
all of whom are living. .James. William and Francis, the 
three oldest sons, are in the insurance business, and William 
is still a student in the University. The other children, 
John, Edward, Inez and George, are living at liome with 
their mother and still attending school. 



ARTHUR WILLIAM SELO\"EE. 

Arthur William Selover was born in Flatbush, Long Island, 
on July 9, 1871. He is a son of Peter and Jennie Selover, 
and his childhood was spent in the modest home of a family 
whose head was an energetic contractor and builder. They 
came West, in 1879, and made their home in Lake City, 
Minnesota. The son Arthur entered the graded schools of 
the little city on the Mississippi, and in 1888 was graduated 
from the high school. 

In the fall following his graduation from the high school, 
he entered the University of Minnesota, taking up first the 
course in the academic department, as it was then known — 
the college of .science, literature and the arts. In the class of 
1893 he was graduated, with the degree of B. A., and at once 
entered the law school. It was in the following year that 
he was graduated with the degree of LL. B., his commence- 
ment honors being the highest in his class for excellence in 



legal thesis for graduation. For some years he continued his 
studies, taking in 1897 the additional degree of LL. M. 

Graduation from the law school in 1894 had been followed 
by the selection of Mr. Selover for an important post as an 
editor for the West Publishing Company, in the compiling of 
law books. With the West company Mr. Selover remained 
for several years, chieliy in the post of legal editor. It was 
in this time that he became interested in the authorship of 
law text-books, and himself wrote several such books. Espe- 
cially important was his book on negotiable instruments, 
which Yale, among other universities, has adopted as a text- 
book. He has also written a work on bank collections. 

Mr. Selover's activity in civic afl'airs as well as legal led to 
his becoming a participant in political afl'airs. He is a Repub- 
lican, and has been among the foremost young men in the 
councils of the party. In 1908 Mr. Selover was elected alder- 
man from the Fifth ward. After the first half of the term 
of four years had passed, Mr. Selover won higher recognition 
by his election to the presidency of the council — a post 
which has often pointed naturally to the mayor's chair. In 
the primarj' election of the campaign of 1908 he became a 
candidate for nomination for the mayoralty, but in a large 
field he was defeated. 

However great his interest in civic and municipal afi'airs, 
Mr. Selover continues his prominence in the councils of his 
church. He is a leading member of the First Presbyterian 
Church. Mr. Selover was married December 10, 1900, to Miss 
Bessie S. Warner of St. Paul, and they have two children, 
both sons. 



SCHUYLER H. MATTISON. 



The late Schuyler H. Mattison, in his day one of the best 
known and most successful real estate dealers in Minneapolis, 
died in this city on April 15th, 1898, at the age of ninety- 
one and after a residence here extending over thirty-seven 
years. His long and vigorous life in this region and the great 
age he attained are tributes alike to the firmness and virility 
of his physique, the excellence of his constitution, his good 
habits and the superior healthfulness of the climate of this 
part of Minnesota; and the achievements in the way of busi- 
ness success for himself and advantages to the community 
which stand to his lasting credit were the fruits of the 
sturdy, resourceful and all-daring New England ancestry from 
which he sprang and the atmosphere of self-reliance and far- 
seeing shrewdness in which he was born and reared. 

Mr. Mattison was a native of Bennington, Vermont, where 
his life began on March IS, 1807. Aside from the historical 
interest which will ever distinguish the city of his nativity 
because of the heroic triumph of the Colonial army over the 
British there on August 16, 1777. when gallant General Stark 
commanded the frontiersmen, there is a large amount of 
traditional and historic matter of general interest in the 
early record of the family, the careers of some of its other 
later members and the fruitful activity of the subject of this 
brief review himself. 

Mr. Mattison became a resident of Minneapolis in 1861, 
and here he passed all his remaining days. Few men, up to 
the end of his useful life, ever did more to advance the devel- 
opment and improvement of the city tlian lie. Throughout 
his residence here he bought and sold real estate, guiding home 




S .H. M ATTISON 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



501 



seukei'S tiiid businet^s institutions to desirable locations and 
helping them to secure what they wanted in that line. He 
laid out Mattison's first, second and third additions to Minne- 
apolis, and through the multitude of his transactions in real 
estate his name probiiblv appears more frequently on the 
records of deeds and transfers for Hennepin county than that 
of any other man of his time. For a number of years he 
owned the whole block on which tlie West hotel now stands, 
and he frequently offered to sell it for .fl.dOO. Later he built 
his home on the corner now occupied by that liotel. and tlie 
removal of the house from tliis site is of c<)iii[i:uatively recent 
date. 

The three principal additions to -Minneapolis which were 
made by Mr. Jfattison were bounded by Fifth and Eighth 
avenues and Seventh and Tenth streets but he also made 
other extensions to the building territory as they were de- 
manded, and it was through his influence and activity that 
First avenue was graded and Third avenue south was laid 
out. The whole expanse of the city, present and prospective, 
was like a map in his mind, and the trend of residence and 
business inclinations was fully known to him at all times. 
He was therefore able to advise his patrons intelligently and 
be of great service to new comers and old residents alike, 
and was always at their command with excellent judgment 
and expert knowledge, 

Mr, Mattison's work was not, however, confined to real 
estate transactions. He owned at different times blocks of 
stock in several banks and other institutions, and himself 
handled commercial paper and other securities. In all his 
•lealings he *as a man of the strictest honor, whose word was 
liis bond, and whose hand was ever open for the aid of his 
friends and with generosity for those in need. He passed 
by no deserving charities, and would always rather contribute 
in a case of doubtful propriety than risk withohlding as- 
sistance in one of real merit. He preserved his vigor and 
continued his activity in business until five or six years be- 
fore his death, and even during the period of his retirement 
was as energetic and active mentally as many men forty 
years younger. During the earlier years of his residence in 
Minneapolis he held several minor offices, although he was 
never enamored of jiublic station or official life. Before the 
incorporation of the city he served as town supervisor, and 
in the late sixties and early seventies he was a member of 
the board of aldermen and was chairman of the board. 

In 1840 Mr. Mattison was married in New York city to 
Miss Mary E. Overton, who survived him until Sept. 22, 1M2. 
Two children were born of their union: Lucy, who died .July 
22, 1910. and Ida M., who is Mrs. W. F. Phelps. In Septem- 
ber, 1894. the father of these ladies was thrown from his 
carriage in a runaway and .seriously injured in one of his hips. 
As a consequence of this accident he was never able after- 
ward to leave his home, and during the greater part of the 
time was confined to his room. But his mental faculties con- 
tinued strong, clear and active to the last hour of his life, 
and his deep and intelligent interest in the affairs of men and 
the welfare of Minneapolis never waned. He died as he had 
lived, full of consideration for his fellow men, and alert to 
their well being individually and in the mass. The people of 
Minneapolis revere him as one of the community's most use- 
ful, high-minded and representative citizens while he dwelt 
and labored in it. 



.LV.MKS l)U.\'( AX SHKARKK. 

Since 1883 .lames Duncan Shearer has been a resident of 
Minneapolis, and lincc 1884 a member of the Minnesota bar 
an<l a lawyer in attivc general practice, covering almost every 
branch of work in his profession and always with plenty of 
business to keep him liiligcntly occ\ipicd. He came to this 
city in 188,S, a young man just twenty-one years old, having 
been born in .Janesville, Wi.sconsin, on March 25. 1862, a son 
of Robert Bruce and Elizabeth Eliza (Campbell) Shearer. 
His father is a de'scendant of Robert Bruce, one of the heroes 
of Scottisli history, and his mother is related to the Duke of 
.\rgyle and a granddaughter of Dr. .lohn Lawson of Edin- 
burgh, physician to Sir Walter Scott. 

Mr. Shearer was reared on a farm in central Iowa, from the 
age of three years, and, after completing the course of study 
available to him in the country school in the neighborhood of 
his home, became a student in the Iowa State Agricultural 
College at Ames. From this institution he was graduated in 
the class of 1879, being at the time the youngest student to 
get a diploma. He then taught school in Iowa until he de- 
cided to take up his residence in this city. He was admitted 
to the bar in Minnesota in 1884, and from that year until 
the present has devoted himself almost wholly to his profes- 
sion. 

For a number of years, Mr. Shearer was a member of the 
law firm of Belden, .Jamison & Shearer, but since leaving it 
he has been practicing alone. In March, 1907, he was ap- 
pointed receiver for the Minnesota Title Insurance and Trust 
company, and settled up its business. He is a Republican in 
political faith and allegiance, and as such was elected to the 
•Senate House of Representatives in the fall of 1902. serving 
tlirough the Sessions of 1903 and 1904, with credit to himself 
and advantage to his district and the people of the state in 
general. He is active in the social life of the tity as a mem- 
ber of the Minneapolis Commercial club and the Six O'Clock 
club. On September 18, 1888, he was united in marriage with 
.Miss Emma Evans, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They have four 
children. 

Mr. Shearer is an excellent citizen and takes a deep, practi- 
cal and serviceable interest in everything that involves the wel- 
fare of Minneapolis an<l Minnesota and their residents. He is 
not an active political partisan, but always has his energies 
at work in commendable ways for the promotion of the gen- 
eral well being, and all his activities in this behalf are im- 
pelled by a broad and strong public spirit and guided by 
l)rudence and intelligence. And his efforts are appreciated by 
the people around him, all of whom hold him in the highest 
esteem. 



REV. JOSEPH R. M.'VNTON. 

Rev. .losepli K. .Manton. whose spirit, on the 17th of January, 
1912, after more than ninety years of earthly existence was 
transported to its original source, and one whose life was filled 
with love and effort to exalt the minds and souls of his fellow 
men was himself exalted to the honor place beside his God. 
Born at Providence. Rhode Island, September 28, 1821, he was 
the son of Shodralh and .\ugtie (Randall) Manton, With a 
desire to practice law he entereil Brown I'nivcrsity from which 
in due time he was honorablv graduateil. Whi'thiT or not he 



502 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



actually entered the legal profession we are not informed; 
but, even then his mind in its keenness and avidity demanded 
more than the ever delicate physique could furnish and he 
became a teacher. 

Reared in that center of theological discussion he early 
embraced Christianity and being impelled by a sense of duty 
to the world and to his Maker he prepared for the ministry, 
being ordained in 1849. The important Baptist Church at 
the old and stable city of Gloucester called liira and during 
the three years he served it his reputation as an able orator, 
a close student of the Bible and an admirable pastor was 
established. Yielding to demands of a tender constitution he 
went south and became the principal of the "Xavy Sharp" 
Female College at Nashville, Tenn., his standing as an able 
instructor and organizer being widely recognized. Xever in 
accord with the Southern view of public questions, lie, wlien 
the clouds of Civil w-ar began to gather, assumed the pastorate 
of the first Church at Quincy, 111. 

In 1860 he came to Minneapolis, his church then standing 
at the corner of Nicollet and Third Street, being under his 
conduct the most important in the town. During the four 
years' labor in this church he occasionally preached to tlie 
Society at Richfield. The period of 1864 to 1868 was served 
in the pulpit at St. Joseph, Mo. Ever treaclierous health led 
him to return to Minnesota and on the 39th of August, 1S69. 
he preached the dedicatory sermon of the Riclifield Church 
of which he soon after became the first resident pastor. 

Purchasing a tract of land bordering Wood Lake he found 
enjoyment and improved health in its cultivation, his tastes 
for choice fruits, rare plants or Howers having more ample 
scope for satisfaction than oppoitunity liad before presented. 
For a quarter of a century he here plead the cause of his 
master, endearing himself to the people, his circle of admirers 
not being circumscribed or limited. With charity and toler- 
ance, his teachings and influence touching every home, his life 
made for the general betterment till no more intelligent, 
liberal or progressive neigliborhood is to be found in the 
State of Minnesota. 

October 16, 1S50, he formed a union witli Ann Heliue 
whom he survived some ten years. With a strength of 
intellect out of proportion to the strength of body he by the 
exercise of judgment, careful living and sheer will power 
survived all youthful companions. Yet tlie nearer to the 
end of this life tlie clearer his vision of another, and with pro- 
found resignation he finally "Walked with (!od." 



KARL SCHWERDFEGER. 

Tlic life of Karl Schwerdfeger closed on February 18, 1912, 
after an illness of but a few days and a surgical opera- 
tion in St. Barnabas hospital, when he was not yet fifty-two 
years of age. His life began at Abbecke, province of Han- 
over, Germany, on .June 3, 1860, and he was reared on a farm 
in that neighborhood. At the age of fourteen he started 
learning the butcher trade, and when his father died three 
years later,, he took charge of the farm in connection with his 
mother and sister Herminie. 

On March 5, 1885, he was united in marriage with Miss 
Herminie Schwerdfeger, his second cousin, familiarly called 
"Minnie" by her friends, Pi'ior to his marriage, however, he 
served a few months in the heavy cavalry of the German 



army in accordance with the legal requirements of the em- 
pire, but the government permitted him to leave the servifee- 
and return to his home to care for his mother and sister. His 
wife was nineteen wlien they were married and he was twenty- 
five. They remained on the home farm five years, then it was 
sold, the mother was properly provided for. and Mr. Schwerd- 
feger determined to visit his younger brother, who liad then 
been a resident of Minneapolis and engaged in keeping a 
meat market five years. 

The young tourist intended to purchase a larger farm in 
Germany, but he was so well pleased with Minneapolis, its 
surroundings and its business prospects, that he decided to 
remain here, and sent for his wife and one son. who came 
over and joined him three months later. After six months' 
employment the new comer located on a farm in Carver county, 
Minnesota. Two years later he bought a hotel at Meyer in 
that county, which proved to be a good investment. He con- 
ducted the hotel four years, having a large trade and making 
money steadily and saving it. But his health failed, and he 
sold the hotel and returned to Minneapolis, 

In 1897 Karl joined his younger brother, August, who had 
been keeping a meat market here for several years. They 
continued to do business in this line as' partners until Karl's 
son August F. bought his uncle's interest in the market and 
trade and became his father's partner. The market was at 358 ■ 
Monroe street northeast, and the firm was known as the Mon- 
roe Packing company. When the father died Louis A., hi* 
second son, took his place in the firm and the business was 
and is still continued under the old name. 

Mr. Schwerdferger had a fine liome at Fifteenth avenue and' 
Adams street, and had planned to erect an apartment house 
the year he died. He was a member of the Lutheran church,, 
a man of quiet domestic tastes, fond of his home and family.. 
Of the three children born in the family one died in infancy. 
The other two. August F. and Louis A., are still living with, 
tlieir mother at 635 Fifteenth avenue northeast. 



CHARLES HALL \VHEELER. 

Lawyer, farmer, stock breeder and financier, and having 
operated extensively and successfully in three states, Charles 
Hall Wheeler, one of the leading business men and most sub- 
stantial citizens of Minneapolis, has had an interesting and 
varied career, in every part of ■which he has shown strong 
mentality, great enterprise, fine business ability and a ready 
adaptability to circumstances and requirements. He was born 
in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, .lanuary 21, 1843, the 
son of Warren W. and Catherine Hall (Brewer) Wheeler. The 
late Justice Brewer of the United States Supreme Court was 
a cousin of his mother, and other men of mark in the country 
have also been related to the family, which is an old one in 
this country, descended from Tliomas Wheeler, who came from 
Wales and settled at Concord. Massachusetts, in 1640. 

Thomas Wheeler was a captain in the early Indian wars, 
and died of wounds received in them. His son, Sergeant 
Thomas Wheeler, settled at Marlboro, Massachusetts, and 
Benjamin Wheeler was one of the first settlers at New Marl- 
boro. Berkshire county, where the old homestead has been in 
the family for five generations, Zenas Wheeler, another 
member of the family, was an able officer in the Continental 
army in the Revolution, and Warren W., the grandfather of 




^iy-i^x/ ^^^y^^^c^ y^f7^c^.^uyi 



/ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



503 



■Charles H.. built a paper mill on Mill river in ISSO. This 
mill was operated by his son Warren, the father of Charles, 
until not long before his death in 1846, when his son Charles 
was three years old. He was in partnership with Cyrus VV. 
Field, wlio laid thi' first successful Atlantic 'able. 

After the death of his father Mr. Wheeler's mother took 
him to a farm near Potsdam, New York, where she died when 
he was fifteen. lie attended St. I.^xwrence Academy at Pots- 
dam, and afterward went to Williams College, Williamstown. 
Massachusetts, from which he was graduated with the degree 
of A. B. in 1866. One of his classmates was Virgil P. Cline, 
attorney for .John D. Rockefeller, and another was Eugene 
Delano, a New York city banker. He read iaw at Potsdam in 
the oHice of Judge Henry L. Knowles, and became his partner 
and son-in-law. being married on October 13, 1868, to Miss 
Frances Spencer Knowles, who died on November 6, 1912, 
after forty-four years of married life. 

His health requiring a change Mr. Wheeler in 1872 moved to 
a large farm near Council Bluffs, Iowa, which he operated in 
partnership with his brother-in-law, Henry B. Knowles. they 
being live stock breeders and making a great success in tliis 
line. In 1883 he moved to Minneapolis and became an exten- 
sive money lender and dealer in real estate. The crash of 
the nineties caused heavy losses to him and his patrons. But 
he weathered the storm, made still further investments, and 
has since prospered. His son. Walter H. Wheeler, who 
was born April 13. 18S3, a graduate of the raining engineers' 
department of the State University, is his partner, and also 
conducts a large business in structural and reinforced concrete 
construction operating principally throujrh the western states. 
The son's wife was Miss Eva Blasdell, of Minneapolis. They 
liave one son. Frank Knowlei Blasdell Wheeler. 



MICHAEL .T. SULLIVAX. 



The late .Michael .T. Sullivan, who died March '.). 1911. at 
his Minneapolis home. 609 Main street northeast, which was 
founded by his parents in 1867, will be long and favorably re- 
menilicred by the people of this city as an enterprising, up- 
right and successful business man and as the representative 
of the Thirty-eighth legislative district, comprising the First 
and parts of the Third, Ninth and Tenth wards, in the State 
legislature in the sessions of 1907, 1909. 1911 and 1913. As a 
legislator he worked in accordance with old and tried Demo- 
cratic princijiles. avoiding freak legislation and striving to 
secure for every man a free and untrammeled chance in life, 
and to the end that the people might have as large and con- 
trolling a voice as possible in the management of their affairs 
of state he favored the initiative and referendum in legisla- 
tion. 

Mr. Sullivan was born on November 4, 1868, in the Iiouse 
in which he died. He was a son of Cornelius and Jolianna 
(O'Neill) .Sullivan, natives of County Cork, Ireland, where 
they were reared, educated and married, and whence they came 
to the United State* in 18,5.'). The father worked as a laborer 
ill New York and Massachusetts until 1867. when he moved to 
Miiineapcilis, founded the home lately occupied by liis son 
Micliael, and engage<l in plastering in association with Michael 
Lyons, who is still living. When the home was built it was in 
the business center of St. Anthony, near the hotels and other 
conveniences of the town, and there the father lived until his 



death some twenty years ago. For a time he was in partner- 
ship with S. G. Cook in the lumber trade at First avenue north 
and Third street. He was a member of St. Anthony de Padua 
Catholic church and one of the builders of the present church 
edilices and priest's residence, having been to the end of his life 
one of the active workers in the parish and among its main 
supporters. 

The mother, who still belongs to that church, is one of its 
oldest members, being one of the half dozen of those who 
founded it, who arc yet among its communicants. Her dwell- 
ing place is still the old family residence, whose domestic 
shrine she consecrated by wifely devotion and motherly care. 
There are two sons and two daughters of the household living. 
Cornelius is a horse dealer and James P. is general manager 
of the Diamond Boiler Works. Their .sisters are Joliana. 
wife of John O'Brien, a Minneapolis stone mason, and Mary, 
wife of Christian Neary, engineer at the Consolidated Mills. 

Jlichael .1. Sullivan's public service was creditable to him 
and benelicial to the state, and his business career is also 
worthy of notice as indicative of stalwart and self-reliant 
manhood. He obtained a common school education, which was 
amplified through a business course conducted in a corre- 
spondence school. In 1884 he started learning the trade of a 
stone cutter, at which he first worked as a journeyman on the 
old McNair residence. During the last ten years of his life 
he was a cut stone contractor, employing at times fifty men, 
and supplying building contractors with whatever stone they 
demanded. His principal stone yard, at First street and 
Twenty-second street north, is still in operation, as is also 
his plant at Bedford, Indiana. From these two centers of in- 
dustry he conducted a business which covered the whole North- 
west, including Minnesota, Iowa. Nebraska, Montana, the 
Dakotas and Southern Canada. 

Mr. Sullivan was a member of the Minneapolis Builders' 
Exchange. In religious afliliation he adliere<l to the mother 
church of his parents, St. Anthony de Padua, near wliich his 
home is located. He was married in 1891 to Miss Millie Pratt, 
daughter of William Pratt, of the Pence Auto company. One 
son was bom of their union, William F. Sullivan, who is a 
student in the dental department of the University of Min- 
nesota. 



'JOHN P. SHCMWAV. 



John P. Shumway. a pioneer citizen of Robhinsdale, a 
suburb of Minneapolis is a native of Connecticut, born in 
Mansfield, Tolland county, June 22, 1830. He was reared on 
a farm and received his early education in the public schools, 
later attending an academy. In 1855 he came to Minneapolis 
where .Judge E. S. Jones and Dr. William H. Leonard, whom 
he had known in his old home, had located. He spent a few 
months in the employ of Judge Jones and then took a claim 
in Wright county, about thirty miles from the city. He 
cleared live acres and erected a small bark covered shanty. 
Farming without a team he put in small crops and made what 
improvements he could on the claim and then sold it and went 
back to Connecticut whVre he remained for a sliort tiuu'. On 
his return to Minneapolis he purchased of Mr. John Pembroke 
the forty-five acres where his home now stands, paying 
twenty-five dollars per atre. It was then wild land and as 
a protection against the winds it was necessary to reinforce 



504 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



the little shanty, which was his home for several years, 
with props. He bought a yoke of oxen, adding to his debt, 
finding himself at the end of the first year with a financial 
deficit of $1,100. But he worked amid all the hardships and 
difliiculties of the new country with sturdy perseverance, set- 
ting out posts and building fences by moonlight and soon had 
twenty-five or thirty acres of the land ready for cultivation; 
and, with oxen and a few farming tools raised good crops of 
grain and corn, receiving sixty cents a bushel for wheat and 
twenty-two cents for corn. In October, 1858 he was married 
at Mishawaka, Indiana to Miss Louisa A. Russ, daughter of 
Dan and Mary A. (Brown) RuSs, natives of Connecticut, for 
whom Mr. Shumway had formerly worked. Mr. Russ had 
visited Minnesota in 1854, and invested in land. The follo-iv- 
ing year, with his family, he again started west with the 
intention of making that their home; but, on reaching Misha- 
waka, Indiana, he was persuaded by a brother to locate at 
that place. After his death, his wife and children came to 
Minnesota, settling near Robbinsdale and here the death of 
the former occurred. The son, Mr. N. F. Russ is a resident 
of Robbinsdale and the daughter. Mrs. Ellen M. Bisbee has 
made her home with her sister, Mrs. Shumway for a number 
of years. During the Civil war when the demand for men 
in the service was so urgent, the citizens of Minneapolis of- 
fered a bounty of $300 to men who would enlist. Mr. Shum- 
way and several of his neighbors enlisted at this time and 
received this sura. He was assigned to the Eleventh Minne- 
sota regiment which was Stationed until the close of the war 
as guard at Tunnek Hill on the Louisville & Nashville rail- 
road. After receiving his honorable discharge he returned 
home and soon after began to buy adjoining property, ex- 
tending his purchases until his farm included seventy acres 
where the village of Robbinsdale now stands. About twenty 
years ago he sold this land to Mr. Robbins and it was platted 
into the town site of Robbinsdale, which has grown into a 
prosperous and attractive suburb of Minneapolis. Mr. Shum- 
way donated the land for the Congregational church of which 
he is a member, and for its parsonage. He retained a part 
of his farm, which is a very desirable tract of land extending 
into the village, and his home is beautifully situated on a 
knoll overlooking the lake. Mr. Shumway is a Republican; 
and, though he has never taken an active part in political 
affairs, served for twenty years as township treasurer. Mr. 
Shumway and his wife had two sons, Ernest J. and Royal, 
both graduates of the state university. Ernest J. Shumway 
is an electrical engineer, residing in Robbinsdale. He married 
Miss Alice Preston and they had four children, Clyde, Caroline 
Louise, Evelyn Russ and Esther Ross. Royal Shumway, who 
married Miss Susan Pitblado, is assistant professor of mathe- 
matics in the University of Minnesota. The wife and mother 
passed away in the spring of 1914. 



.lACOB STOFT. 



Jacob Stoft, a well known hardware merchant and eminent 
citizen of Minneapolis, is a native of Germany, born in Hesse 
Darmstadt, May 8. 1855. As a lad he was apprenticed to 
the trade of locksmith and served three years. He came to 
this country in 1871 locating at LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where 
an uncle resided. There he engaged as a tinsmith which occu- 
pation later proved such a surcessfiil branch of his business 



enterprise. In 1878 he came to Minneapolis and opened the 
first hardware and tin shop south of Tenth avenue south. 
Tills business venture was made with $1,000 capital and 
developed rapidly to its present proportions as one of the 
leading hardware stores of the city. For several years he 
employed a number of men in the tin shop making a specialty 
of this branch of the business, but lately he has discontinued 
this department and has devoted his entire attention to the 
hardware trade. His present manager, Mr. Peter Beentsen, 
has been identified with the concern for thirty-five years. He 
has been associated with the civic interests, ever exerting his 
influence and effort in behalf of the general welfare and 
progress of the city. He served as a member of tlie first 
Charter Commission. In 1884 he was elected alderman from 
the Sixth Ward and owing to a division of the Ward, during 
his term, he had the unique distinction of representing a Ward 
in which he was not a resident. During the nine years of his 
membership on the Board of Park Commissioners he bent 
every effort to secure the large acquisitions of park property, 
which were largely made during this period. 

As president of the Minneapolis Savings and Loan Associa- 
tion Mr. Stoft has taken a great interest in the purpose of 
the institution, which provides an opportunity for the invest- 
ment of small savings, thus enabling many wage earners to 
obtain homes. He has been a director of the Metropolitan 
National Bank and of the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works 
since their organization. He is a director of the Northwestern 
Marble & Tile Company and director and treasurer of the 
Simonson Brothers Manufacturing Company. 

He was married in LaCrosse, Wisconsin to Miss Elizabeth 
GaSt. They have two daughters, F'rieda B., wife of Mr. L. C. 
Robinson, of the lumber firm of Bardwell & Robinson, and 
Esther A., who married Mr. G. A. Heinrich, manager of the 
business interests of his father, Mr. .Julius J. Heinrich. Mr. 
Stoft has ever retained an afi'ectionate regard for his father- 
land and its literature, an interest which is shared by his 
wife and daughters who are prominent in the German literary 
societies of the city. Finding great enjoyment in travel, Mr. 
Stoft and wife have toured extensively in this country and 
elsewhere and he has the fullest appreciation of the wonder- 
ful resources and scenic pleasures of his adopted country. He 
is a Knight Templar and a Shriner and with the others of liis 
family, is an active member of the Universalist Church. 



JAMES H. MILLER. 



The late James H. Miller was for many years one of the 
foremost flour mill men of liis time. The details of his work, 
and of all other work that was allied with it, were set out 
in his mind as if on the pages of an open book, and his 
knowledge of them was complete, accurate and at all times 
ready for immediate use. 

Mr. Miller was bom in the city of Fulton, Oswego county, 
New York, on December 10, 1854, and at the age of thirteen 
began his life work in a flour mill in his native place. He was 
orphaned at the age of nine by the violent death of his father, 
whom he saw run over by a team in the streets of New 
York city. Yet, notwithstanding this disaster, the son had 
some educational advantages, having been able to attend for 
a time the excellent school known as Fowler Seminary in his 
home city. But his opportunity was cut short by the circum- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



505 



stances of the family, which compelled him to begin making 
his own way in the world as soon as he was strong enough. 

After three years of studious industry and conscientious 
fidelity in the mill in l-'ulton, where he lirst found employment, 
Mr. Miller left that city and went to Oswego, New York, 
where there were larger mills and more active milling enter- 
prises, and where he remained until 1873, all the while making 
a close study of his work and acquiring thorough knowledge 
of its every feature, detail and requirement. In the year last 
mentioned he was nineteen years old, of an ambitious and 
daring spirit, and with his eyes wide open to the trend of 
industry and the outlook for progress in his occupation. Great 
things were told of the milling business in Minneapolis in all 
parts of the country at the time, and this alert and inquiring 
man heard much that set him thinking and intensified his 
longing for the West. 

Accordingly, about this time he came to Minneapolis, and 
soon after his arrival in the city he was appointed night 
miller in the old Taylor mill, which stood on the site of the 
present Pillsbury B, which was then one of the mills belonging 
to Cliarles A. Pillsbury. Its capacity was 175 barrels of flour 
a day. Its successor of the present time turns out 6,40(1 barrels 
in tlie same period. In 1S78. when Mr. Pillsbury secured 
control of the E.xcelsior mill, he placed Mr. Miller in charge 
of it as head miller; and when, during the next year, it was 
equipped with the roller process and its capacity was raised to 
800 barrels a day, he found his responsibilities vastly increased, 
and himself and the mill objects of intense curiosity, wide- 
spread and insistent, because of the innovation, and the 
enlarged output it made possible. The new process proved 
successful from the start, and it has been so generally 
adopted in this country that it has wholly revolutionized the 
industry of manufacturing Hour in the United States, making 
it far more prolific than it was under the old burr process, 
and also laying under tribute to its advantage elements of 
profit unknown to milling prior to the introduction of the 
rolls. 

Mr. Miller remained in charge of the Excelsior mill until it 
was destroyed in the explosion and fire of December 4, 1881. 
The Pillsbury B mill was destroyed at the same time, but 
was immediately rebuilt, and Mr. Miller had charge of the 
work of reconstruction. During the next three years he was 
a salesman of mill macliinery for the firm of Edward P. 
Allis &. Company of Milwaukee, and when he quit its service 
he went into the employ of the firm of Jones & Company of 
New York as head miller, liut the West and the Minneapolis 
milling industry needed liini and called him back into service 
here. In 1885 C. A. Pillsbury decided to equip and put in 
operation his I? mill, which had stood idle three years, and 
he asked Mr. Miller to again take the place of liead miller 
in it. 

In 1888 he was made manager of tlie Anchor mill also, 
and in 1889 the Pillsbury A mill, the largest in the world, 
was placed under his supervision. This rendered his position 
the most responsible held by any man in the whole milling 
industry, but he met all its requirements with great ability, 
readiness and fidelity. Still, the duties were very burden- 
some, exacting and wearing on liini. About 190!) he began 
to feel the pressure severely and asked to be relieved of the 
B and Anchor mills, but retained the management of the A 
mill until his death on Kebruary 28, 1910. 

While Mr. Miller established a high standard tor the work 
and fidelitv of his men, he demanded more of himself than 



of any of them. In emergencies or the presence of serious 
problems in his work the best that was in him cume into 
service. He threw his whole soul into his business, and never 
stopped in his pursuit of a purpose until he accomplished it, 
and spared himself neither day nor night in his efforts. In 
1891 the Northwestern Miller offered prizes to head millers 
who would receive the greatest number of votes. One was a 
trip to Europe, the first prize, which was won by Mr. Miller, 
who received over 100,000 votes. 22,60(5 more than any of 
his competitors, although some of them were men of the 
highest standing in their employment as to skill, knowledge, 
aptitude and general ability. 

On July 5th, 1901, Mr. Miller was married in the Cliurch 
of the Redeemer, Minneapolis, to Miss Lucy May Green, who 
had come to Minneapolis as a child and lived here with a sister. 
No children were born of the union. Since the death of her 
husband Mrs. Miller has built a handsome home overlooking 
the Lake of the Isles, at which she now resides. 



GOTTLIEB SCHOBEK. 



Gottlieb Schober, president of the Phoenix Mill company. 
Third avenue and Main street, southeast, has been prominently 
associated with the milling interests of Minneapolis since 
1865 when he established the Phoenix Mill company in 
partnersihip with Carl Stamwitz. This company has become 
one of the leading milling enterprises of the northwest, con- 
ducting a large wholesale business throughout the country. 
Gottliel) Schober was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, Nov. 
27, 1834, and came to St. Anthony Falls in 1855 after spend- 
ing several months in Philadelphia with his brother, .John 
Schober, who later removed to a farm in Hennepin county, 
Gottlieb Schober also taking a claim near Maple Grove. He 
was employed for a time in the Prescott mills in St. Anthony 
and then operated a small steam mill at Waconia. In 1861 
he removed to Sparta. Wisconsin, where he remained until 
1865 when he returned to Minneapolis, becoming a partner 
with Carl Stamnitz. Mr. Stamnitz is a native of Alsace, 
France, now Germany, and like his partner had become a 
miller before emigrating. They opened their first plant on 
the river bank near Barnard's Furniture factory, where a 
two run mill was erected by Noble & Walker. In 1870 under 
the name of Noble, Schober & Company they acquired a 
half interest in the People's mill and the following year 
bought Mr. Noble's interest. For a year they operated the 
two mills under one management and then sold their original 
plant which was destroyed by fire shortly afterwards. In 
1875 near this site, they erected a five run mill with capacity 
for a daily output of 150 barrels, the building being a part 
of the present plant. In March, 1876, this mill was opened 
under the old name of Phoenix mill and the People's mill 
was dismantled. The capacity was doubled through the in- 
stallation of the roller system in 188! and the estimated 
investment at this time of $100,000 compared with the original 
capital of $2,000 marks the rapid growth and success of the 
enterprise. The Phoenix Mill company was incorporated in 
1893 with a capital of $200,000. with (Jottlieb Schober as 
president, Carl G. Schober. vice president, Carl Stamwitz, 
treasurer and E. T. Schneider, secretary. .Soon after the 
|]lant was remodeled and equipped with new macliinery and 
in I.S99 the cciinpany further increased their facilities by the 



506 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



purchase of a mill at Herman, Minnesota, making a total 
daily production of 875 barrels, and employing a force of 
forty-five men. Mr. Stamwitz retired in 1899 after thirty- 
four years of partnership and the entire stock of the company 
became the property of Mr. Schober and his sons, with 
Gottlieb .Schober as president, Carl G. Schober, vice president, 
William F. Schober, second vice president and Ed E. Schober, 
secretary and treasurer. For several years Mr. Schober has 
resided in Sawtelle, California, and although he retains an 
active interest in the business, the details of its management 
have been successfully placed in the hands of his sons. 
Throughout the years of his long and active career. Mr. 
Schober has won esteem and merited popularity in the busi- 
ness and civic circles of the city, and for over fifty years he 
has been a prominent member of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows. He was married in Minneapolis in 1866 to 
Miss Mary Goehringer, sister of Christ Goehringer, a well 
known liquor dealer. They have five children, Carl 6., vice 
president of the Phoenix Jlill company; John E., secretary 
of the Standard Furniture company at Seattle, Washington; 
Mary, the widow of Dr. T. L. Laliberte; William F., second 
vice president of the Phoenix Mill company and local man- 
ager of the Herman Mill, where he resides, and where he is 
an active Elk and Mason, being Worshipful Master of the 
local lodge, and Ed. E., secretary and treasurer of the mill 
company and director of the Metropolitan National Bank. 
Ed. S. is a member of the New Athletic and Interlacken clubs 
as of the B. P. 0. E. Mr. Carl Schober received a thorough 
practical training in the trade of his father and has the 
superintendeney of the manufacturing branch of the business. 
He was married to Miss Jennie Gluek, a sister of Mr. Charles 
Gluek of Minneapolis, and has two children, .Jennie and 
Edmund. Mr. Schober is prominent in the social and fraternal 
organizations of the city and holds membership in the St. 
Anthony Commercial club, the Auto club, Teutonia Bowling 
club, the Turn Verein, is a member of the Elks and in the 
Masonic order is a Knight Templar and Shriner. 



LEWIS H. SELDEN. 



Lewis H. Selden, president of the Selden Roofing & Mfg. 
Co., was born in this city in 1863. and was educated in the 
public schools, including the high school. He at once entered 
the business of manufacturing fireproof roofing, windows and 
doors, and all kinds of sheet metal work. The Selden Roofing 
and Manufacturing company, of which he has been the presi- 
dent and treavjurer, since its organization, was incorporated 
in 1910. W. C. Clark is vice-president and E. T. Stensptt, 
secretary. The business was established in 1878 by Frank 
Grygla and Henry E. Selden. father of Lewis H., at 114 Third 
street north, the present location being at 76 Western avenue. 
Henry Selden, a native of New Haven, Connecticut, was form- 
erly a building contractor. He came to Minneapolis in I860 
and died here in 190.3. The business of this company is ex- 
tensive, operating about 75 employes, and all its products 
and work are approved and labeled by the National Board of 
Underwriters. The excellence of the work is proven by the 
many monuments to its skill and industry which are to be 
found in all parts of the business section of the city. It 
made and installed all the work in its line in the Syndicate, 
the Public Library, the Hartman Furniture, the State Uni- 



versity buildings, the Dayton Department Store, the new 
Central High School, New Union Station, New Art Mi^eum, 
New Gates Residence, tlie New State Prison at Stillwater, 
and many other important and imposing structures. Mr. 
Selden has not only given the business close and careful at- 
tention, but has also been a potential factor in the general life 
of the community and an intelligent, and energetic supporter 
of every worthy undertaking. He is no politician, and has 
no inclination to hold public office. He is widely known in 
business circles and in the city is recognized as an enterpris- 
ing and highly useful citizen. 

He is a prominent Mason and a member of the Athletic 
and Automobile clubs. 



HIRAM A. SCRIVER. 



Hiram A. Scriver, the president of tlie St. Anthony Falls 
Bank from its organization, was born in the province of 
Quebec, Canada, in 1860. He is a son of John A. and Kate 
(Rich) Scriver. The father founded the old First National 
Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, one of the famous fiscal in- 
stitutions of this part of the country, and died in that city. 
His ancestors came to this country from Germany and first 
located in the state of New York. Afterward some of them 
moved to Canada, and it was this branch that gave direct 
descent to John A., the father of Hiram. He brought his 
family to Minnesota in 1870, and located at Northfield, where 
he died. He also founded the Exchange Bank in that city, 
and had control of it for a number of years. 

His son Hiram began his career in banking in the Citizens' 
Bank of Northfield. In 1887 he bought the bank at Cannon 
Falls, this state, and managed it nearly seven years. In the 
summer of 1893 he moved to Minneapolis and aided in the 
organization of the St. Anthony Falls Bank. He is also 
president of the Citizens State Bank of Cannon P'alls and 
vice president of the Northfield National Bank. In politics 
he is a Republican, in church connection a Congregationalist, 
and in social relations a prominent member of the St. An- 
thony Commercial club. Mr. Scriver was married in 1887 to 
Miss Mary V. Tup])er, a native of Ohio. They have five 
children, Albert, Helen, Arthur, Eugene and Hiram T. Albert 
is employed in the St. Anthony Falls Bank and Arthur in 
the Northfield National. 



JONATHAN H. POND. 



The late Jonathan H. Pond was one of the pioneers of this 
city and for nearly half a century one of its leading business 
men and most influential citizen. Although he lived to the 
advanced age of ninety-three years, he retained his mental 
faculties and much of his physical power to the last, and 
throughout his long life conducted all his business and personal 
affairs according to the requirements of the strictest integrity 
and rectitude. In all his business transactions he exacted 
everything he was entitled to. but at the same time insisted 
on giving to others the last cent due from him to them accord- 
ing to the strictest accmmtability. 

Mr. Pond was boni in the town of Harwinton, Litchfield 
county, Connecticut, on December 1st, 1809, and died in 





^{niu*/tjt£<y^. au. j(TVL^O 



HISTORY OF MIXXEAI'OLIS AND IlENNKl'lX (Oi NTV. .MINNESOTA 



507 



Minneapolis in Oct. 16, 1902. He came to this city in tlie 
later lifties and passed the remainder of bis days here. And 
tliat his interest in the expansion, improvement, ^and general 
welfare of tlie coramunity remained with him to the last and 
wa.s potential when all other ordinary claims were ignored is 
proven by the fact that in 1900, when he was ninety years old, 
he had platted the Pond and I'ettibone Addition to Minneap- 
olis, which is now one of the choice residence sections of 
the city and fast filling up with imposing dwelling houses. 

In liis native state Mr. Pond obtained a common school 
education according to the standards in vogue in New England 
in his boyhood. In his young manhood he was united in 
marriage with Miss .lane A. Lyon, a daughter of Haivey 
Lyon, a prominent citizen of Auburn, X. Y., and soon after- 
ward became a farmer in Cayuga county. 

After farming for a number of years in the state of \ew 
York, and succeeding as he did in almost ever}' other venture 
he made in those years, he found his iiealth failing and 
d<termincd to seek a change of climate, and a new locality 
in which he could continue in business to advantage, but 
without the excessive physual strain to which he had long 
been subjected. The fine opportunities for investment and 
big business transactions and the healthful climate of this 
region, which were attracting general attention in the North- 
east, brought him hither between 1855 and 1800, and he 
goon found that the locality was all it had been pictured 
as a land of promise in trade and an invigorating one for 
the human frame. 

Mr. Pond arrived in Minneapolis with a considerable amoimt 
of capital for his day, and finding the people here greatly in 
need of money and olTering attractive rates of interest for 
its use, he began loaning as his regular business, and liy 
this means he added largely to his resources. He also became 
possessor of real estate from time to time and held it for 
the advances in value that seemed inevitable. His career 
was not, however, one of unbroken triumph. He lost heavily 
through the failure of some men and through the dishonesty 
of others. But he did not suder beyond his ability to stand 
the losses without inconvenience and all the while his property 
was growing in value. 

Within a few years after he came to Minneapolis Mr. Pond 
lost his wife by death, and for a number of years following 
that event he lived largely to himself, frugally and unosten- 
tatiously, and showing in his daily walk many of the salient 
characteristics of the typical New Englander. He was then 
vigorous and energetic, and devoted himself wholly to business 
pursuits and efforts to push forward the development and 
improvement of the city in which he had cast his lot. 

During this period he kept in close touch with Augustus 
Pettibone, his brother-in-law in Oswego, New Y'ork, and mani- 
fested a cordial and appreciative interest in Miss Florence 
Pettibone, a daughter of that gentleman. In 1893 she came 
to Minneapolis to give him companionship, care and comfort, 
and they then set up an establishment, and through his 
declining years he had all the enjoyments of a comfortable 
home. In addition to being the guiding spirit of his hovise- 
hold his niece became his aid, adviser, and staff in his business 
operations, and together they placed the Pond and Pettibone 
Addition to Minneapolis on the market in 1900. Miss Petti- 
bone now has her home at 1917 Stevens avenue. 

Miss Pettibone was Mr. Pond's principal beneficiary in the 
disposition of his extensive property. She is a careful busi- 
ness Woman, with no fondness for display or public notice. 



In fact, she has many of the traits of character and habits 
of life that distinguished her venerable uncle, and has proven 
herself to be altogether worthy of the confidence and affection 
he bestowed on her while he lived. Like him, she is earnest 
and practical in her devotion to the welfare of the community 
in which she lives, and is always ready to aid in the promotion 
of any Commendable undertaking to advance its interests. But 
she is wise as well as public-spirited, and is never caught by 
projects of doubtful value, or overborne by considerations of 
sentiment without substance beneath them. She is a lady 
of strong rommon sense and good judgment, and is universally 
esteemed for her genuine worth and usefulness. 



EUJENE .T. STILWELL. 



Eugene .1. Stilwell. ])resi(lent and treasurer of the Minne- 
apolis Paper eom])any and a prominent and progressive citizen, 
was born in Washington county, Wisconsin, .June 27. 1849, 
the son of Hiram and Elizabeth S. Stilwell. who were both 
natives of New Y'ork state. His parents were married in 
Milwaukee and settled in Washington county in 184r), where 
they made their home for six years and then removed to 
St. Paul. For a period of thirty years. Hiram Stilwell was 
activel}' identified with the business life of that city as a 
successful building contractor, erecting many of the principal 
structures, including the Merchants' Hotel. He died in St. 
Paul at the age of seventy-six. E. .7. Stilwell was reared in 
St. Paul and there attended the public schools, graduating 
from high school. He then completed a course of study in a 
commercial college and in 1871! became engaged in the paper 
business, entering the emploj' of Averill, Russell & Carpenter 
and has devoted his efficient services to this same firm and 
their successors during the forty years of his notably success- 
ful career. His first position was as traveling salesman and 
for thirteen years he assisted in building up the rapidly 
increasing patronage of the company. In 1886 he became a 
partner in the firm which was known at this time as Averill, 
Carpenter & Company. Two years later the Minneapolis 
Paper company was established as a branch hou.sc and in 
1893 Jlr. Stilwell assumed the personal management of the 
Minneapolis company. The firm was incorporated in the 
same year with a cajiital stock of .$50,000, which has since 
been increased to $150,000 with a surplus of .$75,000. Mr. 
Stilwell was chosen president and treasurer. Mr. (Jeorge H. 
Christian, vice president and Mr. W. E. Swartwood, secretary. 
The business comprises several departments, producing print- 
ers' stock, wrapping paper, building paper and stationery, the 
latter including the manufacture of tablets and mercantile 
ruling paper. The remarkable growth of the trade has more 
than exceeded the expectations of its promoters and necessi- 
tates the employment of about eighty workman, with a force 
of thirteen salesmen who cover a constantly expanding terri- 
tory throughout the northwest beside handling an inunen.se 
local trade. As a public spirited citizen. Mr. .Stilwell is 
extensively identified with all matters touching the welfare 
of Minneapolis and actively interested in politics and the 
Republican party. In recognition of his valuable political 
services he has been fre(|nently urged to accept public oflice 
but has continued to decline these honors. He is a member 
of the Civic and Commerce association and first vice president 
of the Commercial club and his hearty cooperation may 



508 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



always be relied upon, in any movement for the advancement 
and general prosperity of the city. As vice president of the 
state fair board, his influence is state wide in the promotion 
of the affairs of this body with notable results for Minnesota. 
In Masonry he has attained the ranks of Kniglit Templar and 
Shriner. and is a member of the Minneapolis, Lafayette and 
Automobile clubs. He was married to Miss Kittie M. Goewey 
of Chicago, in 1878. They have one daughter, Grace, who is 
the wife of Mr. L. R. Boswell, a department manager in the 
Minneapolis Paper company. Mr. Stilwell is an enthusiastic 
huntsman and finds great enjoyment and relaxatiton in the 
pursuit of his favorite sport and recreation in the native wilds 
of northern Minnesota. 



CHARLES H. SCOTT. 



Beginning his business career at an early age, and making 
every place ho filled a means of access to a better one, and 
patiently biding his time until he could be in his own, 
Charles H. Scott, vice-president and treasurer of the Strong- 
Scott Manufacturing company, has at the age of forty a record 
of well filled undertakings and creditable achievements. Mr. 
Scott was born at Gardner, .Johnson coimty, Kansas, on July 
17, 1873, his parents, James and Ellen died in Gardner. He 
completed his academic education at a high school in Kansas 
City, and in 1893 when he was but twenty years of age, was 
assistant superintendent of the Calumet street railway com- 
pany in Chicago, after so serving for a time becoming superin- 
tendent of the American Malting company of Chicago. In 1899, 
he came to this city being variously engaged until 1903 when 
he acquired an interest in the Strong-Northway company. Soon 
afterward he purchased Mr. Northway's interest and the busi- 
ness became the Strong-Scott Manufacturing company of 
which he has for some years been vice-president and treasurer 
with a potential voice in its management. He is also one of 
the directors of the Bruce-Edgerton Lumber company and pres- 
ident of the Sleepy Eye Dry Process company. He holds active 
and serviceable membership in the Interlachen and the Long 
Meadow Gun clubs, and has given helpful attention to the 
public affairs. On June 16th, 1909, he was married to Miss 
Blanche Edgerton of Minneapolis. They have three children. 



HANS SIMONSON. 



Hon. Hans Simonson, for many years actively identified 
with the manufacturing interests of Minneapolis as president 
of the Simonson Brothers Manufacturing Company, is a native 
of Norway, born February 23, 1844. He came to this country 
in 1865 and joined his brother, Peter, in Minneapolis. Peter 
Simonson had left his native land several years previously 
and was engaged in the trade of cabinet maker, and for a 
time Hans was employed as a house carpenter. 

In 1870 the brothers establi.shed themselves on Tenth and 
Washington streets as stair builders and are so designated in 
the City Directory of 1877. They were remarkably successful 
and their patronage grew rapidly, soon requiring a force of 
ten or twelve assistants. In 1883 they removed to the present 
location on South Seventh street. The brothers first organized 
their company in partnership with Mr. Julius Newgaard and 



Mr. Jacob Stoft, as Simonson Brothers, Newgaard & Company. 
The firm was incorporated in 1886 with a capital of $50,000, 
which was soon increased to $80,000. In 1907 the plant was 
struck by lightning and destroyed. The present buildings 
are substantial brick structures representing a floor space of 
50,000 square feet. The company engages principally in 
cabinet work, manufacturing sash, doors, and moldings, em- 
ploying 125 workmen and has an immense business extending 
throughout the Northwest to the Coast, beside supplying a 
large local demand. The two men whose efforts and efficiency 
have been rewarded by the marked prosperity and success of 
the company are no longer actively connected with its in- 
terests, although Hans Simonson, who has made his residence 
in Norway for the last eight years, and the heirs of Peter 
Simonson, whose death occurred in 1893, continue as stock- 
holders. 

In addition to his manufacturing interests, Hans Simonson 
was prominent in the affairs of the city and State. He is a 
Republican and for two terms represented his district in the 
State Legislature, where he faithfully discharged his duties. 
He was an organizer and is still a director of the South Side 
State Bank and a founder and vice president of the Minne- 
apolis Savings & Loan Association. He was president of the 
Simonson Brothers Manufacturing Company from the time 
of its incorporation until his departure for Norway, in 1905, 
when he left his business affairs in the management of Mr. 
Ole Bjerke. 

ilr. Bjerke became president of the company in 1907 and 
has competently filled the position since that time with 
Martin Simonson, a brother of Hans, as vice president and 
L. Monasch as secretary. 

Mr. Bjerke was born in Norway, July 6, 1860, came to 
America in 1886, and located in Minneapolis. He had known 
the Simonson brothers in the old country, and found employ- 
ment with them in their office as bookkeeper. He became a 
stockholder in the firm and was notably associated with the 
successful growth of the company. He was married in Minne- 
apolis to Miss Carrie Anderson, a native of Norway, and 
they have two children, Helen, a student in the high school, 
and Ruth. 



NELS ALBIN MATSON. 



Mr. Matson was a native of Sweden. Born September 30th, 
1865, and died at Minneapolis June 28, 1908. His parents 
Mattes J. and Anna (Pearson) Matson, were also natives of 
Sweden. Mr. Matson came to this country for the enjoyment 
and the advantages offered here by the unbounded opportunities 
for advancement available to ability, industry and thrift. 

He came to the United States in 1884, when he was just 
about nineteen years old, and took up his residence at 
Roseville, Illinois, where he worked on a farm for a few 
years. He had been fairly well educated and trained for 
usefulness in many ways in his native land, and with a 
self-reliant nature was ready for any call to duty when he 
moved to Minneapolis in 1888. His first engagement after 
coming to this city was as a nurseryman, but this only 
lasted a short time. He had a turn for mercantile life which 
induced him to become a salesman for Lillebridge Bremer, a 
wholesale confectioner, in whose employ he worked faithfully 
for a few months. 




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HISTORY OF MIWKAPOLIS AND IIENXEIMX COIXTY. .MIXXKSOTA 



509 



Mr. Matson'3 aim was high, however, and he was determined 
against being long diverted from it. His great desire was 
to have a business of his own, which he couhi conduct and 
build up for his own advantage, he gratified tliis Uiiuiable 
ambition by starting a bakery in 1893. He carried tliis on 
with increasing patronage and popularity in ordinary lines 
until 1903. In that year he made a radical departure from 
established lines by putting on the market a special brand 
of bread wliich he called the "Baby Label,"' and which con- 
tained the trade-mark of his business. 

Tlie Matson bakery was started at C<?ntral avenue and 
Twenty-fifth street northeast, which he bought of Mr. Eggens- 
bcrger, but in 1902, when he decided to put more life and 
progress into his business, he bought land, and moved his 
combined plants to a large brick building at Tenth street and 
Third avenue northeast. Here he built up a trade tliat 
required the employment of fifty to sixty ]ier,soiis, used eleven 
delivery wagons regularly and laid every section of the city 
under tribute to its revenues. He also incorporated his busi- 
ness under the name of N. A. Matson Baking Co. This 
company is still in active operation, its present officers being: 
D. Engstrum, president; Miss C. S. Larson, secretary, and 
Mrs. Xels A. Matson, treasurer. 

Mr. Matson was married in Minneapolis on September 29, 
1893, to Miss Tillie Eckberg of this city. Two children were 
born of their union, their sons Clarence W., who is now (1913) 
eigliteen years of age, and Irving F., who is twelve. Mr. 
Matson showed his interest in the fraternal life of his adopted 
city by active membership in the Masonic order and the 
Independent Order of Foresters. He was also a serviceable 
factor of its organized social activities as a valued member 
of the Odin club. In religious faith and allegiance he was a 
Christian .'Scientist. 

\\niilc the life of this capable and enternrising business 
man and excellent citizen in Jlinneapolis was not an extended 
one. it was a very useful one. He took an earnest interest 
and an active part in all projects for the improvement and 
expansion of the city, used his influence and his suffrage in 
eilorts to secure the best possible government for the commu- 
nity and was liberal in his contributions of time, energy and 
material assistance to the work of all good agencies organzied 
and laboring for the welfare of tlie people in all lines of 
advancement, moral, intellectual, social and material. The 
people of the city knew his worth and esteemed him highly, 
and his intimate associates felt his influence for good, his 
stimulus to exertion and the improving force of his example. 
He served his day and generation well, and his memory 
remains in the community an abiding well-spring of benefac- 
tion to its residents. 



liny. EDWARD E. .'^MITII. 



Wlio became Lieut. Governor Septcmbei' UM, 1909, upon ac- 
cession of Lieut. Governor Eberhart to the governorships, at 
the death of Governor Johnson, and one of the leading mem- 
bers of the Minneapolis Bar. was born May 5. 1861, at 
Spring Valley. Minn., liis parents being Dryden and Elizabeth 
Anne (Hines) Smith. His early educational advantages were 
confined to the public schools. He began the study of tlic 
law at Charles City, Iowa; an<I upon his admission. located at 
Minneajiolis. 



His practice has assumed large proportions, and his standing 
at the Bar is second to few. He early became interested in 
political work, and, in 1894, was elected to the legislature, 
being re-elected two years later. In 1898 he was sent to the 
Senate and was twice re-elected, so, that his services in the 
legislature covered a period of si.\teen years. He was In- 
strumental in establishing the Minnesota Tax Commission; 
being, during the greater part of his service as legislator, 
Chairman of the Committee on Taxes and Tax-Laws. 

In the session of 1907, he was President pro tern of the 
Senate, thus becoming Lient. Governor when the vacancy 
oc^curred. He has long been recognized as a party leader, 
ever standing for regularity; the overwhelming success of the 
party in this state in 1912, when the Republicans in many 
states met defeat, owning to entanglements in a many skeined 
National contest, was largely accredited to his enthusiasm and 
giiieialship as chairman of the state Central Committee. Yet 
through all the strenuous maneuvers of a political campaign, 
he is to outward appearances the most retiring, modest un- 
assuming man in the party; and this quality, linked with 
great personal magnetism, is credited with advancing him ia 
leadership. He is a member of the Minneapolis, the Lafayette, 
Interlachcn and the Athletic clubs, and of the Civic Commerce 
Association. He is identified with all the local Masonic bodies. 

Married in 1884 to Esther E. Leonard, at Charles City, Iowa. 
The daughter is Mrs. Harriet Leonard Waters and the son 
Rollin L. Smith, Minneapolis. 



FRED RICHARDSON SALISBURY. 

Fred R. Salisbury, the pioneer manufacturer of mattresses, 
bed springs and iron and brass bedsteads in Jlinneapolis, is 
entitled to distinction. He was the first man to engage in 
the making of these articles of universal use and necessity 
in this city, and he has expanded his operations and trade in 
the industry to very large proportions. He has also taken 
an active and very serviceable part in the general life of the 
city in many ways, and has filled many positions of im- 
portance in connection with its business and social organiza- 
tions and activities. 

Mr. Salisbury is a native of Madison county. New York, 
where his life began on January 18, 1861, and a son of 
Thomas G. and Marian (Richardson) .Salisbury, who were of 
the same nativity as himself. The father was a manufac- 
turer. He died October 29, 1898. The mother is still living 
at Minneapolis, and the son was therefore in touch with 
industrial life from his boyhood. His grandfather, Daniel 
Salisbury, during his life was engaged in farming. 

Fred R. Salisbury obtained his scholastic training and his 
preparation for business at Cedar Falls, Iowa, where he 
passeil through the elementary grades and was graduated 
from the high school. He then pursued a course of special 
training for business in a commercial college. This he com- 
pleted before he was seventeen, and after doing so immediately 
began his business career, coming to Minneapolis in 1877 for 
the purpose. As soon as he arrived in this city he began 
preparations for starting his present business, and soon had 
it under way and moving forward toward high prosperity. 
There was no manufactory of mattresses and his other prod- 
ucts in the city then, and he had the field to himself. His 
superior business acumen and enterprise enabled him to take 



510 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



full advantage of the situation and found his business on a 
film foundation which no upheaval in trade circles in the 
community has ever since been sufficient to shake. 

For some years Mr. Salisbury was associated in the business 
with W. P. Washburn and W. T. Kolph. Then the Salisbury 
& Satterlee company was formed, and in 1904 the business 
was incorporated under this name. Mr. Salisbury is the 
president of the company, and William E. Satterlee, a sketch 
of whom will be found in this- work, is the vice president. 
The business carried on by the company is the most extensive 
of its kind in the Northwest, and has other sections of the 
country also under tribute to its trade. The factory is one 
of the leading industrial enterprises on the Eastern side of 
the river, and is nowhere surpassed in the excellence of its 
output, every article it places on the market being of the 
best quality in material and first class in workmanship and 
style according to its class. 

For many years Mr. Salisbury has been a very busy man, 
but he has never neglected the duties of citizenship or turned 
away from any call to duty in connection with the industrial 
and mercantile interests of the city of his home. He has 
served as treasurer of the Firemen's Relief Fund, the Minneap- 
olis Credit Men's Association, the Twin City Merchants' As- 
sociation, the Minneapolis Furniture Manufacturers' Associa- 
tion and the Minneapolis Commercial Club. He is at this time 
(1914) president of the National Association of Credit Men. 
He has also taken a cordial and serviceable interest in the 
civic afl'airs of the city, although he has never held a political 
office or desired one, his interest in public affairs being only 
that of a good citizen earnestly desirous of tlio best govern- 
ment attainable. 

The social life of the community around him has engaged 
Mr. Salisbury's attention and energies to a very large extent. 
He is a member of the Minneapolis, Minneapolis Athletic, St. 
Anthony, Rotary, Minikahda, Interlaelien, Lafayette and Min- 
netonka Yacht clubs, and is zealous in his devotion to the 
welfare, good government and widest usefulness of them all. 
In fraternal life he is a Freemason of the highest degree, 
having ascended the mystic ladder of the fraternity througli 
the Knights Templar degree in the York Rite and into the 
thirty-second degree in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish 
Rite. In Masonic relations he is also a Noble of the Mystic 
Shrine, holding his membership in this branch of the order in 
Zurah Temple in Minneapolis. His political affiliation is with 
the Democratic party and his religious connection with the 
First Methodist Episcopal church. 

On August l.'J, 1885, Mr. Salisbury was married in Minne- 
apolis to Miss Nellie F. Barrows, a daughter of Frederick C. 
and Sarah J. (Swain) Barrows. Four children have been born 
of the union, all of whom are living. They are Maurice, 
Willis, Kenneth and Emmet. All the members of the family 
are held in the highest esteem in all parts of the city, and 
are representative in an admirable degree of its most elevated 
and useful citizenship, the uprightness of their lives being 
creditable alike to it and to themselves. 



Sawyer county, Wisconsin, where he worked in a lumber mill 
one year. He then went to Blair, Nebraska, and there he 
attended Trinity Seminary one winter. Returning to Hay- 
ward, he resumed his labor in the sawmill. The next winter, 
working for his board, he attended school in Hayward, and 
later clerked in a. grocery store. 

In 1889 he came to Minneapolis, and, after pursuing a 
course in the Curtiss Business College, became bookkeeper for 
the Flour City Transfer company. For eight years he held 
a similar position for the Pioneer Fuel company, his next 
engagement being with the Bovey DeLaittre Lumber com- 
pany, where for three years he had charge of the fuel de- 
partment. He then started the Skellet Fuel company, it later, 
becoming the EUiott-Skellet Fuel company. In five years it 
had grown to handsome proportions, and, selling, bought the 
O. G. Peterson Transfer business, forming The Skellet Trans- 
fer and Storage company. He has since had active personal 
control of this business showing such enterprise and energy 
as have made it one of the leading transfer and storage 
institutions of the city. Without neglect of business he has 
given an active and helpful part in public affairs under the 
impelling force of intelligent, cordial and discerning interest 
in the public welfare. His political allegiance has always 
been given to the Democratic party, in which he is an im- 
portant factor. He was candidate for register of deeds in 
1904, and in 1911 a member of the Board of Corrections and 
Charities. He is Chairman of Salvation Army Industrial 
Home on Nicollet Island, where social derelicts are given a 
chance to regain lost self-respect and once more hold up 
their heads among men. 

He is a member of the Civic and Commerce Association and 
the Athletic club and ex-president of the Odin and of tlie 
North Side Commercial clubs. He is a zealous Mason and 
Elk. Living a quiet, unostentatious life, his genuine merit 
as a man and 'citizen and his fine business capacity have w-on 
the universal esteem and a host of warm and appreciative 
friends. In 1895, he was married to Miss Molly Thone. They 
have four children, Oliver and Thomas, Evangelyn and 
Rosslvn. 



THOMAS J. SKELLET. 



Thomas J. Skellet was born in Denmark in 1870, and was 
reared on a farm. 

When he was seventeen years old he came to Havward, 



KIMBALL SCRIBNER MORGAN, D. D. S. 

When Dr. Kimball S. Morgan paid the last debt of nature, 
December 20, 1912, the oldest dental surgeon in years in 
Minneapolis passed away after many years of continuous 
and active practice in the city. 

Dr. Morgan was born at North Armett, near Portland, 
Maine, in 1849. He entered mercantile life as a commercial 
salesman, continuing in this employment for a number of 
years. His business duties brought him to the Northwest and 
becoming enamored of Minneapolis determined to make it 
his home. He luid previously, however, acquired a technical 
and practical knowledge of dentistry, and at once began 
practicing his profession. 

He adhered steadfastly to his profession, won high reputa- 
tion as a skilled dentist, and accumulated a competency. He 
was active, energetic, and enterprising and gave careful atten- 
tion to his pursuit to the last. When he came to Minneapolis 
he brought with him his mother, who was his housekeeper 
until her death August 7, 1894, at the advanced age of eighty- 
two. They lived in a handsome new residence wliich the 




^.C^c/: h4<r^. 



<a^. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



511 



doctor had built on Kicliard avenue, but the Doctor's hitter 
years were passed at his late home, 1511 3d Avenue South. 

The doctor was deeply interested in boj's and young men. 
Several dentists now prominent in the profession owe their 
start to his kindly advice and encouragement. He would 
see alertness and aptitude possibly in a new immigrant who 
might be doing chores, would give him a cot in his ollice, 
arrange for his board, and show him how to do for himself. 
His interest in his proteges was lasting; in a few instances 
he left legacies to their children. 

Doctor Morgan possesed a valuable estate, and in its dis- 
position acted with jvidgment and discrimination. He remem- 
bered a Methodist church in his boyhood home to which he 
was attached, provided for a niece and an intimate personal 
friend, and left the bulk of his property, including the home in 
which they lived, to his widow. This lady, for four years 
before the death of the Doctor's mother, had assisted her in 
her household duties, which her advanced age made burden- 
some. And after the mother's death the Doctor made the 
former assistant his wife. Her maiden name was Emma J. 
Westeburg, and she was born and reared in Sweden. When 
the Doctor died she accompanied his remains to his old home 
in Maine and saw them laid to rest in Walnut Hill Cemetery, 
at Xortli Armett. 

The Doctor adhered to the Republican party from its 
organization, but he was always broad and progressive, and in 
the last Presidential election cast his vote for Woodrow Wilson. 
He was never an office seeker himself. 



WIU.IAM EUGEX1-: SATTEKLEE. 

Mr. Satterlee was born at \'iroqua, Vernon county, Wis- 
consin, on April 2, 1861, a son of Rev. William W. and Sarah 
(Stout) Satterlee. The father was an itinerant Methodist 
minister, and at the time of his son William's birth, was 
stationed at Viroqua. Two years later the family moved to 
Elysian, Lesueur county, in this state, then, at the end of 
the father's pastorate there, to Waseca, in the county of the 
same name, and in 1869 to St. Cloud, in Stearns county. 
The next move was to Minneapolis, and was made in 1871. 
Owing to these conditions, the education of the son was 
necessarily interrupted and somewhat irregular. But he at- 
tended the public schools in the various places of the family's 
residence, and finally completed the course in one of the 
Minneapolis high schools. 

After leaving school Mr. Satterlee at once entered the 
employ of Salisbury, Rolph & Company, beginning his service 
for them in 1880. He was attentive to his duties and studious 
of the business, soon becoming master of all the knowledge 
available concerning it in all its departments. In 1887 he 
was taken in as a member of the firm, and several years later, 
in association with Fred R. Salisbury, he formed the Salisbury 
& Satterlee company for the purpose of carrying on the same 
b\isincss. This company has since been incorporated, and its 
present officers are: Fred R. Salisbury, president: William 
E. Satterlee, vice president, and H. W. Yerxa, secretary. 
The company carries on a general industry in the manufacture 
of mattresses, bed springs, pillows and other articles of bed- 
ding in its line, and iron and brass bedsteads. It sells its 
products at wholesale, and now has a trade that covers the 
whole Northwest and has many patrons in other parts of the 



country. Its output is first class in material and workman- 
ship, and always up to date in style and make-up. 

The business has been active and exacting, but it has not 
absorbed all of Mr. Satterlee's time and energy. He has 
used the surplus in promoting other business enterprises, 
aiding in the direction of civic alfairs and heightening the 
enjoyment furnished by the leading social organizations of 
his community. He was one of the promoters and organizers 
of the East Side State Bank, and is now one of its directors. 
He was also a member of the city council of Minneapolis and 
chairman of its ways and means committee from 1904 to 
1908. He has always been a Republican in political aflilia- 
tion, and has long had a strong influence in the councils of 
his party. He has also been active and very serviceable in 
his membership in the Minneapolis club, the Minneapolis 
Commercial club, the Minneapolis Whist and the St. Anthony 
Commercial club. In October, 1907, he was elected president 
of the organization last named. Fraternally he is united 
with the Masonic order. Elks, and the Modern Woodmen of 
America. 

On Aug. 30, 1883, Mr. Satterlee was joined in wedlock with 
Jliss Lillian M. Barton of Minneapolis, whose father, Reuben 
!•". Barton, was a Minneapolis pioneer of 1857. Three children 
have brightened the Satterlee household, and all of them are 
living. They are: Gertrude, who is now the wife of Howard 
W. Yerxa; Roland E., who is associated with his father in 
business; and Dorothy, who is now the wife of F. O. Fisher. 

During the father's residence in this city he was pastor of 
the First Methodist Episcopal church. The last five years of 
his life were passed at Athens, Tennessee, where he was in- 
structor in the Grant Memorial University in that city. But 
he returned to Minneapolis to surrender his trust to the 
great Disposer of events, and died here in 1893. 



JOHN" HEBARD SESSIONS. 



.Tohn H. Sessions was born in Randolph, Orange county, 
VernKmt. November 6. 1848, the son of Milan H. and Caroline 
C. (Chandler) Sessions. The father was a lawyer there, re- 
moving in the fifties to Waupaca. Wisconsin, where he con- 
tinued practice until 1880, when he came to Minneapolis. He 
died in 1895, leaving an enviable reputation as an able coun- 
sellor, a cultured gentleman and a respected citizen. 

His father, ,lohn .Sessions, was born in Massachusetts, 
settling in Vermont late in life. In early manhood he was a 
whaler and became a stock drover and farmer. The ancestry 
of the family runs back to the Pilgrim Fathers, and repre- 
sentatives have been |)rominent in every line of endeavor in 
the history of New England. 

John H. attended the common schools of his native town 
and graduated from the Randolph Academy at age of 20. 
In 1868 he went to work for the Milwaukee & La Crosse, now 
the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad in its ofTiccs at 
Sparta, Wisconsin. He came to Minneapolis two years later 
as a clerk in the local station. In 1872 he became agent for 
the Atchison & Nebraska Railroad at Lincoln. Nebraska, and 
later at Atchison. Kansas. Returning to Lincoln for a year, 
he then entered the employment of the Indiana. Blooraington 
& Western Railroad as its agent in Indianapolis, two years 
later becoming general agent at Columbus, Ohio. At the end 
of eight years he was transferred to Peoria, Illinois, as as- 



512 



HISTOKY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



sistant general freight agent. One year afterward he became 
general freight and passenger agent for the Terre Haute & 
Peoria Railroad at Decatur. 111., later being made assistant 
general freight agent at Peoria, of the Peoria & Eastern 
Railroad, which position he held until 1S93. In November of 
that year he was made Northwestern sales agent for the 
Philadelphia & Reading Coal and Iron company, and has built 
up for this company a vastly increased trade, and has also 
won general confidence and esteem. He has charge of docks 
at Milwaukee and Superior and all sales of about 800,000 
tons through the Northwest from Lincoln, Nebraska, to 
Winnipeg, with 150 employes. He is a member of the Auto 
and Lake Harriet Commercial clubs and a Freemason as a 
member in Zion Commandery, Knights Templar, and Zurah 
Temple, of the Mystic Shrine. In religious affiliation he is 
an Episcopalian. 

At Lincoln, Neb., December 30, 1877. Mr. Se-issions was 
united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth T. Wilson. They have 
two childien, Mary, wife of Harry Wilkins, and Dr. J. C. 
Sessions, both residents of Minneapolis. The home is at 4044 
Lake Harriet boulevard, and it is widely popular as a center 
of neighborhood hospitality. 



and this quality of generosity has made them contributors to 
all demands of church and charity. 



AUGUST SCHWERBFEGICR. 



Among the German born citizens of Minneapolis, there 
is no more noteworthy specimen than August Schwerdfeger, 
who for thirty years has been a resident of the 'city, and 
who illustrates what can be accomplished by young men of 
stamina and pos'sessing proper views of life. 

Mr. Schwerdfeger was born in Siefershausen, Hanover. Octo- 
ber 3, 1864. He came to America in F'ebruary, 1881. He 
spent two years at Muscatine, Iowa, learning the butcher's 
trade. In 1882 he was attracted to Minneapolis, as a place 
for energetic young men and women, and. coming here, fin- 
ished his trade. For five yeai-s he followed his occupation with 
Louis Luetger, and three with Anton Schumacher. .January 
1, 1891, Mr. Schwerdfeger engaged in partner.ship with .John 
Scliniidler, a fellow employe in Schumacher's market, and 
bought out their employer. They had about $2,400 between 
them as capital. After five years, Mr. Schwerdfeger sold his 
interest to his partner and opened a new place of business 
for himself at 3.i8 Monroe street northeast. 

Mr. Schwerdfeger made important improvements there by 
building the corner block in which he established his business 
and where he continued for fourteen years. After about five 
or six years his brother joined him and finally in 1910 he 
sold to his nephews, who have since continued the business. 

Having acquired a competence. Mr. Schwerdfeger invested 
further in real estate and became a factor in property de- 
velopment in his locality. He has long taken an interest in 
social and fraternal institutions, as is indicated by his mem- 
bership in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the 
Sons of Hermann, and the Turners. 

Mr. Schwerdfeger was married in 1887 to Miss Meta Stef- 
fens, also a native of Germany. They have no children. 
Their home is noted for hospitality, and they have given a 
home for years to from one to three or four children or old 
people. This is but one of the many reasons why the .Schwcrd- 
fegers are highly esteen\ed by people, of a dozen nationalities. 



CHARLES HENRY ROSS. 



Having entered the banking business at the age of twenty, 
after some previous experience in mercantile pursuits, and 
having followed that line of endeavor continuously throughout 
the subsequent forty-three years of his life, the late Charles 
H. Ross of Minneapolis acliieved a great success in it and 
became one of its leadere in the Northwest. He began his 
career on a small scale, but husbanded his resources, embraced 
all his opportunities with vigor, made the most of every aid 
to progress, and always found ways and means to enlarge 
his operations and expand his business until he owned or had 
large interests in some twenty-four or twenty-five banks in 
Minnesota and North Dakota. 

Mr. Ross was bom at Great Falls, Massachusetts, in 1848, 
and died in Minneapolis on June 16, 1911, at the age of sixty- 
three years. When he was but two years old he was brought 
to Columbia county, Wisconsin, by his parents, who located 
on a farm near the city of Columbus there. In addition to 
working his farm the father kept a country store, and so the 
son became familiar with the ins and outs of merchandising 
at an early period in his life. He remained on tlie farm 
until he reached the age of seventeen, attended local schools, 
and preparing himself as well as he could under the circum- 
stances for a university education. 

At the age mentioned he matriculated at St. Lawrence 
University in Appleton, Wisconsin, but left the institution in 
the middle of his course to begin his business career. This 
he did as cashier of a bank belonging to his uncle, C. H. 
Chadbourn, which was located at Blue Earth, Minnesota, and 
which is still operating and in a flourishing condition. He 
was only twenty when he assumed this serious responsibility, 
but he met its requirements in a satisfactory manner, and 
before long was transferred to another bank belonging to this 
same uncle and R. W. Chadbourn. This bank was at Roches- 
ter, Minnesota, where C. H. Chadbourn then lived, R. W. 
Chadbourn being at the time a resident of Columbus, Wis- 
consin. The former died some years later in Minneapolis. 
When the change was made William Ross, a brother of 
Charles H., who was then twenty also, was made cashier of 
the Blue Earth bank, and he is still ably filling that position. 

Mr. Ross passed three years in the Rochester bank, and at 
the end of that period was placed in charge of the Brown 
County Bank at New Ulm, which also belonged to his imcles. 
He was connected with this bank as an official eighteen 
years, and during the greater part of the time had an interest 
in it. In 1892 he sold his interests at Rochester and moved 
to Minneapolis, in the meantime having become a stockholder 
in some St. Paul banks and in the Flour City Bank in this 
city. Of the one last named he was made cashier on his 
an'ival in the city, but. while he gave its affairs all the atten- 
tion they required, he also began operations on his own 
account in a way destined to reach very large results. 

In company with C. H. Davidson. Jr.. he acquired control 
of a chain of fifteen banks in North Dakota, but had the 
main office of his enterprises in Minneapolis, in the Phoenix 
building for a tinu' and afterward in the Security Bank build- 
ing. He concentrated his energies on the work of his Dakota 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



51.-} 



banks, and kept on starting new ones until he was connected 
in a leading way with twenty-four or twenty-five, as has been 
stated. lie was also very eaniestly interested in the growth 
of the towns in which his banks were located in that state, 
and passed a great deal of his time in them, aiding in push- 
ing their advancement wliile keeping close watch over his 
banks and other interests. He was always very systematic 
and exact in his business and demanded the same system and 
exactness of his employes. 

In justice to Mr. Ross' father it should be stated that he 
was an excellent disciplinarian and developed the business 
trend in his son to the acuteness and vigor he displayed in it. 
The father also taught him the vital force and great value of 
system and accuracy in business, the good results of starting 
young men early on careers of self-reliance and usefulness, 
the strength of independence and the elevation, refinement 
and delicacy of unvarying courtesy to and consideration for 
■women. 

Mr. Ross was always a staunch adlierent of the Republican 
party, but never a politician. He belonged to the Protective 
League, which was organized to aid in keeping Minneapolis 
clean, and the Humane Society, which was a source of assist- 
ance and protection to the helpless or suffering. He had 
great pride and faith in Minneapolis, and wished to see and 
help to make it a model municipality. For some years ho 
was a member of the Commercial club, but had siuh an 
aversion to intoxicating liquors that he withdrew when 
the Sale of them began in it. But he never tired of his 
membership in the Lafayette and Minikahda clubs, where he 
had fine opportunities for enjoying his favorite recreation, 
the game of golf. He indulged in no other sports except 
that he ahvays ke])t a good horse and was fond of automo- 
biling, from both of which he received exhilaration. 

Mr. Ross was at all times and in the most practical ways 
interested in the park system of his home city, the spread 
of public education among its residents, the activities of its 
moral agencies, the progress of civic improvements, aiul all 
other means of bettering it in any way, and he was liberal 
in his support of all undertakings for its benefit. He main- 
tained a very attractive and hospitable home at 2000 Ken- 
wood Boulevard, which was kept up for his friends as much 
as for himself and his family. 

The head of the house traveled extensively and made 
studious observations of wln\t he saw in foreign lands. Ho 
became an expert in estimating the quality and value of 
Turkish, Persian, Syrian and Armenian rugs and similar 
products of Oriental skill, and he gratified his taste in this 
direction by making numerous purchases of the best of such 
products. He was also a connoisseur in diamonds and other 
gems, in the ownership of which he also indulged to some 
«xtent, but not extravagantly. 

Mr. Ross was married in 1877 on Aug. 16th at Prairie du 
Chien, Wisconsin, to Mrs. Mary E. (Eldred) Pierce, a native 
of Cochecton, New York. Mrs. Ross was reared and edu- 
cated at Binghampton, N. Y. She had one daughter by 
her former marriage and an adopted son of his brother's, 
Frank A. The daughter, Winona E. Pierce, is now the wife 
of Frank L. Randall. For thirteen years he was superin- 
tendent of the Minnesota State Reformatory at St. Cloud, 
and now holds a similar position in Massachusetts, being 
chairman of the Prison Board of Commissioners of Massachu- 
setts. The son, Charles Frederick Ro.ss, is a member of the 
firm of Davidson <fc Ross, bankers in Minneapolis. He married a 



daughter of .Judge F. V. Brown, formerly of this city but 
now living in .Seattle. Mrs. Ross is a member of Lowry Uill 
Congregational church, in v. hich she was formerly a Sunday 
school teacher, and also belongs to the Clio Literary Club. 
She takes an active interest in everything pertaining to the 
city's welfare. 



OWEX T. SWETT. 



Owen Thones Swett was born at Limerick, York county, 
Jlaine, on the 27th of September, 1831, and died in Minne- 
apolis Feb. 10, 190S. He was a scion of a family that was 
founded in Xew England in the colonial era of our national 
history. His father, Samuel Swett, likewise was a native of 
Limerick, Maine, and the family name has been long and 
worthily identified with the history of the old Pine Tree 
state. The common schools of his native town afforded Mr. 
Swett his early educational di.scipline, which was supple-' 
mented by a course in a local academy. As a j'outh he was 
employed for a time as clerk in a grocery store at Cambridge, 
Massachiisetts, and in this connection he gained experience 
that was of great value to him in his subsequent independent 
business operations in Minnesota. 

In 1S5S, when about twenty-seven years of age, Mr. Swett 
came to Minnesota and established his residence in the village 
of St. Anthony, from whieli has been developed the city of 
Minneapolis, lie obtained employment in the meat market 
conducted by Moses Hayes, and later he became associated 
with Erastus Hayes in opening a retail grocery store on Main 
street, which was then the principal business center of the 
town. The building had previously' been occupied by Charles 
Andrews, whose stock of goods was destroyed by fire. Charles 
Straw was later admitted to the firm, the title of which then 
became Swett, Straw & Hayes. This alliance continued sev- 
eral years and in the meanwhile the establishment became 
one of the leading groceries of the town. After the retire- 
ment of Mr. Straw the enterprise was continued bj- the firm 
of Swett & Hayes until Sir. Swett purchased the interest of 
liis partner. After continuing the business for several years 
in the original location Mr. Swett removed to the Masonic 
building, and later he occupied quarters in a building that 
stood on the site of the present Minneapolis postollice. Nearly 
a score of years ago he removed his business to .T2.') and 327 
Central avenue, where the enterprise is continued by his son. 
From dealing in groceries Mr. Swett finally turned his atten- 
tion to the dry goods business, and with this line of retail 
enterprise he continued to be identified about a quarter of a 
century, and up to the time of his retirement from active 
affairs. He finally admitted to partnership his only son, 
Arthur H.. who continues the business, as already noted, and 
the firm inimc under these conditions was 0. T. Swett & Son. 
Thus for more than fifty years Mr. Swett was one of the 
leading retail merchants of Minneapolis. 

As a citizen Mr. Swett was loyal and liberal and he was 
ever ready to lend his influence and co-operation in move- 
ments for the general good of the conunnnify. He was n 
Republican in politics but never had aught of desire for public 
office. He was n popular and valued member of representative 
clubs and other local organizations of a social nature, and in 
a number of these he was continuously retained in the oflice 
of treasurer, as he not only had marked ability in the manage- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



514 

ment of financial affairs but also held the implicit confidence 
of his fellow men, so that he was not permitted to retire 
from duty as treasurer of the various organizations with 
which he was identified. Though not formally a member of 
the First Congregational church, he regularly attended its 
services, was liberal in its support and long served as treas- 
urer and trustee of the church. He was for many years 
affiliated with Cataract Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, 
and he was known and honored as one of the sterling men 
and representative citizens of the Minnesota metropolis. 

In the year 1859 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Swett 
to Miss Sarah Hayes, who likewise was born and reared at 
Limerick, Maine, and who is a sister of Moses and Erastus 
Hayes, prominent business men of Minneapolis in the early 
days. Further data concerning the family may be found in 
the sketch dedicated to Moses Hayes, on other pages of this 
volume. Mrs. Swett still resides in her attractive old home 
at 703 Fourth street. Southeast, which has been her place of 
abode for more than half a century. Mr. and Mrs. Swett 
became the parents of two children— Ella is the wife of 
George T. Huey, of Minneapolis, and their home adjoins that 
of Mrs. Swett; Arthur H. Swett, who is proprietor of the 
business founded by his father, married Miss Helen J. Porter, 
of Iowa. 



Clarence Molter, and their daughter Ella, a graduate of Carleton 
College, is a teaclier and is associated with Miss Rachel H. 
Holdridge in the management of tlie Excelsior circulating 
library, which these ladies started of their own initiative and 
have since kept up by their united efforts. They live together 
at tlie old Holdridge home on Lake Minnetonka about a mile 
from Excelsior. 

Carrie Stratton was a teacher in Minneapolis, at Anoka, 
and at other places in this state for a long time, and is 
now living at the Home for children and aged women at 3200 
Stevens avenue, Minneapolis. 

Charles Stratton, the youngest and a printer by trade, 
now resides at Victoria, B. C. 



LEVI WOODBURY STRATTON. 

Having been one of the early merchants of St. Anthony, and 
proprietor of its first book store, which was on Main street, 
Levi W. Stratton helped to give form and direction to the 
infant mercantile activities, and also to build up and develop 
the community in many lines of progress. He was born at 
Bradford, New Hampshire, April 25, 1816, and died at 
Excelsior, Lake Minnetonka, August U, 1881. In his young 
manhood he moved to Illinois and located at Alton, where, in 
June, 1842, he was united in marriage with Miss Perneicy 
Pelham, a member of an English family living at Alton. 

Mr. Stratton had come to Minnesota in company with Frank- 
lin Steele and Calvin Tuttle in 1838; and had helped to build 
a mill at Marine, near Taylor's Falls, on the St. Croix river. 
Some time afterward he went on down the Mississippi to 
Illinois, but in the summer of 1852 returned to St. Anthony, 
arriving on .June 8. on the famous old steamer War Eagle. 
He then opened tlie book store above mentioned which he 
conducted for several years. Later he became a traveling 
salesman, and about 1872 took up his residence at Excelsior. 
His wife died November 12, 1888, her life closing also at the 
Excelsior home. 

Mr. Stratton was a staunch Republican and mingled actively 
and serviceably in public affairs. His wife was of a domestic 
turn and was devoted to her home. They were the parents of 
seven children. Lucy is the wife of Charles Beal, of near 
Los Angeles, California. Emma married William Wheeler, 
and died in Portland, Oregon, in 1910. John died in 1892. He 
was a natural mechanic and sedulous in his devotion to the 
printing trade. For years he was employed on the St. Paul 
Pioneer Press, having previously worked on the Burlington 
Hawkeye while Bob Burdctte was its editor. Ella has been 
a teacher at Excelsior for thirty j'ears, and long a noted and 
highly appreciated worker in the Congregational church; and, 
still occupies the old family homestead. Jeannette married 



PAUL W. SMITH. 



The i)resent head of the credit department of the Pillsbury 
Flour Mills company is one of the best known of Minne- 
apolis' younger business men. 

Mr. Smith was born in Charlotti'. Michigan, August 25, 
1876. His father, T. J. Smith, came to Minneapolis in 1878, 
and for twenty-five years was in the employ of the United 
States government, in the postoffice. He died in January, 
1911. His mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Munger 
was born in Auburn, New York, and died February 25, 1914. 
A resident of Minneapolis since he was two years old, and 
a business man who has worked his way up to a responsible 
position from the humble beginning of messenger, Paul W. 
Smith is now one of the most trusted employes of the great 
Pillsbury Flour Mills Company. He is head of one of the most 
important divisions of the business of that institution — the 
credit department. Mr. Smith went to that corporation on 
August 24. 1895, when it was known as the Pillsbury Wash- 
burn Milling Company. He was first employed as messenger, 
and rose from that position through the various activities of 
the flour milling trade, selling flour "on the road" and later 
having charge of collections in various districts. From this 
he was given charge of the credit department, being responsible 
for the credits in the company's twenty branches in the Central 
and Eastern states. His is a responsible and exacting posi- 
tion to which he devotes his energies without stint. 

In 1896 Mr. Smith married Sarah Davison, a daughter of 
C. Wright Davison, long known as a directory pubhsher. 
They have two sons. Charles Willis and John Morgan, and one 
daughter, Harriet Elizabeth. 



ALBERT R. RUHNKE. 



Albert R. Ruhnke. president of the Metropolitan Milk com- 
pany, of Minneapolis, and of tlie Minnesota Milk Company of 
St. Paul, was born in Krojanke, West Prussia, Germany, on 
April 25, 1851, and is the son of Michael Ruhnke, a pros- 
perous miller. Leaving school, Albert Ruhnke did oflice work 
in his father's mill until he came to the United States in 
1871, and for two years worked in Detroit, and Wyandotte, 
Michigan. When he came to Minneapolis he soon found em- 
ployment in dairies, both ni Minneapolis and St. Paul, even 
driving a milk wagon for a time. In 1877, he went to Roches- 
ter, a»d during the next two years -worked in a nursery, in 




OiLa 9. 9(uic^- 



\ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



515 



tlie summer months, and sold nursery stock in tlie winters. 
In 18S0 he becauie boss of a ronstruction gang on the Northern 
Pacific Kailroail. anil so continueil for two years. In 1884 he 
bought a dairy at Medicine Lake, operating it for four years. 
He then organized the Minneapolis Milk company, in which 
he was associated with Johnson Mealey of Howard Lake, who 
furnished the milk, while Jlr. Kuhiikc sold it. He started 
with one wagon and did a business of about $15 a day. The 
Minneapolis Jlilk Company was incorporated in 1884, with 
Mr. Ruhnke as president, S. J. Baldwin vice president and 
Xathan C. Cole secretary. It then required but seven or 
eight wagons to distribute its product. Its business con- 
stantly expanded until, for 1913, its sales aggregated over 
$873,000. In Sept., 1913. the Metropolitan Milk Company 
was organized with a capital of $250,000, and took over the 
Minneapolis Milk Co. It handles the milk from 12,000 to 
15.000 cows, supplied by 1,500 producers, spread over a 
radius of sixty miles, the daily consumption being three cars 
of milk and one of cream. In 1913 $687,000 was paid out 
for this product and $100,000 was paid to 150 employes in 
Minneapolis. In 1900 the company moved to its plant to 
900 Sixth street south, building a large additional factory, 
66 by 96 feet with full basement and four floors, all made 
of concrete, and another structure 40 by 50 feet in size, 
with a basement. Mr. Ruhnke made a visit some ten years 
since to his native land, reviving the associations of youth. 
He was married in 1888 to Miss Ida G. Osmer. He is no 
politician, his business fully occupying his attention. Mr. 
Ruhnke is also President of the Minnesota Milk Company of 
St. Paul, capitalized at $50,000 and having an annual sale 
of $100,000. 



tracts. This development is in one of the most fertile sections 
in the country, and to secure the best results, extensive drain- 
age is necessary. Forty acres and a dwelling are allotted to 
oacli farm, the purchaser being aided by the company in get- 
ting his land into farming condition. 

This company was started by Mr. Smith in a small way 
and with limited capital. It has grown enormously because 
of its productive properties, its useful character and the skill 
and enterprise of management. The land it owns is in one of 
the finest hardwood regions in the Jlississippi Valley. 

F. E. Kenaston, of the Minneapolis Thresher company, and 
A. A. Crane, vice president of the First National Bank of 
Minneapolis, are directors in the company. But Mr. Smith is 
tlie controlling spirit giving personal attention to every 
detail of the business. He makes periodical trips to the mills, 
to the branch offices, and to the operations in Southeastern 
Missouri. He is also a director of the Van Tilberg Oil company 
of Minneapolis, and is president of the Chicago Transportation 
Co. of Chicago, which owns a number of vessels engaged in 
the lumber trade. 

In connection with the activity of his home in civic, social, 
educational and moral fields Mr. Smith is as constant a worker 
as frequent absences allow. He is a member of nearly all the 
leading clubs, social, civic, commercial and recreative, con- 
sidering it every citizen's duty to work for the continual im- 
provement of social, public mid educational conditions. 

As a member of the Civic and Commerce Association, he 
takes an active part in the work of beautifying the city and 
increasing its commercial importance. He attends the 
Christian Science church. October 26, 1898, he was united in 
marriage with Miss Blanche Butcher of St. Paul. They have 
three daughters, Genevieve, Gertrude and Edna. 



PAYSON SMITH. 

For thirty-seven years Payson Smith, president of the 
Payson Smith Lumber company and the Jlissouri Hardwood 
Manufacturing company, has been a resident of the state, and 
for ten of the city. During this period lie has been actively 
connected with business affairs. 

Mr. Smith was born at Three Rivers, Michigan, September 
2, 1869. He was reared in Nashville, Tennessee, where he 
obtained a high school education. In 1876 he came to St. 
Paul with his parents. He started his business career as a 
collector for the Merchants National Bank of St. Paul at a 
compensation of $15 a month. He remained with this bank 
ten years, being advanced to the position of paying teller. 
He has since been continuously engaged in the lumber trade 
in Minneapolis. 

For some years he had various connections in this industry, 
and Febniary 14th. 1906 he incorporated the Payson Smith 
Lumber company with a business he had started in 1900. 
The capital stock is $100,000, and its operations have grown 
to colossal proportions. It is occupied principally in jobbing, 
buying the output of many mills, north and south, selling at 
wholesale. It sells ordinarily about .^,000 carloads of lumber 
a year, having offices in Chicago and St. Louis. Its sales 
aggregate 50,000,000 to 60,000,000 feet of lumber annually. 

The Missouri Hardwood Manufacturing company was in- 
corporated in 1908, with a capital of $150,000, It owns and 
operates mills in New Madrid county. Southeastern Missouri, 
veiling rough lumber and developing farms from the cntover 



GEORGE F. SMITH. 



George F. Smith, who died in Minneapolis. July 14. 1890, 
aged 47 years, had been a resident of the city from not long 
after the close of the Civil war and was a leading hardware 
merchant. His health was seriously affected by military 
service during the Civil war. and was never thereafter fully 
restored. He had enlisted at the age of 18 and had been 
discharged for disabilities incurred in the line of duty. 

lie was born in the town of Salisbury. Merrimack County, 
New Hampshire, September 1, 1843, and obtained a common 
school education in his native place. In 1861, he enlisted in 
Company E. Sixteenth New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
which was soon afterward assigned to duty in Louisiana under 
the command of General Banks. He became a sergeant of his 
company, but at the end of nine months was discharged 
because of his physical condition. After his discharge he went 
to Nashville, Tennessee, in the service of the government, and 
remained there a year or two. 

He then came to Minneapolis, where two uncles, Luther and 
John 0. .lohnson, were living at the time and engaged in the 
grocery trade, Luther on the east side and John C. in the 
firm of Dunham & Johnsoti. now the John C. Johnson Company, 
conducted by Fred .Johnson, the son of John C. Mr. Smith 
became a salesman in the hardware store of John S. Pillsbury, 
on the East Side, and when, in 1866, the Pillsbury store was 
opened at Bridge Square, on the west side, he arranged ita 
first stock, and became the first salesman therein. 



516 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Four years later Mr. Smith opened a hardware store of his 
own in the old Lumley building, on Washington Avenue, 
between Sixth and Seventh Avenues South. Two years later 
he moved up one block on the same street and took in Frank 
Scribner as a partner, the name of the firm being Smith & 
Scribner. Some little time later he purchased Mr. Scribner's 
interest in the business and thereafter continued to conduct 
it alone until early after 1880. \Vben the great mill explosion 
and fire of 1878 occurred, the force of the explosion shattered 
one of his plate glass fronts. 

In Free Masonry he was a member of Zion Commandery 
Knights Templars. He was a member of John A. Rawlins Post 
of the G. A. R., and the first of its members to die. His re- 
mains were buried with Masonic rites performed by his Com- 
mandery and the ceremonials of the Grand Army conducted by 
his Post. 

Mr. Smith was married in Minneapolis. September 26. 1867, 
to Miss Anna M. Connor, a daughter of Gilman and Nancy 
(Young) Connor, who came from New Hampshire to St. 
Anthony in 1857 and erected a dwelling house which is still 
standing and is now No. 1413 University Avenue Southeast, 
opposite the campus of the University. Mr. and Mrs. Smith 
had three cliildren, two of whom are living, as is also their 
mother. The children living are Fred G., a member of the 
firm of Nickles & Smith, real estate dealers in the city, and 
Ralph C, city salesman for N. K. Fairbanks, of Minneapolis, 
St. Paul and Stillwater. The third son, Cyrus Gilman Smith, 
died at the age of eleven years. Ralph C. Smith is unmarried. 
Fred 6. married Miss Alma Westin of Minneapolis and has two 
sons, Westin E. and Frederick G. He is a director of the 
Real Estate Exchange, and vice president of the National Real 
Estate Board. 

The mother is a valued member of Gethsemane Episcopal 
Church and for many years was vice president of the controlling 
board of the Women's Department of St. Barnabas Hospital. 
Siie is also a member of the Relief Corps of Rawlings Post, 
G. A. R., and of the Territorial Pioneers. Wherever she is 
known she is regarded as one of the most estimable, worth}', 
and useful women in the city. 



REV. WILLIAM W. SATTERLEE. 

Rev. William Wilson Satterlee, son of Ossian Satterlee and 
Susan Washburn Pease, was born April 11, 1837, at LaPorte, 
Ind., and died at Minneapolis, May 27, 1893. He was ordained 
a minister by the Western Conference of the Wesleyan Metho- 
dist Connection for Wisconsin in 1861 at 24 years of age. 
He took up the study of medicine in the office of a local 
physician of the Eclectic School, and on moving to Minnesota 
in June, 1863, he commenced the practice at Elysian, Le Sueur 
County, and in addition conducted religious services for the 
village, thus combining [jreaching and practice. In 1867 lie 
united with the Methodist Episcopal Conference of Minnesota 
and was appointed to the charge of Waseca, then a new 
terminus of the Winona & St. Peter Railway, and was also a 
supply preacher for the towns of Iosco, Wilton and Plum 
Valley. In 1869 he was appointed to the pastorate at St. 
Cloud, supplying also Sauk Rapids, which place he held for 
two years, being then appointed to the First Methodist Church 
of St. Anthony in 1871. In 1872 under his charge was 
builded the second edifice of this congregation on the original 



site, being now 214 University Avenue S. E. During this 
pastorate he became intimately acquainted with the faculty 
and students of the State University, many of whom were 
members of his congregation, and to these friendships much 
of his later popularity was due. In 1873 he was appointed to 
the Temperance work by the Conference and was made Secre- 
tary of the Minnesota Temperance Union. Later on he asso- 
ciated with him in the work the following members of the 
famous Hutchinson Family "Tribe of Asa," of sweet singers: 
Asa B., Elizabeth C, and O. Dennett. The sudden death of 
Mrs. Hutchinson at Rushford, Minn., in December, 1874, from 
paralysis of the brain severed the pleasant relations. Such 
was the friendship and popularity of this great temperance 
singer that the Board of Directors deemed it fitting that a 
fund for temperance work should be named for her. This was 
done and some $18,000 was pledged in notes, but much was 
never collected. 

In 1876 was inaugurated the "Blue Ribbon" temperance 
campaign. He entered this work and conducted meetings at 
Red Wing, Stillwater, and La Crosse, Chippewa Falls, and 
Eau Claire, Wis., at which thousands were pledged, and shorter 
visits to many other points. As a result of this movement a 
Temperance Reform Club was organized in Minneapolis with a 
membership of several thousands, holding its meetings at 
Harrison Hall corner of Washington and Nicollet Avenues. In 
1881 he was elected as Chaplain of this Club and conducted all 
its public meetings, and at the same time was appointed to 
supply the Seventh Street (now 13th Ave.) ]M. E. Clnireh. In 
1879 he purchased the "Liberty Blade" publication devoted to 
the temperance work and edited and published it until 1881 
when it was sold to Luther Bixby who continued its publica- 
tion. At intervals he was appointed by the Conference to 
supply vacancies in the conference charges, and officiated in 
this manner at St. Paul, Anoka, Delano, Richfield, and other 
points. In 1886 he purchased a home at Eureka which place 
he gave its name. In 1887 he was tendered and accepted the 
chair of "Scientific Temperance and Political Economy" in the 
U. S. Grant University at Athens, Tenn., but still continued 
his Minnesota work during the summer vacations. He was the 
Prohibition candidate for Mayor of Minneapolis and Governor 
of the State, but never filled any political offices. His writings 
were principally for the press, but he wrote and published 
several books, notably: "Looking Backward and What I 
Saw," a most perfect delineation of present moral conditions, 
"Mrs. Columbia," a satire, "The Jericho Robbers," a satire on 
the Liquor License System. , 

W. W. Satterlee was married to Sarah Stout, daughter of 
Phillip Stout and Phoebe Adair, at Richland County, Wis., on 
Dec. 24, 1856. They had four sons and two daughters. 



CHARLES F. SIMS. 



The late Charles F. Sims, of Minneapolis, who died siid- 
denly at Mineral Wells, Palo Pinto County, Texas, May 10, 
1910, aged about 78 years, was a pioneer in two lines of 
mercantile life that have been of great advantage to this 
city and the Northwest in general. He was a partner in the' 
first wholesale drug firm in the Twin Cities, that of Sims, 
Vawter & Rose, whose leading business establishment was 
in St. Paul, and he was a controlling spirit in the manage- 
ment of its business for a number of years. He then sold 



HISTORY OF MIXXKAPOLTS AXI) IIEXXEPIX COrXTY, MIXXKSOTA 



517 



his interest in the firm to his partners and became one of 
the pioneers in establishing the commercial interests of Mon- 
tana. He opened the first store devoted exclusively to drugs 
in Helena. 

Mr. Sims' first trip to the farther West was made in com- 
pany with Captain Fisher, who was in command of a military 
escort. On this trip he freighted a stock of general mer- 
chandise to Montana and at another time took out the stock 
of drugs and chemicals with which he started the store in 
Helena. 

His later activities were centered in the grain trade, in 
which he was associated with Governor John S. Pillsbury, by 
whom he was placed in charge of the construction and opera- 
tion of a line of elevators extending through what is now 
North Dakota. All these elevators were under the direct 
personal management of Mr. Sims, and while they were in 
the course of construction he was accustomed to have forty 
to sixty men regularly under his immediate supervision. 
Grand Forks became his headquarters, and for twenty-five 
years he continued in active participation in the grain trade 
in North Dakota. He is probably entitled to more credit 
than any other one man for the present admirable system 
of handling grain throughout the Northwest. 

Mr. Sims became prominently connected with almost every 
business interest at Grand Forks. He was made president of 
a bank while he lived there, and was continued in this office 
for years after he moved to Minneapolis. He also organized 
and was made president of the Fire Insurance Company of 
that city, and his services were of such magnitude and im- 
portance in this connection that they brought about the 
present enormous business of the leading Northwestern Fire 
Insurance Company, whose principal olfiee is in JIiinu'a])oli9 
at this time. 

After many years of great activity Mr. Sims put aside 
much of his business responsibility and passed many of his 
winters in rest and recreation in California and Texas. Yet 
even during these periods he did not give up his interest in 
business affairs. But death, however, unexpectedly put an 
end to the activities he would not entirely relinquish. While 
recreating in Texas he died suddenly in the midst of ap- 
parent vigor and robustness, without showing any signs of 
wear or failure of faculties. It is almost impossible to con- 
ceive of his having been worn out, for he was a large man 
of great muscular strength, and with all his physical powers 
fully developed by hard labor in early life on a farm. 

While he was engaged in the drug trade in Minneapolis, in 
partnership with Hon. N. II. Heniiup. one of the I'arly judges 
of probate in Hennepin county, Mr. Sims served with cri-dit 
as one of the aldermen of the city. He was also a member 
of the olil volunteer Fire Department of the village, when its 
residents had no other means of protection from the ravages 
of the dread destroyer than the men who "ran with the 
machine." He was liberal in his donations to churches of all 
denominations; but he had no sportive habits or tendencies. 
His mind was too serious, the claims of business were to him 
too urgent, to allow him any indulgence in anything that 
seemed to be mere pastime, and he never cultivated a taste 
for any allurement of that character. 

Mrs. Sims, bis widow, who is still living, has her home at 
the Berkley Hotel, and is an intimate associate of the mem- 
bers of all the old families. While residing in North Dakota 
she took a very warm and serviceable interest in a flourishing 
literary club there, and wherever she has lived she has given 



helpful attention to organizations designed to improve the 
conditions of life for the people living around her. Her in- 
terest in such associations is still strong, but her activity in 
connection with them grows less, necessarily, as she advances 
in age. She is well known iu the community, and is highly 
esteemed by all classes of its residents, as her husband was 
wherever he lived and labored. They were married in Minne- 
apolis September 1, 1863. Her maiden name was Laura du 
Dormaii. Her parents, Daniel W. and Mary E. (Jordan) du 
Dorman, were from Maine and came to St. Anthony in 1«57. 
Her father died here, but her mother returned to Maine, where 
she passed the remainder of her life. 



HON. CHARLES L. SAWYER. 

Hon. Charles L. Sawyer, one of the leading real estate 
dealers of Minneapolis, was born in Lee, Stralford county, New 
Hampshire, March 28, ISGO, and attended the district school 
until he reached the age of eighteen. He completed a course 
iu the academy at New Hampton, New Hampshire, and in 1884 
entered Dartmouth College, from which he was graduated in 
1888, standing fifth in a class of ninety entitling him to mem- 
bership in Phi Betta Kappa Fraternity. In 1891 he received 
the degree of A. M. from his Alma Mater. He was four years 
a superintendent of schools at Waukegan, Illinois, and in 1SU2 
came to Minneapolis as the first principal of the South High 
School, which he served as such until 1899. During his prin- 
ci|)alship, the enrollment grew from 300 to 800; and the 
number of teachers increased from twelve to twenty-eight. 

While teaching he attended the night classes in the law de- 
partment of the State University, and from that department 
received his degree of LL. B. in 1897, immediately afterward, 
being admitted to the bar. In 1906, 1908 and 1912 he was 
elected to the House of Representatives from the Forty-first 
legislative district Minnesota, including the Fifth and Sixth 
wards of Minneapolis. In the session of 1907 he was chairman 
of the committee on education. In that of 1909, he was a 
member of the same committee, and it was almost wholly 
through his cll'orts that the bill pensioning teachers became a 
law. He also introduced and passed a bill providing for the 
abolition of secret fraternities in high schools. During each 
of the sessions he was zealous and industrious in behalf of 
the interests of the State Universitj', especially in the matter 
of pernumcnt improvements. 

In the session of 191:! he was chairman of the University 
Committee and of the committee of Public Accounts and Ex- 
penditures which made a thorough investigation of the mone- 
tary affairs of the State: and during his entire service he 
fought hard for County Option and the better regulation of 
the saloon, although not an agitator. He favors woman suf- 
frage; and worked for the submission of an amendment to the 
constitution |>roviding for the same. He has served on many 
local party committees and been active in campaign work; 
and in the gubernatorial campaign of 1912. he was interested 
in the candidacy of Hon. L. C. Spooner. 

Since 1899 Mr. Sawyer has been engaged in the real estate, 
loan and insurance business, having been for seven years a 
member of the firm of Moore Bros. & ."^awyer ami fourteen 
years a member of the Minneapolis Heal Kstate Bo:ird. He owns 
an irrigated fruit ranch of 360 acres in Southern Idaho, which 
he has developed himself, 175 acres being in fruit already 



518 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



bearing. He was married in January, 1892, to Miss Olive 
M. Bennett, of Laconia, New Hampshire. She was a teacher 
and also a graduate of New Hampton Institution. They have 
four children, Esmond B., a student, freshman in the Univer- 
sity of Minnesota; Russell J., Charles A. and Miriam Louisa. 
Mr. Sawyer is a member of the Park Avenue Congregational 
Church, which he has served as deacon and a trustee. He is 
a thirty-second degree Mason and noble of the Mystic Shrine. 
He is Past Worshipful Master of Minneapolis Lodge No. 19, 
Past Illustrious Master of Minneapolis Council No. 2, and 
Past Commander of Zion Comraandery No. 2, and Past Senior 
Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Minnesota. He was a 
charter member of the Commercial Club and a member of 
the Six O'clock and Monday clubs. He makes occasional hunt- 
ing trips to North Dakota, Montana and Idaho. 



his community through his zealous and helpful membership in 
a number of clubs and fraternal orders, and contributes to the 
welfare and advancement of his profession by his connection 
in a leading way with the Minnesota State Bar Association. 



HON. GEORGE R. SMITH. 



The interesting subject of this brief review is now (1914) 
representing the strongly industrial and commercial city of 
Minneapolis and surrounding county of Hennepin, in the popu- 
lar branch of the United States Congress. 

Representative Smith was born in Stearns county, Minne- 
sota, on May 38, 1864, and is the son of David and Katharine 
(Crowe) Smith. His boyhood and youth were passed on his 
father's farm, and his education was begun in a country school 
house. 

When Mr. Smith was fifteen years old he entered Lake View 
Academy as a student, and there he passed several years in 
further preparation for the professional training he had in 
mind and toward which he was working. He was graduated 
from Lake View in 1886, after winning a gold medal for 
Scholarship, and during the next five years he taught school, 
earning every dollar he got by his excellent service to his 
pupils even though he did not intend to make teaching his 
life work. He lived frugally and saved all he could of his 
earnings, and in 1891 became a student in the College of Law 
of the University of Minnesota, being prepared to pay his way 
as he proceeded by the money he had saved as a teacher. 
From the law school he was graduated in 1893 with the 
degree of LL. B. and a high rank as a student. 

From 1893 to 1907 the young lawyer diligently practiced 
his profession, allowing nothing to interfere with his prog- 
ress in it except a brief service in the Minnesota House of 
Representatives, to which he was elected in 1903, the first 
Republican representative ever sent to the legislature from 
his district, which was the Thirty-eighth. After the Session 
of the ensuing legislature he again devoted himself to his law 
practice, and again made steady and permanent progress in it, 
until 1906, when he was elected judge of probate for Hennepin 
county by a large vote. In this office he served six years, be- 
ing re-ele'cted twice by large majorities. 

In 1912 the earnest importunities of large numbers of his 
friends and acquaintances induced him to become a candidate 
for Congress from the Minneapolis district. He won easily 
at the primaries and as easily in the election which followed, 
and took his seat in the national House of Representatives 
at the special session of Congress called soon after the inaug- 
uration of President W^ilson. 

Judge Smith was married on January 9, 1895, to Mrs. 
F. J. Koran. He takes an active part in the social life of 



CHESTER SIMMONS. 



Second Vice President, Treasurer and manager of the Bemis 
Brothers Bag Co., was born Dec. 26, 1850, in New York City 
where his parents had settled upon coming from England, his 
father being engaged in the mercantile trade. A business life 
had strong attractions for the boy and upon leaving school 
he became identified with the Bemis Bros. Bag Company. 

It is largely his efforts that have made this Company, 
with which he has been identilied, during most of his thirty 
yeai's in Minneapolis, so progressive a firm. It has been 
largely his initiative and farsightedness which has marked 
this firm as a model in Minneapolis business circles, of pro- 
gressive and efficient methods. 

Mr. Simmons is socially inclined and is a member of both 
the Minneapolis and the Commercial Clubs. He is actively 
identified with Trinity Baptist Church, is an active republican 
although he has never aspired to public office. Fannie A. 
Bemis became his wife in 1875 and they are the parents of 
six children, Chester B., Ethel, Lois M., Marmion J., Emily R., 
and Donald B. Their delightful home on Park avenue is fre- 
quently the scene of social function, the family maintaining 
an enviable standing. 



GEORGE SUMMERS. 



Mr. Summers was born in Scotland, near the city of Glas- 
gow, on September 16, 1832, and died in Minneapolis 
on October 18, 1908. He grew to manhood and ob- 
tained his education, academic and mechanical, in that 
country. When he came to this country he first located in 
Brooklyn, New York, and a few years later moved to Chicago, 
where he also remained a few years. In 1873, or about that 
time, he became a resident of Minneapolis, and here he passed 
the remainder of his days. In the prosecution of his business 
as a contractor and builder he erected many buildings prom- 
inent in this city, among them the old Hennepin Avenue 
Methodist Episcopal church, the residence of T. B. Walker, 
the Minneapolis Bank building, the Zcir block at Fourth 
avenue and Ninth street, two churches on the East Side and 
the one at Park avenue and Nineteenth street. He also built 
and sold the Summers hotel, Drexel Court, and many other 
structures of equal prominence and importance, continuing 
his operations actively for over twenty years. 

Mr. Summers was first married in Brooklyn, New York, to 
Miss Margaret Findley. They had four children, all born 
before they came to Minneapolis, and all still living. They 
are: William T., who has his home in Pasadena, California; 
Elizabeth E., who is the wife of C. W. Rohne and lives near 
Los Angeles, California ; Amy A., who is the wife of William 
S. TwogooVl, and also a resident of Los Angeles; and Miss 
Nellie G. Summers, who lives in New York city and is re- 
nowned there and elsewhere as a vocalist. The mother of 
these children died in Minneapolis, and on April 17, 1877, 




_-.^-^^^-«-'<>-U^C,^^C 



IllSTOKV OF .MIXNKAl'OLIS AND HENNEPIX COrXTY. MIXNKSOTA 



519 



the father contracted a Sfcoiiil marriage, wliich united him 
with Mrs. Addie S. (Kelker) Wentworth, widow of tlie late 
Joseph P. Wentworth, also of this city. 

Mrs. Summers, whose maiden name was Addie S. Felker, 
was born in Barrington, Strali'ord county, New Hampshire, 
on April 2, 1840. Her great-grandfather and his two brothers 
came to this country from England in Colonial days. The 
two brothers died soon after their arrival in America, but 
Charles Felker, the great-grandfather of Mrs. Summers, lived 
to old age in Xew Hampshire, and was the progenitor of the 
American branch of the family. 

William Felker, the grandfather of Mrs. Summers, was a 
native of Barrington, and Charles Felker, her father, was also 
born in that town and passed his whole life on the old home- 
stead, which is still in the family. As a youth of si.xteen 
he enlisted in the American army for the War of 1812, and 
he served through that contest between the young Republic 
and the ^Mother country. One of his grandnephews, Hon. 
Samuel D. Felker, is now the honored governor of New 
Hampshire. Mrs. Summers' mother, before her marriage, was 
Miss Polly Swaine, and was born in Strafford, New Hamp- 
shire. She died at the age of seventy-tw'o, and her husband 
at that of ninety-three. 

Mrs. Summers was first married in Boston, Massachusetts, 
by Rev. Phineas .Stowe, on August 8, 1862, to Joseph P. 
Wentworth, of Milton, New Hampshire, also of old New 
England stock. He engaged in wholesale merchandising as a 
dealer in notions at Oroton Center, Massachusetts, and con- 
tinued his operations at that place until 1867, when failing 
health forced him to seek a more congenial climate, and they 
then came to Minneapolis. The husband opened a retail 
notion store at the junction of Washington and Hennepin 
avenues, which he kept until 1869, and then bought a lot at 
the corner of Eighth street and Third avenue south, in the 
rear of the site of the present Minneapolis Club building. 
He built a store on this lot and devoted his energies to 
selling groceries and notions. 

But the malady which had driven him from his native 
state was too deep-seated to be overcome. It was tubercu- 
losis, the dread white plague, and soon after he opened his 
new store it began to make rapid progress, and brouglit on 
his death in 1870. He was a gentleman of superior mental 
endowments and highly educated. By his marriage with 
Miss Felker he became the father of two children, both of 
whom died in childhood. 

Soon after Mr. Wentworth's death his widow sold the 
business, and gave all her attention to her children while 
they lived. She and her husband had become members of 
the old Centenary Methodist Episcopal church, and she re- 
mained in that congregation until the Hennepin Avenue 
church of the same denomination was organized, when .she 
became one of its seventy-four original members. Only three 
of these besides herself are still living. They are I.«vi Long- 
fellow, Mrs. Thorpe and Mrs. Helen Horton. Mr. Summers 
and his first wife were also among the seventy- four orig- 
inals. The present Mrs. Summers still belongs to that church, 
and her interest in its work for the good of mankind never 
stops. Years ago she was a Sunday school teacher in it, and 
she has also been active in all the organizations of its lady 
members for benevolent and beneficent purposes. 

When Mr. Summers retired from business he built a resi- 
dence for his family at White Bear Lake. This was their 



summer home for fifteen years, and most of the winters 
were passed by him and his wife in travel. 

Mrs. Summers had no children by her second marriage, 
but the olTspring of Mr. Summers were at an age to need 
the care and direction of a mother when she entered the 
family. They have all commended her as an excellent parent 
and frequently expressed their gratitude for the considerate 
attention, wise counsel and useful discipline she gave them. 
Their father possessed admirable qualities of mind and char- 
acter, and. like the first husband of Mrs. Summers, was a 
man of lofty ideals and pure life. 



l-KKD L. S.MITH. 



Fred L. Smith, tlie piuni'er living printer of Minneapolis, has 
been a resident continuously for lifty-seven years, and almost 
continuously' has been connected with the printing trade, and 
much of the time with newspaper publishing. He helped 
publish the first city directory, and has aided in the publish- 
ing of every directory since. 

He was born in Lee, Maine, .July 2, 1843, coming in the 
early summer of 1857, to what is now Minneapolis. He re- 
ceived a diploma entitling him to teach from the Lee Normal 
.\eademy and also attended short sessions in the old black 
school house on University a\enue. 

He lii-st secured employment in the dry goods store of 
ilinor Ball, and in September, 18.57. began his connection 
with the printing trade as "a devil" in the office of Messrs. 
Croifut & Clark and a carrier on the Falls Evening News, the 
first daily paper printed at St. Anthony. After its demise in 
1861, he worked on the old St. Paul Pioneer, as a journeyman 
printer for two years till he was made foreman of the job 
department, so continuing for two yeare longer. His services 
must have been of a high order, as his pay was $27 a week, 
which was unusually good for the time, and especially so 
for a youth of twenty. 

He returned to Minneapolis in 1865 starting the Weekly 
(lininicle and a job printing office. The Chronicle afterward 
becanu? a daily, and, in 1867, was merged with the Atlas into 
the .Minneapolis Daily Tribune. He was kept in charge of the 
niecliaiiical department of the new paper with special con- 
trol of the job department until 1871. In company with 
C. W. .Tohnson, then city editor of the Tribune, he started the 
first exclusively job printing establishment and which rapidly 
grew to such projiortions that frequent removals to more com- 
modious (|Uarters were reipiired. 

In 1880, to accommodate their rapidly growing business, 
they erected a four-story brick building at Third street and 
First avenue south. They were laughed at for building so 
far from the business center, but soon afterward the post 
ofTice was built across the street and the Chamber of Com- 
merce at Third street and Fourth avenue south. Mr. .Tohn- 
son retired in the early nineties to become chief clerk of the 
State senate, the firm becoming Harrison & Smith, and in 
1890, incorporated, as the Harrison & Smith company. In 
1900 another change was made, to Seventh avenue south and 
Fourth street, its counting room covering the site of the 
frame dwelling in which Mr. J^mitli lived during the first twelve 
years after nuirriage. In 1907 the |)lant enlarged to its pres- 
ent size of about ,'i5.n00 square feet. 

Mr. Smith has ever stood for advancement and improve- 



520 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



mfnt in all that pertains to his craft as in all involving the 
welfare of the community. He was Alderman from the Fifth 
ward for five years, part of the time as president, resigning 
in 1881. He served twelve years, 1896 to 1908, on the park 
board, of which he was also president for two years. 

He was made a Mason in Cataract Lodge No. 2 early in life 
and ser%-ed as its Worshipful Master three years, during which 
the present temple was erected. He is Past High Priest of St. 
Anthony Falls Chapter, R. A. M., is Past Illustrious Master of 
Adoniram Council and Past Eminent Commander of Darius 
Commandery K. T. 

For 25 years he was President of Minneapolis Typothetae, 
when he was made honorary President for life and he is a 
member of the Executive Committee of the United Typothetae 
and Franklin Club of America. For many years was secre- 
tary of all the local Scottish Rite bodies. He was married in 
1868 to Miss Roxana G. Sinclair. They have two children, 
Henry in the office; Agnes, wife of H. C. Rompage. 

Mr. Smith is universally recognized as the dean of the 
printing business in Minneapolis, being awarded the title by 
long service, rectitude of conduct, and the uprightness of mo- 
tives in all dealings with his fellow men. He has steadfastly 
stood for what he considered right, regardless of consequences 
to himself, and by an upright life has earned the honors 
bestowed upon him. 



Dakota; John P., vice president and manager of the State 
bank of Martin, Xorth Dakota; William A., cashier of the 
Dakota County State bank at Lakeville, Minnesota; George 
E., the cashier of the Citizens State bank of Minneapolis and 
Fred A., junior. The Citizens State bank which was promoted 
and established by Mr. Samels has proved one of his most 
successful enterprises and an important addition to the 
banking institutions of the city. Its location on a thriving 
business corner at a distance from the center of the city has 
demonstrated its advantages and justified the selection of the 
promoters. The bank was organized December 1, 1912, and 
opened February, 1913, and after one year's operation shows 
a handsome surplus and deposits amounting to $215,000. It 
was incorporated with a capital of $25,000, with Mr. F. A. 
Samels, president, T. 0. Gulack and N. D. Samels, vice presi- 
dents. G. E. Samels, cashier and other directors are C. B. 
Stringer of Osage, Iowa, T. 0. Gulack of Minnesota and M. L. 
Fosseen, Minneapolis. 

Mr. Samels is a member of Immaculate Conception Catholic 
Church. The New Athletic Club and East Lake Street Com- 
mercial Club. 



ALBERT MILLARD SHELDON. 



F. A. SAMELS. 



F. A. Samels, president of the Citizens State bank and 
well known financier, is a native of Luxemburg, Germany, and 
at one year of age was brought to Aurora, 111., there passing 
his boyhood and receiving his education in its schools. He 
then located at Monticello, Iowa, as a dealer in agricultural 
implements and was also interested in real estate transactions, 
investing in improved farm lands in Minnesota, Iowa and North 
Dakota. He came to Minneapolis in 1882 as state representa- 
tive for the Chamberlin Plow Company of Dubuque, Iowa, and 
oiliced with Mr. Charles Shatto on Washington avenue, for four 
or five years. Mr. Samels has continued his residence in Minne- 
apolis with the exception of twelve years spent in Lakeville, 
Minnesota where he established the Dakota County State bank, 
the first in that locality, of which his son, William A., is 
cashier. Mr. Samels has extensive banking interests in the 
northwest and is associated with his brother in the opera- 
tion of the Dakota County State bank at Lakeville. Minnesota, 
the Martin State bank at Martin, North Dakota and with 
Mr. T. 0. Gulack of Minneapolis in the First State bank at 
Keith, North Dakota. He also is a stockholder in the Kannan 
State Bank at Kannan, Wi.s., and with others has recently 
organized the Harriet Bank in Minneapolis. Mr. Samels' career 
has been largely identified with the banking business although 
liis ability has carried him successfully into other lines of 
commercial activity. He is a member of the Samels Brothere 
& White Canning Company located at Shaska, Minnesota, and 
representing an investment of $40,000 and also continues his 
real estate interests. He erected the business block on the 
corner of Lake and Bloomington streets which is now owned 
and occupied by the Citizens State bank. Mr. Samels was 
married in Minneapolis, in 1882 to Miss Mary B. Karcher of 
Shaska, Minnesota. They have five Sons: Frank W., lumber- 
man and dealer in agricultural implements in Martin, North 



A. M. Sheldon is a typical Minnesota man. He was born 
in Minnesota, was educated in Minnesota, married a Minne- 
sota girl and has lived in the state all his life. He was born 
in Owatonna on May 15, 1868, and graduated from the High 
School in 1886. 

He began his active business career in the First National 
Bank of Stillwater, as bookkeeper. Three years later he 
organized and started the Prince, Sheldon and Company priv- 
ate bank at Cloquet. He continued as manager until 1896 
when he came to Minneapolis to enter the grain business, with 
P. L. Howe organizing the Imperial Elevator Company. The 
concern has been notably progressive and successful and Mr. 
Sheldon has continuously remained as activ manager and 
treasurer. 

Socially Mr. Sheldon is a member of the Minneapolis, Mini- 
kahda and Lafayette Clubs and is a regular attendant at 
Plymouth Congregational Church. Miss Wilhelmine C. Hee- 
gard became his wife in June, 1893. They have one child, 
Ralph Millard Sheldon, who is receiving his education at 
Princeton Univereity. 



LAZARUS TILLENY. 



Lazarus Tillcny is one of the pioneers of Hennepin county, 
and a character with uncommonly wide acquaintance. His 
home acres have been his abiding place since 186U, and his 
reminiscences include tales of deer shooting around Lake 
Harriet as well as other narratives of pioneering in the East, 
the Northwest and the Far West. In many ways his has 
had a remarkable career. Mr. Tilleny was born January 30, 
1831, in Plymouth, England, and was brought, an infant, to 
Canada by his parents. His father died before Lazarus was 
three years old, and then took place a notable incident in his 
life. His mother and her five children went to Vermont — 
on foot, Lazarus being carried on his mother's back or on 




^kM 




HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



521 



the back of an older brother. He grew up on their farm 
in Vermont, and when he was twenty years old made 
another notable journey. In company with a consider- 
able party of Vcnnontcrs, he went to California, answering 
the call of the gold fever which lured thousands to the new 
Eldorado. They went by way of the Isthmus of Panama, 
walking across the isthmus. Jlr. Tilleny recalls with gusto 
his prowess on this journey. At one point on the crossing, 
it was necessary to cross a stream on a footlog. The log 
had become worn smooth of bark, and none of the party but 
Mr. Tilleny could walk on it. He was used to logging, be- 
cause of his experience in Vermont, and so it fell to him to 
help the others of the party across. All the others, including 
two young women, were pulled across by llr. Tilleny. 

For a year and a half he prospected on French creek, in 
California, and then sold his claim, coming out with about 
$30,000 in gold. After a visit home he soon returned to 
California, and established a dairy near San Francisco. He 
also dealt in young stock. Finally, after four or five years, 
he sold out to advantage and returned to Vermont in 1859. 
He had lived when a boy with a man named Stanton, being 
a playmate with Stanton's daughter, Lydia Ann. And when 
he returned from Californi.a in 1859, he married his child- 
hood companion. They came west at once, and settled at 
Star Prairie, Wisconsin, where he bought 200 acres of land. 
After one year they sold and in 1860 came to Hennepin 
county, buying 120 acres, mostly brush land, near what are 
now the western city limits of Minneapolis. Mr. Tilleny 
cleared the land, converting it into a good farm. About 1887 
he erected the house in wliieh he now lives, and sold 100 
of the original 120 acres, on which for more than a quarter 
of a century he had raised wheat and carried on successful 
farming operations. He still retains about twelve acres of 
the original farm, and Excelsior avenue, one of tlie most 
beautifully tree-lined drives in Hennepin oounty, was donated 
as a highway by Mr. Tilleny, the gift including the tree- 
planting which he had done. 

Mrs. Tilleny died January 11, 1904. They had no children 
who grew to maturity. But Mr. Tilleny stands in the place 
of a parent, so far as ties of affection are concerned, to 
Clement George Townsend, now of Duluth, son of Phebe 
Townsend, who has been housekeeper for Mr. Tilleny for 
twenty-one years. 

Few men are more widely known in Hennepin county than 
Lazarus Tilleny. For one thing, he is a famous trout fisher- 
man; for another, he is a great hunter. And for still an- 
other, he has an oddly unconscious habit of the use of swear 
words. Mr. Tilleny does not defend the habit: but those old 
friends who know him best say his picturesque stories of 
early life in Vermont : of gold mining in the days of Bret 
Harte in California; and of hunting and fishing in the wild 
country of Minnesota when he was a pioneer, would not seem 
half so spicy did not the rugged old man interject into his 
penetrating commentaries on life and events the emphasis 
carried in an expert's use of words which would be profane 
used bv a less skilful and intelligent raconteur. 



7, 1872, the son of T. F. and Susannah Strong. He became 
a resident of Minnesota when a lad of nine, his father re- 
moving at that time to Faribault and four years later lo«»ting 
at Minneapolis where he resided until his death. A. W; 
Strong completed his preparatory studies in the Central High 
school and entered Trinity college at Hartford, Conn., where 
he became a student of mechanical engineering. After spend- 
ing two years in that institution, he continued his course at 
the University of Minnesota. In 1894 be started upon his 
business career as superintendent of the shops of the Hard- 
wood Manufacturing company and remained in their employ 
for three years when he became engaged in his present enter- 
prise, buying the Minneapolis plant of the Wilford & Xorth- 
way Manufacturing company. He assumed management of 
the business details of the industry which had been operated 
for fifteen years and spent the first few years traveling 
through the northwest and establishing the successful and 
extensive trade which the firm conducts in that territory. 
The company was incorporated in 1897 with a capital stock 
of $32,000 under the name of Strong & Xorthway and in 1903 
became the Strong-Scott Mfg. Co. A. W. Strong is president, 
C. H. Scott, vice president and treasurer. They manufacture 
a general line of machinery for flour mills and grain elevators, 
including transmission machinery and a number of patented 
articles, scouring cases and cleaners. They handle large con- 
tracts for the fitting up of mills and elevators throughout 
the great grain districts, from Minnesota to Montana and 
Canada, eighty per cent of their sales being outside the city. 
The industry has enjoyed a steady growth and now shows a 
remarkable increase in its annual business. The factory is 
located on South Third street and employs seventy-five ex- 
pert workmen. As president, Mr. Strong's business tareer 
has been identified with its success and prosperity. Mr. 
Strong is prominent in social organizations of the city, has 
served as president of the Minikahda club and a member of 
the Minneapolis, Lafayette and Auto Clubs, being a trustee 
in the latter. He is a member of the Civic and Commerce 
association and a communicant and vestryman of St. Paul's 
Episcopal church. He was married to Miss Grace Swift, a 
daughter of Lucian Swift and they have four chililren, Lucian 
Swift. Elizabeth Grace, Albert \V., Jr.. and Jane. 



ALBERT W. STRONG. 



Albert W. Strong, president of the Strong-Scott Manufac- 
turing company, was born at Fondulac, Wisconsin, January 



EBENEZER JAMES HALL SCRl.MGEOUR. 

Mr. Scrimgeour was bom at Xewburg, Orange county. New 
York, October 5, 1806, the only son of Rev. .lames Scrimgeour, 
a celebrated minister of the Associate Reformed church, who 
was of Scotch ancestry and nativity. He was highly educated 
in his native land, ordained for the ministry and engaged in 
preaching there for two years, when he came to the United 
States, but never conversed extensively about Scotland or his 
forefathers. He came a bachelor, and when married and his 
son was bom he was named in honor of a noted Scotch divine. 
The son was in school when his father, on his death bed, 
sent for him to come as rapidly as possible, as he had an 
important communication to make to him. But in spite of 
the utmost haste, the father died before the son's arrival^ 
and the communication was not made. The family coat of 
arms indicates that it is descended from the Scrimgco\ir of 



522 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



noble rank who is honorably mentioned in Highland history as 
one of Scotland's noted chiefs. 

E. J. Scrimgeour lived with his guardian, David Andrews, a 
wealthy merchant in New York, continuing his studies until 
he acquired a thorough classical education. While at Enfield, 
Connecticut, during a vacation, he met Miss Mary Morrison, 
whom he maiTied in 1830. He then engaged in merchandising 
in that neighborhood for some twenty years, in fact, until he 
removed to Minneapolis in 1856. 

He bought lots at the comer of Fourth street and Second 
avenue north erecting a dwelling. The streets were then laid 
out through that section but not traveled. Indians camped 
on near or adjoining lots. Charles Hoag lived on another 
corner of the streets luiraed, there being but few other houses 
in the locality, the surrounding land for some distance being 
wild and unoccupied. Mr. Scrimgeour foresaw that a great 
city would arise, but, dying June 30, 1865, did not live long 
enough to see even a railroad built to the town. His widow 
married Rev. John Huwson, of ThompsonviUe, Connecticut, 
where thej' lived until his death, when she returned to Min- 
neapolis making her home witli her children until her own 
death in 1890. 

She was an active, zealous, hard-working member of the 
old Centennary Methodist Episcopal church. She and her 
husband were the parents of four children, only two of whom 
survive. They are: Helen J., the widow of John Harvey 
Horton, and Ella Jane, the wife of Charles Godley, of whom 
sketches will be found elsewhere. The sons of the family 
were James Boyd and David Andrews. James went to Cali- 
fornia at the age of eighteen and died in that state. He was 
prominent in the Masonic order, his fraternal brethren erecting 
a monument to his memory in Masonic cemetery at San Fran- 
cisco. David A. was an old Board of Trade and Cliamber of 
Commerce man, a highly interesting personage in many ways, 
and is said to have been the champion checker player at the 
Chamber, where this game of skill affords so much recreation 
and where a successful player must needs be an adept. For 
many yeai-s no more widely or favorably known man frequented 
the chamber than "Old Scrim," and when news of his sudden 
death in 1913 came to his old associates many a voice was 
softened, many a hand pressed and many an eye was moist. 



ALVIN STONE. 



Alvin Stone was born in Berwick, York county, TMaine, 
October 13, 1835, and there learned his trade of painter. In 
18.50 he came to St. Antliony, and, in company with James 
McHerron, started a painting business on Main street between 
what are now Fifth and Sixth avenues. 

Later (ieorge I-.cgg was his associate, the firm tiiiiilly becom- 
ing Bigelow, Stone & Lcgg and employed 15 to 20 men, repaint- 
ing the old suspension bridge being one of its contracts. 

Mr. Bigelbw later retired. Stone & Lcgg continuing. When 
the Pillsbury "A" mill \vas erected Stone placed his old 
foreman in charge. Mr. Stone had a special faculty for i>aint- 
ing artistic and attractive signs, having the reputation of 
being the best sign painter in town. He prospered and became 
one of the substantial citizens. He was ))rogressive, far-seeing 
and hud good judgment in respect to public improvements and 
the advance of the city, and rose to high esteem. He died at 



his summer cottage August 20, 1893, at Somerville, Massa- 
chusetts. 

Mr. Stone devoted two or three winters, to jobbing in cedar 
timber, making and handling posts and kindi'ed products. In 
1860, in company with Oren Rogers and others, he made a 
trip to Pike's Peak, where he located a claim and took out 
some gold. He had a portion of this made into watch chains 
which are still in the possession of his son. Mr. Stone in 
company with Baldwin Brown platted Brown and Stone's 
Addition, First and Central avenues southeast, and built a 
business block. This started the improvements there, and 
within a few years it became well built up and populated. 

In 1851 he married Miss Elizabeth Goodwin, a native of 
Salmon Falls, Maine, and who died March 28, 1876, leaving 
children; Frank, who died in March, 1880, at the age of twenty- 
five; Hattie, who became the wife of Frank Harrison and 
died at the age of twenty-seven, leaving a daughter, Minnie 
E. Harrison, and Harris. He was born October 22, 1860, al- 
most on the site of his present home. He became a fireman 
and later an engineer on the M. & St. L. and Soo Railroads, 
working as such for ten years. He has also been engaged in 
the clothing and tailoring business and a dealer in real estate. 
On November 24, 1887, he was married to Miss Arvilla Hen- 
dee. They have no children. 



HORATIO R. STILLilAN. 



Horatio R. Stillman, a pioneer resident of Minneapolis and 
the suburb, Robbinsdale, was born in the western reserve at) 
Andover, Ashtabula county, Ohio, September 5, 1832. His 
father, Roswell Stillman, was one of the early settlers of 
Connecticut and his mother, Mary E. (Marvin) Stillman, was 
a native of Vermont. Horatio Stillman inherited from these 
parents the sturdy endurance and perseverance that charac- 
terized the pioneer American and as a young man planned 
to seek a home in the great western territory. \\'hen he was 
twenty-one years of age his father presented him with $200 
and the following year he was occupied in the making of 
boat oars and was able to double the sum with his savings 
from his wages. With this capital in the fall of 1S54, he set 
out for Minneapolis in company with his brother, Riley F. 
Stillman. The journey was made partly by boat and they 
experienced many vicissitudes. The party transported live- 
stock with them and after crossing Illinois were to complete 
the trip by water. The boat on which they embarked en- 
gaged in a race with a rival craft which resulted in a collision 
and necessitated the unloading of the horses and wagons. 
Horatio Stillman was placed in charge of them and traveling 
in this way he reached St. Paul about midnight several hours 
before the arrival of the boat and crossed to Minneapolis on 
Captain Tappert ferry with the remainder of his party. His 
brother owned several lots near the present site of the 
municipal building and there erected a small house. Horatio 
Stillman secured a span of horses from him and engaged in 
teaming between the two cities and selling wood cut from 
government land. After a short time he sold his team 
and bought half interest in the outfit of Mr. Partridge, one 
of the men who had accompanied him from Oliio and they 
continued to work in ])artnership for several years. Soon 
after his arrival he had purchased the tract of land which is 
his present home and had erected a shanty on it and put in 




/^T^^.^im^. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND IIEXXEPIX COrNTY, MINNESOTA 



i23 



his first wlieat crop when it was discovered to be school 
hind. He continued his occupation with the intention of 
buying it when it should be placed in the market, but an act 
of the legislature setting aside other territory for school 
lands made this unnecessary. After the spring of 1856 he 
devoted his entire attention to farming, expending much 
labor and expense in the clearing and breaking of his land 
which was covered with invaluable timber. When the fer- 
tility of the soil for a wheat crop was exhausted he found 
that it would proiluce a fine quality of hay and foreseeing 
the monetary possibilities of the dairy business in this loca- 
tion he equipped the farm for this industry, finding a ready 
market for the butter and chee.se. From a successful trade 
in the beginning of the enterprise it has steadily developed 
into the j)resent prosperous business. In 1864, Mr. Stillman 
enlisted and served during tlie remainder of the Civil war 
in the Kleventli Minnesota regiment which was stationed at 
Tunnel Hill as guard over the Louisville & Nashville railroad. 
His marriage to Miss Arvilla Townsend, who had accompanied 
lier uncle, Mr. Partridge, to Minnesota, occurred August 31, 
1S53. Mrs. Stillman died in 1873, leaving two children, Elmer 
D., who makes his liome at Salt Lake City, Utah, and I^lla, 
who married Jlr. Herman Renspies and resides in Robbins- 
dale. ilr. Stillman contracted his second marriage February 
23, 1879, with Miss Maggie Allison of Charlestown, Portage 
county, Ohio. They have one daughter, Maude, wife of Mr. 
David Huston of Robbinsdale. Mrs. Stillman was educated 
at the Farmington Academy in her native state and for a 
number of years was a successful school teacher. She takes 
an active and capable interest in church work and the affairs, 
of the world about her and has been influential in the estab- 
lishment and maintenance of a library in her communit.v. 
As an early settler and a progressive citizen of today, Mr. 
Stillman has shared alike the hardships and successes of 
Minneapolis. In his beautiful c<mntry home near Robbins- 
dale, now an attractive and desirable suburb, he recalls the 
days when the menace of Indian uprisings forced him to take 
his family to the shelter of the city. He was actively iden- 
tified witli public affairs for a number of years as Township 
supervisor and justice of peace and served as a member of 
the school board for a period of twenty-one years. 



DANIEL GE()R(;E SHILLOCK. 

Daniel George Shillock, late member of the Minnea])olis 
bar and eminent citizen, was a native of Prussia, born near 
Tilsit, Lithuania, He was educated in the University of 
Kiinigsberg, and as a student became deeply interested in 
tlie writings of American authors and through them in their 
country. He was married in Kiinigsberg at the age of tliirty 
to a talented young musician and soon after this the young 
couple decided to visit America that they might meet Emer- 
son, Theodore Parker, Dr. Howe and other advanced thinkers 
of this country, who had won their admiration through their 
writings. Mr. Shillock was the heir to the extensive i-states 
of his family in Lithuania and sold his property to his brothers 
and with his wife departeil for the United States. On their 
voyage they experienced shipwreck and were landed in New- 
foundlanil. Arriving in this country, Mrs. ShiUock spent a 
year at the home of Dr. Howe and .lulia Ward Howe in Boston 
where slie enjoyed the acq\iaintance and companionship of the 



greatest minds of the period. During this time Mr. .Shillock 
visited Te.\as and joined a German colony at Brownville but 
suffering ill health he returned north and spent some time in 
Springfield. Massachusetts, where his wife employed her musi- 
cal talent, giving concerts and instniction. It was at this time 
that he decided to enter the profession of law and took his 
studies at St. Louis, Missouri. After completing his profes- 
sional training he began his first practice at LaCrosse, Wis- 
consin, making this choice of location through the influence 
of friends in the old country. Later he joined a colony of 
(Jerman Turners at New Ulm. Minnesota, where lie remained 
a nvimber of years meeting with success and popularity in 
spite of the fact that he was at first requested to leave as 
the members of the settlement desired neither lawyers or 
ministers in their midst. In company with Mr. Rudolph he 
organized a bank and after a time was sent to the state legis- 
lature by liis fellow citizens. He took a prominent part in the 
military life of the new country and endured the hanlshipg 
of the Indian hostilities. During one of their outbreaks, his 
home which stood on the outskirts of the town was used by 
the red men as a barricade, and while escorting a party of 
settlers to Mankato. as lieutenant of the New Ulm com- 
pany, he received a wound which disabled him for a number 
of years. In 1865 he came to Minneapolis where for the re- 
maining years of his active career he was a leading attorney 
and most honored citizen. For a time he maintained a part- 
nership with Mr. Anton Grethen, but thereafter devoted his 
attention to hjs own private practice which was extensive 
and winning particular renown as a real estate lawyer. He 
was employed by the Sioux tribe to secure a settlement of 
their claims at Washington and through his services in their 
behalf earned their gratitude and esteem. At one time they 
journeyed to Minneapolis, covering his .yard with their tepees, 
that they might express their thanks and friendship to their 
"good father" as they called him. Mr. Shillock was finally 
compelled to retire frimi professional activities through the 
loss of his hearing some three or four years before his leath 
which occurred August 7, 1878. He was a Democrat and as 
a lawyer and citizen was held in the highest regard by all 
with whom he came in contact, for ability, integrity and 
efficient Service in every activity of Ife. He gave most care- 
ful personal attention to the education of his children, making 
his home on the east side that they might have all the 
advantages of the university life and providing his daughters 
with a governess. Mrs. Shillock survived her husband a num- 
ber of years and died in 1910, aged eighty-five years. Through- 
out her life she had steadily developed and used her musical 
genius and continued her literary pursuits, taking a prominent 
part in the concerts given in the old Academy of Music and 
organizing two literary clubs, one of them a German club. 
She divided her interest between (Jerman, French and English 
literature, but in the latter years would give her attention 
only to modern thought and writings, keeping her mind open 
to the liberal and broad ideas of the day and possessing a 
remarkable mental vitality until her death. She was a mem- 
ber of the Unitarian church. Three children survive, Mary, 
who is the Countess Sen'uyi of Stuttgart, Germany; Lieuten- 
ant Colonel Paul Shillock of the United States Army, retired 
meilical corps; and Anna, instructor of (ierman in the East 
High School of Minneapolis. Lieutenant Colonel Shillock 
entered the army in 1888 and saw valiant service during tin- 
war with Spain and also served on the medical staff in the 



524 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Philippines. Miss Anna Shillock is well known through the 
many years of her capable service on the teaching force of 
the East High School where she has had charge of the depart- 
ment of German language since 1889. She graduated from 
the state university in 1888 and thereafter attended the Uni- 
versities of Heidelberg and Berlin and in 1898 received the 
master's degree from the University of Minnesota. Miss 
Shillock is a member of the German club and the College 
Woman's club. 



PETER J. SCHEID. 



Peter J. Scheid, a prominent and successful builder and 
contractor, was born in St. Anthony February 7, 1859. and is 
a son of Peter and Katharine (Spiegler) Scheid, who were 
born in Germany, married in Lockport, New York, and came 
to St. Anthony in 1856. The father was a millwright and 
helped to build the early mills working at his trade until 1867, 
when he located on a farm in Golden Valley, near Minneapolis, 
the village of Golden Valley standing partially on what was 
his farm. / 

He continued to work as a millwright, in connection with his 
farming operations until his death at Golden Valley April 13, 
1903, at the age of sixty-nine years, having survived his 
wife, who died in 1893. He was a Democrat and served some 
years as village treasurer. During the Civil war he worked 
for the Government as a carpenter; but, frequently, was 
pressed into service in the field. He and his wife belonged to 
the Catholic church. They had five children. Katharine is 
now the wife of S. D. Nettleton. of Minneapolis. John, who 
was a market gardener, and served ten or twelve years as 
president of Golden Valley, died in 1907. Peter .J. is the 
third child in the order of birth. Matthias is a grocer in 
Minneapolis, and Joseph is a farmer at Golden Valley, owning 
and cultivating the old family homestead. He also has served 
as president of the village and in various other local ofEcea. 

Peter J. Scheid remained at home until the age of nineteen. 
He learned the trade of carpenter, working in Minneapolis 
for six years, most of the time as a contractor in the erection 
of buildings. He then opened a grocery store at 1400 Second 
street north, which he conducted for twelve years. Since 
retiring from mercantile life he has lieen engaged principally 
in buying and improving property by the construction of several 
dwelling houses. He has been very successful in this line 
of endeavor, and has thereby aided extensively and sub- 
stantially in expanding and building up the city. 

In political affairs Mr. Scheid leans strongly to the principles 
and policies of the Democratic party, but, in local elections 
he is independent, considering only the abiding welfare of his 
community. He takes a cordial interest in general business 
affairs and is a director of the German-American Bank. At the 
age of twenty-four he was married in Minneapolis to Miss 
Margaret Hoffman, daughter of Henry HolTman, formerly a 
grocer and carpenter and bviilder in this city, locating here 
among the early arrivals. His wife was formerly Miss Kath- 
arine BolTerding. 

In the deer hunting seasons of the last twenty-five years 
Mr. Scheid has made hunting trips into the Northern part 
of the state, principally to Aitkin and Itasca counties. From 
these excursions he has brought home many trophies, a number 
of which have been mounted. His trips are made in the 



company of a number of congenial companions, the regulars 
of the party being, besides himself, N. Brown, Henry Keller, 
Joseph Dupont, Thomas Eastman, John Scheid, S, D, Nelder 
and Fred Keller. A photograph taken in 1903 shows this 
group standing near twenty-four deer suspended on one long 
pole. While this is a very creditable representation of the 
party's prowess, it is not far in excess of what these gentlemen 
usually achieve when they go forth into the wilds. 



WALTER H. THORP. 



Walter H. Thorp, president of the Thorp Fire Proof Door 
company, was born at Three Rivers, Michigan, .July 19, 1874, 
the son of Darius D. and Helen A. Thorp. He spent his boy- 
hood in Detroit, attended the city schools and for a time 
was secretary to the manager of the Detroit water works 
board. He graduated from the University of Michigan, with 
the class of 1896. In July following he came to Minneapolis 
and became identified with the Fire Proof Door company, and 
applied himself to the mastering of all the details of the 
business from the mechanical department to the office man- 
agement. In 1900 he bought the industry, which then became 
the Thorp Fire Proof Door company and which has developed 
into one of the leading manufacturing enterprises of Minne- 
apolis, with a large market throughout this country and 
Canada. The plant was removed in 1907 from F'ourth street 
to its present location at 1600-1618 Central avenue where it 
'occupies a large factory equipped with modern machinery and 
employs 150 skilled workmen in the construction of a door 
designed to complete the efficiency of the fire proof partitions 
used in modern structures. As pioneers in this field the com- 
pany has met with marked success and a rapidly increasing 
demand. They have agents in most of the larger cities: and. 
among the well known buildings in which they have installed 
the doors are: Macey's in New York, Wanamaker's, Phila- 
delphia; the Baltimore & Ohio Building, Baltimore; the Lowry 
building, St. Paul; and the Plymouth building and Raddison 
hotel in Minneapolis. Aside from his prominent relation to 
this industry, Mr. Thorp is president of the Minneajiolis Knit- 
ting Works. He was vice president of the Civic and Commerce 
Association. He holds membership in a number of the leading 
social organizations of the city including the Auto, the Rotary, 
the University, the Commercial and the New Boston Commer- 
cial clubs and the Builders Exchange. Mr. Thorp was married 
in 1904 to Mi"s. Vivian Stanley Rodgers. Their only child is 
Helen Stanley Thorp. 



.JOSEPH F. LEE. 



Attaining to the patriarchal age of ninety-four years and 
eight days, the late Joseph F. Lee was one of the sterling 
and honored pioneers of Minnesota and for more than half a 
century he maintained his home in Minneapolis, where his 
death occurred on the 3d of March, 1910. He did well his 
part in connection with the development of the fine city that 
was his home for so many years and through his judicious 
investments in local realty he became possessed of a fortune 
of about one-half million dollars. 




•O.r . LEE 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND ITF.XNEPIX COINTY. MINNESOTA 



525 



Mr. Lee was born in Detford, Kngliiml, on the 23d of i'eb- 
ruiiry, 1S16, and was leaicd and educated in his native land, 
where he learned the trade of boot and shoo maker and 
where, in 1843, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Sarah 
Ann Parslow, who survives him and who is venerable in 
years. In 1857 Mr. Lee left his native land and came to 
America and he became sulliciently impressed with its ad- 
vantages to return to Kughind for his wife and children, who 
soon afterward accompanied him on his second voyage to 
America. He resided for a time on Long Island, New York, 
and about the year 1859 lie came with his family to Minne- 
sota and numbered himself among the pioneers of Minne- 
apolis. He settled at St. Anthony before that section of the 
present Xorth side of Minneapolis had been in the least de- 
veloped, and during the long intervening period of more than 
half a century he continued to reside in Minneapolis. For a 
long time he conducted a boot and shoe shop on Bridge 
Square, and he found ample demand upon his expert services 
in the manufacturing of boots and shoes for all classes of 
citizens. He gained special reputation in making the old- 
time copper-toed and red-topped boots that were the pride 
of the boys of the time. An interesting diary which he kept 
in the early days gives information concerning the leading 
Minneapolis citizens of fifty years ago and also mentions 
many youngsters whom he knew in the early days and who 
attained to positions of prominence in the community. 

At an early period of his residence in Minneapolis Mr. Lee 
began to make well ordered investments in local real estate, 
especially land adjacent to the railway lines. This property, 
much of which eventually became demanded for railroad pur- 
poses, greatly increased in value with the passing years, and 
through the medium of such investments Mr. Lee realized a 
substantial competency. 'Vith his cherished and devoted 
wife he passed the closing period of his life in the modest 
but attractive house wliich was their place of abode for more 
than a quarter of a century, this homestead, in which they 
reared their children, having been situated at 227 Seventh 
avenue north. Mr. Lee was a Democrat in politics and was 
a consistent communicant of the Cliurch of England, as is 
also his venerable widow, the latter being held in affectionate 
regard by all who have come within the sphere of her gentle 
influence. Mrs. Lee is ninety-one years of age at the time of 
this writing, in 1914. Of the eight children two died before 
attaining adult age. and concerning the others brief record is 
consistently given in the following paragraph: 

Annie E. is the wife of Edwin E. Nourse, of Minneapolis, 
who is here actively identified with the lumber business, 
and they have four children, — Edwin E., Jr., Viola May, 
Maude E., and Leon F. Hannah P. is the wife of Peter 
Schuck, a representative business man of Minneapolis, and 
their children are: Lillian, Carrie, Myrtle, Viola and Lee, 
the eldest daughter, Lillian, being now the wife of Harry 
Johnson. Georgia P. is the wife of Charles Kleopfert, of 
^linneapolis, and they have four children, — Carrie, Ruth and 
Grace Esther. Albert Lee, the next in order of birth, be- 
came a .successful and popular business man of Minneapolis, 
where he whs engaged in llie retail cigar and tobacco trade 
at the time of his death, which occurred on the 23d of 
August, 1912, the date of his birth having been November 
17, 1871. On the 10th of November, 1910, Albert Lee wedde* 
Miss Delia Schmidt, of Winona, this state, and she survives 
him, no children having been born of this union. Sarah 
became the wife of Charles M. Hazelton and her death oc- 



curred Se[)teniber 28, 1905, her children being Jennie, Chester 
A. and Earl E. Frank J. Lee died in 1907 and is survived 
by one daughter. Myrtle. 



GARKETT .1. SOMSEX. 



The late Garrett J. Somsen, who died in Minneapolis, October 
3, 1912, had been a resident of Minnesota for many years and 
of the city for twenty-three. He was successful in business, 
wide awake and progressive in advancing the progress and 
improvement of his home city, elevated in his citizenship, 
and devoted to American institutions, although not a native 
.\nierican, having come to Minnesota with his parents from 
Holland as a lad of nine years. 

He grew to manhood on a farm near New L'lm. Minn., and 
acquired his education in the common school. He operated 
as a horse dealer for a time, then went to Lime Spring. Iowa, 
where he was engaged in merchandising until 1890, when 
he came to Minneapolis to give his sons better educational 
facilities. He became a produce dealer, especially in butter 
and eggs, continuing as such for a number of years. The 
latter part of his life was devoted largely to buying and 
selling land, a;id by general sound ju<lgment and good manage- 
ment he accumulated a handsome estate. 

I<"or some years after leaving Lime Spring. Mr. Somsen 
retained the ownership of his stores there, and also acquired 
two farms in Minesot.a and large acreage in the Dakotas, 
Canada, and the Panhandle of Texas. He kept the greater 
part of his own land until a short time before his death, 
when he sold a considerable quantity, as well as the Iowa 
property, retaining, however, his Minnesota and North Dakota 
farms.. 

Mr. Somsen was married to Miss Emma CuUen, and they 
had two sons, Henry and Stephen. Both were graduated from 
the law department of the University of Minnesota, and 
Henry began practicing in the office of John Lind, in New 
LTlm. Mr. Lind was an old friend of the family, and when 
he was elected Governor turned much of his practice over to 
young Mr. Somsen, who is now city attorney. 

Stephen Somsen is in the firm of Brown, Abbott & Somsen, 
in Winona. He is a capable and energetic lawyer: his services 
are particularly valuable in the management of outside busi- 
ness, and he is often sent to the Eastern cities and even to 
Ein-ope; to attend to important legal matters. 

In ]?95 the senior Mr. Somsen married Miss Anna Marsh, 
who was an esteemed friend of the family in Iowa, his first 
wife and mother of his sons having passed away some years 
before. Jlr. Somsen was a zealous member of Olivet Pn'sby- 
terian church, an excellent citizen, and had great faith in the 
future of the imperial Northwest. 



PROFF^SOR MARIA L. SANFORD. 

Citizens in all parfs' of Minnesota, and alumni and students 
of its great University in many parts of the United States 
and some of other countries, fully realize and cheerfully 
acknowledge that Professor Maria L. Sanford is "the best 
known and best loved woman in Minnesota." For almost 
thirty years she was a teacher in the State University, and 



526 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



for more than half a century connected with the teaching 
faculty of the country, giving to the public in continuous ex- 
tent and an exalted degree of untiring and unselfish service 
that few have either the strength or the opportunity to give. 

Maria L. Sanford was born in Saybrook, Connecticut, Decem- 
ber 19, 1836, into a family of three daughters and one son. 
She attended a country school in her home town until she was 
eleven, when the family moved to near Meriden, three miles 
distant from the academy in that city. But during the three 
terms of her 14th and 15th year she attended the academy, 
walking the distance to and from the school, and helping 
her mother with the housework nights and mornings. By 
heroic determination and self-sacrifice she was able to pursue 
the three years' course at the New Britain Normal School. 
She was employed five years as a teacher in her home town 
and other Connecticut towns. During the next five years she 
taught in the grade schools of New Haven, where she made a 
new home for her invalid mother and younger brother, and did 
all the housework in it. 

From the end of that period her record as a teacher covers 
continuous activity and many fields of labor, including Middle- 
field, Connecticut; Parkersville, Coatesville, and Swathmore 
College, Pennsylvania, and the University of Minnesota, while 
her activity on the platform as a lecturer and in the pulpit 
as a preacher, has taken her to almost numberless places in 
many far apart localities. In Coatesville she was superin- 
tendent of schools and principal of the high school; at Swath- 
more College she was Professor of History for ten years; 
and in the University of Minnesota she was Professor of 
Rhetoric and Public Speaking. Her work here began in 1880 
and continued to 1909, when she was retired, on a Carnegie 
pension. 

Miss Sanford has been a great living and inspiring force on 
the lecture platform, and also a profoundly impressive preacher 
of the gospel in the Christian pulpit. During the more than 
twenty-nine years of her connection with the University she 
averaged at least one lecture a week, in addition to her 
school work and preaching, and in doing this always, when it 
was possible, traveled at night so as to be in her classroom 
on time in the morning. She has also been potential in the 
work of forest conservation; she started the anti-spitting 
crusade and the movement for the removal of ladies' hats in 
public places, and helped to organize the Improvement League 
in Minneapolis, which has brought about great activity in 
cleaning streets and alleys, beautifying boulevards, keeping 
weeds cut on vacant lots, and raising flowers on the grounds 
of homes. Her interest in elevating work of this character 
and her great kindness of heart are strikingly shown by one 
incident in her history. Some years ago she moved into a 
new neighborhood. There the boys stole lier apples, and when 
she found out who they were she gave them apple trees to 
plant for themselves, and she also gave roses and other plants 
to everybody in the neighborhood who was willing to pay a 
small price for them, and that whole neighborhood now has a 
fine showing of apple trees and flowers. One resident has 
declared that "Miss Sanford has done more for the good of 
the neighborhood in five years titan all the good it received in 
the preceding twenty-five years put together." 

Miss Sanford has always been actively interested in the 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the Young Women's 
Christian Association and the work of the Northwestern 
Hospital, although .she has not found it possible to be a regular, 
active member of anv club. With all her interests and duties 



away from home, her work at home has never been neglected. 
From the time when, as a young girl, she made a home for her 
mother and small brother, she has always had some one or 
more of her own family with her. She has made a home 
for orphaned nieces and nephews, and within the last few 
years has made one for two grand nephews and a grand niece 
from Syria. 

This record of the life of a genuinely heroic woman is 
necessarily brief and fragmentary, but it is enough to beget 
and stimulate a more extended inquiry into the years of service 
it but suggests. Such an inquiry will lead to admiration for 
the noble womanhood the story embodies, as well as for the 
immense and long continued usefulness of its subject. It 
will show that with all the far extended and intense popularity 
Miss Sanford Justly enjoys she is entirely without ostentation 
in her home, her dress or her manners. The plain living and 
high thinking of her Puritan ancestors have been nobly exem- 
plified in her life work, and her practical common sense, 
delightful liumor and rare social charm have redeemed them 
from ruggedness and given them grace and beauty beyond tlie 
power of art to compass or words to fitly and fully express. 



VADER HARMANUS VAN SLYKE. 

Vader Harmanus Van Slyke, the president of the Metropoli- 
tan National Bank, was born in Eureka township, Dakota 
County, Minnesota, on April 21, 1864, and is a son of Vader 
G. and Isabella Ann (Clague) Van Slyke, the former a native 
of Ft. Plane, N. Y., and the latter of the Isle of Man. Tlie 
son was educated in the public schools at Hastings, Minnesota, 
and at Carleton College, Northfield. In 1884 he began his 
banking career in Western Minnesota, where he remained, so 
occupied, until 1888. From that year until 1896 he handled 
farm mortgages and life insurance, and from 1896 to May, 
1907, he was state manager of Minnesota for the Union Central 
Life Insurance company of Cincinnati, Ohio, with headquarters 
in Minneapolis, Since the date last mentioned he has been 
president of the Metropolitan National Bank, which has pros- 
pered greatly under his management of its affairs and through 
his influence. 

In politics Mr. Van Slyke is a Republican, but he has never 
sought or desired a political office. His religious connection is 
with the Protestant Episcopal Church ; fraternally he is a 
Free Mason of high rank including membership in the Mystic 
Shrine, and in club association he belongs to the Minikahda 
Club; the Interlachen Country Club, the Elks Club and the 
Commercial of Minneapolis. September 7, 1898, Mr. Van Slyke 
was married at Kimbolton, Ohio, to Miss Ella M. Yoe, who then 
resided in that city. He manifests his cordial and serviceable 
interest in the commiinity of his home by zealous activity in 
behalf of its progress and improvment and the welfare of its 
residents, and is esteemed as one of its most useful, progressive 
and representative business men and citizens. 



MARCUS MILLER. 



Living in retirement at his pleasant home. 1610 Lowry 
avenue, after a residence of thirty-eight years in Minneapolis, 
Marcus Miller can look back over his long term of usefulness 
in this community with satisfaction. 





C2^7i>^^^^ ^^^^>^^^ 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNPiSOTA 



527 



Mr. Miller was born in Schaffhausen Canton, Switzerland, 
December 14, 1854. In 1868, he came to tliis country with 
his older brother, Henry, expecting to join him in business 
in Philadelphia. Later he went to Chicago, and was in that 
city at the time of the great fire of October, 1871. Soon 
afterward he moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he finished 
learning his trade as a butcher, which he had begun in 
Philadelphia. 

In 1875. while he was still a little less than twenty-one, 
Mr. Miller became a resident of Minneapolis, and here he 
has ever since had his home. In 1878 his brother Henry 
followed him to this city and engaged in the meat trade for 
himself. Marcus worked two years for A. L. Sump, at 117 
Washington Avenue North, then at 308 same avenue, started 
a meat market of his own, which he called the Philadelphia 
market and which he conducted five or six years, part of 
the time at a stand directly opposite on the same street, 
whicli he bought and' took possession of in about 1880. 

In 18S:! he built the block in which the Jlinneapolis Packing 
Company is now located. He started this company and con- 
ducted all its operations until about 1907, when he retired 
from all active pursuits, turning the affairs of the Company 
over to his three sons. Wliile in charge of tl>e business lie 
liad branch markets at different places in the citj', one on 
Western avenue, wliere lie owned tlie property. For fifteen 
years he slaughtered his own stock in his own slaughter 
house, located on a five-acre tract of land on which his resi- 
dence now stands. 

During the decade of 1880 he butchered on an average a 
carload of cattle a week. He supplied meat to hotels and 
restaurants all along the lines of travel into and through 
Dakota, making a specialty of railroad and eating-house trade 
outside of the city. Locally he always had a large retail 
trade, and this his sons still have; some of the customers of 
the market having been such for thirty years. The business 
was started on a small capital and at a time when money 
was very scarce. But prudent management carried it safely 
until it lias become one of the leaders in its line in the 
Xorthwest. 

Wliile Mr. Miller confined himself mainly to the meat 
business he also gave attention to other lines as opportunities 
presented themselves. He is a stockholder in the (ierman 
American Hank of Minneapolis, and he lias done a very 
creditable amount of building to the advantage of the city as 
well as his own. He has put up apartment houses, separate 
residences, and store buildings, and has al.so taken an earnest 
and practical interest in other lines of improvement. Some 
twenty years ago, however, his party thrust upon him its 
nomination for the office of alderman from his ward. At the 
election he was defeated by eight votes, for which he has 
ever since been thankful. 

December 1, 1879, Mr. Miller was married in Minneapolis to 
Miss Louisa V. Korn, a daughter of the late Adam Korn, a 
well known resident of this city, and for many years pro- 
prietor of the old Crow River hotel, on First Street between 
First and Second Avenues North. He brought his family to 
Minneapolis from Buffalo, New York, in 1857, and afterward 
moved to Rockford, Minnesota, where he was the first post- 
master. Mrs. Miller is the only daughter of her father's 
family. When she was 13 they returned to this city, and 
then the father opened the hotel, which he kept for fifteen 
years. He died in 1900. at the age of 65. 

Mr. and Mrs. Miller have three sons and three daughters 



living. Otto G., the oldest son, is at the head of his father's 
former business house, the Minneapolis Packing Company, 
and Marcus, ,Ir., and Walter H. are associated with him. 
Klizabeth is the wife of J. J. Boyd, who is in the commission 
business for himself. Louise is the widow of Dr. A. E. Brim- 
mer, of this city, and Bertha is the wife of Earl Coe, a prom- 
inent fruit grower at White Salmon, State of Washington. 
All the members of the family arc connected with Fremont 
Congregational church. 

Mr. Miller is a member of the Order of Elks, th.' Itoyal 
Arcanum, the Modern Woodmen and the Royal I^eague. He 
has been "up to date" in other ways. Raised the fastest 
ice pacer ever bred in Minneapolis, and was one of the first 
men in the city to own an automobile. Since coming to the 
I'nited States he has visited his old home in Switzerland 
twice; his wife accompanied him on both trips. 



GEORGE HENRY TENNANT. 

Mr. Teniiaiit was born on .luly 31, 1845, in County Clare, 
Ireland, where his forefatliers were domesticated for many 
generations. When he was but one year old he was brought 
by his parents to this country and found a new home in the 
state of New York, where he grew to manhood, obtained his 
education and made himself useful during his boyhood and 
youth by working on his father's farm and in his father's 
shingle mill, and doing whatever else presented itself as re- 
quiring attention and effort. 

When he came to Miniieaiiolis in 1866, Mr. Tenant was just 
about twenty-one. He began working here in an old shingle 
mill on the Falls, which also had a saw mill in joint opera- 
tion with it. At the end of the second season passed in this 
mill he moved to St. Louis and there started a wooden cave 
spout factory. This he operated two years, then returned to 
Minneapolis. In this city, on May 15. 1870, he was united 
in marriage with Miss Sarah Elizabeth Blakeney, a daughter 
of Mrs. .lane Blakeney. who is still living and is now eighty- 
four years of age. She was born and reared in the provini-e 
of New Brunswick, Canada, and came to Minneapolis to live 
in 1865. She came with her hsuband, who died of tubercu- 
losis two years later. After his death she sold the farm 
at Eden Prairie on which he died, and came to Minneapolis 
where she reared her family of eight children, the oldest of 
whom was eighteen when the father died, and was the only 
one able to render her any assistance in the arduous work of 
providing for the household. 

The three daughters who are still living resitie in Minne- 
a|>olis: Eliza, who is the wife of A. W. (iriswold; .Margaret, 
who married M. A. Cribb, and Sarah Elizabeth, who is Mrs. 
Tennant. Only two of the sons are living, .lohn S. and 
William S. Blakeney. Both are residents of Milwaukee. The 
oldait son died in his boyhood. The. mother became connectod 
with the Central Baptist church soon after her arrival in 
.Minneapolis and still belongs to it. She has long been active 
in all church and church society work. Notwithstjinding her 
advanced age and the struggles and privations through whieh 
she has passed she is well preserved, and throughout the oity 
she is well known and most highly esteemed. 

After his return from St. Louis. Mr. Tennant was made 
foreman of a planing mill at the Kails, and continiieil to fill 
that position two or three years. At the end of that time 



528 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



he started a planing mill of his own at the Falls, and after- 
ward conducted another in North Minneapolis on the West 
Side, and still later he operated a third on the East Side near 
the site now occupied by Messrs. Barnard & Cope. Ross 
Russell, the son of R. P. Russell, was in partnership with him 
in these enterprises. He suffered heavy losses by fire, but 
immediately reorganized his business, and prepared to carry 
it on in greater proportions than before. 

Later he followed the lumber mills to Thirteenth and Cen- 
tral avenues and located on the site of the present Andrew 
Carlson factory. Mr. Carlson had been one of his employes 
for some years and he wished to help him to a business of 
his own be'cause of his fidelity. Another fire swept over 
the Tennant plant, and Mr. Tennant then sold Mr. Carlson all 
the machinery in it that had not been badly damaged by the 
fire, and in this way the present large enterprise of Mr. Carl- 
ison was started. 

After his second fire, which was not as disastrous to him 
as the first, Mr. Tennant established the present plant of 
the Tennant business at 920 Sixth avenue southeast. Circum- 
stances led him to begin dealing in hardwood products, and 
his mill was gradually converted into a hardwood floor fac- 
tory, the first one ever conducted in this city. Mr. Tennant 
designed new machinery to meet the requirements of the 
hardwood flooring work, and his business grew rapidly to 
great magnitude. He began making hardwood flooring about 
1900, and on August 3, 1908, he was once more burned out. 
The buildings were of wood and the insurance rates very 
high. So he was not carrying much insurance at the time of 
the fire, and the plant was wholly destroyed, as was also a 
large amount of stock, one warehouse alone containing $20,000 
worth. The fire occurred on the day of a picnic, which he 
and most of the membei"s of the fire department attended, 
and but one of his warehouses was saved. The rest of the 
property was a total ruin. 

Mr. Tennant was then past fifty years of age. But with 
all the energy of his youth he immediately set about rebuild- 
ing his factory of brick, and in Sixty days had it in full 
operation. He was a staunch Republican in politics, but he 
never sought prominence politically or an oflace of any kind. 
He gave his attention strictly to his business until about six 
weeks before his death, taking no vacations, but enjoying 
considerable relaxation at his summer home at Wildhurst, on 
Lake Minnetonka. 

Mr. Tennant wa-s a Baptist in religious faith, and for thirty 
years Served as one of the trustees of Olivet Baptist church, 
and for many years as its treasurer. Fraternally he was a 
Freemason of high degree — a Knight Templar and a Noble 
of the Mystic Shrine. He belonged to old Cataract Lodge in 
the fraternity and for many years was its treasurer. The 
lodge presented him with a handsome testimonial for his 
fidelity and ability in serving it, and when he died his re- 
mains were buried with Masonic ceremonies. He was also 
a charter member and one of the directors of the St. Anthony 
Commercial club. Through life he was a very benevolent 
man, and always very modest and reticent about his contri- 
butions for the relief of others. 

Mr. and Mrs. Tennant were the parents of three children. 
Their son William, their first born, died at the age of seven- 
teen. The two daughters are living. Grace M. is the wife of 
Charles E. Adams, a lawyer in Duluth. Lois A. is the wife 
of E. McMaster Pennock, vice president and general manager 
of the 0. H. Tennant company, Mr. Tennant's former business, 



which he had incorporated before his death. Mrs. Tennant 
lives with Mr. and Mrs. Pennock at 2206 Doswald avenue, 
St. Anthony Park. 



ROBERT W. TURNBULL. 



Robert W. Turnbull was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, Eng- 
land, on the 28th of January, 1834, and his death occurred, 
with slight premonitory illness, at Bowden, North Carolina, 
on Sunday morning, March 28, 1909, — two months subse- 
quent to his seventy-fifth birthday anniversary. In his na- 
tive land Mr. Turnbull was reared to the age of fifteen 
years and he then accompanied his parents on their immi- 
gration to America, the family home being established in 
the province of Ontario, Canada, whence, a few years later, 
he removed to the state of Michigan. Mr. Turnbull gained 
his early educational discipline in England and supplemented 
the same by somewhat irregular attendance in the schools 
of Canada, though his broad and liberal education was prin- 
cipally the result of self-application and the experience gained 
in the course of a long and Signally useful career. In 
Michigan Mr. Turnbull became identified with the lumber 
industry at the time when in this line that state held pre- 
cedence over all other sections of the Union. His energy and 
ability enabled him to make substantial progress toward the 
goal of definite success and he became one of the representa- 
tive factors in connection with the great lumbering operations 
in Michigan, where he operated mills at Muskegon and Big 
Rapids during the years immediately following the Civil war 
and when that section of the state was the center of the 
most extensive lumbering operations in the United States. 
During this period he was also an interested principal in the 
operation of a large mill at Manistee, ilr. Turnbull continued 
his residence in Michigan until 1882, when he removed with 
his family to San Jose, California, but in the following 
year he establshed his permanent residence in Mimieapolis, 
Minnesota. Here he became one of the original stockholders 
and executives of the Itasca Lumber Company, in which he 
owned one-third of the stock. He disposed of his interest in 
this compaify a few yeais later, and was engaged in the manu- 
factiiring of lumber at Stillwater, the judicial 'center of 
Washington county, though still retaining his residence in 
Minneapolis. The mill at Stillwater was erected in 1885 and 
he became a factor in the dcvclo])ment of a large and pros- 
perous lumbering business. In ISDl Mr. Turnbull's only Son, 
Albert R., became associated with him in the prosecution of 
this business, under the firm name of R. W. Turnbull & Son. 
and in connection with the mill at Stillwater they also 
operated, for one year, the Plymouth mill, in Minneapolis. 
The mill and business at Stillwater were sold by the firm in 
1904, and Mr. Turnbull, basing his plans upon his broad and 
intimate experience, decided to continue lumbering in a field 
where timber resources were of adequate order to justify 
operations upon an extensive Scale. In 1906 he and his son 
purchased all of the stock of the Rowland Lumber Com- 
pany, with mills at Bowden, North Carolina, and general 
offices at Norfolk, Virginia. Of the 'company Robert W. 
Turnbull became president, an office of which he continued 
the incumbent until the close of his life, about three years 
later. His son became secretarj', treasurer and general man- 
ager of the company, and since the death of the father has 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



529 



been president of the corporation, the stork of which is all 
in the hands of the TurnbuU family. Operations are con- 
tinued upon an extensive scale and have fully justitied the 
confidence and judgment of the veteran lumberman who as- 
sumed control of the business in company with his son, the 
latter proving a most able and progressive coadjutor and 
one well equipped for carrying forward the enterprise since 
the death of his honored father. The company controls e.\- 
tensive tracts of choice timber land in North Carolina, the 
supply of timber being sufficient to permit and justify ex- 
tensive manufacturing operations for many years. The com- 
pany owns it's own railway lines, for the facile handling of 
logs and products, and also owns at tidewater, two hundred 
miles distant from the mills, adequate dock facilities, in tlie 
city of Norfolk, Virginia, so that it commands the markets of 
the world in its sale of lumber. The manufacturing plant is 
one of the largest in the south and the business, as etreetively 
advanced by Albert R. TurnbuU, constitutes one of the most 
important industries of Nortli Carolina. 

In the year 1900, Robert \V. TurnbuU erected at 27:!0 
Park avenue, Minneapolis, one of the many fine residences 
in that attractive section of the city, and licre his widow 
still maintains her home. The domestic chapter in the life 
history of Mr. TurnbuU was one of ideal order, and his devo- 
tion to his family and home was of the most insistent and 
appreciative type, with every relation and association of 
the most idyllic order. He was reared in the faith of the Eng- 
lish or Protestant Episcopal church, but in tlie later years 
of his life attended services of the Central Baptist cluirch in 
Minneapolis with utmost regularity, his widow being a 
devout member of this church. One of the dominating cliar- 
acteristics of Mr. TurnbuU was his abiding interest in 
struggling young men, and many successful and honored 
men to-day are ready to do him honor and to accord lasting 
gratitude for the advice and tangible aid given by him. At 
the time of his death an appreciative tribute appeared in 
the Mississippi Valley Lumberman, and the article closed 
with the following words: "He was a genial, whole-souled 
gentleman whose loss will be keenly felt, not only by his 
family but also by a large circle of friends and neighbors. 

At Port Huron, Michigan, in the year 1865, was solemnized 
the marriage of Jlr. TurnbuU to Miss Julia A. Wilson, w-ho 
was born at Ann Arbor, that state, and who is a representa- 
tive of one of the honored pioneer families of Michigan. 
Mr. and Mrs. TurnbuU became tlie parents of four children, 
aU of whom survive the honored father. — Minnie A.. Minerva 
A., Rosa Bell and Albert R. The only son has the general 
management of the business of the Rowland Lumber Com- 
pany, in North Carolina, as has already been stated. He 
wedded Miss Lucy Gale, daughter of A. F. Gale, of Minne- 
apolis. 



MRS. THOiL\S B. WALKER. 

Mre. Walker was born in Brunswick. Medina county, Ohio, 
on September 10, 1841, and is a daughter of Eletdu'r and 
Kannie (Granger) Hulet, who were luitives of AFassachusetts 
and descended from good old English stock. Her paternal 
grandfather, .Jolm Hulet, was a soldier in the Revolutionary 
war and fought in the battle of Bunker Hill; and his father, 
also named .Tohn llulet, was a zealous patron of Methodism 



and is said to liave built the first Methodist Episcopal church 
edifice erected in Massachusetts. 

When Harriet Granger Hulet (now Mrs. Walker) was six 
years old, her parents moved to Berea, Ohio, in order to secure 
for their children the educational advantages offered by Bald- 
win University. Tliere their daughter Harriet grew to woman- 
hood, remaining in her father's household until her marriage, 
and cultivating her natural gifts for vocal and instrumental 
music and her love of languages, through which she became 
mistress of the Latin, the Greek and the (ierman tongues. 
She was also a frequent contributor to periodicals, and her 
early ambition was to write a famous book. Her ambition 
in this direction has never been realized, but her literary tastes 
and ability have found vital and fruitful expression in lectures 
and addresses in behalf of her numerous philanthropies. 

In 1856 Miss Hulet became acquainted with Mr. Walker. 
They were in school together, and later, when Mr. Walker 
was employed as traveling salesman, the daughter was her 
father's bookkeeper and secretary, and so tliere was ample 
opportunity for frequent and continued intercourse between 
the young couple. Their ac(|iuiintance ripened into a more 
tender feeling, and on November 19. 1863. after an engage- 
ment lasting five years, they were married in her home city 
of Berea, Ohio. Mr. Walker then came on to St. Anthony 
and prepared the way for establishing a home here, after 
which he sent for his bride. Six years later he built a new 
residence in Miimeapolis. at Ninth street and First avenue 
south, which was then so far up and out of town that he 
felt obliged to keep a horse for transportation between the 
city and his home. 

During the first twelve years of her married life Mrs. 
Walker devoted her energies to her growing family and gave 
little time to any work outside her home. Her husband was 
engaged in surveying for the government and the new rail- 
roads planned for this region, and was absent from home for 
months at a time. Their means were limited, too, and the 
letters that passed between them reached their destinations 
with difficulty. In addition to her burdens, of privations and 
responsibilities, the constant danger of Indian outbreaks in 
the region where her husband was working gave Mrs. Walker 
a heavy and continual weight of uneasiness to bear. Hut she 
accepted her lot with fortitude and cheerfulness, and per- 
formed her every duty with fidelity. 

About the end of the period mentioned above, Jlrs. Walker 
began to observe closely the condition of the poor and the 
oppressed, and to engage in active work for their relief and 
betterment. Since then her philanthropies have been so 
numerous, far-reaching and voluminous, that only a brief 
sumniary of them can be given here. She has founded be- 
nevolent and helpful institutions and established them on 
pernnment bases, investing considerable sums of nioiu>y in 
their maintenance and development. These institutions an- 
nually give succor in sickness and misl'ortiine to hundreds of 
men. women and children, and do it in the quiet and unosten- 
tatious way which true benevolence always seeks to follow. 

Afis. Walker was a member of the first organization of the 
Women's Christian Association of Minneapolis, which at the 
time of its inception was given the care of all the poor of the 
community. A few years later she joined with other ladies 
in organizing and numaging the Sisterhood of Bethany, an 
association for the care of erring women and their infant 
chihiren. which has become a wonderful power for good 
thr(iM"h<int the whole Northwest. She has served as its 



530 



HISTOKY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



secretary or president since its organization thirty-five years 
ago. Oiii of this institution grew the Northwestern Hospital 
Association, which was organized to care for the worthy poor 
who are ill. Mrs. Walker has been its president from the 
beginning of its history. The association began operations 
without a dollar in cash or credit. Its hospital was started 
in a poorly furnished house, and its facilities were meager, 
primitive and of very limited utility. Today this hospital 
is fully equipped and skilfully conducted, it has capacity for 
one hundred patients and carries on a training school for 
imrses with thirty pupils. The buildings are now free of 
debt and the association has an endowment fund of $40,000. 
Since 1901 the hospital has been open for men as well as 
women. The success and growth of this institution alone is 
sufficient to fix Mrs. Walker's fame as a lady of great business 
ability and strong devotion to the service of her fellow beings 
who are in need. 

Other philanthropies with which this noble woman has been 
actively connected are the Women's Christian Union, the 
Newsboys' Home, the Kindergarten Association and the chil- 
dren's Home, the last named being an outgrowth of the Sister- 
hood of Bethany. In her temperance work she conducted 
meetings in lier church and publislied the data she gathered 
in tracts. This and her lecture on the Keeley cure for in- 
ebriates, which she read at the World's Temperance confer- 
ence at the Columbian E.\position, have been widely copied and 
distributed in this country and many others. Her philan- 
thropic work is done systematically. She has regular office 
hours and employs a stenographer to assist her. 

One of the most beneficial results of Mrs. Walkers' great 
public spirit and intense devotion to the wants of the needy, 
especially of her own sex. is the establishment of police ma- 
tronship in connection with the city government of Minne- 
apolis. Through investigations in the Eastern cities she be- 
came fully convinced years ago that all women prisoners in 
the tustody of the police ought to be under the care of a 
woman. Great opposition was encountered to the movement 
for this beneficent reform when she started it, but she was 
not to be called off or frowned down, either by ^ the police 
authorities or by other Christian workers who did not ap- 
prove of the suggestion. She kept warm in the pursuit of her 
purpose, and through her persistent and well directed etforts 
the office was established. The police could not but know 
her singleness of desire and loftiness of aim in the matter, 
for she had long been on call at their headquarters at any 
time of the day or night for the assistance of young women 
and girls. 

In emergencies, Mrs. Walker acts promptly and wisely. 
When the terrible cyclone swept over Sauk Rapids witli such 
disastrous results and so mudi loss of life, she received notice 
from the mayor's office at 10 o'clock one morning that there 
was urgent need of more nurses in the stricken territory. At 
3 o'clock that afternoon she went to the front with twelve 
nurses, all but one or two from the training school of the 
Northwe>stern Hospital. She remained at the i)lace of the 
dreadful visitation two weeks, taking charge of one of the 
hospitals, and several of the nurses remained two and some 
three months, doing all they could to relieve the suffering. 

It is not to be supposed tliat because of this generous 
lady's attention to outsiders who have needed her help she 
has neglected her home or its duties. She has been a close 
and sympathetic comi)anion of her hu.sband in all his under- 
takings, and she reared her eight children to honorable man- 



hood and womanhood. In fact, if her work outside of her own 
household has had any effect on her conduct within it, it has 
only intensified her devotion to her home and its duties and 
made her more zealous and diligent in attending to their 
requirements. She has given Minneapolis one of the noblest 
and loftiest examples of Christian womanhood and mother- 
hood it has ever had, and in all sections of the city "her 
works praise her in the gates." 



REV. ISAAC WILSON JOYCE, D D., LL. D. 

Rev. Isaac Wilson Joyce, D. D., LL. D., the father of Col. 
Frank Melville .Joyce, and one of the bishops of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, was one of the most eminent and conspicuous 
clergymen of that denomination. He was born in Hamilton 
coonty, Ohio, October 11, 1836, the Son of .James W, and Mary 
Ann Joyce, natives of Dublin, Ireland. As a youth the doctor 
found many obstacles in the way of his education, but he 
Avas an enthusiastic student and persevered in spite of them. 
He taught school to pay his way at Hartsville, Indiana, the 
denominational school of the United Brethren church, and 
finally secured the degree of A.M. from De Pauw {then 
Asbury) University. Some years later Dickinson College con- 
ferred on him the degree of D. D., and he received that of 
LL. D. from the University of the Pa'cific. He was licensed 
to preach as a United Brethren minister, but in 1857 united 
with the Methodist Episcopal church, and in 1859 was admitted 
to the Northwest Indiana Conference. 

As a very young preacher Dr. .Joyce became pastor of some 
of the leading churches in the Conference, and at the age of 
thirty-three was Presiding Elder of the East Lafayette dis- 
trict. He was next pastor of Trinity church in Lafayette. 
Failing health necessitated a change of climate for him, and 
he Avas induced to fill the pulpit of Bethany Independent 
chui'ch, Baltimore, for one year. His health improved, and, 
although Bethany earnestly solicited him to become its settled 
pastor, he returned to Indiana, and in 1877 was appointed to 
old Roberts Chapel, in Greeneastle. Here he built a commo- 
dious church edifice which is a monument to his zeal, energy 
and fine business ability. 

In 1880, at the close of his pastorate in Greeneastle, he was 
elected to the General Conference, which was held in Cincinnati. 
This led to his transfer to the Ohio Conference and first 
appointment to St. Paul's church in Cincinnati. In 1886 he 
was official representative to the Methodist Episcopal Gen- 
eral Conference of Canada, which met in Toronto, and in 1888 
was elected Bishop by one of the largest votes ever given for 
a candidate up to that time. For eight years his Episcopal 
residence was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he made a 
deep impression by his power as a preacher and his skill as a 
leader. During this period he was Chancellor of Grant Univer- 
sity for five years, and of the Epworth League for four, and 
also presided over conferences in Europe and ilexico. The 
General Conference of 1896 transferred him to Minneapolis, 
which was his home until his death in July, 1905, following 
a stroke of paralysis suffered by him on Sunday morning, July 
2, 1905, while preaching at Red Rock Camp Meeting. 

During the first two years of his residence in this city he 
was under appointment to visit and supervise the churches in 
the Orient. His duties led him through Japan, Korea and 
China, and into many regions never before visited by a bishop. 



HISTORY OF Mlis'NEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



531 



His administration in China resulted in a spiritual quickening 
unsurpassed anywhere in modern times. On his return trip 
he visited Malaysia, made a zigzag journey across India and 
met tlie Central Conference at Lucknow. He was married in 
1861 to Miss Caroline Walker Hosserman, of La Porte, Indiana, 
who died at tlie home of their only child. Col. Frank M. -Joyce, 
in Minneapolis, in 1907. 



GKORCK CITLKR STORKR. 



Mr. Storcr was born in Portland, Maine, on September 29, 
1860, and died in Minneapolis on March 13, 1913. As a 
child of seven years he was taken by his parents to live in 
Boston, the father was a wholesale dry goods merchant and 
busy operator in financial affairs. Eight years later the 
family moved to Madison, Wisconsin. Later he was a student 
for four years at the Shattuck Military school in Faribault in 
this state. 

When he finally left school he inclined to farming as his 
occupation, and with this in view he moved to Grand Forks, 
North Dakota. But during the next two years his views as 
to employment were entirely changed, and at the end of the 
period mentioned he changed his base of operations to Chicago 
and his occupation to merchandising, becoming connected with 
the wholesale coal trade in the city last named. He remained 
in Chicago until 1893, when he came to Minneapolis and 
organized the Commercial Loan and Adjustment company, over 
whose destinies lie afterward presided, and which he conducted 
to a high rank in the business world, considerable magnitude 
in its operations and pronounced success in all its undertakings. 

In the course of a few years this company was doing 
business all over the Northwest and also in California and 
other Pacific coast states. Charles Fowler was associated 
with Mr. Storer in the management of it, and its requirements 
received sedulous attention from both these gentlemen. But 
Mr. Storer in particular watched and worked for the progress 
and expansion of its business with sleepless vigilance and 
tireless energy. The company's transactions occupied his 
time and powers largely, and they opened the way to other 
avenues of prosperity for him. Througli the opportunities 
they laid before him lie soon began investing in city property, 
and on parts of wliat he bought he erected business blocks. 

In the purchase of real estate Mr. Storer exercised good 
judgment, buying only in localities making or capable of 
rapid improvement and sure of speedy enlianccment of values. 
He did not hold all the property he purchased, but turned a 
considerable amount of it over rapidly at ready profits, and 
with the fruits of his slirewdness and business uciiiiien he 
still further enlarged his operations and augmented his 
revenues. At the time of his death, however, he still owned 
a number of income producing properties and left an estate 
of large value. 

It is easy to infer from what has been stated that Mr. 
Storer was a very busy man. Hut he was never indiircrent to 
tlie substantial improvement of his home city, and never with- 
held his support from any worthy undertaking in which that 
was involved. He also took an active part in public affairs 
locally, not as a political partisan, but wholly as a good 
citizen animated by a strong desire to aid in securing the 
best government and the greatest good for the people around 
him. Fraternallj- he was a Freemason and a member of the 



Order of Elks, and earnest though not enthusiastic in his 
devotion to their welfare and all the good work they were 
doing. 

Mr. Storer was married at Baraboo, Wisconsin, in 1883, to 
Miss Fannie King, a native of Monroe in the same state. 
Three children were born of their union, all of whom are 
living. They are: (k-orge L., a lawyer, who has charge of 
the collections for the company of which his father was the 
head; Catherine, who is the wife of Ivan .1. Kipp and a 
resident of St. Paul, and Mary, who married with Raymond 
M. Gillette and has her home in Minneapolis. Like their 
parents, tlie children are well esteemed for their genuine worth 
and have a strong hold on the confidence and good will of the 
people where they live. The force of character and strict 
integrity for which their father was distinguished and the 
graces of manner and purity of life for which their mother is 
revered are exemplified in them in all their daily activities 
and all their relations with their fellow beings. 

His parents, George L. and -Mary F. (.Johnson) Storer, natives 
of Sanford and I'ortUind, Maine, both died at Madison, Wis., 
the father in 1906 and mother in 1908. They had two song 
and three daughters, all living but our subject. The father 
was a prominent man and was a son of .John Storer, a pioneer 
of Sanford, Maine, and one time mayor, and was in lumber 
trade. He endowed Storer College at Harper's Ferry, a colored 
college. 



EUGEXE L. TRASK. 



Eugene I^. Trask, an extensive and prominent dealer in 
Minnesota lands, has been a resident of Minneapolis contin- 
uously since 1876, except during a few years which he spent 
in Montana. He was born in Springfield, Maine, in 1864, the 
son of Albion K. and Melissa (Nettleton) Trask, the former a 
native of Maine and the latter of Ohio. She came to Min- 
neapolis with her parents in the sixties when DubiKnie. Iowa, 
was the terminus of the railroad. Her father was ."^amuel D. 
Nettleton, whose old home was on the site of the present 
block at the corner of Nicollet avenue and Fourth street. He 
died early in the seventies at the age of sixty. His widow 
survived him many years, and in 1877 was living at 913 
Hennepin avenue. 

Albion Trask came from Maine to Minneapolis ami engaged 
in lumbering on Rum river, sending logs to the Minneapolis 
mills. He was married in this city about 1860, and then 
returned to Maine, where he followeil luml>ering until 1876, 
when he came back to Minneapolis and resumed his lumbering 
operations, which he continued until his death in February, 
1902, at the age of sixty-eight years. He was not a lumber 
manufacturer, but bought timber lands and worked cutting 
crews year after year until 1900, by which time the timber was 
nearly all cut and the lumber well nigh exhausted in the Rum 
river country. After his purchases were denuiled of their trees 
he sold them, disposing of land at $3 to $4 an acre which is now- 
worth $f>'> to $7.") an acre. He attended religious services at the 
Church of the Redeemer. 

Mrs. Trask, the mother of Eugene, is still living. She and 
her husband were the parents of four sons, three of whom are 
living: Eugene L., Herney E., who is a gradmite of the 
engineering <lepartment of the University of Minnesota and 
was for some years professor of engineering in Eastern colleges 



532 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



but is now engaged in merchandising in Minneapolis; and 
C3arenoe, who is a resident of the state of Montana. The 
other son, Charles, was cashier of the West hotel until his 
death in 1898. 

Eugene L. Trask obtained a high school education, and at 
the age of nineteen went to Montana, where for a few years 
he was employed in office work, principally as bookkeeper in 
a wholesale house. In 1895, having returned to Minneapolis, 
he started a produce commission business in the old Bridge 
Square district, which he carried on there for five years, until 
the business operations of that character were transferred to 
another location. About 1900 he began dealing in land, 
handling farm and mineral tracts in large quantities aggre- 
gating over 200,000 acres, the greater part of his dealings 
being for homes in Northern Minnesota. He still has control 
of several thousand acres, some being mineral lands, and owns 
a great deal of the expanse himself. 

Mr. Trask belongs to the Commercial, Minikahda, Lafayette, 
Interlachen and Auto clubs. He was married in 1886 to Miss 
Anna C. Deatherage, of Illinois. They have two children: 
Marian, who is a graduate of the Ely School at Greenwich, 
Connecticut, and Louise, who is a student in that school. 



SWAN JOHAN TURNBLAD. 



Proprietor and publisher of the Svenska Amerikanska 
Posten, probably carries a more potent influence throughout 
the State and the Northwest than doe.s any other foreign born 
citizen. His newspaper is the recognized mouthpiece of 
Swedish-American thought: and. being published in the Swedish 
language covers an important field not otherwise cultivated. 

Mr. Turnblad was born in Tubbemala, Sweden, Oct. 7, 1860, 
being the son of Olaf M. and Ingjard Turnblad; who brought 
the boy to a farm near Vasa, Goodhue Countv, Minnesota, 
when nine years old. 

While yet in school Swan became interested in and learned 
the printer's trade, soon buying a small printing plant. When 
but seventeen he had printed an arithmetic, of which his school 
principal P. F. Lindholm was the author. Looking for a 
wider field of activity. Swan came to Minneapolis becoming a 
typesetter on the Minneapolis Stats Tidning. 

In 1887 he was asked to take the management of the 
Svenska Amerikanska Posten, a weekly newspaper established 
primarily as an influence in the prohibition work throughout 
tlie Northwest. Without sacrifice of its original purpose, it 
was broadened in scope, being made such a paper as is needed 
in every household. 

Its pages were filled with not only general domestic news 
but also gave due attention to world happenings, especially to 
those matters directly interesting the Scandinavian population. 
It soon became an influence that did much to shape conditions, 
ever laboring for what was elevating and tended to better 
citizenship. Independent in politics, it has not served to 
advance its editors personal political fortunes; but with abso- 
lute loyalty to American institutions, has been a power for 
good in the development of the best citizenship. 

Mr. Tuniblad's abilities ai-e generally recognized: and he has 
been accorded suitable honor. Governor Lind in 1895 naming 
him a member of the State Reformatory Board, where he did 
valuable service. Abuses that had crept into management of 
its institution were eradicated, incompetence replaced and a 



line of policy adopted whereby the aim is to turn out citizens 
rather than confirmed criminals. His services were of such 
moment that Governor Johnson placed him upon the State 
Board of Visitors to all the state institutions, an honor con- 
tinued by Governor Eberhart. An ardent temperance worker, 
his advocacy by pen and voice has done much to advance 
prohibition, every other movement for clean living, as well, 
finding in him a champion. 

Every movement for business, social or moral progress has 
received his approbation. He was one of the founders of the 
Odin Club, the leading social organization in the Northwest of 
Scandinavian-Americans. He is a Mason, Shrinen and an Elk 
and belongs to the Civic and Commerce Association and the 
Athletic Club. 

He is a communicant of Westminster Presbyterian Church. 

He was married in 1883 to Christina Nelson of Worthington : 
and they have a daughter, Lillian Zenobia. 



JAMES ALVAH BULL. 



Mr. Bull was a native of .Jefferson county. New York, where 
his life began February 25, 1834. He died on his farm iust 
outside the city limits of Minneapolis April 27, 1908, after 
a residence of almost fifty years on the land which is now 
a material proof of his skill as its cultivator. He was the 
son of Alvah and Louisa (Packer) Bull, natives of Vermont. 
On his father's farm he grew to manhood and, in the district 
school of the neighborhood, and Belleville Academy he began 
his education, which he completed at the academy in Norwicli, 
after which he clerked for a few years. 

About 1858 Alvah Bull, the father of James, who had 
relatives at Anoka came accompanied by James to Minnesota 
to look the country over. They then bought the farm on 
which the son afterward lived, of William Marvin, who had 
preempted the land, and who received a patent for it .June 10, 
1857. The land was deeded to Mr. Bull, Sr., March 5, 1859, 
who then returned to New York, where he passed the remainder 
of his life. His son .James took possession of the farm in 
the spring of 1859, and some years later was followed west 
by his brother, Henry C. Bull, now a banker at Cokato. 

^\Tien James A. came to Minneapolis he was married but 
had no children. He settled on the farm of 160 acres, 
determined to pass his subsequent years on it, which he did. 
At the time of his death he had it nearly all under cultivation 
and well improved. 

Mr. Bull early became an enthusiastic member of the 
Order of Patrons of Husbandry, and was called upon to give 
a great deal of attention to its work. He was one of a 
committee of three to provide for rendering the agricultural 
school of the state more directly and practically beneficial to 
the farmers. This committee was first selected by the Henne- 
pin County Grange and afterward endorsed by the State 
Grange. By years of effort with the board of regents and 
the state legislature the committee finally succeeded in making 
the Agricultural College what its name indicates — a real 
source of advanced practical instruction in farming. 

In political affairs Mr. Bull was always independent of 
party ties and party influence, but never indifferent to the 
welfare of his county or the state. His religious life was 
nearly that of the Friends or Quakers, but latterly his views 
rather accorded with the Unitarians. His first marriage took 
place in New York and was with Miss Mary E. Comstock. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



533 



8I10 liieil on the farm February, 1865, leaving one child, Mary 
L. Bull, who has been an instructor in the State Agricultural 
College lor seventeen years, beginning her work in the institu- 
tion in the department of domestic science and continuing it 
now in that of agricultural school extension. 

September 20, 1866, Mr. Bull contracted a second marriage, 
which united him with Miss Amie I^. Cooper, a daughter of 
Milton and Zillah (Preston) Cooper, and born near the village 
of Coopersville, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. She came 
to Minneapolis with her parents in 1857, arriving on May 11. 
There were seven children in the family, of whom she was the 
second in the order of birth. The others who are living are: 
Preston, who is a resident of Edina; Elvira S., who is the 
widow of the late Edward Lamborn; and Barclay, who both 
live in this city. Anna and Morrissa died in early life and 
Mahlon at the age of thirty-one years. The father was a 
carpenter and died in Minneapolis, in his ninety-first year, 
having, on August 12, previously celebrated the ninetieth 
anniversarj' of his birth. The mother's death occurred Feb- 
ruary 20, 1879. 

Before her marriage Mrs. Bull was a teacher in the Min- 
neapolis and Hennepin county schools for seven years. At 
one time she was chairman of a committee of five appointed 
by the State Grange to secure the opening of the State Agri- 
cultural College to girl students on the same terms that were 
offered to boys. It took years of effort to accomplish the 
desired result, and great striving with regents, legislators 
and other officials, but it was finally successful. Since her 
marriage Mrs. Bull has passed all except two years of her 
life on the old homestead. This is located a little south 
and west of Minneapolis, just one mile from Lake Harriet. 
It has recently been sold and is to he used hereafter as a 
home for women and children. 

Of this marriage throe sons reached maturity: James Harry 
is a farmer near Stacy, Cliisago county; Alvah Milton is 
assistant professor of Agricultural Engineering in the State 
Agricultural College. He was educated in a high school and 
at the University of Minnesota. Coates Preston, who grad- 
uated from the agricultural school and from the College of 
Agricultuio as Professor of Agronomy, served one year as 
such in the Illinois College of Agriculture then becoming 
Assistant Professor of Agronomy in our own Agricultural 
College, specializing in the line of Plant Breeding, and is at 
this time (1913) on leave of absence to perform the duties 
of superintendent of the National Corn Exposition, wliich is 
to be held in Dallas, Texas, in February, 1914. Tn religious 
faith Mrs. Bull is a Universalist. She is a member of the 
Church of the Redeemer, but her zeal for the good of her 
community is not confined to her own church channels. It 
embraces the welfare of the whole people and is applied gen- 
erally, without regajd to sectarian lines or other narrow con- 
siderations. 



THOMAS NEWTOy TA^XOR. 

Well known and highly esteemed as a grain operator in 
Minneapolis for a continuous period of twenty years, the 
late Thomas N. Taylor, whose useful and stimulating life 
ended October .'JO, 1910. passed away at the height of his 
Biiccess. He was but fifty-one years old. and according to 
all indications until a sliort tinu- before his end came he was 
destined to many years of still greater productiveness. 

Mr. Taylor was a native of Urbana, Champaign county. 



Ohio, where his life began on .lune 19, 1859. He was the 
son of Robert and Mary (Walker) Taylor. The mother died 
in North Dakota and father in Minneapolis, they were natives 
of Philadelphia. He was reared in that county and edu- 
cated in its district schools and the graded schools of his 
native city, and after leaving school engaged in teaching 
in the county for a year. During the last year of his 
attendance at school and while he was teaching he learned 
telegraphy, and at the age of twenty came West and 
located at Grand Forks, North Dakota, where he worked 
several years as a telegraph operator, and afterward as paj'- 
ing teller in a bank in Devil's Lake and Laramour, N. D. 

From Grand Forks, where he was employed by the Great 
Northern R. R., he went on to a claim in Grand Forks 
county, also drove stage one winter. Mr. Taylor went to 
Duluth, in about 1886, and at that great terminal point he 
began his business career as a dealer in grain in association 
with C. C. Wolcott, by whom he was employed two years. 
In 1890 he changed his residence to Minneapolis and entered 
the employ of the George Spencer Grain company. He re- 
mained with this company only a short time, however, and 
then became associated with the firm of A. M. Woodward cSc 
Company, with which his connection was also short, for he 
was eager to have a business of his own and making prepara- 
tions to gratify his desire. 

In 1891 Mr. Taylor fornu-d a partnership with W. E. 
NichoUs, creating the Nicholls & Taylor Grain Company, with 
which he was associated until death. It was a potential factor 
in the grain trade and the men at its head were forceful and 
serviceable in public affairs, although not politicians or be- 
longing to the oflice-seeking class. 

Mr. Taylor was married on February 1st, 1893, to Miss 
Louise F. Wall of Minneapolis, a daughter of the late ,Iohn 
Wall, who became a resident of this city in the early sixties, 
coming from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Mr. Wall became prom- 
inent in business, and for a nun\ber of veal's was a leading 
business man of the city and died here in 1906. Mr. Taylor 
and family were members of the Catholic Church and for 
20 years a member of the board of appeals of the Chamber 
of Commerce at the time of Ins death and charter member of 
Interlachen club. 

Mr. and Mrs. Taj'lor became the parents of four children, 
all of whom are living and still have their home with their 
mother at 3343 Elliott avenue south. They are: Lillian, 
Thomas, Robert and John. While her husband was living. 
Mrs. Taylor shared his interest in everything pertaining to the 
welfare of Minneap(dis. and since his death has contituied 
active support of all comendable projects. Like him, 
she is quiet and undemonstrative in her activity in this behalf, 
and Seeks no credit for work, which is inspired by high 
sense of duty, but which is not unappreciated, as she is held 
in high regard for her geiuiine worth in every way. 



CHARLES JOHN TRVON. 

Charles .Tohn Tryon was born September ,S, 1859, in Batavia. 
New York, His father, A. D. Tryon, was a prosperous book- 
seller and a druggist: his mother was Amanda H. Tryon. 

.After attending the public schools of Batavia, he entered 
Columbian university, Washington, D. C„ being graduated 
from its law eoni-se. He came to Minneapolis to practice 
his profession ami for a number of years he was in partner- 



534 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



ship with Wilbur F. Booth until the latter became a judge 
of the District Court. Mr. Tryoii enjoys a fine general 
practice and is recognized as one among the ablest attorneys, 
taking an active part in politics. 

In June, 1901, Mr. Tryon entered into an alliance with 
one of the oldest and most respected families in the city, 
when Isabel Gale became his wife. She is a daughter of the 
late Harlow Gale, one of the pioneer residents of Minneapolis. 
They have a most interesting family of seven children. Mr. 
and Mrs. Tryon attend the Congregational church. Their 
handsome home on Girard avenue is frequently the scene 
of social functions. Mr. Tryon is also affiliated witli some 
of the principal clubs of the city. 

Harlow Gale was a brotlier of Samuel C. Gale of whom 
extended mention is made elsewhere and was associated 
with him in a real estate office as early as 1860. He was a 
leading man of the time and at the banquet at the opening 
of the Nicollet House, May 20, 1858, at which Judge E. B. 
Ames presided, Mr. Gale was toastmaster. He is best re- 
membered in having established the first city market at First 
street and Hennepin in 1876. Mr. Qale was an early County 
Auditor and was found active in almost every movement for 
advancement. 



CHARLES JEROME TRAXLER. 

In his varied and interesting career as a lawyer, editor and 
author of legal treatises and text books, Charles Jerome Trax- 
ler has made an enviable reputation for ability, careful re- 
search, correctness and felicity of expression and exhaustive 
and accurate knowledge of law and public affairs. 

He was born on the homestead near Mount Pleasant, Henry 
County, Iowa, being the son of John Traxler, a farmer, brick 
manufacturer, contractor and builder. The son attended the 
public school, continuing at Howe's Academy, and finished his 
academic course in Iowa Weslcyan University. He was grad- 
uated in 1882 from the Iowa State University with the degree 
of LL. B. Then becoming associated with a prominent law- 
yer in his native town, he began the practice of law. Later 
he drifted into newspaper work as an editorial writer, and in 
the fall of 1883 became city editor of the Daily Tribune-News 
at Evansville, Indiana, a few months later being advanced 
to the position of associate editor-in-chief. 

In 1885 Mr. Traxler resumed the practice of law in Western 
Kansas. Minneapolis became his home in 1889; here he has 
been continuously engaged in the practice of his profession, 
and, while he has had a wide general practice, he is doubtless 
best known as a corporation counsel. 

In this connection his experience and observation led him 
to a careful study of the regulation of freight rates. In 1906, 
he originated a plan for the regulation of such rates, which 
won approval from Federal authorities, and was admitted as 
highly meritorious by leading railroad managers. The chief 
features of this plan which may be here mentioned, are that 
it left the power of making rates with the railroads, subject 
to regulation by judicial proceedings in the Federal courts. 
It placed upon the railroads the burden of proof in most cases 
of alleged violation and made unnecessary the demand for 
special tribunals, such aa the Federal Commerce Court, which 
has since been tried and abandoned. 

Being a diligent, reflective and progressive student of legal 



science, Mr. Traxler has delivered numerous lectures on legal 
subjects. He has been identified with the University of Min- 
nesota as a lecturer in the School of Law, and is the author 
of works on special Subjects of the law. 

He is a member of the State Board of Law Examiners, to 
which position he was appointed some years ago by the 
Supreme Court. He takes a keen and serviceable interest in 
public affairs. He is a member of the Minneapolis Athletic, 
the University, and the Six O'Clock Clubs. 

He has also taken an earnest interest and an active part 
in agencies as a member of the leading clubs and civic organi- 
zations, and belongs to Several fraternities, including the 
Masonic orders, and the Mystic Shrine. His college fraternity 
is the Delta Tau Delta. In 1886, Mr. Traxler was united in 
marriage with Jliss Mary Comstock, daughter of Colonel 
Austin W. Comstock, of Mount Pleasant. They have three 
children, Marian, now Mrs. Spencer S. Bernan, Jr., of Chicago; 
Hazel, and John Austin. 



D. M. HARTSOUGH. 



The subject of this narrative was born in Fayette, Iowa, 
on October 28, 1856. He is the son of the Rev. E. Hartsough, 
a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and of German 
parentage. D. M. Hartsough was educated at the Cornell 
University, passing through the scientific course with credit, 
and for twenty years was a minister of the Congregational 
Cliureh. During his work as a minister he would usually take 
his vacations on the prairies of the two Dakotas and while 
on those vacations, observing the privations and hardships 'of 
the pioneers in building homes on the prairies with the priiii- 
itive tools then in use for such work, brought to the surface 
a dormant ability which later predominated over all other ac- 
complishments he had mastered up to that time, and that was 
a God-given gift of inventive construction. He readily saw 
where he could lighten the burdens of that army of pioneers; 
in constructing a labor Saving device that would convert the 
raw. wild prairie into a civilized state for the reception of 
seed and the growing of crops, the conversion of a boundless 
wild prairie country into comfortable homes for many mil- 
lions. The result of his investigation very soon developed into 
the building of the first farm gas tractor engine that was ever 
built in the United States and put it in operation, breaking 
prairie sod in what is now the state of North Dakota. Its 
operation in breaking prairie sod convinced him that he was 
on the right track to do more good to humanity than any one 
man of that day and age. 

The next production was what is called the Big Four Gas 
Tractor which, during the years of 1910 and 1911, was -ex- 
hibited at the world's field trials, Winnipeg, Canada, and took 
the gold medal from all competitors world wide. 

Being a close student of conditions and the advocation of 
economics to handle conditions, showed him f«r in advance of 
all others that when the prairie countiy of the great North- 
west was once broken and under cultivation it required a dif- 
ferent type of machine to intelligently, economically and suc- 
cessfully cultivate it, so he designed the Bull Tractor, a ma- 
chine especially adapted for the economical cultivation of 
the small farm and the large farm, and the success of the Bull 
Tractor in the fields today is of such proportion that within 
the next two or three years its growth will be beyond the 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COfNTY. MINNESOTA 



535 



comprehension of the ordinary person and the demand for it 
will reach every civilized agricultural portion of the whole 
world. 

In the beginning of his development of labor saving devices 
he first had to familiarize himself with a thorough knowledge 
of the farm and power reipiirements, a condition necessary 
in the successful manufacture of a machine to become popular 
with the farmers who are its only users. To acquire this 
knowledge he secured large tract's of prairie, plowed and 
croped large acreages thereby gaining a knowledge of his 
future work from actual experience, a school that has no peer, 
and his devices stand out today in the agricultural world with- 
out competition. 

Within the past five or six years he had occasion to spend 
a part of the winter in Texas. Looking conditions over and 
the primitive methods they had of draining that vast coun- 
try along the coast, he immediately designed a ditching ma- 
chine that is in operation in large numbers there now, doing 
great work in the large drainage ditches necessary to reclaim 
that country, -^nd in the past two or three years has de- 
signed a smaller machine to construct lateral ditches, neces- 
sary in the drainage and reclamation of millions of acres of 
that fertile country. In fact, every place he goes he finds 
employment for that active and inventive brain, in construct- 
ing and producing labor saving devices that have caused mil- 
lions of the tillers of soil in the whole world to shout his 
praises. He is energetic and continually at work modernizing 
farm implements, and in the next few months the agricultural 
world will lie again startled by the result of his gift in the 
construction of harvesting and threshing machinery. 

He formed the acquaintance of a progressive farmer in the 
state of Xorth Dakota, Mr. P. .1. Lyons, when he first de- 
signed the Big Four. He invited Mr. Lyons to join him in 
exploiting the proposition resulting in the selling of the Big 
Four to tlie KniersonHrantingliam Company nearly two years 
ago for about two million dollars, which is the bt-st evidence 
that Mr. Hartsough, although an inventor and genius in his 
way, is also a good judge of human nature for he selects men 
to exploit his product who are able to do things, and Mr. 
Lyons is now exploiting the Bull Tractor, his latest invention, 
which will eventually make millions for both Mr. Hartsough 
and himself. 

Mr. Hartsough has been a resident of Minneapolis for the 
past twelve years and is a member of the new Athletic Club. 
He was married in IHH'2 to Miss Lucy Beebe, who died in 
July, 19i;!. Mr. Hartsough, since that time, has been a resi- 
dent of the West Hotel in this city. There were two sons 
born to his family: Waldo, who died at the age of twenty- 
six, and Ralph B., who possesses much of the inventive genius 
of his father and is associated with him in his work, and is 
also a resident of Minneapolis. Mr. Hartsough at present is 
in the prime of his life in the work he has before him and 
has more knowledge of his work than is usually found in a 
man of his profession. He has a sunny nature and is a com- 
panionable man, both in his home and in his walks of life, 
and a success both as a minister and inventor, which gives 
ample evidence of what a man can accomlplish by persistency 
and industry if gifted with the sense of application of his 
powers. 



WILLIAM J. VOX der WEYKR. 

One of the highest types of the German-.-Vnicricun business 
men which Minneapolis boasts of today is the (lernian born 
product who has brought his native thrift and his (ierman 
enterprise and caution to the land of hi* adoption. Such a 
man is William J. Von der Weyer. He was liorn near Coblenz, 
Khein province, Germany. November 5. 1858, and came with his 
parents Henry and Helen \on der Weyer to America in 1864. • 
They came directly to Minnesota, s<'ttling on a farm near 
Butfalo, Wright county. The mother died on the farm and 
the father now lives retired with his son William .1. Henry 
had seen service in the German army and before he had been 
in Minnesota a. month he was taken to the county seat of 
Wright county with the idea of getting him into the I'nited 
.States .Army, but it was soon found that he was not an 
American citizen. 

William J. was on the farm until he was 16 years of age, 
when he was sent to Minneapolis to enter the public schools, 
later supplementing the instruction there by a course in a 
business college. He clerked for two years, in a grocery store, 
starting at a salary of ten dollars a month and his board, then 
later going to twenty-five dollars a month and board. In 188.3 
young Von der \\'eyer entered the dry goods store of B. B. 
Buck, at a salary that began at $30 and mounted to $40, 
and then $50 a month. With characteristic thrift he set 
about laying aside the foumlation for his own capital and 
saved his money, until he had about $500. In company with 
his brother-in-law, .lohn Lohmar, in 1885 he bought out the 
Buck Dry (Joods anil Millinery store, the partnership enduring 
for twenty-four years, or up to 1909. At the start they had 
between them for investment and working capital the modest 
sum of $2,;!00. The business later represented an investment 
of $25,000. Sales increased steadily— from about $10,000, to 
from $40,000 to $50,000 per annum. .\ business reipiiring one 
clerk waxed strong until sixteen clerks were necessary. And 
when failing health moved him in 1909 to sell his interest to 
his partner. Mr. Von der Weyer had the satisfaction of knowing 
that his habits and thrift and business judgnumt had fully 
justified predictions of his earliest business life. 

As his grasp of commercial affairs broadened. Mr. Von der 
Weyer looked about with an interest in other commercial 
lines. He became a director in the German -American bank, 
and looked, too, to civic and political matters. In 1898 he 
was elected to the house of representatives of the legislature, 
being chosen. tho\igh a Denu)crat, to represent the strong 
Republican Forty-fourth district. It was the .tame year that 
.lolui Lind was chosen governor, and Mr. \'on der Weyer was 
one of a group in the legislature whose counsel was prized 
by the governor. In the legislature he took a prominent part, 
and some of the most important legislation of the session either 
bore his name or were enacted In-cause of his lending Iheni his 
earnest support. For example, .Mr, Von der Weyer introduced 
the law whicli requires paynu-nt of two jier cent interest on 
deposit balances of state money: as up to that time the 
state had received no interest on such balances. He was one 
of the foremost advocates of the measure to riMpiire the 
railroads to pay a gross earnings tax of five pen'cnt. He 
served on the committee which authorizeil the building of the 
state hospitals for the insane at Hastings and Anoka: on 
the committee of visitors of the state nornuil schools, and the 
schools for the feeble-mindeil at Faribault, and which recom- 
mended the appropriations for those institutions. Mr. Von der 



536 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Weyer was defeated for re-election at tlie next election, as the 
Forty-fourth district went back to its normal Republican 
complexion. 

Mr. Von dcr Weyer has continued to take a prominent part 
in public affairs. For instance, he is a member of the e.xecutive 
committee that has most to do with the building of the 
magnificent new pro-cathedral, the finest church edifice in the 
West and with the exception only of the St. .John's cathedral 
in New York, the finest in America. In St. Joseph's Catholic 
church he is one of the most active and prominent laymen. 

In 1898 he was married to Miss Gertrude Dietrich, daughter 
of Peter Dietrich, the well known real estate dealer who, as a 
young man, came to the United States to escape the rigors 
of the war. Mr. Dietrich came direct to St. Anthony, becoming 
one of that sturdy group of early citizens who helped to 
ground firmly the city which was later to attain leadei-ship 
in the West. The family consists of two daughters, Eleanor 
and Lucille. 



RUF'US PORTER UPTON. 



Rufus Porter Upton, prominent citizen and pioneer of Min- 
neapolis, of whom further mention will be found in the 
general history of the early settlement of the city, was 
born in Dixmont, Maine, December 20, 1820, and died in 
Minneapolis on Thanksgiving day, 1893. He was educated 
in Portland, Maine, but spent his long and useful career in 
the interest and development of the northwest. Throughout 
the many vicissitudes of the early days he never lost his 
vision of the future and ultimate development of Minneapolis 
and in latter years he received ample justification of his 
faith, never realizing however one of his most cherished 
projects, the establishment of river transportation which he 
saw superseded by the railroads. In the directory of 1877, 
Mr. Upton is designated as the proprietor of spice mills on 
South Washington street with his residence in Grove Place on 
Nicollet Island. Beside the enterprises indicated by him in 
his personal reminiscences, he was also the promoter of a flour- 
ing mill project at Kingston, Meeker County, near the pres- 
ent Dassel, where he erected a plant at the cost of $10,000. 
At this time it was expected that the Northern Pacific rail- 
road would build through the town but the route was changed, 
touching a point twenty miles distant and destroying the 
future of Kingston and its business enterprises. He also 
acquired some experience as a miner in Nevada in the days 
when that state was attracting the fortune seekers. Mr. 
Upton was an influential member and faithful supporter of 
the First Congregational church. He was married three times 
and of his first marriage with Miss Gaslin, one daughter 
survives, Gertrude, widow of M. D. Clapp, who resides at 
3111 Newton avenue, Minneapolis. His third union was 
with Ellen A. Nourse, and their sons are W. A. Upton, in 
the employ of the Smith Hardware company of Minneapo- 
lis, and Rev. Rufus P., of the Congregational Church at 
Freeborn, Minn. In 1870 Mr. Upton was married to Miss 
Emeline Aleda Harshberger, a teacher in Marietta, Ohio, who 
now resides in Pasadena, California. They had six children, 
T. Park, born September, 1871, and a resident of Pasadena, 
California; Edson K., of Minneapolis; Howard B., born May 
3, 1876, ticket agent at the Union station in Minneapolis; 
Helen Aleda, born September, 1878, the wife of Mr. George 



H. Brinkerhoff, living in Spokane, Washington; Albert F., 
born in August, 1881, andnow engaged in the theatrical pro- 
fession, and Harry C, born in July, 1883, is traveling car 
agent for the Great Northern railroad. 

Edson K. Upton, the second son, was born in Minneapolis, 
in October, 1873, and for a number of years has held a 
responsible position with the North Western Fuel company, 
one of the largest fuel firms of the city. He was married to 
Miss Eflie M. Miner of Iowa, and tliey have one son Edson 
Irving, who is six years of age. 



JESSE VAN VALKENBURG. 

Jesse Van Valkenburg, a well known member of the Min- 
neapolis bar, was born at Sharon, New YorK,- on December 31, 
1868. 

His parents Joseph and Harriet (Seeley) Van Valkenburg 
were also natives of the Empire state, and farmers by occupa- 
tion. In 1870 the family emigrated to Minnesota locating at 
Farmington, and later removed to Canby, Minnesota, where 
they now reside. 

Jesse Van Valkenburg attended the public schools of Farm- 
ington and completed his scholastic training by a course in 
the state Normal school at Mankato, graduating with the class 
of 1887 and he later entered the University of Minnesota from 
which he was graduated as a classical student with the class 
of 1894, and graduated from the law school the following 
year. 

Like many of the better class of western boys, he partly 
paid his way through college by doing newspaper work. He 
was taken on the staff of the Minneapolis Tribune, while he 
was yet in college, and continued his reportorial work some 
time after he had graduated. Soon, however, the call to his 
profession was so strong that he entered into active practice. 
His personality is of the sort which wins many warm friends, 
and during his membership of the Hennepin county bar, he 
has made a large acquaintance in the city and state and has 
built up a wide and varied practice. He takes a keen and 
active interest in good government and civic betterment> 
although he has never any political aspirations. He is a 
republican, but is independent when it comes to placing m?n 
in city affairs. 

Mr. Van Valkenburg was married on January 14, 1903, to 
Miss Grace Jerrems of St. Paul. They have three children. 



PAUL H. KNOLL. 



Although a young man yet the interesting subject of this 
brief review is connected with several industries of importance 
and extensive operations, and is a forceful factor in the busi- 
ness life of Minneapolis. He was born in 1880 in Illinois, a 
son of Rev. Robert H. Knoll, who came from Europe to the 
United States in 1854 and settled in Illinois, where for many 
years he continued to follow his sacred calling. The son ob- 
tained a high school education and soon after his graduation 
secured employment in the hardware trade, with which he was 
connected for a number of years. 

Mr. Knoll rose rapidly in his employment and in a short 
time became a credit man for the Simmons Hardware bom- 



HISTORY OF :\riXXKAI'OLTS AM) IIKNXEPIX COrXTY, MIXXESOTA 



537 



pany of St. Louis. In 1907 lie came to iliiineapolis to repre- 
sent that company as its credit man in this community. He 
remained with the company twelve years, and at the end of 
that perioil, became associated with the Gas Traction com- 
pany, and was one of its officials until it was sold to the 
Emerson- Hrantingham company. 

Ifr. Knoll then formed a partnership with P. .). Lyons and 
started the Lyons-Knoll Investment company. The Bull Trac- 
tor company, which manvifactures gas traction engines for 
farm and draft work, was organized in 1913, with Mr. Knoll 
as treasurer. This company turns out a large number of 
tractors a year, and its tractor is sent to all parts of the 
United States and has a high reputation for power and 
adaptability of practical service. 

In addition to connection with the Bull Tractor and the 
Lyons-Knoll Investment companies, ilr. Knoll has other busi- 
ness associations important in character and useful in pro- 
ductiveness. He is secretary and treasurer of the Consolidated 
Liquid Gas company and secretary and treasurer of the Milli- 
gan Stock Ranch company. He is unmarried but takes an 
active interest in local pubilic affairs and exercises material 
aid in promoting local jirogress and improvement. He is a 
member of the Jlinneapolis New Athletic Club, tlie Masonic 
order and other organizations of a social or benevolent char- 
acter. While living in St. Louis he was member of Battery 
A, Missouri National Guard. His Minneapolis home is at 116 
Oak Grove street. 



\V. P. TRICKETT. 



In the vast develoimient of our industries and all other 
activities in this highly progressive land the matter of trans- 
portation has risen to the firet rank in importance and now 
requires men of an advanced order of ability to conduct it and 
so conserve its forces as to make them yield the best and 
largest returns for the outlay devoted to it. In this connec- 
tion W. P. Trickett of Minneapolis has shown ability and 
made a record that is well worthy of special mention and 
consideration. 

Mr. Trickett is a native of Kansas City, Missouii. wlure 
his life began on .January 9, 1873.' He grew to uianlioud and 
obtained his edti'cd'tion in his native city, and there also he 
Started the bii'siheis career that has given him the high 
reputation he ' liaS as a man of exceptional administrative 
power and success. He began his apprenticeship in the busi- 
ness which now occupies his attention in 18S7. when he was 
hut fourteen yeare old. In that year he enlcriMl the employ 
of the K. C. E. S. & M. R. R., in its freight traffic department, 
and four years later became chief clerk of the Kansas City 
Transportation bureau. 

His aptitude for the business was marked and his promo- 
tion in it was rapid. In 1897, on April 1, he was appointed 
commissioner of transportation for Kansas City, being at the 
time only twenty-four years of age. In this position he 
succeeiled the late A. .T. N'anlandingham, a recognized traffic 
expert who had made a creditable record in. it and set its 
standard of efficiency high. Mr. Trickett, howeS-er, showed 
himself equal to all requirements, and filled the office with 
great acceptability to its patrons and the general public 
until the close of 1907, when the bureau wius consolidated with 
the Commercial club. 



During the next two years, after he left the city service, 
Mr. Trickett was engaged in special traffic work for large 
industrial interests, terminal work for carriers, and he also 
performed duties of the same character for the United States 
government. On October 1, 1909, he entered the employ of 
the Minneapolis Traffic association as executive manager, 
and when the Minneapolis Traffic association was amal- 
gamated with the Minneapolis Civic and Commerce associa- 
tion, he was appointed traffic direfctor of the combine. In 
this position, which he still holds, he represents tKe allied in- 
dustrial, wholesale, retail, grain and milling interests of the 
city of Minneapolis. 

Mr. Trickett has been a resident of Minneapolis only four 
years, but this period has been long enough to give him a 
warm and helpful interest in the welfare of the city and 
its residents and business institutions, and this he shows in 
every way open to him. He also manifests a deep and 
intelligent concern for the full growth and usefulness of all 
educational, moral and social agencies at work in the com- 
munity for the good of its people, and a constant willing- 
ness and readiness to aid them by every means at his com- 
mand. His attitude here is what it has been wherever he 
has lived — that of a good citizen eager at all times to do 
whatever he can to advance the best interests of his home 
community, and he is esteemed highly for the genuine worth 
he displays in all the relations of life. 



KOBEKT J. UPTON. 



Robert J. Upton, junior member of the firm of G. L. Upton 
& Company, wholesale and retail dealers in grain, flour and 
feed, is a native of St. Anthony, now Minneapolis, and born 
March 22, 1868. He is the son of esteemed pioneers, C. H. 
and Maria (Fenton) Upton, the former a native of Maine and 
the latter of Nova Scotia. They were married in St, Anthony 
in 1838, the motlier having come to the town with her mother 
soon after it was laid out, and the father came from his 
native state in 1855. He was one of the organizers of the 
Union- Iron Works, which were started in 1879, and prior thereto 
was foreman in the St, Anthony Iron Works until the plant 
was Inirned, The elder Mr. Upton and .James K. Lockwood 
started the Union Iron Works, and Mr. Upton was the first 
president of the company and the superintendent of the plant 
until his death on May 27, 1910. He was a very progressive 
and resourceful business man and an excellent citizen. He 
was a Republican in politics but not a imlitieian or active 
partisan. He was not remiss in performing tlie duties of 
citizenship, whatever form they took, and without regard to 
where they led hira. When the Sioux Indians broke out. in 
1862, he was one of the first to enlist for the expedition 
against them. He was a man of decided domestic tastes and 
correct habits. His first wife, the mother of Robert .1., died in 
1888; afterward he married Mrs. .lulia Kennedy, a widow, 
who is still living. The children of his first marriage numbered 
five, four sons and one daughter: Horai'c C, a machinist 
connected, with the Union Iron Works; Harvey L„ a plumber 
in North Dakota; Robert J., and George L,. who compose the 
firm of G. L. Upton & Company, an.l Mabel, now the wife of 
Harry Merriman, a dealer in automobiles in Minneapolis and 
the son of the late Hon. Orlando C. Merriman, who was twice 
mayor of St. Anthony and once mayor of Minneapolis. 



538 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Robert J. Upton began his education in the common schools, 
and completed it at an academy. He learned the trade of 
machinist, and was employed nine years in the Union Iron 
Works. In 1895 he went to Sandstone. Minnesota, where he 
remained one year as master mechanic of the Minnesota 
Sandstone Company. Returning to Minneapolis from a trip 
to El Paso, Texas, in 1896. he and his brother-in-law, Mr. 
Merriman, started a box factory, which they conducted until 
1900. Mr. Upton then took charge of the Commercial hotel on 
Nicollet Island, which he conducted until 1909, when he united 
with his brother, George L. Upton, in organizing the firm 
of G. L. Upton & Company, with which he is still connected. 

Mr. Upton was elected County Commissioner of Hennepin 
county in 1908, and held the office until 1913. During his 
tenure the bridge over the Narrows in Lake Minnetonka, and 
the Crystal Bay and Orenbery bridges at the lake were built, 
and the macadamizing of Superior boulevard was started. He 
served as chairman of the board in 1911 and 1912. 

Mr. Upton has been married three times, first in 1893 to 
Miss Flora E. Wood; next in 1900, to Miss Laura Morgan, 
who died in 1906, and like the first wife left no children. 
In 1908 he married Miss Anna Hollister, his present wife. 
They are members of tlie First Congregational Church, and 
Mr. Upton belongs to the Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order 
of Eagles, and the Knights of Pythias. 



THOMAS VOEGELI. 



Heck had been employed in the drug store for a number of 
years and had both made their start in the capacity of errand 
boys. The former is now confidential clerk and bookkeeper 
for the company while Mr. Heck is the manager of the Nicollet 
drug store. Mr. Voegeli has a noteworthy conception of good 
citizenship and endeavors to discharge the civic duties that 
have come to him in recognition of his ability and interest, in 
accordance with this standard. He cherishes the ambition that 
Minneapolis may be celebrated not only for its scenic beauty 
but also for that high class of citizenship that ma.v be pro- 
duced through attention to the modern note of warning that 
is sounded for municipal improvement. With this end in 
view, as a member of the park board, he has bent all his 
energies to provide every part of the city with the proper 
hygienic conditions and attractive surroundings through park 
extension and improvement. He is an active member of the 
Commercial club and served as chairman of the committee on 
public affairs. He has been a prominent member of the board 
of park commissioners and was elected its president. His 
first wife, Mary Fyfe Voegeli was of Scotch descent. She 
died at Fountain City, Wisconsin, leaving one daughter, Ethel, 
who is the wife of Mr. Geo. Riebeth of Minneapolis. In 1887, 
he married Mrs. Charlotte Yule, whose only child, a son, died 
soon after the marriage. They have one daughter, Marguerite. 
Mr. Voegeli and his family are communicants of the West- 
minster Presbyterian church. He is a Shriner and Knight 
Templar and a Thirty-second Degree Scottish Rite Mason. He 
also holds membership in tlie Civic and Commerce association. 



Thomas Voegeli, president of the Minneapolis Park com- 
mission and senior partner in the firm of Voegeli Brothers 
Drug company, is a native of Wisconsin, born at New Glarus, 
a Swiss settlement. September 24, 1856. His father, Tobias 
Voegeli, came to Wisconsin in 1853 and was one of the early 
members of the New Glarus colony, where he engaged in the 
trade of carpenter. He is now residing in Minneapolis after 
retiring from several 3'ears of association with his sons in 
the drug business. Thomas Voegeli was instructed in the 
carpenters' trade by his father but after attending the Platt- 
ville Normal school, he chose to enter the teaching profession 
for a while. His first experience was in the country schools 
but he soon advanced to the position of principal of the 
schools in Alma, Wisconsin. His successful career as a teacher 
was closed with four more years spent at Fountain City, 
Wisconsin. In 1883, he made his first venture in the drug 
business, joining his brother, Fred, in LaMoure, North Dakota, 
where they conducted a store for five years. They came to 
Minneapolis in 1887 and opened a drug store on the corner 
of Washington street and Hennepin avenue, the present loca- 
tion of their main establishment, where they occupied a small 
room, which had been used for a drug dispensary for a number 
of years. In 1892, Mr. Fred Voegeli. who now resides at 
Bozeman, Montana, retired from the firm and another brother, 
Henry, entered the partnership with Thomas Voegeli, an asso- 
ciation which has continued to the present time. The success 
of their business enterpri.ses has been marked and the Voegeli 
Drug company lias long been an important factor in the com- 
mercial life of the city. Tlie extensive trade of the company 
has demanded the establishment of two branch stores, the 
corner of Seventh street and Nicollet avenue and in the West 
Hotel. The firm was incorporated with W. F. Ralke and 
Mr. R. S. Heck becoming stockholders. Mr. Ralke and Mr. 



DAVID LLOYD OWENS. 



Tlie late David Lloyd Owens, treasurer of the American 
Grain Separator Company, who died in Minneapolis September 
25, 1913, was born at Cambria, Wisconsin, November 23, 1862. 
He was a son of John L. and Winnie (Roberts) Owens, and 
inherited from his father his natural bent in the direction of 
mechanical ingenuity. The father was a native of the North 
of Wales, bom in 1832, and came to this country with his 
parents at the age of thirteen. He was of an inventive turn 
of mind and made many improvements in windmills and 
invented a churning machine of unusual utility. In 1860 he 
opened a general machine shop at Cambria, Wisconsin, in 
which he made wagons, plows and other farm implements. 
In 1871 he invented a harvester and a self-acting grain and 
grass rake. These he manufactured at Cambria until 1874, 
then sold the rake rights and had the harvester manufactured 
on a royalty basis. 

In 1878 the father came to Minneapolis and entered the 
employ of the Minneapolis Harvester Company as an inventor. 
He made several improvements in the "Dewey" harvester, 
manufactured by that company, and was made superintend- 
ent of its wood shop, and while acting in that capacity in- 
vented many improvements in woodworking machinery. In 
1885 he formed a partnership with his son, John J. Owens, 
for the manufacture of a cockle eliminating machine which 
was afterward combined with a fanning mill. One year later 
another son, Robert J., tame into the firm, and it then erected 
a plant on the site now covered by the establishment of the 
J. L. Owens Company, an extensive manufacturer of grain 
ch^aning machinery, turning out about 10.000 machines every 
year. This company was incorporated in 1894 with David L., 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND IIEWKPIX COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



539 



Richard L and Owen L. Owens, all members of it. The father 
■was a man of the strictest integrity and a genius in his line 
of work. 

Uavid L. Owens worked for the Minneapolis Harvester Com- 
pany eight years while his father had chal-ge of its woodwork 
department. He became a first-class mechanic and rose to 
the position of superintendent of the factory, remaining with 
the company until 1898, when the plant was sold. During 
the ne.\t eleven years he devoted his time and energies to the 
affairs of the J. L. Owens C'oni])any in company with his 
father and brothers, and aided jTrcatly in extending and im- 
proving the business of that company. 

The American Grain Separator Company was organized in 
1909 with Robert J. Owens as president and David L. as 
treasurer. In 1911 the company started a branch establish- 
ment at Orillia in the province of Ontario, Canada, of which 
David L. took charge. That branch turned out several thou- 
sand fanning mills, smut mills and grain cleaners annually, 
Mr. Owens remaining in charge of it until May, 1913, when 
he returned to Minneapolis, where he passed the remaining 
six months of his useful and productive life. He is survived 
ty his widow, two sisters and four brothers. The sisters 
are Mrs. J. T. Evans, of Minneapolis, and Mrs. .Jennie .Jones, 
of Chicago. The brothers are Robert J., John J., Richard L. 
and Owen L., all members of the J. L. Owens Company. 

David L. Owens was a member of the South Side Commer- 
cial Club. His father was the founder of the Welch Presby- 
terian Church in Minneapolis, and all the members of the 
family have belonged to that organization. David L. was 
also active in the Welch Society of Cambria, Wisconsin, and 
a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He 
"was devoted to his home and fond of good horses and Scotch 
collie dogs. On November 26, 1902, he was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Dora Rittenhouse, a daughter of Dr. Richard 
and Elsie Agnes (Rhoades) Rittenhouse, of Prairie du Chien, 
Wisconsin. 

The parents of Mrs. Owens were married in that city and 
she was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was their only 
child. Her father was a physician in active practice in Prairie 
du Chien. and was killed in a railroad wreck when he was 
about thirty years old. Her mother was a daughter of Josiah 
Rhoades, who came to St. Anthony from Macoupin county, 
Hlinois, in 1858. He engaged in contracting in Minneapolis, 
■where he died Jlay 19, 1905, aged seventy-eight, after a resi- 
dence of forty-seven years in this city. He was born in Ken- 
tucky and his wife, wliose maiden name was Martha Wilson, 
was a native of Cairo, Illinois. Mrs. Rittenhouse, one of 
their nine children, died in Minneapolis at the age of thirty- 
seven. One of her sisters, Mrs. Peter Munkler. makes her 
home with Mrs. Owens. Mr. and Mrs. Owens had no children. 



GEORGE EDGAR \1NXENT. 

Dr. George Edgar Vincent was born in Rockford, Illinois, 
March 21, 1864. He is the son of John Heyl and Elizabeth 
(Duzenbury) Vincent. His father. John H. Vincent, was 
the founder of the Chautauqua and was one of the most bril- 
liant and popular of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. Bishop Vincent is now retired and lives in Clii- 
cago. His wife died in 1909. Dr. Vincent received his early 
education in the public schools of I'lainlield, N. J., and was 



a student for one year in the Pingrey Academy at Elizabeth, 
N. J. He graduated from Vale University in 1885 having 
entered that institution as a freshman in the fall of 1881. 
For a year after he received his degree he was engaged in 
editorial work as literary editor of the Chautauqua Press. 
He went abroad and spent Some time traveling in Europe 
and the East. Upon his retuni he was made vice president 
of the Chautauqua. It was in 1892 that Dr. Vincent was 
first called to the University of Chicago and made fellow of 
sociology. He held this position until he was made assistant 
in the same department two years later. Receiving his de- 
gree of doctor of philosophy from the University of Chicago, 
he became principal uf instruction in the Chautauqua. From 
1900 to 1904 Dr. Vincent was associate professor in the de- 
partment of sociology at the University of Chicago and in 
1904 was elected to full professorship in the same department. 
For seven yeare Dr. Vincent held the position of Dean 
of the Junior College. In 1907 he was chosen president 
of the Chautauqua institution and that same year was 
made dean of the faculties of arts, literature and science in 
the university of Chicago. This position he held until he was 
called to the University of Minnesota in 1911, to fill the place 
made vacant by the resignation of Dr. Cyrus Northrup. 

For years Dr. Vincent has been a contributor to the socio- 
logical journals of the country and is the author of a number 
of books. In collaboration with Professor A. W. Small, he 
wrote "An Introduction to the Study of Society" and "The 
Social Mind in Education." He is a member of all the 
leading educational associations of the country, among them 
the American Economic Association, the American Historical 
Associations, the American Sociological Society. He is a 
member of the American Editorial Board of the Hibbert 
Journal. During the last fifteen yeais he has given 
lectures and addresses before Educational Associations and 
other gatherings in nearly every state in the East and West. 

In 1890 Dr. Vincent was married to Ix)uise Palmer at 
WilkesBarre, Pa. Mrs. Vincent is the daughter of Heury 
W. Palmer, an attorney at Wilkes-Barre. Mr, Palnu-r was 
attorney-general of Pennsylvania during the administration 
of Governor Hoyt and recently served his third term as a 
member of congress from Pennsylvania. Mrs. Vincent is a 
graduate of Wellc^ley in the class of 1886. Dr. and Mrs. Vin- 
cent have three children, Isabel, who was graduated at Bryn 
Mawr, in 1912, John Henry, an undergradmite at Yale, and 
Elizabeth, aged 12. 



GEORGE A. WIIITMORE. 



Mr. Wliitmiui- is a native of the city of Rochester, New 
York, where liis life began on October 24. 1857. He came 
to Minnesota to live in 1875. when he was but eighteen years 
old, and took up his residence at Montevideo, Chippewa 
county, where he had two brothers, one engaged in general 
merchandising and the other in the insurance business. His 
father, Clayton B. Whitmore, also passed the latter years 
of his life in Montevideo and dieil there. 

George A. Whitmore began his business career in the store 
of his brother, becoming a partner in the business soon 
after his arrival in this state and continuing his connection 
with it until 1S95, when he sold his interest in it and moved 



540 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND H1':NNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



to Minneapolis. For about seven years he represented the 
National Biscuit company on the road, and since then he has 
been pushing the trade of the Loose-Wiles Biscuit company. 

Mr. Whitmore is one of the original stockholders in this 
company and was one of its incorporators. 

To the interests of the company Mr. Whitmore is wholly 
devoted and he gives its business all the time and attention 
it requires of him. But on his own account he also deals in 
real estate to some extent, handling principally his own 
properties, and does some farming, too, on his half section 
of land, which lies partly in North Dakota and partly in the 
province of Saskatchewan, Canada, and is well adapted to 
wheat growing and general farming. 

In fraternal relations Mr. Whitmore is a Freemason and 
a member of the Order of United Commercial Travelers of 
America. He was married at Montevideo, Minnesota in 1882, 
to Miss Marian A. Case, a daughter of James A. Case, who 
is prominent in the grain and elevator business in this state. 
No children have been born of the union. 

Mrs. Whitmore is a devout and consistent Christian Sci- 
entist and an active member of the Sixth church of the sect 
located on Lowry Hill. 



JOHN C. VAN DOORN. 



John C. Van Doom of the Universal Portland Cement 
Company became the local representative in 1907, his opera- 
tions covering several states. In that six yeare the business 
has increased greatly in competition with about twenty-six 
other companies; and the office force has grown from three 
employes to twenty-nine. 

In 1903 Mr. Van Doom took charge of the St. Louis agency. 
Before that he was traveling for one of the largest producers, 
the total output of the mill being 100 barrels a day; and the 
entire annual production of cement in the United States 
amounted to but 375,000 barrels in 1892. No other industry 
has ever shown such remarkable strides and enormous growth 
in so short a period. 

Prior to 1896 nearly all the cement used in this country 
was imported from Germany and England, but since then 
it has been almost wholly produced in the United States. 
The Universal Cement company has been one of the leading 
factors in bringing about this result, having large plants at 
South Chicago, Buffington, Indiana: and Universal. Pennsyl- 
vania; and was a pioneer in the manufacture of genuine 
Portland cement. Its mills now produce 40,000 barrels per 
diem; and. in 1913, it was the largest shipper of the commod- 
ity in the world, distributing in the United States alone 10,- 
047,000 barrels, and again in 1913 was largest shipper. The 
amount used in Minneapolis and at other places in the North- 
west is prodigious, this city alone using in 1913, 97,000 bar- 
rels, while 70,000 barrels were sold to the State for use in 
the tonstruction of the new prison at Stillwater, and enor- 
mous quantities to the government for the high dam. The 
Coon Creek dam construction required 50,000 barrels, and 
more than 40,000 have been sold for canals at Duluth and 
Superior. 

Mr. Van Doom has operated in this northwestern territory 
for twenty years, his acquaintance extending over a dozen 
or more states. He might appropriately bo called the living 
apostle of cement, as he is contiiuially conducting a wide 



and active propaganda, disseminating cement literature and 
illustrating the many uses and superior adaptability of the 
article. Two publications, "The Monthly Bulletin" and "The 
Farm Cement News," are regularly distributed to the farmers 
in twenty-three states, the demand having so increased in 
consequence that a new plant is building at Duluth with a 
capacity of 5,000 barrels a day. 

Mr. Van Doom is a stockholder in the United States Steel 
Corporation, the cement industry being one of the leading sub- 
sidiary lines of that great enterprise. In the manufacture of 
cement large quantities of slag are supplied by Minnesota iron 
mines; and the importance of the industry to this state 
is rapidly increasing. Mr. Van Doom is connected with all 
organizations of cement producers, and is ever on the look- 
out for extensions of the trade of his company. He be- 
longs to many associations, including the Minneapolis and 
Athletic clubs and Civic and Commerce Association. In fra- 
ternal relations he is a Freemason, and in religious connection 
an Episcopalian being a vestryman of All Saints chur'ch. 
Fishing and hunting are his chief recreations. 

John C. Van Doom was born in Quincy, Illinois, on July 
26, 1869. His grandfather, John K. Van Doom, owned and 
operated the first sawmill at Quincy, dating to about 1842; 
and the dwelling he built there in 1850, is still standing. 
He was one of Quincy's leading citizens; and, when negro 
refugees fled from Missouri and other slave states, the gov- 
ernment employed him to care for them. The familj' orig- 
inated in Holland, but has been in America for more than 
250 years, some having emigrated to South America in 1658 
and others to the Hudson river in 1744. 

Mr. Van Doom, on November 14, 1906, married Miss Hattie 
Bailey of St. Louis. They have one son John Bailey Van 
Doom. 



JACOB SCHAEFER. 



"Mr. Schaefer was one of the truest men this city has ever 
known." So declared one of his intimate friends in Min- 
neapolis of the late Ja'cob Schaefer soon after the death of 
this leader in business life and high example in moral, re- 
ligious and social circles in Minneapolis, where he made his 
home during the last twenty years of a busy and eventful 
career. His residence here was quiet, peaceful and prosperous, 
but previously he had experienced many privations, hardships 
and vicissitudes, in which he was severely tried by all ex- 
tremes of fortune. 

Mr. Schaefer was born at Baerenthal, near Strasburg, Ger- 
many, in 1809. and educated in the Strasburg schools. At 
the age of nineteen, while attending a normal school, he de- 
termined to come to the United States. He landed at Phila- 
delphia, soon finding work as a clerk in a wholesale grocery. 
He went to Canton. Ohio, in 1842, and during the next year 
built an oil mill at Mishawaka, Indiana, but which was 
burned with a total loss. A few years later a flood swept 
away all his possessions and business at Rochester, Indiana. 
In 1849 he crossed the plains to California, and later went 
to Nicaragua, where he engaged in silver mining, only to be 
again overtaken by disaster. In 1852, on the Atlantic coast, 
he and six others contracted yellow fever. The six died and 
his own cofiin was prepared. But he recovered, only, how- 
ever, to suffer shipwreck a few years later as he was return- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND TTENXEPIX COI'NTY. MINNESOTA 



541 



ing after a more successful venture in Honduras. In 1860 he 
got back to Canton, Oliio, and in 1862 enlisted in the One 
Hundred and Fourth Ohio \'olunteer Infantry. Ue rose to the 
position of quartermaster of the Third Division, Twenty-third 
Army Corps, on the staff of General Jacob D. Cox. thus con- 
tinuing to the end of the war. 

In 1865 he came to Minneapolis and engaged in the lumber 
trade. He was successful and was soon recognized as not 
only a good business man but one on whom everybody tould 
place the utmost reliance. He was a modest man, however, 
and never sought or desired prominence, especially in public 
affairs. But the people being impressed by his fine business 
capacity and sterling worth elected him auditor of the county 
in 1870. This position he tilled for four years with credit to 
himself and decided benefit to the county. In 1878 he was 
chosen a member of the board of county commissioners, and 
during the next six years served as its chairman, retiring only 
a few months before his death. His services to the county 
in this position were also widely beneficial and they were 
appreciated by the public at their full value. 

In his boyhood Mr. Schacfer became a member of the Pres- 
byterian denomination, to which he adhered to the end. On 
coming to Minneapolis he joined Westminster Church and 
was recognized as one of its most prominent members. The 
associations and memories of military service were always 
dear, being ardent in devotion to old comrades. The Grand 
Army of the Republic has perpetuated his connection with it 
and his unblemished name in military circles, Jacob Schaefer 
Post being named in his honor. 

Mr. Schaefer's wife was Miss Sarah Miller, a sister of Mrs. 
John H. Stevens. She accompanied him to Honduras in 1855, 
and was the first American lady to visit the interior 
of that country. Their daughter Francisca, now Mrs. VV. O. 
Winston, was born at Yuscaran, Honduras. Mr. Schaefer died 
March 9, 1885. Mrs. Schaefer survived him almost a quarter 
of a century, dying at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Win- 
ston, in February, 1908. A clearer insight into Mr. Schaefer's 
character can scarcely be given than that expressed in the 
quotation from one of his friends at the beginning of this 
sketch. He was true to every element of elevated manhood 
and to every requirement of duty in all relations of life. 



FliEIJF.KUK 15. WKKiHT. 



Frederick B. Wright is a native of the Old Granite State, 
having been born in Coos County, New Hampshire. .lanuary 
17, 1856. His father was Beriah Wright, and their forefather, 
too, was named Beriah and was a captain in the War of 1812. 
The other Beriah, father of Fred B., was a farmer, character- 
ized by that sturdiness and |)ublic spiritedness which marked 
the men of New Hampshire. He gave his son good schooling 
in the district schools, and then the younger man entered the 
St. Johnsbury Academy, at St. Johnsbury, Vermont, an 
institution of learning long famous in New England. From 
the academy Fred Wright was graduated in 1878. For a time 
he followed the traditions of New England and taught 
school. Then W turned naturally to the law — for there 
have been many Wrights who have won prominence in that 
as well as the medical profession — and entered the law office 
of George A. Bingham in Littleton, New Hampshire. From 
there he went to Boston Law School, where he completed his 



studies preparatory to his admission to the bar. In 1883 the 
young man's course fumed westward, and he came to .Minne- 
apolis to begin practice. Here the natural trend of affairs 
led Mr. Wright to take an interest in the political life of 
the community and his sturdy Republicanism carried him 
high in the councils of his party. He became active in the 
affairs of the State League of Republican Clubs during its 
ascendency in the politics of the state, and was president of 
that important organization. His activity a.s an advisor 
ill his party brought about his candidacy for the legislature, 
and he was elected to the lower house of that body in 1906. 
as a member from the fortieth district, comprising then 
the Fourth ward of Minneapolis. During the session of 
1907, Mr. Wright was among the foremost members of the 
house of representatives, was chosen to serve on many of 
its most important committees, and was chairman of the 
drainage committee, as such bringing about the revision of 
the state drainage laws, a task for w^hich he is given chief 
credit. Mr. Wright served again as member of the house of 
representatives in the next session, in 1909, and then re- 
tired to give more time to his profession, although he con- 
tinued to be sought out as an advisor in the affairs of the 
Republican party. 

In addition to his political prominence .Mr. Wright is well 
known in the circles of the Masonic order. He is a member 
of the Blue Lodge, and the Knights Templar, as well as of the 
Shrine. He is deeply interested, also, in the civic organizations 
of his immediate community. Mr. Wright was married in 
1884 to Miss Helen M. Comant, of Greensboro. Vermont, and 
tliev have four children. 



WILLIAM E. WHEELER. 



William E. Wheeler, president of the Northwestern .\uto- 
mobile company, 317 South Fourth street, was boni at Menasha, 
Wisconsin, February 25, 1873. He acquired his early education 
ill the ]iublic schools of his native city and then entered 
Daggett's Business college at Oslikosh. After graduating from 
that institution, he accepted a position in the offices of a wagon 
manufacturer at Superior, Wisconsin. In 1896 he came to 
Minneapolis and for three years was employed by the Deere & 
Webber company in charge of their bicycle department. This 
was during the time of the great popularity of the wheel 
and to keep the supply equal to the demand required alert 
and energetic business ability in the successful sales manager. 
At the end of three years he resigned his position with the 
Deere & Webber company and established himself as a bicycle 
dealer at 611 First avenue, south. On the advent of the auto- 
mobile trade, he quickly grasped the greater possibilities of the 
industry with its menace to the business in which he was 
engaged and so became the pioneer automobile dealer of the 
Northwest, and was closely identified with rapid development 
of the industry. He was not discouraged by the failure of his 
first investment of $1,000 in an electric, which he finally dis- 
posed of, after four years, for $125, but handled succe-ssively 
the steam car and the gasoline. In 190.T he became agent for 
the Ford company and for the next ten years conilucteil an 
enormous sale of this car throughout the northwest. The 
Northwestern Automobile company, of which he is president, 
with Mr. I. R. Du Sault, secretary, and Mr. William Eggleston, 
vice president, was incorporated in 1900. with a capital stock 



542 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



of $100,000 and a cash investment of $5,500, which has in- 
creased to the present investment of $200,000, demanded bj' 
their extensive trade. They retain local agents in North and 
South Dakota, eastern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin and 
are now engaged in promoting the sale of the Krit car. The 
company requires the services of seventy-five employes, includ- 
ing the office force, salesmen and mechanics and operates a 
supply department which has become an important phase of 
the business. In addition to his successful commercial career, 
Mr. Wheeler has been actively associated with the real estate 
transactions of the city, erecting several residences and platting 
the Wheeler addition at Hennepin avenue and Thirtj'-fourth 
street. He is the owner of a farm at Rockford, Minnesota, 
and has extensive land interests in Minnesota, North Dakota 
and Canada. He is a member of the Civic and Commerce 
association, the New Athletic club, the Kandijohi Gun club 
and the Auto club. He was married to Miss Susan Wood at 
Waukau, Wisconsin, in 1900 and they have one daughter, 
Elydah Mary Wheeler. Mr. Wheeler and his family are com- 
municants of the Lyndale Congregational church. 



JOSEPH EDWIN WARE. 



Joseph Edwin AVare, the primary factor in founding the St. 
Anthony Falls Bank and its cashier ever since it was first 
opened for business, is a native of Morrison, Illinois, where 
his life began on May 17, 1863. He is a son of Joseph and 
Martha Emma (Roy) Ware, highly respected citizens of the 
town of his nativity at the time of his birth. The father was 
an Etttorney at law there, and prospered in his business. His 
son Joseph obtained a high school education in Morrison, then 
attended Beloit College at Beloit, Wisconsin, and afterward 
Carleton College at Northfield, Minnesota, being graduated 
from the institution last named in 1883. 

Mr. Ware has been connected with the banking business 
ever since he left school. He began his career as a book- 
keeper in the Commercial Bank of Minneapolis, with which 
he remained until 1885. He then moved to Clark in that 
part of the territory of Dakota which is now the State of 
South Dakota, and was there engaged in banking in asso- 
ciation with his brother until 1888. In that year he re- 
turned to Minneapolis and operated in this city in insurance 
and loans until 1893, when he founded the St. Anthony 
Falls Bank in company with some other enterprising gentle- 
men. 

In religious affiliation Mr. Ware is a Presbyterian, and 
he takes a cordial interest in the social life of his com- 
munity as a member of the Minneapolis Commercial club. 
He was married in Red Wing, Minnesota on April 28, 1886, 
to Miss Kate Belle Webster. His active and constant personal 
attention to the business of the St. Anthony Falls Bank has 
made that institution what it is in a large measure, and his 
genial and obliging nature has done a great deal to render it 
popular among the people of this city. 



CHARLES C. WEBBER. 



C. and Ellen S. (Deere) Webber, the former a scion of old 
New Hampshire families and the latter of Vermont households 
established in Colonial times, and a daughter of John Deere, 
the plow manufacturer. 

The father was a merthant and manufacturer at Rock 
Island, Illinois, and died there. They had five children who 
grew to maturity: Charles C, the subject of this brief re- 
view ; Mrs. W. G. Mixter, who is now a resident of New Haven, 
Connecticut; Mrs. T. A. Murphy,- whose home is at Rock 
Island, Illinois. The head of the house was successful in his 
business undertakings and a man of high standing in his 
community. 

Charles C. Webber obtained his education in the public 
schools of his native city and at Lake Forest Academy in the 
city of the same name in another part of his native state. 
He attended the academy three years, completing his course 
of instruction there in 1877. He at once began his business 
career on leaving school in the line in which he is now en- 
gaged and with which lie has been connected from the start. 
After passing three years in the employ of Deere & Company, 
manufacturers at Moline, Illinois, working in the office and 
on the road as a salesman, he came to Minneapolis in Jan- 
uary, 1881, when the firm founded its business in this state, 
to take charge of the interests of the house here. For 
twelve years the firm bore the same name here as in Illinois, 
but in 1893 the business was incorporated under the name 
of the Deere & Webber company. He is also vice-president 
of the old firm of Deere & Company at Moline, Illinois. 

In the fiscal agencies of magnitude, which are numerous in 
this Northwestern metropolis, Mr. Webber has long taken 
an earnest interest and an active part. He is a director of 
the Security National Bank and the Minnesota Loan and 
Trust company, and a trustee of the Farmers and Mechanics 
Savings Bank. 

He is an independent Democrat in political faith and prac- 
tice, always willing to perform a good citizen's full duty to- 
ward securing the best government, local and general, but 
never seeking or desiring to aid in administering it as a pub- 
lie official. In church relations he is a Presbyterian, and 
among the social organizations in the community he has 
allied himself in membership with two. the Minneapolis club 
and the Commercial club. He was married in Rochester, New 
York, to Miss Mary M. Harris of that city. 



OLIVER F. WARNES. 



Mr. Webber is a native of Rock Island, Illinois, where his 
life began on January 25, 1859. His parents were Christopher 



Mr. Warnes is the head miller of the West Side Mills of 
the Pillsbury Company, and has personal supervision of the 
production of at least 10,000 barrels of flour a day, which is 
about half of the output of all the Pillsbury mills. 

He was born June 19, 1856, at Polkton, Michigan, and as a 
child was taken to Wisconsin. His father, I. Warnes. was for 
years a practical flour miller in New York, in Michigan, and 
later at Neenah, Wisconsin. Oliver began learning the trade 
under his father, and in a few years became familiar with 
every detail in the process of manufacturing (lour. 

In the spring of 1877, Mr. Warnes came to Minnesota, find- 
ing employment in the Trust mill at Minnesota City, where 
he dressed millstones for one year. The Hungarian process 
of flour milling was then attracting attention, and many lead- 



HISTORY OF JIIXXEAPOLIS AND HENXEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



543 



Ing millers were adopting it. While at Decorah, Iowa, Mr. 
Warnes was among the first practical millers to operate that 
process in this country. He helpeil to install the Hungarian 
machinery in a new mill at Stillwater, one of tlie first of the 
large mills to adopt tlie system. When it was started a dele- 
gation of millers from Minneapolis visited it to inspect its 
workings and were convinced of its superiority. 

Mr. Warnes then worked one year in the Crown Roller 
Mill, in Minneapolis, then returned to Stillwater to become 
second miller in the mill where he had formerly worked. He 
was employed in that position at the time of tlie historic 
mill explosion in Minneapolis, in 1878, visiting the scene of 
destructon next morning. 

In 1885 his services were secured for the Piilsbury B mill, 
and in November, 1889, he was appointed head miller of the 
company's big mill at Anoka, where he remained for twenty 
years. This was at first a 750 barrel mill, but he enlarged 
its capacity to 1,500 barrels a day, employing forty-five men. 
In 1909 the company gave him charge of the "B" and the 
Anchor Mills in Minneapolis, in addition to the one at Anoka. 
He was soon made superintendent of the Palisade Mill, with 
gratifying results. Of the Company's whole output, which 
is in excess of 20,000 barrels a day, fully one-half is pro- 
duced under his immediate oversight and direction. 

While living at Anoka, Mr. Warnes was a member of the 
School Board and the Library Board of that city, and for a 
time served as a bank director. But his life w'ork has been 
devoted principally and without a break to flour milling in 
which industry he is considered an expert and authority. 

Mr. Warnes was married at Stillwater in April. 1883. to 
Miss Laura W. Weatherbee, a native of Bangor, Me. They 
have one daughter, Carrie W., wife of R. L. Fairaisn, now 
general passenger agent of the Eastern Division of the Cana- 
dian Northern Railroad in Toronto. Canada. Mr. Warnes is 
a York and Scottish Rite Mason and a Noble of the Mystic 
Shrine. He is a Past High Priest of Anoka Chapter of Royal 
Arch Masons. In religious ufliliation he is a Universalist and 
belongs to the Church of tlie Redeemer. 



FRANK H. WADSWORTH. 



Soon after the first settlement of European colonists in 
New England two brothers, William and Christopher W^ads- 
worth, left Yorkshire, England, and came to this country. 
William located at Newton, near Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
was selectman and became prominent and influential. When 
Governor Winthrop oppressed the citizens by seeking to limit 
the privilege of sufTrage to the members of the church to 
which lie belonged. William Wadsworth joined tlie famous 
liberal preacher. Hooker, in a demand for the total separation, 
of church and state. Their efforts being unsuccessful, in 
1636 they removed to the valley of the Connecticut, where 
they expected to enjoy greater freedom of conscience and 
the right and opportunity of governing tliemselves. 

John Wadsworth, who was the first lawyer licensed in 
Connecticut settled at Farmington in 1641. The title to his 
land was acquired directly from the Tunxis Indians, descended 
to the eldest son tlirough eight generations, finally reaching 
Winthrop M., the father of Frank H. and Henry H. On 
October 31, 1687, when the tyrannical governor, Sir Ed- 
mund AndroB, sought to seize the charter of the colony, 



granted by King Charles I, in 1642, Capt. Joseph Wadsworth, 
a brother of John, seized the precious document, carried it 
away in the dark and hid it in the historic Charter Oak, 
Later the charter was again restored, and continued to be the 
fundamental law of Connecticut until 1818. 

After hiding the charter Joseph Wadsworth fled to the plan- 
tation of his brother John at F'armington. On this old plan- 
tation Frank H. Wadsworth was born, March 2, 1859, and 
there remained until he reached the age of twcnty-fivc. Ho 
attended the common Schools and two or three seminaries, 
and was graduated from the law department of Yale College 
in 1883. He became a resident of Miniieaiiolis in 1883, and 
has since then been actively and extensively engaged in the 
practice of his profession. 

The old Wadsworth homestead at Farmington, has been the 
scene of historical events of importance, not only to New 
England, but the whole United States. The first Guernsey 
cattle brought into this tountry went to that farm, and in 
Farmington. Conn., the first creamery in New England was 
established. The owner of the farm at that time was Win- 
throp M. Wadsworth, the father of Frank and Henry, who was 
president of the State Agricultural Society and also of the 
.State Dairymen's Association, which controlled eighty cream- 
eries and wielded an influence that has been felt in every 
locality where dairying is carried on. 

The firm of Wadsworth & Wadsworth, composed of Frank 
H. and Henry H. W'adsworth, is the oldest law firm in Min- 
neapolis, being established Sefitember 7, 1883, and in civil 
and real estate law its practice is extensive. The members 
of the firm are not ollice seekers, but both being Republicans, 
they have worked earnestly for the success of their party. 
Their business, however, has engaged them mainly, and many 
large estates have been handled by them. They have placed 
in use in Minneapolis more than two million dollars of East- 
ern capital; and have themselves in late years been active 
builders, especially in the line of tenement and apartment 
houses. 

Frank H. Wadsworth is given credit for having prepared 
the first and only complete history of the water power of the 
city, including the reservoir and preservation of the Falls. 
His work on this subject has won high praise and is held 
to be of inestimable value, especially by the Water Power 
company, which has complimented the author cordially on his 
worthy effort. He was married in 1888 to Miss .Mary L. 
Mattison, of Oswego, New York. They have two children: 
Winthrop M., who is a student in the University of Illinois, 
and Kate, who is a student in the University of >Iinnesota, 



HON. CADWALLADER (OLDEN WASHBURN. 

Governor Washburn was born in Livermore, Oxford county, 
Maine, on April 26, 1818, He was a son of Israel Washburn, 
some account of whose life will bi' found in a sketch of his 
younger brother, the late Hon. William Drew Wa-^hburn, 
which appears elsewhere in this work. The son had no 
academic advantages, and his ntlendante at the public school 
in his native town ended when he reached the age of eigh- 
teen years. During the next three years he was engage.l in 
several different occupations, including clerking in a country 
store, teaching a village school and clerking in a postofflce, 
all of which were useful to him in preparing for his great 



544 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



career, tor he was alwaj's observant and studious, and made 
every hour of his time and every phase of his experience 
serviceable in helping him up the steep incline to complete 
success, of which he determined in early life to reach the 
summit. He also began the study of law in the office of 
his uncle, Kewel Washburn, a prominent lawyer of his native 
town. 

When Mr. Washburn attained his majority he determined 
to seek a new home and ampler opportunity for the employ- 
ment of his business capacity in what was then the far West, 
and took up his residence at Davenport, Iowa, where he 
taught school for a time, then joined the Iowa Geological 
Survey under David Dale Owen. He was prepared for use- 
fulness in this connection by a study of surveying and practice 
in the profession before he left Maine. He also continued 
his law studies as he had opportunity, as progress was the 
law of his being and he was ever obedient to it. 

In 1840 Mr. Washburn was appointed surveyor of Rock 
Island county, Illinois, but two years later he moved to 
Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and began the practice of law. 
For this purpose and others he formed a partnership with 
Cyrus Woodman, agent of the New England Land company, 
and while practicing law was his principal business, he also 
availed himself of the crowding opportunities for good in- 
vestments in timber lands, whereby he laid the foundation 
of a large fortune. In addition to extensive holdings in the 
pine region of Wisconsin he acquired large tracts of similar 
land in this state and also secured interests which com- 
manded the riparian ownership of the Falls of St. Anthony. 
Mr. Washburn and his partner also established a bank at 
Mineral Point, and thus, through his law practice, his deal- 
ings in land and his financial operations in the bank, he be- 
came widely and favorably known throughout Southern Wis- 
consin. In 1855 he was elected to the Thirty-fourth Con- 
gress, and was twice re-elected, serving six years in all, his 
third term ending on March 4, 1861, and having at the end 
of that period a national reputation of the first rank. By the 
end of his last term in Congress the Civil war had begun, and 
this eminent patriot determined to help to enforce on the 
battlefield the principles he had so ardently espoused in the 
councils of the nation. He therefore declined another term in 
Congress and turned his energies into military channels in 
defense of the Union. 

Mr. Washburn entered the war at its beginning and laid 
down his sword onlj- wlien peace had been re-established. He 
recruited the Second Wisconsin regiment of Cavalry and was 
made its commander with the rank of colonel. Promotions 
in the service followed rapidly, due in part to the confidence 
President Lincoln, who knew him well, had in him, but all 
earned by meritorious service. In .lune, 1862, he was com- 
missioned brigadier general, and in November of the same 
year major general of volunteers. He served in the Vicks- 
burg campaign, had command of the Thirteenth army corps 
in a series of brilliant exploits on the gulf coast, and was 
finally plated in charge of the military district of Western 
Tennessee at Memphis. His services throughout the war 
were valiant and skilful and vastly useful. 

At the close of the war General Washburn ret\irned to Wis- 
consin and was again elected to Congress for two terms, serv- 
ing from 1867 to 1871. This was during the important era 
of reconstruction, and his services in rehabilitating the states 
which had been in the Confederacy, and restoring order and 
harmony, were also signal and highly appreciated. His last 



service in the National House of Representatives was followed 
by an immediate call to the governorship of Wisconsin, which 
he filled during the years 1872 and 1873. He gave the state 
a thoroughly practical business administration which con- 
tributed greatly to its advancement and prosperity. 

By the end of his term as governor he found his business 
interests ciying aloud for attention from him, and he re- 
tired from public life to give them that attention. He had 
large holdings in the pineries of Wisconsin, and he founded 
lumber factories on a large scale in La Crosse. He had 
married Miss Jenny Garr of New York, and for her and the 
two daughters who then constituted the family, he built a 
handsome residence in Madison, the capital of the state. 

In 1850, as already stated, Mr. Washburn acquired exten- 
sive tracts of pine land in Minnesota, and a controlling in- 
terest in the water power at St. Anthony Falls. The Minne- 
apolis Mill company was incorporated in 1856, with him as 
one of its principal owners. He was a director and at times 
president of the Water Power company, and an earnest ad- 
vocate of and inrtuential potency in making the most sub- 
stantial improvements in the property. It was a source 
of great satisfaction to him that he lived to see his largest 
hopes in respect to this property and its expensive improve- 
ment fully realized. 

In 1876 the governor erected a large flouring mill at the 
Falls, and after sending agents abroad to examine the most 
approved methods of milling in Europe, he introduced the 
Hungarian iron roller process, and also adopted the newly 
invented middling purifier. The "New Process" flour at- 
tained wide popularity and there was a great demand for it 
in all parts of the country. Two years of great prosperity 
for the mill and its owners followed, then, in 1878, came the 
disastrous explosion and fire which totally destroyed the mill 
and took a toll of the lives of seventeen of its employes. This 
loss of life, although due to the want of no known precau- 
tion, was a source of great sorrow to Governor Washburn. 
He sympathetically aided the families of the men killed and 
injured, and gathered the remains of the dead into one burial 
place, over wliich he had erected a granite monument in- 
scribed with this sentiment from Carlyle: "Labor, wide as 
the earth, has its summit in Heaven," which truly repre- 
sents his views on the subject. 

As soon as preparations could be completed the mill was 
rebuilt on a larger scale and with more perfect machinery 
than before; and another large mill was built near it with 
capacious store rooms for wheat. These mills were Con- 
tinuously operated during his life, and by a wise provision 
of his will their operation has been kept up by his represen- 
tatives since his death. 

Both as a far-seeing business man and as a patriotic citi- 
zen eager for tin" development and advancement of his state. 
Governor Washburn took a deep, practical and helpful interest 
in the expansion of the railroad facilities of Minneapolis. He 
became a large stockholder in the Minneapolis & St. Louis 
Railway company and served on its board of directors. He 
also shared with his more actively interested brother, the late 
William D. Washburn, in solicitude for the construction of the 
line to connect this city with the Atlantit seaboard by way 
of Sault Ste. Marie, which was a project first suggested by 
the older brother. Governor Israel Washburn. 

While Governor Washburn was more successful than most 
men in his business enterprises, he was more than most suc- 
cessful men eager to devote his wealth to worthy purposes. 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



545 



Many years before his death he joined witli his brothers in 
presenting to their native town of Livermore, Maine, a free 
publie library. As governor of Wisconsin he was olllcially 
connected with the State Iniversity and became earnestly 
interested in its welfare. In recognition of his learning and 
ability it conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor 
of Laws. In 1S78 he showed his interest in the welfare of the 
institution in having erected an astronomical observatory in 
Madison, and when it was completed and thoroughly equipped 
with the most modern instruments for its purposes he pre- 
sented it to the University. About the same time he endowed 
at Edgewood, near Madison, the St. Regina Academy. His 
post mortem public benefactions were a public library at La 
Crosse and the Washburn Orphan Home in Minneapolis. For 
these his bequests were liberal — $50,000 for the La Crosse 
library and $75,000 for the Orphans' Home. 

In this connection it should be stated that about the time 
he made his will. Governor Washburn wrote to a friend: "I 
long have had the thought that 1 ought to do something for 
mankind before resigning up this pleasing, an.xious being." 
His life work was then drawing to its close, and this seemed 
to be his heart's desire. While the Astronomer scans the 
starry firmament to solve the stupendous problems of the 
universe; while the generations of youth draw from the 
garnered treasures of learning inspiration and strength for 
the work of life; while the children of poverty or misfor- 
tune are sheltered and trained for lives of industry and 
virtue, the generations as they come and go in this growing 
Northwest through the ages will testify that this noble man 
"did something for mankind." 

His impulses were elevated and liberal. In politics he was 
a radical Republican from the strength of his convictions, but 
in dealing with his political opponents he was tolerant and 
considerate from the nobility of his nature, and in religion 
he was the incarnation of liberality. His whole career strongly 
illustrates the possibilities of a noble manhood. He died at 
Eureka Springs, Arkansas, on May 13, 1882, after two or 
three years of failing health, and his remains were laid to 
rest in a cemetery in La Crosse, where he made his home 
during his last years. Two married daughtere still survive 
him: .leannette, who is the wife of A. W. Kelsey of I'hila- 
delphia. and Kanny. who is the wife of Charles Payson of 
Washington, D. C. It needs scarcely be said that his death 
called forth testimonials to his great ability, worth, line busi- 
ness capacity and fidelity to every duty in many parts of the 
country, and made this city and many others in which he was 
well known, mourn deeply the loss of one of America's best 
and truest citizens. 



IK IN. WIM.I.V.M DKKW WASIIIU KN. 

The late Hon. William Drew Washburn of Minneapolis was 
essentially a man of high character — clear in perception, reso- 
lute in pursuit, quick and firm in decision. These qualities 
gave him force and leadership among men and wrought out 
for him a record in industrial, commercial and political life, 
creditable alike to himself and to the people in whose service 
it was made. True, he belonged to a ilistinguished family — 
one that has givi>n to this country a I'niteil States secretary 
of state, two governors, four members of congress, one 
United States senator, one major general in the army, one 



second in conwnand in the United States navy, one surveyor 
general, two foreign ambassadors, two state legislators and 
three distinguished men who were at the same time members 
of congress from different states. But the subject of this 
writing made his own record, and without the aid of cir- 
cumstances, except as he commanded them to his service, 
and made them wings and weapons for his advancement. 

Mr, Washburn was born at Liverniore, Androscoggin county, 
Maine, on .lanuary 14. 1831. Me was a son of Israel Wash- 
burn, a descendant of John D. Washburn who came over in the 
Mayllower. The senator was reared on a farm an<l began his 
education in the district Schools, and early had among his 
teachers Hon. Timothy O. Howe, long afterwards a United 
States senator from Wisconsin, and Leonard Swett, later a 
prominent lawyer in Chicago, and the man who presented 
Lincoln's name for the presidency to the national Republican 
convention in 1860. The future founder of an imperial in- 
dustry in the then almost untrodden West also attended a 
higli school in his native place, and after a preparatory course 
at Farmington, Maine, entered Bowdoin college in that state 
in the fall of 1850. He was graduated from that institution in 
1854 with the degree of A. B.. and received from it in 1902 that 
of LL. D. On completing his college course he studied law, 
beginning his professional studies in the office of his brother 
Israel and completing them for admission to the bar in that 
of Hon. .John A. Peters of Bangor, afterward chief justice of 
the supreme court of Maine. On May 1, 1857, he became a 
resident of St, Anthony Falls, where he opened an office 
and practiced law two yeare. But having a mind that was 
essentially constructive in character, the conditions at the 
place naturally turned his energies into other channels. In 
the fall of 1857 he accepted a position as agent for the Min- 
neapolis Mill company, and at once began to improve the 
Falls on the west side of the river. After a service of ten 
years as agent of this company, and enlarging its capacity, 
equipment and output to great proportions, he engaged in the 
lumber business, building the Lincoln sawmill on the Falls, 
and another extensive one at Anoka. In addition he became 
extensively interested in the manufacture of flour, and the 
principal owner of the mills which were later incorporated 
with the Pillsbury properties, the name of the new industrial 
giant being the Pillsbury-Washburn Milling company, which 
is now known far and wide as the largest Hour milling enter- 
prise in the world. 

Tn these colossal imdertakings Mr. Washburn found full 
scope for his active and versatile mind and ample rewards for 
the conscientious and all-compiering i^nergy he devoted to 
them. And with characteristic foresight and breadth of view, 
seeking to enlarge his own production and those of the whole 
of his section by providing for them a cheap and speedy out- 
let to the best markets, he became one of the most active 
and resourceful promoters of internal improvements and gen- 
eral public utilitii'S in this part of the country. If was largely 
through his .■ncrgy and public spirit that the Minneapidis ft 
St. Louis Railroad was built, he being the president of the 
corporation and its inspiring and controlling genius for many 
years, beginning with the inception of the enterprise in 1869. 
He was also the most inHuential an.l serviceable potency in 
the projection and construction of the Minneapolis, St. Paul 
& Saulf Ste. Marie Railroad, which was built originally from 
Minneapolis to Sault Ste. Marie where it connected with the 
Canailian Pacilie helping to form an independent rnrapeting line 
to New York and New England, and thus rendering a service 



546 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



of incalculable benefit to the whole Northwest in reducing 
freight rates between the great business center and distribut- 
ing point at which he resided and the Atlantic coast; and by 
its subsequent connection with the Canadian Pacific west- 
ward, jjerforming the same service for shippers to the Pacific 
coa'st. 

As time passed, and one after another of his projects for the 
improvement of the country advanced from hope to fruition, 
his insatiable enterprise found new fields for its employment 
and opened new regions to settlement and productiveness. In 
lUOl he began the construction of the Bismarck, Washburn 
& Great Falls Railroad, which he completed to Underwood, 
a distance of about sixty miles. Having by this time placed 
Iiis new highway of commerce on a firm basis and assured 
its further progress to its destined far western terminal, he 
sold his interests in it to the "Soo" system, and turned his 
attention to the promotion of other industries which his in- 
vasion of the region had called from the sleep of ages to 
wakefulness and beneficent activity, and which have them- 
selves spoken into being a municipal entity, named Washburn 
in his honor, which is now the county seat of McLean 
county. North Dakota. Where Wilton has since grown to 
consequence in that county, he opened a lignite coal mine 
that has developed from a Small and dubious beginning to 
a daily output of some 2,000 tons of excellent coal. 

Another great enterprise for the improvement and further 
development of the upper Mississippi river region which Mr. 
Washburn started and fostered and guided to its completion 
was the building of reservoire at the head of the river, a 
work of the United States government whi'ch has contributed 
enormously to the extension and betterment of navigation, 
and the greater safety, productiveness and wealth of the 
region, by preventing the recurrence of the disastrous floods 
that had previously for years wrought great havoc. And still 
another production of his far-seeing practical wisdom and 
business acumen, and one as important and far-reaching as 
any other, was the construction of government dams and locks 
at Meeker Island in the Mississippi between Minneapolis and 
8t. Paul, to make the river navigable to St. Anthony Falls 
for the largest river boats, and also utilize a water power of 
enormous volume, the first appropriation for the work being 
made through his personal efforts and influence while he was 
a member of the United States senate, where he was of great 
service to the state in many ways. 

In political faith Mr. Washburn was always an earnest 
sincere Republican, and as such served his city and state in a 
number of important ofl!icial positions. He was a member of 
the legislature in 1858 and again in 1871. In 1861 President 
Lincoln appointed him Surveyor general of the Minnesota 
territorial distri'ct. In 1878, 1880 and 1882, he was elected 
to the United States hou.se of representatives, serving six 
years continuously and reaching high rank in the body as one 
of its most useful and influential membei's. And in 1888 he 
was chosen to represent his state in the United State senate. 
In the woild's most exalted legislative forum he showed great 
ability, industry and resourcefulness and a comprehensive 
knowledge of public afl'airs, from which his state received 
signal benefit in many ways, and so bore himself that all of 
his colleagues respected and most of them admired him. 

In religious afliliation Senator Washburn was long zeal- 
ously and serviceably connected with the Universalist church, 
which, through his efforts and those of others like him, has 
become, in material resources and beneficent influence, one 



of the strongest if not the strongest of all the religious or- 
ganizations in this part of the country. In 1901 he was 
elected president of its national convention, a position that 
he filled acceptably for two years, surrendering the trust at 
the close of the meeting in October, 1903, which was held 
in Washington, D. C, and over whose deliberations he pre- 
sided with distinguished ability. 

He was also, from the founding of the Washburn Orphans' 
Home of Minnesota, located in this city, to his death, one of 
its trustees and president of the board. This noble institu- 
tion, designed and conducted as a home for needy children 
of the state who have lost one or both parents, was founded 
on a bequest of .$75,000 left for the purpose by the senator's 
brother, Hon. Cadwallader C. Washburn, for eight years a 
member of the United States house of representatives, before 
the Civil war, and later governor of Wisconsin. Conducted 
on a high plane of eleemosynary benevolence, the Home is 
widely known as one of the best of its kind, and as com- 
bining in its management enlightened public-spirited, great 
breadth of view and judicious business capacity. 

Senator Washburn was married on April 19, 1859, to Miss 
Lizzie Muzzy, a daughter of Hon. Franklin Muzzy, one of 
Maine's eminent citizens. Nine children, six sons and three 
daughters, six of whom are living. Mrs. Washburn is still 
living, and the six children who survive their father are: 
William D., Jr., who is a member of the State legislature of 
Minnesota and has his home in this city; Edward C, also a, 
resident of Minneapolis, who was associated with his father 
in his coal industry in North Dakota, and is general manager 
of several western corporations; Cadwallader, who is an 
artist of distinction; Stanley, who is a well known journalist 
and came into special prominence as a war correspondent 
during the terrible conflict between Russia and Japan; Mrs. 
E. F. Baldwin, who is the wife of one of the editors of the 
Outlook magazine; and Mrs. Halden Wright, who resides in 
Maine near the old Washburn homestead, amid the scenes 
and associations in which the senator found great delight 
during his boyhood and youth. 

Senator Washburn's useful life ended at "Fair Oaks," his 
home in Minneapolis, on Monday night, July 29, 1912, after 
an eight days' fight for life. He had reached the advanced 
age of eighty-one years, six months and fifteen days, and 
although he had been a suflerer from the malady that was 
fatal to him for some time, until a few months before his 
death he appeared to be in his customary health and was 
vigorous for his age, which showed the strength of his con- 
stitution and the firmness of his fiber. He was benignant 
and sunny in his disposition, considerate and companionable 
toward all who had the privilege of association with him, and 
his life was full of high productiveness. 



EDWARD PAVSON WELLS. 



The man who knows his bent and follows it, who realizes 
the field of endeavor for which his faculties are best suited 
and seeks and adheres to that field in the use of them, is al- 
most certain of success, and that of a magnitude dependent 
only on his ability to find his opportunities for advancement 
or make them, even out of advei-se circumstances, and em- 
ploy them to the best advantage. Edward Payson Wells of 
Minneapolis, banker, flour miller and at one time prominent 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



547 



in public life, fiirnislies in his character, make-up and career, 
a forcible illustration of this fact. 

Mr. Wells is a native of Troj-, Wisconsin, where his life 
began on Xovember 9, 1847. He is a son of Milton and 
Melissa (Smith) Wells, both born in Wayne county, New 
York. The father was a Congregational minister in the birth- 
place of his son, and able to aflord good school facilities for 
his children, which he was well pleased to do, fully realizing 
his duty in the matter and diligent and liberal in the perform- 
ance of it. 

The son began his education in the common schools of his 
native place and completed it at an excellent academy in 
Wolcott, Xew York. He did not seek more advanced scholas- 
tic training, for from his youth he felt a strong inclination 
to mercantile and manufacturing pursuits, and was restless 
until lie was free to enter upon the business career he was 
eager to work out for himself. Accordingly, at an early age 
he was glad to leave school and start in business as a produce 
commission merchant in Milwaukee. He continued to operate 
in this line until 1878, when he founded the Wells-Dickey 
company at Jamestown, in what was then the territory of 
Dakota. The company is engaged in the McKnight building' 
in investment banking and dealing in farm mortgages and 
municipal, railroad and public service bonds. Mr. Wells has 
been its president from the time when it was founded. 

In 1895 Mr. Wells turned his attention to the milling in- 
dustry, and he is now president of the Russell-JIiller Jlilling 
company, which operates in Jlinneapolis, and conducts its busi- 
ness on a large and very enterprising scale. In 1881 he was 
elected president of the James River National Bank, of James- 
town, North Dakota, which he served in that capacity until 
1905, when he resigned, but he has ever since maintained an 
official relation to the institution as one of its directors. He is 
also one of the directors of tlie Northwestern National Bank of 
Minneapolis, President of tlie Electric Steel Klevator com- 
pany of Minneapolis and a director of the Nortli American 
Telegraph company. 

The business interests and engagements of Mr. Wells are 
numerous and various, and it can easily be inferred that they 
are very exacting. Nevertheless, wherever he has lived Since 
he began his business career he has taken an active and very 
serviceable part in public affairs. In 1880 and ISSl he was 
a member of the territorial legislature of Dakota, and in 
1882 and 1883 chairman of the Dakota Tax Commission. He 
has always given his political faith and allegiance to the 
Republican party, and served as chairman of the Territorial 
Central Committee of Dakota for tliat party from 1883 to 
1885. At present he is senior vice president of the Civic and 
Commerce Association of Minneapolis, of whidi he was one 
of the organizers, and of which he has, from the start of 
its history, been a prominent and energetic member. 

Mr. Wells also takes an earnest interest and an active part 
in the club and social life of his home community, holding 
membership in the Minneapolis, Minikahda and Lafayette 
clubs of this city. In religious affiliation he is a Univcrsalist. 
He was married in Minneapolis on March 8, 1871, to Miss 
Nellie March .Johnson, whose father, Joseph S. .lohnson settled 
in Minneapolis in 1S54 and became the owner of and lived 
on the 160 acres bounded by Nicollet avenue, Grant street, 
Lyndale avenue and Franklin avenue, including much of the 
present Loring Park and the choice residential Oakwood, 
Clifton avenues, Woodland and Ridgewood avenues. 



MARTIN C. WILLIAMS. 

JIartin C. Williams, president of the Northwestern Casket 
company, was born in Granville. New York. December 30, 
1849, a son of John H. and Louisa (Crocker) Williams. He 
i-eaehed the age of fifteen in his native place and obtaining 
his early education in the public schools of I'oultncy. Ver- 
mont, and coming to Michigan at fifteen he took a course 
in a commercial college at Ann Arbor. 

He worked two years at the carpenter's trade, was a hard- 
ware merchant from 1872 to 1874, and was for eight years in the 
retail furniture trade in Evart, Michigan. He then, in 1882, 
came to Minnesota, and for one year was a jobber in under- 
takers' supplies in St. Paul, in 1883, accepting the position of 
vice president and general manager of the Northwestern Casket 
company, Hon. E. M. Johnson being president. Mr. Williams 
succeeded to the presidency at the death of Mr. Johnson. Its 
business has constantly expanded, the reputation of its prod- 
ucts for excellence of material and workmanship being un- 
surpassed. It employs 125 workmen, eleven being salesmen, 
who cover territory extending to the coast. 

He is also vice president and treasurer of the Minneapolis 
Office and School Furniture company, another important 
industry and holds active relationship with other enterprises 
including the Silverplate company at Elgin, Illinois. He is a 
member of the New Athletic, the St. Anthony Commercial, 
the Lafayette and the Auto chibs, and is a trustee and 
treasurer of St. Barnabas Hosjiital. Public affairs received 
his attention somewhat, every worthy undertaking finding 
in him a cordial, practical and energetic supporter. He is 
no politician, but as a good citizen is swayed by no other 
motive than an earnest desire to promote the general wel- 
fare. He was married in 1883 to Miss Carrie S. Minchin of 
Pontine, Michigan. They have three children, Bessie Gillette, 
Roy M. and Margaret Reynolds, the son being a director in 
the Minneapolis Office and School Furniture company. 



ALBERT FREDERICK WOODS. 

Professor Albert Frederick Woods, Dean and Director of 
Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Minnesota, has 
reached the elevated position he holds in the educational 
system of this state and the cordial esteem of the people 
of Minnesota through careful use of the opportimities for 
training his naturally strong mentality which have come to 
or been sought out by him, and making every day of his 
time from youth tell to his advantage, improvement and ad- 
vancement. 

Professor Woods is a native of Boone county, Illinois, born 
at Bonus Prairie, near Belvidcre, on December 25, 1866. 
When he was live years old his parents moved to a farm of 
500 acres at Downers Grove, in Dupage county, that state, 
and there he was reared to manhood and obtained a com- 
mon and high school education. In 1S84 he moved to 
Nebraska, where he passed one j'ear on the range in charge of 
his father's cattle. He also did farm work there, and, nt the 
same time, jiursued a cour.se of study in the University of 
Nebraska, teaching a country school one winter. 

The professor was graduated from the University in 1890, 
after which he became assistant to Dr. Bessey in the botani- 
cal department and also carried on post graduate work in 



548 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



the University, from which he received the degree of A. M. 
in 1892. He continued to act as assistant to Dr. Bessey until 
February, 1893, when he was appointed assistant chief and 
pathologist of the division of plant pathology in the United 
States Department of Agriculture at Washington, D. C. 

While in the service of the government Professor Woods 
received many marks of distinction for his ability and readi- 
ness in the use of it and his extensive attainments. He 
was much sought after as a writer of articles on special 
subjects connected with the work of the Department with 
which he was connected for government publications, en- 
cyclopedias and scientific and practical journals. In 1905 he 
was sent as a representative of the government to the assembly 
of agricultural experts which founded the International In- 
stitute of Agriculture at Rome, in which all the leading na- 
tions of the world were represented. During the same year 
he also represented the United States government at the In- 
ternational Botanical Congress, which was held in the city 
of Vienna, Austria. 

In February, 1910, Professor W'oods was appointed Dean 
and Director of Agriculture and Forestry and of the experi- 
ment stations in the University of Minnesota, and since that 
time the people of this state have had the benefit of his use- 
ful and stimulating acquisitions and faithful work in a very 
important department of their educational and productive 
industries. The University of Nebraska recently conferred on 
him the honorary degree of Doctor of Agriculture D. Agr. 
While living in Washington, D. C, he was united in marriage 
with Miss Bertha Geneaut Davis, who is also a writer of re- 
nown. They have two children. 



RALPH DAY WEBB. 



Having been engaged in business on his own account as 
public accountant and auditor during the last nine years, 
Ralph Day Webb, now a member of the firm of Temple, Webb 
& Company, certified public accountants, has had a good op- 
portunity to realize the promise of his earlier career and 
demonstrate that he is a man of exceptional business ability 
and comprehensiveness of grasp, full of enterprise and re- 
sourcefulness, and Strict in his integrity in all his dealings. 
Prior to forming his partnership with H. M. Temple, which 
was started on October 1, 1909, Mr. Webb had built up an 
extensive business of his own. and made himself a business 
force of influence and potency in the community, whose value 
was recognized by all classes of the people. 

Mr. Webb is a native of Lenawee county. Michigan, where 
his life began on August 28, 1862. on a farm about four miles 
from the city of Adrian. His father, .lames Knapp Webb, 
owned and cultivated this farm, and on it the son passed the 
early part of his life. He obtained the customary grammar 
and preparatory school education of the locality, and then 
continued his mental training at the Raisin Valley Seminary. 
This institution he entered in 1876 and from it he was gradu- 
ated in 1880, 

Having no inclination for a professional life Mr. Webb did 
not take up college work, but started at once to build up a 
commercial career, and in carrying out his purpose he has 
been connected with several diflferent business enterprises. 
For about two yeare and a half he was associated with the 
retail hardware trade, and then turned his attention to the 



packing and retailing of meats as an employe of a large es- 
tablishment, with which he was connected about ten years, 
or until 1897. 

In the year last mentioned Mr. Webb accepted an offer 
from the Minnesota Loan and Trust company of Minneapolis, 
and during the next four years he was connected with the 
mortgage department of that institution. In 1901 he re- 
signed to take a position with the .John Leslie Paper company 
as credit manager. This position he filled with great credit 
to himself and benefit for the company for about four years 
and a half. He then severed his connection with the Leslie 
company in 1905 in order to be free to open an office as a 
public accountant and auditor. He was engaged in this 
business alone with steadily increasing success and constantly 
expanding business until October 1, 1909, when he formed a 
partnership with H. M. Temple under the firm name and 
style of Temple, Webb & Company, certified public ac'countants, 
with which he has ever since been actively connected. The 
firm has offices in the Lumber Exchange, Minneapolis, and 
the Germania Life Building, St. Paul. 

Mr. Webb takes an active and serviceable interest in all 
the business enterprises which are carried on for the good 
of his home cit}'. He is a member of the Minneapolis Club, 
the Minneapolis Athletic club, the Rotary club and the Inter- 
lachen Country club. He is also a zealous factor in the fra- 
ternal life of the city as a Freemason of high degree and an 
ardent worker for the good of the fraternity. He belongs to 
Hennepin Lodge No. 4, A. F. & A. M., and in 1898 served as 
its Worshipful Master. He is also a member of St. John's 
Chapter No. 9, Royal Arch Masons; Minneapolis Council No. 
2, Royal and Select Masons; Zion Commandery No. 2, Knights 
Templar, and Minneapolis Consistory No. 3, Ancient and Ac- 
cepted Scottish Rite Masons. From 1901 to 1904 he was 
Master of St. Vincent de Paul Chapter, Rose Croix, No. 3, 
of Scottish Rite Bodies. He was married on .June 17, 1903, 
to Miss Lyla B. Baker. 



SAMUEL WHITE. 



Samuel White was born in Iowa county. Wisconsin, June 
3, 1850. He was graduated in 1870 from the Oshkosh State 
Normal School, a member of the first class which was grad- 
uated from the institution. He then taught for eight yeare 
in Iowa, and during the next fourteen was variously employed. 
In 1892 he came to Minneapolis, and since then he has been 
actively engaged in dealing in real estate. 

On December 3, 1874, Mr. \Miite was joined in wedlock 
with Miss Margaret Thompson, a native of Yorkshire, Eng- 
land, reared from childhood in Grant county, Wisconsin, and 
also a graduate of the State Normal School. She also taught 
in Iowa for a number of years, having among her pupils sev- 
eral persons who have since become distinguished, including 
John R. Mott, head of the International Organization of the 
Young Men's Christian Association and originator of the 
Student Volunteer movement, and the Stacy brothers, the 
commission men of Minneapolis. 

Mr. White was an effective minister of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, having spent twenty years in the ministry 
as a member of the Upper Iowa, and Minnesota Conference. 
He was stationed at Brainerd for three years and while there 
built two churthes, one at Brainerd proper and the other at 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COIXTY. .MIXNKSOTA 



549 



£a8t Braincrd, also a Parsonage. At Alexandria while there 
built a church and parsonage. At St. Paul Park where he 
served at two difTerent times he built a large church. At 
each of these places Rev. White was very successful in 
■evangelistic services where many were converted and joined 
the church. He also assisted many pastors in revival services 
in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. 

Mr. and Mrs. White have one son, F. D. White, D. D. S., 
whose ollice is in the Masonic Temple. He was graduated 
from the University of Minnesota in the class of 1900, was 
married to Miss Leonora fSchnell, a graduate in the class of 
1907, who was for a time teacher of (ierman in the high school 
at Sleepy Eye. 

Mr. and Jlrs. White are active members of the Hennepin 
Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, she being particularly 
zealous in the missionary work and other activities of the 
Ladies' Society. Both are interested in the enduring welfare 
of the community and earnest in elTorts to |)romote it, men- 
tally, morally, socially and materially. 



KREDERICK JOHN WULLIXG. 

The name of Frederick John WuUing will always be in- 
separably linked with that of the College of Pharmacy in 
the University of Minnesota, for it was he who organized 
the college as a distinctive department in 1892. and from 
the beginning of the department was its dean. Before he 
was called by the Board of Regents of the University to that 
institution. Mr. Wulling was already widely known as an 
authority in his subjects, and was recognized as one of the 
foremost men of his profession as a student and a devotee of 
research work. He had added immeasurably to that reputa- 
tion since his connection with the University and lias brought 
honor to his college. 

Frederick J. W'ulling is a native of Brooklyn, New York, 
where he was born in 1866. His father was an architect 
by profession. When he was four years old his father's 
family took up their permanent residence in what had been 
their summer home in Carlstadt, New .Jersey, a suburb of 
the American metropolis, and there the son obtained his 
schooling in the grades and the high school, and business train- 
ing in New York City during last year at high school and 
succeeding year. The young man's ambition pointed his way 
to college work and to a professional education. In 1884 he 
accepted a position with college privileges with Dr. C. W. 
Braeutigam. taking up the study of medicine, giving part of 
his time also to translations from German, French, Spanish 
and Italian technical journals. Shortly he showed great pro- 
fitiency in pharmacy, to which he sul)sc(iuently gave most 
of his attention, and to such end that he had passed the senior 
examinations in pharmacy and its allied branches before the 
examining boards of New York and Brooklyn and of New- 
Jersey when he was graduated from the New York College of 
Pharmacy in 1887. His leadership is indicated by the fact 
that he won by competitive examination a senior scholar- 
ship and that he was graduated at the head of his class, re- 
ceiving the gold medal and an analytical balance for suprem- 
acy and also one hundred dollars in gold for high scholar- 
ship. Meanwhile he hail been attending lectures at the Col- 
lege of Physicians and Surgecms of Columbia University. In 
addition to his scholarship honors the young student was 



also for the last year of his course in the College of Pharmacy 
a lecture assistant to Professor Bedford, then rated the high- 
est authority in the pharmacist's profession. In 1887 be 
was elected to a full instructorship, and the course of his 
life was definitely laid out. In 1890 he was made assistant 
professor of pharmacy in the college from which he had 
been graduated, and the next year he was made professor of 
inorganic pharmaco-diagnosis in the Brooklyn College of 
Pharmacy, and he remained in this position until he was 
called to the deanship of the College of Pharmacy which he 
was to establish in the University of Minnesota. This was 
in 1892. 

Meanwhile Dean Wulling had already been becoming known 
in the universities of the Old World. Immediately after his 
graduation in 1887 he had made a tour of Europe, visiting the 
principal seats of learning on the continent, among them, 
Munich, Berlin, Goettingen and Paris, Then he returned to 
America and took up further post-graduate work in the Hoag- 
land Laboratory of Bacteriology. Two years later, in 1889. 
he went again to Europe on a study and observation trip 
studying especially the methods of teaching ehemistry in the 
leading German universities. 

Upon coming to the University of Minnesota, Dean Wulling 
took up further study in that institution, and during the 
next five years received the degrees of Phm. D., LL. B. and 
LL. M. This is in addition to the degrees of Ph. G. and Ph. C. 
He is well known abroad as well as at home, having again 
made tours of European university cities and research centers, 
notably those of Scotland, England. France, Belgium, Ger- 
many and Austria in 1893, 1896 and 1911. He has been and 
is now a frequent contributor to scientific journals, and has 
published a great number of papers and essays as well as 
several large works, which include his "Evolution of Botany," 
his "Medical and Pharmaceutical Chemistry," his "Experi- 
ments for Beginners." his "Chemistrv' of the Carbon Com- 
pounds," and other technical works of his profession, with a 
"Course of Law for Pharmacists." 

Dean Wulling is a member of a number of scientific socie- 
ties, in whith he is known as a prosecutor of much original 
research work. He has been president of the Northwestern 
Branch of the American Pharmaceutical Association; he is 
chairman of the .Scientific Section of the Minnesota State 
Pharmaceutical Association since 1904; he has been an execu- 
tive officer of the American Conferente of Pharmaceutical 
Faculties, and in addition has taken an active part in the 
work of the executive officers of the University of Minni-sota; 
Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence; member of the American Chemical Society, of the 
Chemists' Club of New York City, of the American Pharma- 
ceutical Asso<'iation, of the American Conference of Phar- 
maceutical Faculties, etc.. vice president of the Minnesota 
Academy of Sciences since 1909. 

In 1897 Dean Wulling married Miss Lucile Truth Gissel of 
Brooklvn, Ni'W York. A son, Emerson G,. was born in 1903, 



JAMES FRANKLIN WILLIAMSON. 

Senior member of the firm of Williamson and Merchant, 
patent attorneys, was born at Osborn. near Dayton, Ohio, 
January 9, 1H.')3. being the son of George C. and Sarah A. 
Williamson, of Scotch-Irish and German ancestry, respec- 



550 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



tively. His grandfather, James W. Williamson, was one 
of the pioneer settlers (1803) of the Miami Valley, Ohio. 
Mr. James F. Williamson has had the advantage of a com- 
mon school and liberal education. He entered Princeton Uni- 
versity in 1873 and graduated with the class of 1877. re- 
ceiving the degree of A. B. Having been elected to the Fellow- 
ship of Social Science in 1877, he continued his studies at 
Princeton University for two years, giving especial attention 
to Jurisprudence, Civil Government, Political Economy, and 
Philosophy; and, in 1879, received the further degree of Ph. 
D., on examination, for post-graduate work. 

He began the study of law at Cincinnati in the office of 
Mr. George Hoadley, later Governor of Ohio; and. in 1881, 
he removed to Minneapolis, there continuing his studies in the 
law office of Loehren, McNair & GilflUan, and was admitted 
to the Bar of Minnesota in December of that year. 

After a competitive examination, he was appointed, late 
in 1881, a member of the Examining Corps of the United 
States Patent Office, and continued in that position for several 
years. In 1885, he resigned from government service and 
opened his office in Minneapolis, Minnesota, making a spe- 
cialty of Patent and Trade-mark Law. He was successful 
from the start and has long had a well-established reputation 
as a practitioner before the United States Courts and the 
Patent Office in these technical, difficult and exacting branches 
of the law. 

In 1900, Mr. Frank U. Merchant, a former student in Mr. 
Williamson's office, was taken into partnership, and the said 
firm is now widely and favorably known. 

Mr. Williamson belongs to the Minneapolis Club, the Civic 
& Commerce Association, and to the University Clubs of Min- 
neapolis, Chicago and Jsew York. 

On June 9. 1896, he married Miss Emma F. Elmore, and 
their two sons are George Franklin and Ralph Elmore. 

Mr. Williamson was an early and active supporter of 
Woodrow Wilson for President of the United States. To 
this end, he became Vice President of the Woodrow Wilson 
Club of Minneapolis and was Acting President most of the 
time. He helped to carry the City of Minneapolis and County 
of Hennepin for Wilson to the State Convention; became one 
of the two delegates from Hennepin County to the Baltimore 
Convention, doing effective work, was Minnesota's representa- 
tive on the Notification Committee, and was active in the final 
campaign for the nominee. 



in his native town, and later on daily papers in Cleveland. 
When he was twenty-two he followed "the course of empire" 
and established "The Daily Republican," in Mitchell, South 
Dakota, where in twelve years he built up the business from 
almost nothing to the requirements of a $20,000 plant. 
Going to Mitchell in that early day, 1883, he won friends and 
was a "live wire," and as there were many other live ones 
in the new country, it is a tribute to his ability that he 
stood among the foremost. 

He was assistant Secretary of Dakota territory, and was 
secretary of the commission which removed the territorial 
capital from Yankton to Bismarck in 1883. He was a Re- 
publican leader from the start, for he was experienced as a 
political reporter in the Garfield campaign in Ohio in 1880, 
being stationed at Mentor as correspondent for the Cleve- 
land Leader. He had thus close friendships with Garfield and 
other important men and it was natural that he Should be 
at the front in Dakota. From 1889 to 1893 he was receiver 
of the United States land office at Mitchell. 

In 1894 he sold his holdings in South Dakota, and came to 
Minneapolis td reenter the larger field of journalism. For 
ten years he was on the editorial staff of the Tribune writing 
special articles, covering big political events, and presenting 
over his own signature his views of current ail'airs. In 1905 
he became secretary to Mayor David P. Jones, continuing 
as such for two years. He then established an advertising 
agency with offices in the Twin Cities, a business which occu- 
pied him for two years more. On the death of Governor John 
A. Johnson, in 1909, and Lieutenant Governor A. 0. Eber- 
hart's succession he was chosen by the new governor as his 
private secretary. It was from close association with Mr. 
VVTieelock for four years that the governor concluded that 
he was admirably suited to the duties and responsibilities of 
membership on the State Board of Control, appointing him to 
a six-year term. 

In October, 1886, Mr. Wheelock married Miss Lillian G. 
Steele of Bismarck, N. D. They have two daughters. Adelaide 
and Hazel, both of whom are well known in art circles as 
well as in the Social life of Minneapolis. They affiliate with 
St. Mark's Episcopal church. 



F. L. WILLIAMS. 



RALPH W. ^^^IEELOCK. 



It was by virtue of long experience in administrative and 
executive affairs that Governor Eberhart selected Ralph W. 
Wheelock to be a member of the Minnesota State Board of 
Control, the body which is responsible for the conduct of 
nearly every public institution, outside of the University 
and normal schools, under direct state control. Governor 
Eberhart had come to know Mr, Wheelock intimately while 
he was his private secretary, thus being convinced of the 
wisdom of placing him in his present responsible position, 

Mr. Wheelock was born in Oberlin, Ohio, Sept. 24, 1860. 
Naturally his early schooling was like that of most boys, 
but in his 'teens he entered another school, which provided 
a broader learning. He obtained much of his education in 
a printing office, and in his youth became a reporter first 



F. L. Williams, president of the Central State bank of 
Minneapolis, is a native of Pennsylvania. In 1884 he went 
to North Dakota, locating in Cass county where he engaged 
in farming and real estate, meeting with eminent success in 
both these ventures. He devoted his land to the production 
of grain and stock raising, applying the same methods which 
have won him success in financial lines, initiative, capable 
and judicious management. He was not content alone with 
the natural productiveness of the land, but carefully nursed 
its fertility and the farm Steadily increased in value and 
profit. Since his retirement from active farming, he has 
leased his property to thrifty tenants, but still retaining his 
interest in North Dakota real estate. He came to Minne- 
apolis in 1901 and began his career as a banker which has 
been largely identified with growth and prosperity of the Cen- 
tral State bank. This bank was organized in 1905 with 
Mr, Williams as president and to it he has since continued to 
give his services. The Central State bank has a capital of 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



551 



$35,000 and has greatly exct-oiied the expectations of its 
promoters in its success and rapid development. The entire 
stock of the corporation is owned by residents of northeast 
Minneapolis where the bank is located at 2401 Central 
avenue, Mr. Williams holding a controlling interest. Aside 
from his connection with this institution Sir. Williams has 
extensive financial interests in North Dakota banks. 



PHILIP D. WINSTON. 



Mr. Winston was born in Hanover county, in the Did 
Dominion, on Aug. 7, 1845, and died in Minneapolis on July 
1, 1901. He was a son of William Overton and Sarah Anna 
(Gregory) Winston, who were also natives of Virginia and 
descendants of early colonists who came to this country in 
the seventeenth century. The father was a planter of prom- 
inence and the family was in easy circumstances. But all its 
members were imbued with lofty patriotism and Intense in 
their devotion to their native state. It was inevitable, there- 
fore, that when the Civil war began they should sympathize 
with the Southern side of the great sectional controversy, 
and that all of the male representatives of the house who 
were able should take an active part in the momentous con- 
flict. 

Philip B. Winston was one of the most gallant and manly 
of the number, and at the age of IG he cheerfully and eagerly 
turned his back on fine educational opportunities and all the 
inducements of a promising business career, and even the 
blandishments of social life, to espouse the cause of Virginia 
in the war. At that age he enlisted in the 5th Virginia 
Cavalry as a private and at the close of the war was First 
Lieutenant on General Rosser's staff, his brother-in-law. 

Through it all Mr. Winston bore no childish or youthful b\it 
a soldier's- part. .Soon after his enlistment as a private he 
was promoted lieutenant for gallantry in the field, and en- 
gagements in which he afterward participated included the 
deluge of death at Gettysburg, where he faced men who in 
later years became in Minnesota his most ardent supporters 
in politics and his warmest personal friends. 

Mr. Winston went back to the old homestead and engaged 
in farming until 1872, when he came West. Taking up his 
residence in Minnea])olis, in association with his brothers, 
Fendall G. and William 0. Winston, he organized tlie con- 
tracting firm of Winston Bros. 

This firm had as its first large contract the building of 
one thousand miles of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and it 
afterward built many thousands of miles of the same kind 
of thoroughfares, extending its operations over all parts of 
the countrj'. Mr. Winston gave every department of the 
firm's enormous business his personal attention. 

From the beginning of his residence in Minneapolis Mr. 
Winston always took an earnest interest and a helpful part 
in local public affairs, as he did from his youth in national 
politics. He never shirked or neglected any duty of citizen- 
ship, seeing in the principles and theories of the Demo- 
cratic party the promise and fulfillment of the highest and 
most enduring good to the masses of the American people. 
But he dill not enter politics as a candidate for office until 
1888, when he was the nominee of his party for mayor of 
Minneapolis. He was defeated at the ensuing election, but 
two years later (1890) he was renominated and won the posi- 
tion by more than six thousand majority. 



At the close of his term, which was one of unusual ad- 
vantage to the city because of the intelligence he brought to 
the administration of the olFice and the firmness and system 
with which he conducted it, Mr. Winston declined a second 
term, although earnestly urged to accept it. He was, however, 
elected to the state house of representatives, and during the 
period of his service in that body he took a very active part 
in its proceedings. Two measures of special importance which 
he championed and secured the enactment of were a general 
election law and one providing for free text Iwoks for the 
school children of Minneapolis. When Mr. Winston retired 
from the legislature he withdrew from active participation in 
politics as a candidate altogether. 

Mr. Winston was married in 187G to .Miss Katharine D. 
Stevens, a daughter of Colonel .John H. Stevens, the first 
Settler in Minneapolis. Two cliildren were born of the union, 
both of whom are living, as is also their mother. The chil- 
dren are: Philip Bickerton, who married Katharine Stewart, 
daughter of Dr. Chas. Wheaton of St. Paul, and Nelle Pendle- 
ton, who is now the wife of Charles S. Pillsbury, of .Minne- 
apolis, a sketch of whom appears in this volume. 



FRANK .J. WILLSON. 



Mr. W'illson was bom in the village of Concord, Erie county, 
New York, on August 20, 1847. He is a son of George W. 
and Marietta (Van) Willson, who brought their family to 
Henne])in county, Minnesota in the spring of 1859, but soon 
afterward changed their residence to Clearwater, Wright 
county, wh,ere they remained one summer, retuniing to Min- 
neapolis in the fall. In the spring of 1800 the father rented 
a farm near Glencoe, in McLeod county, and the family lived 
on that until the Indian uprising of 1862. 

On August 19, that year, while all hands were engaged in 
stacking grain in the field, they received notice of the ap- 
proach of the infuriated savages, and leaving seven cattle 
in the pasture, they all immediately started for Glencoe, which 
was two miles distant. When they reached Glencoe they 
learned that nearly all the families living in that place had 
left and were on their way to Carver, thirty miles further. 
The Willsons traveled all night and arrived at Carver early 
in the morning of August 20, the fifteenth anniversary of 
Frank's birth. The Indians killed all the members of a 
family seven miles from the Willson farm on that day, 
and some were seen near Glencoe, but no attack was made 
on that village. 

.-\ little while afterward the father returned to the farm 
and saved a small part of his crops, but the family came 
on to Hennepin tounty and never returned to Glencoe. The 
father rented land in this county and the sons worked out 
to aid in supporting them.selves and the rest of the house- 
hold. The father died in Hennepin county in the spring of 
1868. The mother is still living and has her home with her 
son Frank. She was 87 on December 22, 1913. 

In 1879 Mr. Willson bought 130 acres of what is now 
Fdina, then Richfield, a part of which is his present farm. 
He paid $1,100 for the tract, and its greatly increuseil value 
at this time is the result of its advantageous location. When 
he bought it it was covered with small timber and under- 
growth, which he had to grub out before he could farm it, 



552 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



yet during the first year of his operation he succeeded in 
getting twenty-five acres under cultivation, although he was 
living at the time four miles from the farm. 

In 1880 he located on his farm and there he has ever 
since had his home. He has raised large crops of wheat, but 
during the last twelve years it has been devoted mainly to 
market gardening. In 1886 he sold ten acres of his purchase 
at $200 an acre and ten more at $120 an acre; and he has 
since given each of his four children enough to engage in 
gardening. His brother George, who was with the family 
until he grew to manhood, followed railroading for a time 
and engaged in furnishing telegraph and telephone poles, rail- 
road ties, and similar supplies to those who need them under 
contract. 

Mr. Wilson served as a member of the school board until 
his children left School, and he has also been a member of 
the village board of Edina and for some years was president 
of the board. In the fall of 1871 he was married to Miss Ella 
Atwood, the daughter of Hezekiah and Abbie (Tuttle) At- 
wood, a pioneer at Minnetonka Mills, coming to Minneapolis 
in 1850, where he and a Mr. Sears did more business in the 
middle fifties than was then done in Minneapolis. He died 
in 1857. She died in 1883 as the wife of John Richardson of 
Richfield. 

Four children were reared in the Willson household, Fred 
K., Jennie, Ora Gertrude and George. Jennie died when she 
was sixteen. Fred K. married Miss Mabel Millam. He and 
liis brother George are associated in the management of the 
farm and gardening operations, and have a stall in the 
market in Minneapolis. Ora Gertrude is now the wife of 
Grant Collier and owns a part of the homestead. All the 
members of the family are industrious, enterprising and pros- 
perous. They are all good citizens, and are highly respected 
as such wherever they are known. 



STEPHEN M. YALE. 



Among the number of far-seeing men who journeyed to the 
Northwest from the older civilization of the Atlantic slope, 
was Stephen M. Yale of Minneapolis, vice president and gen- 
eral manager of the Curtis-Yale-Howard Company, extensive 
manufacturers of sash, doors, moldings and kindred commodi- 
ties. Mr. Yale was born at Guilford. Chenango county, New 
York, in 1857, and there he grew to manhood and obtained 
a common school education, at the same time acquiring habits 
of useful industry on the farm of his father, Uriah Yale, 
who was also a native of the Empire State, The son had 
some educational advantages not vouchsafed to all farmers' 
sons in his native state. He was a student for several terms 
at Cook College, Havana. New York, and afterward enlarged 
his knowledge by teaching five winter terms of school in the 
country. 

In 1881 Mr. Yale came west and took up his residence at 
Clinton, Iowa, where he accepted employment with Curtis 
Bros. & Company, manufacturers of sash, doors and moldings. 
He remained at Clinton for about one year, then went to 
Wausau, Wisconsin, where Curtis Brothers had just com- 
pleted a new factory. His residence at Wausau and work 
for the firm there lasted until 1803. when he was sent to 
Minneapolis to take charge of the large distributing house 
of the firm in this city. 



The Curtis-Yale-Howard plant is located at Eighteenth 
avenue and Fifth street, southeast. The offices have, since 
1906, been in the new Security Bank building. The firm has 
several large distributing houses located in Chicago, Detroit, 
Sioux City, Lincoln, Nebraska, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 
It carries on an extensive and profitable business, and enjoys a 
very large trade in the scope of country lying between the 
Great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains. The firm is incor- 
porated, and the officers at this time (1914) are: George M. 
Curtis, Clinton, Iowa, president; Stephen M. Y'ale, vice presi- 
dent and general manager; F. G. Howard, secretary, and G. 
L. Curtis, treasurer. 

Mr. Y'ale is also vice president of the Curtis & Yale Com- 
pany at Wausau, Wisconsin. He is an active member of the 
Minneapolis Commercial Club and takes a helpful part in 
public affairs. Nothing of value to its residents is without 
interest to or neglected by him, and he is always earnest in 
liis support of worthy undertakings. He has never been an 
active partisan in political affairs, but has always voted inde- 
pendently and for what he has believed would be best for the- 
whole people in all elections, city, state, and national. 

He was married in 1879 to Miss Cora Morgan. They have 
one child, their son, H. C. Yale, who has charge of the Minne- 
apolis plant of the Curtis-Y'ale-Howard Company and the- 
management of its operations. The family residence is at 
2702 Portland avenue. 



HARRY H. WADSWORTH. 



Harry H. Wadsworth, lawyer, was born February 12, 1857, 
in Farmington, Hartford county. Connecticut, on the same old 
historic homestead that was the birthplace of his brother 
and law partner, Frank H. Wadsworth, in a sketch of whom 
some account of the family history is given. He is a son 
of Winthrop M. and Lucy (Ward) Wadsworth, and completed 
his academic education in the public schools of MilwaukeCr 
which he attended from 1874 to 1879. His professional train- 
ing was secured in the law department of Yale University, 
from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of 
Laws in 1881 and received that of Master of Laws in 1882. 

In April, 1883, Mr. Wadsworth located in Minneapolis 
and immediately began the practice of law. His first case 
involved riparian rights and affected the water rights and 
power of the city of Farmington. his old home. Such men 
as Governor Hubbard and Lewis Stanton, Assistant Attorney 
General of the United States, were of the opposing counsel, 
but he was prepared to meet any opponent in this field, how- 
ever able or eminent. His research covered minutely every 
phase of riparian ownership, and. as, recited in the decision 
of the case rendered by the Supreme Court, filled thirty- 
four pages of the report. The case at once became a prece- 
dent and gave Mr. Wadsworth immediately a wide reputationj 
for careful investigation and studious inquiry into conditions, 
laws and fundamental rights. It fully established the water 
rights of the city of Farmington, erabrated in a system that 
is still in operation under the direction of Mr. Wadsworth's 
brother. Adrian R. Wadsworth. 

In 1886 an important case in law was started in Minne- 
apolis in reference to the title to Government lots 7 and 8. 
now embraced in Island Park Addition. Mr. Wadsworth was 
employed to examine the title, and his search for heirs of the 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



553 



original owner led him over 25,000 railcs of travel from the 
Atlantic to the I'aeifie and the Canadian line to the (iulf in 
this country, and through parts of Ireland and otiier Euro- 
pean countries. Sixteen suits were brought against him, 
and were tried before Judges Shiras and Nelson in the 
United States district court, all of them finally being dis- 
missed. His name appears 150 times in the abstract of title. 

This property is now worth many millions of dollars. 
The search for heirs and final straightening out of the title 
involved great expense and brought Mr. Wadswortli many 
interesting personal experiences. While in Ireland, during 
the excitement attendant upon the Phoenix Park murders, 
he was suspected of being a spy and was closely followed 
all over the island, his every movement being noted. He 
secured a one-fifth interest in this property, the greater part 
of which has since been absorbed in the city park system. 
The beautiful drive known as Lake of the Isles Boulevard 
was laid out and constructed largely througli his inlluence 
and assiduous efforts in behalf of the improvement. 

The title to the Elder Stewart property, recently sold, 
which involved many complications, was also investigated by 
Mr. Wadsworth as an expert. Here a multiplication of leases 
overlapping one another made great confusion and intricacy, 
and demanded the most careful attention. But he straight- 
ened the whole matter out to the complete satisfaction of 
every interest. His skill as an expert title examiner is 
known and commended far and wide in real estate and legal 
circles. 

Mr. Wadsworth was married in 1908 to Miss Mary L. 
Wilkinson, of Chel-sea, Massathusetts, a daughter of one of 
the best known families in Chelsea. She was for a number 
of years an instructor in the Dr. Curry School of Expression, 
in Boston. They passed the following winter in Italy, visit- 
ing the art galleries of Florence. Rome and other cities, which 
Mrs. Wadsworth had already visited. While teaching she 
had ministers, tragic and comic actors, and other profes- 
sionals as students of expression, and they all attest her 
superior ability as a teacher. She was also connected for a 
time with Vassar College, installing a school of expression in 
that institution. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wadsworth have no children. He is a mem- 
ber of Yale Chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta college fra- 
ternity, which now has about 4.000 members in the United 
States, and served twice as president of its Nu Duteron 
Chapter. He has also been twice president of the Minne- 
sota Union League, which was the strongest political or- 
ganization in the state, and embraced in its membership the 
foremost Minnesota politicians and .statesmen. It wielded 
great influence in respect to public affairs in the Northwest 
and stood high in public esteem as an enterprising and con- 
servative force for good. 



CHAKLES Yorxr.. 



Mr. Young was the first carpenter in St. Anthony, uml 
came to this region in 1852, a young man of thirty-three, from 
St. Martin, near Montreal, Canada, where he was born on 
November 6, 1819. The remainder of his days were passed 
in this city, where he died on December 1. 1883. He was 
of French Huguenot ancestry, and had the usual experiences 
of boys of his circumstances while growing to manhood and 



receiving his common school education. He was married at 
the age of twenty-seven in .Montreal to -Miss Margaret Gibeau, 
who accompanied him to Minneapolis, or St. Anthony, as it 
was when he came thither, and she abode with him to the end 
of his earthly pilgrimage always doing her full part to aid in 
advancing his welfare and the success of his undertakings, 
and survived him seventeen years, passing away at the 
age of eighty-two on Christmas day, 1900. 

For some years after his arrival in this locality Mr. Young 
worked at his trade as an independent contractor. He built 
his own house at the corner of First avenue and Fourth 
street north, the dwelling of Elder Stewart, one block dis- 
tant, the home of Father Wolford on another corner not 
far away, and others in that ni'ighborhood. He continued 
contracting and building until his death, but in his later 
years a great deal of his work was done for other con- 
tractors, and J. K. Sidle, whose leading carpenter and main 
reliance he was for a long time. 

In his political relations Mr. Young was always a Demo- 
crat, and he supporteil his party energetically at all times, 
bearing a heavy hand in some of its most intense battles 
with its opponents during his life. He and his wife were 
zealous members of the Catholic Church of the Immaculate 
Conception, joining it when the congregation was organized 
and continuing their membership in it as long as they lived. 
This was the first church on the West .'<ide, and stood at the 
corner of Third avenue and Third street north. 

Mr. and Mrs. Young had two children, their daughters 
Clara and Amelia. Clara married Charles L. I..arpcnteur of 
St. Paul, a relative of the venerable pioneer, A. L. Larpen- 
teur, who is still living in that city at a very advanced age. 
Mrs. Clara Larpenteur died in 1910. having survived her 
husband about ten years. They had nine children, one of 
whom is Rev. Roscoe F. Larpenteur. pastor of Holy Rosary 
Catholic church. The second daughter, Amelia Young, be- 
came the wife of GuStav .1. Pauly. late setretary of the 
Hennepin Savings and Loan Association, one of the best 
known and most useful citizens Minneapolis has ever had. 



GUSTAV .J. PAULY. 



Gustav J. Pauly worked out for himself a career that was 
singularly exemplary and praiseworthy, and won him 
strong commendation as boy and man. His |>arents, John 
and Anna Pauly. both of whom have been dead for a number 
of years, were among the first settlers of Minnesota, and 
on their arrival in the territory located at Shakopec, where 
Gustav was born on February 15, 1855. The family moved 
to Minneapolis in 1862, and here for many years the father 
was engaged in the cooper business in partnership with .\n- 
drew Bumb. 

Gustav attended a public school and learned the cooper 
trade and business under the instruction of his father. 
From his boyhood his interest in the uplift work of the Immac- 
ulate Conception Catholic church was very ardent, and he took 
an active part in it imder the first pastor of the parish. Rev. 
Father SfcGolrick. now Bishop of Duluth. He was the 
tenor singer of the choir, n /I'liloii- member of the Young 
Crusaders' Total .\bstinente Society and eornetist in that 
Society's famous brass band, continuini.' his activity in these 



554 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



lines until 1886, when he was united in marriage with Miss 
Amelia M. Young, organist in the same choir. 

During the next two years Mr. Pauly was a hardware 
merchant in Bishop Ireland's colony at DeGraflF, Minnesota. 
In 1889 he returned to Minneapolis and entered the real 
estate, savings and loan business, in which, by industry, 
square dealing and an agreeable personality he achieved a 
large measure of success. His most prominent traits were 
clear-headedness, patience and never failing good humor 
under the most trying circumstances. His work was con- 
structive and helpful to others, and firmly based on his 
belief and practice in the theory that the best way to help 
a man is to show him how to help himself. He gave the 
best years of his life to building up the Hennepin Savings 
and Loan Association, of which he was one of the founders 
and the secretary and a director from its start until his 
death. He found his greatest pride and satisfaction in telling 
of the sure and safe growth of this institution in the confi- 
dence of the community. 

Mr. Pauly's life closed on December 15, 1911, when he was 
fifty-five years and eight months old. His widow and sis 
children are living. The children are Francis, Eugene, George, 
Gustav, Florence and Margaret. Francis and Florence have 
musical talent of a very superior order which they have 
cultivated by careful training in Europe. They were home 
and at the bedside of their father when he died. Florence 
has sin'ce returned to Europe and is now pianist in the Lon- 
don Conservatory of Music. She has performed in public in 
the English metropolis before highly cultivated and critical 
audiences, and has won the warmest praise from eminent 
musicians and composers. 

Francis Pauly is a member of the Minneapolis Symphony 
Orchestra company, in which he is first violinist. He was 
trained in Berlin under the instruction of Hugo Kaun, the 
great Berlin composer. Eugene Pauly is connected with the 
draft department of the Northwestern National Bank. Mrs. 
Pauly, the mother of these children, is a member of the Min- 
nesota Territorial Society. She was an early arrival in this 
city and has vivid recollections of the pioneer days. She 
well remembers the incidents of the' Indian uprising in 1862 
and the terror of the people in consequence of it. Her 
father, Charles Young, was a member of Captain Fisk's expe- 
dition against the savages at the time. 



FRED. D. YOUNG. 



" 'Tis ever wrong to say a good man dies." And yet the 
bonds of nature are so strong and fond they can never be 
broken without deep grief and gloom and lasting pain. 
When Fred. D. Y'oung, one of the leading business men of 
Minneapolis, departed this life on December 5, 1911, the 
community in which his activity had been most conspicu- 
ously displayed and his high character, fine business capacity 
and upright, honorable and stimulating citizenship had been 
most serviceable, felt throughout its extent that a vital 
force had gone from it which it could never wholly replace. 
The grief and gloom over the sad event was heightened and 
intensified by the fact that Mr. Young was but forty-nine 
years old when his summons came, and the work for which 
he had special qualifications seemed but half done. The 
influence of his life, however, is still potential in the city 



of his former home, and his memory is cherished there with 
lasting regard. He rests from his labors, and his works do 
follow him. And so it can be truthfully said that he has 
not died. 

Fred. D. Young was born in Freeport, Illinois, on October 
12, 1862, the son of Lafayette and Martha (Dean) Young, 
natives and long residents of the state of New York, their 
home in early life being at Utica in that State. The father 
was a railroad engineer, and ran the first engine that made 
the trip from Chicago to Freeport over the Northwestern 
road. He died when his son Fred was but twelve years old, 
and the care of the latter and his younger brother Burton 
was left to the mother. She performed her duty to her 
sons faithfully, and they sljowed their appreciation of her 
fidelity by their unalloyed devotion to her while they all 
continued to live. 

After having completed the course of study prescribed in 
the Freeport High School, Mr. Y'oung began his business 
career in the store of Mr. Walton, the' oldest merchant in 
that city, with whom he remained until he was nineteen. 
Then, in 1881, he came to Minneapolis well trained for 
business and eager to have an establishment of his own 
which he could build up and expand according to his ambi- 
tious desires. He came to this city to investigate the oppor- 
tunities available here, and finding them very promising, ac- 
cepted a position as a salesman in the Siegelbaum store. 

He did not retain the position long, however, as he soon 
found the better opening he was looking for, and at once' 
took advantage of it. He became associated in business with 
R. S. Goodfellow & Company, and found his situation and 
surroundingls so congenial that he continued his association 
with that firm for a continuous period of eighteen years. 
At the end of that period he felt impelled to embark in busi- 
ness wholly on his own account, and started the Fred. D. 
Y'oung company, locating his business in the Syndicate block 
and handling ladies' furS, coats and suits. Some time after- 
ward Miss Elizabeth Quinlan became his partner in the 
enterprise, and the style of the firm was changed to the 
Young-Quinlan company. About one years before the death 
of Mr. Y'oung Miss Quinlan purchased the business, and she 
is still conducting it. 

Mr. Y'oung died a bachelor. His brother Burton was asso- 
ciated with him in business until his death, which occurred 
six years prior to that of Fred., although Burton was seven 
years younger than his brother. Their mother came to Minne- 
apolis with Burton after Fred, .embarked in business, and 
after the arrival of the latter here he built a handsome home 
for his mother at 2316 Colfax avenue, and there the three, 
the mother and her two sons, lived together. The mother 
died in May, 1903, She was a charter member of the first 
Christian Scientist church, joining the sect in its infancy, 
and working to advance its interests ardently and effectively 
as long as she was able. She was especially energetic in its 
behalf during her residence in Freeport, and to the end of 
her life retained her membership, with that of her son 
Burton, in the mother churdi of the creed, 

Fred, D, Y'oung was a faithful follower of his mother in 
his interest in the welfare of young men and boys. She 
long nuinifested her deep and abiding interest in this class 
of hunujnity in practical work for it, and he appeared to 
have inherited or imbibed the spirit from her. He took a 
very active part in promoting the Y'oung Men's Christian 
Association and kindred organizations, and also in the fra- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND IIFANEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



555 



ternal and social life of the coiniiiuiiity tliroii^'h his ardent 
and helpful nienibership in the Maiionie order (thirty-second 
depree), and in the Order of Elks and the Commercial, Minne- 
apolis, Lafayette and other clubs. His brother IJurton was 
also a thirty-second degree Freemason, and a member of 
several clubs. 

By his enterprise, capacity and e.vcellent judgment ilr. 
Young built his business up to large proportions, and con- 
ducted it with great energy and success until he realized 
that his health was failing, when he disposed of it. But he 
did not yield to physical ailments without an arduous 
struggle to overcome them. He visited Europe twice for the 
benefit of his health, and while on that continent indulged 
freely in the baths at Carlsbad and other curative treat- 
ment. He also visited the Isthmus of Panama for the same 
reason. But his efforts were all in vain. His vital forces 
were on the wane, and he was able to find nothing that would 
arrest their (light. 

At his death the whole city mourned. Funeral services 
were conducted at his former home, and the beautiful burial 
ritual of the Miisonic fraternity was impressively rendered 
at the .Masonic Temple over his remains. They were taken 
to Freeport, Hlinois, and there becomingly interred amid the 
scenes of his childhood and youth. Mrs. A. D. Palmer, an 
aunt of the brothers passed a great deal of her time with 
them after the death of their mother. As a tribute to the 
noble womanhood of that mother, and a sign of his devo- 
tion to her, Mr. Young endowed a room in the Eitel Hospital. 
Her friends were his friends, and were remembered by him 
in his will. 

The estate left by ilr. Young at liis death exceeded $100,000 
'in value. In disposing of it he made a bequest to his 
mother's old church, remembered each of tlie employes in his 
household, and the devoted friends of his mother, his 
brother and himself. He had hosts of admiring friends 
but few intimates, but to the few his life was an open 
book without a blot or stain on any of its pages. He was a 
true man in every sense of the word, and was esteemed in 
his life and revered after his death as such. Minneapolis has 
had no better, brighter or more manly citizen, and none who 
enjoyed a larger measure of public respect, admiration and 
regard. 



ALFRED FISKE PILLSBURY. 

Alfred Fiske Pillsbury is a native of Minneapolis, where his 
life began on October 20, 1869, and where he has passed the 
whole of it to the present time, closely connected with the 
business and social life of the community and exemplifying in 
his daily walk all the best attributes of elevated American 
citizenship. Tie is a son of .Tohn Sargent and Mahala (Fiskel 
Pillsbury, and obtained his academic and professional training 
in the schools of this city and the State Universty. After 
passing through the Minneapolis grade and high schools he 
attended the University, and from the law department of that 
institution he was graduated in 1894. 

Mr. Pillsbury's subsequent life has not been devoted en- 
tindy to his profession, however. Industrial and financial in- 
terests have laid him under tribute to their needs, and he has 
responded with ability and energy of a high order. He is 
secretary and treasurer of the Pillsbury Flour Mills company. 



president of the Minneapolis Mill company and of the St. 
Anthony Falls Water Power company, a director of the Firet 
National Bank and the Minneapolis Trust company and a 
trustee of the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank. 

Although Mr. Pillsbury's father, the late Governor Pills- 
bury, was one of the most eminent and useful public men of 
this state, the son has not taken an active part in public 
affairs as an official. He is a Republican in politics, but only 
as a citizen, anil not at all as an office seeker. He is a member 
of the Minneapolis, Minikahda, Lafayette and other clubs, and 
his religious affiliation is with the rniversalists, he being a 
regular attendant of the Church of the Redeemer of that de- 
nomination. He was married in Boston on May 15, 1899, to 
Miss Eleanor L. Field, of Boston, Massachusetts. They have 
no children. 



WILLIS GREENLRAF C.M.DKRWOOD. 

Willis Grcenleaf Caldcrwood is a product of obscurity and 
toil, and has raised himself by his own ability, force of char- 
acter, persistent industry and superior business capacity to the 
position of public prominence and personal regard which he 
now holds in tliis state. He was born at Fox Lake, Wiscon- 
sin, July 25, 1866, the son of Rev. John and Emily B. (Grcen- 
leaf) Calderwood. The father was a Wesleyan Methodist 
clergyman and a Scotchman by birth. The mother was 
descended from one of the earliest Puritan families of New 
England. 

Mr. Calderwood passed his boyhood in Wisconsin and Iowa. 
^\1ien he was seven years old he earned his first wages herding 
cows, and at fourteen was able to support himself. At sixteen 
he entered the Wesleyan Methodist school at Wasioja, Dodge 
county. Minnesota, from which he was graduated in 1886. 
After teaching school three years in Dakota lie came to Min- 
neapolis December 21, 1889, and in 1890 became an instructor 
in a commercial college in this city. Soon afterward he was 
appointed assistant secretary of the Northwestern Life .Asso- 
ciation, now the Northwestern National Life company of Min- 
neapolis, his position carrying with it the responsibility of 
managing the agency department of the association, and being 
retained by him until 1898. 

Even before he left school Mr. Calderwood biTanic an active 
worker for the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of in- 
toxicating liipiors, and in 1888 he served as chairman of the 
Nonpartisan Prohibition League in the judicial district in 
which he lived in North Dakota and he had an active part 
in the campaign which made that state dry. In 1893 he was 
made secretary of the Hennepin County Prohibition commit- 
tee, a position he fille<l with great acceptability until 1896, 
when he was elected assistant secretary of the State Prohi- 
bition committee. Two years later he was elected executive 
secretary of this committee and conducted its political cam- 
paigns, lie continued to 8er\e it as such until 1908, since 
when he has been its chairman. 

In his political activity Mr. Calderwood originated the 
'•legislative plan" of his party, which greatly increased its vote 
in the state. Its lirst triumph was the election of three mem- 
bers of the legislature and the sheriff of Kandiyohi county, 
all of whom were its candidates. He was himself one of iU 
nominees for the legislature in 1904, 1906 and 1908. The 
votes for prohibition in his district, the Thirty-ninth, num- 



556 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA 



bered 108 in 1902. They increased to over 1,100 in 1904 and 
to 2,500 in 1906, when a change of fifty-four votes in the 
district would have elected him, while in 1908 he lacked but 
130 of election. In 1912 he was the Prohibition candidate for 
Congressman at large, and received more than 25.000 votes. 
In 1914 he was nominated as his party's candidate for governor 
of the state. 

Although Jlr. Calderwood has not yet been successful at 
the elections as a candidate for office he has exercised a strong 
influence on legislation. As chairman of the Prohibition 
party he had a bill introduced in the legislature in 1907 to 
provide for non-partisan election for county officials. This 
became a law in 1913. He also prepared bills which were 
enacted into law to penalize the white slave traffic. In addi- 
tion, the bill for the abatement of nuisances, making the 
owner of the property in which they are conducted responsible 
for such use of it, was prepared by him and has since been 
enacted into law. 

In 1904 Mr. Calderwood was elected secretary of the Pro- 
hibition National committee, and since then he has done a 
great deal of campaign work for that organization in connec- 
tion with its chairman, Virgil G. Henshaw, who, for three 
years was an effectve organizer in Minnesota. He is still a 
member of the Prohibition National Executive Committee, is 
chairman of the National Congressional committee and has 
been a delegate to the national conventions of his party regu 
larly for the last twenty years. He is a genial and companion 
able gentleman of broad intelligence and great public spirit; 
and is widely popular as a public speaker and writer on pro 
posed reforms at present receiving extensive attention, includ 
ing prohibition, the public ownership of utilities, the referen 
dum, equal suffrage, and similar living issues. He is a regular 
attendant of the First Methodist Episcopal church in Minne- 
apolis and is one of its officials. In 1892 he was married to 
Miss Alice M. Cox. a daughter of Rev. Charles Cox, a minister 
of the Wesleyan Methodist church. Like her husband, she is 
deeply interested in all work for the advancement of the peo- 
ple and shares his labor in connection with several phases of 
this beneficent activity. 



JOHN CROSBY. 



John Crosby, secretary, treaurer and general counsel of the 
Washburn-Crosby company, the most extensive flour milling 
institution in the world, has been a resident of Minneapolis 
for thirty-eight years. He was born in Hampden, Maine, 
August 23, 1867, and came to Minneapolis with his parents in 
1876. He was graduated from a Minneapolis high school in 
1884, and the same year entered Phillips Academy at Andover, 
Massachusetts, where he passed two years. In 1886 he was 
matriculated in Yale University, and from that institution he 
was graduated in the class of 1890. 

At Yale Mr. Crosby made a highly creditable record. He 
was always recognized as one of the most evenly balanced 
minds at the University during his course there, and he secured 
a number of prizes in warm competition with other students, 
among them the De Forrest prize. After his graduation from 
Yale he entered the Harvard Law School, and from that he 
was graduated in 1893. In the fall of that year he began the 
practice of his profession in the office of Judge Koon, of Min- 
neapolis, but afterward formed a partnership with Messrs. 



Kingman & Wallace, with whom he was associated in practice 
until 1910. 

Mr. Crosby served in the city council for four years, and 
during that period he was president of the council. He is a 
director of the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank and the 
Northwestern National Bank. In the will of the late William 
H. Dunwoody he was selected as one of the executors of that 
gentleman's estate. But while he was working out his own 
career in his own way, and making it creditable to himself 
and the city of his home, Mr. Crosby was destined to be called 
to duties more directly connected with the interests of others. 
On the death of C. J. Martin, secretary and treasurer of the 
Washburn-Crosby company, Mr. Crosby, whose father had been 
president of the company, was elected secretary, treasurer and 
general counsel of that great institution, and he has ever 
since borne that official relation to it. 



NEWTON HORACE WINCHELL. 

Prof. Newton H. Winchell, the celebrated State Geologist of 
Minnesota and one of the world's great scientists, died after 
an operation in the Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, May 
2, 1914. He w^as in usual good health up to the previous day, 
but had long been affected with a bladder ailment. Consult- 
ing a physician on the day mentioned, he was advised to re- 
pair to a hospital and submit to an operation upon the dis- 
eased organ. At the same time he was warned that, at his 
advanced age, the operation would be a serious one. Of re- 
markable physical and moral courage and great self-poise, 
he prepared for the ordeal and considered the situation as 
calmly and deliberately as if he were analyzing a specimen. 
He knew his deadly danger but faced it with the coolness 
of a philosopher and the courage of a hero. His loss was 
deeply and widely mourned, for he had been such a good 
man, had done so much for civilization and mankind, and 
yet there was much for him to do, which he would have 
done had he been spared. 

Professor Winchell was born on a farm in the town of 
North East, Dutchess County, N. Y., December 17, 1839, and 
therefore at his death was in his 75th year. In young boy- 
hood he attended school at Salisbury. Conn., and, as indicat- 
ing his talent and aptness, it is to be said that when he was 
but 16 years of age, he was engaged in school teaching. He 
was a son of Horace and Caroline (McAllister) Winchell, and 
his was a family of scholars and educators. In 1858 he en- 
tered the L^niversity of Michigan, where his brother, the ac- 
complished Professor Alexander Winchell, was Professor of 
Geology. He did not graduate for eight years, or until in 
1866, for he put aside his studies from time to time and en- 
gaged in school work; alternately he taught in Ann Arbor, 
Flint, Kalamazoo, Port Huron, and other Michigan towns, and 
for two years was superintendent of the St. Clair public 
schools. After his graduation lie was for two years school 
superintendent of Adrian. While at college he was an in- 
mate of the family of his eminent brother, the Professor 
of Geology, and their association was of mutual benefit. Both 
brothers were devoted especially to geological science. 

During 1869-70 Prof. N. II. Winchell assisted his brother, 
Alexander, in a geological survey of Michigan. In 1872 he 
visited and examined the copper and silver deposits of New 
Mexico, and in 1871 assisted Prof. J. S. Newberry, State Geol- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNKSOTA 



557 



ogist of Ohio, in a survey of the northwestern part of that 
state. There is not space liere to enumerate all of the scien- 
tific practical works that Newton H. Winchell performed in 
his lifetime, nor is there room to catalogue the very numerous 
books and scientific articles lie wrote, nor to give a list of the 
scientific associations and orfranizations, American and for- 
eign, of which he was a member. All these matters are well 
enough known. TTo was of great service to American science 
and did much valuable work for mankind. 

In 1ST2 Professor Winchell was chosen Minnesota State 
Geologist and Professor of fieology in the State University, 
mainly through the influence of the then President W. W. 
Folwell. In the meanwhile he was engaged, under the direc- 
tion of the Board of Regents, in a survey of the geology and 
natural history of Minnesota, performing the double duties 
of jirofessor and surveyor. The work of survey continued for 
28 years or .intil the year 1900. In the latter years he did 
not teach, but, aside from occasional lectures, gave his time 
to the survey and the curatorship of the University Museum. 

When, in the spring of 18G1. the Civil War broke out, he 
was attending the Michigan University. Upon the first call 
for troops he, with other students, promptly volunteered in 
the First Michigan Volunteers. He was booked for a lieuten- 
ant's commission and served as drillmaster for his company, 
but before his regiment could be mustered in he was stricken 
by a severe and almost fatal attack of typhoid fever which 
prostrated him for some weeks and left him unfit for military 
service. 

Dr. Wm. W. Folwell, so long and so efficiently the Presi- 
dent of the Minnesota University, and who has done the state 
such eminent service in other capacities, was an intimate and 
appreciative friend of Prof. Winchell. In the University pub- 
lication called the Alumni Weekly of May 11, 1914 (Vol. 13, 
No. 32), appears an article in appreciation of the dead scien- 
tist. From this article have been taken the following extracts: 

In 1872 from the candidates for the new Professorship of 
Geology Professor Newton H. Winchell was easily selected. 
He had been graduated from the University of Michigan, 
where his distinguished brother, then one of the leading geol- 
ogists of the country, was professor. He had been a principal 
of several schools and had three years' experience as assistant 
on the geological surveys of Michigan and Ohio. A few years 
of labor fully justified the recommendations of friends and 
the judgment of the regents. At the close of that year, 1872, 
Professor Winchell presented a preliminary report on the rock 
formations of Minnesota, based on a reconnoissance made in 
the summer months. It was of immediate value in stopping 
waste of money in Imring down into the subcarboniferous in 
Minnesota for coal. 

Twenty-three annual reports and six or seven bulletins on 
special problems followed. For seven years Professor Winch- 
ell carried all or nearly all the teaching in the department of 
geology and mineralogy. By that time there was a good deal 
of clamor for immediate economic results from the survey, in 
response to which the regents relieved him of all instruction 
to devote his whole time and strength to the survey. 
* * * Had he remained an active member of the Faculty, 
and gone in and out among us, it would not be necessary now 
to remind the Faculty and the whole University that the man 
whose body we laid to rest this week has given the University 
wider repute than all of us put together. His final report on 
the geology of Minnesota in six noble quartos is on the shelves 
■y of all the great libraries of the world. One whose attain- 



ments entitle his opinion to credence has said of this work: 
"No .State publication of like nature surpasses in scientific 
importance this survey of Mr. Winchell, and it could be said 
none equals it." 

The studies and observations made on glacial geology while 
on the surveys of Michigan and (Ihio, seem to have fitted him 
in an eminent degree for to handle the geology of Minnesota, 
wliose area had been so largely subjected to glacial action. He 
thus became an acknowledged authority on that branch of the 
science. • • • 

Our Professor Winchell early made our local falls the sub- 
ject of an interesting and fruitful study. From careful 
measurements and location of fixed points within historical 
knowledge he estimated the time required for their recession 
from the river junction at Fort Snelling, not at fifty or a 
liundred thousand years, but only eight thousand. This solu- 
tion fixed the approximate close of the ice-age in Minnesota, 
and served as a base for extended comparisons. 

Of Professor Winchell's work in substantially discovering 
and making known the vast iron deposits in northeastern 
Minnesota, Dr. Folwell writes: 

The most interesting by far of all the geological problems 
of Minnesota was that presented by the iron ore deposits in 
the "Triangle" north of Lake Superior. It used to be said 
that the survey was tardy in extending its work over that 
area. Whoever will turn to the Annual Report of the Survey 
for 1878 will find, on page 22. mention of a belt of iron ore, 
known as the Mesabi Range, extending for many miles. Cliem- 
ical analyses of the ore are there given, showing them to be 
of high metallic content, and excelling in the qualities needed 
for making steel. This was six years before any ore was 
shipped out of either range. It was not the business of the 
survey to locate particular mines for the benefit of great cor- 
porations. Nor was that necessary, for tliey had their own 
experts on the ground. But the survey had given notice to 
all and was on record. What wealth might the State have 
preserved for her schools and university had that notice been 
heeded! In a later year an exhaustive examination of the iron 
ranges was made, and the results published in Bulletin No. 6, 
of 430 pages. » • • 

Indicative of his originality and independence was his 
device of an entire new nomenclature for the rock formations 
of Minnesota. It may be said that he was known among 
American geologists for original views, and very vigorous 
defense of them. 

With the publication of the last volume of the Final Report 
in 1900 Professor Winchell closed his i-onnection with the 
survey and the University. It is much to be regretted that 
he could not have been retained in service to prosecute a 
variety of scientific problems, left to other hands. Since 
then he has been chiefly occupied in studies in Minnesota 
archeology. A quarto of 761 pages, entitled "The Aborigines 
of Minnesota," published by the Minnesota Historical Society, 
forms a fitting companion to those of the Final Report. 

Warren Upham, the well known Secretary of the Minne- 
sota Historical .Society, and who lias taken very high rank 
as a geologist and historian, was another intimate and fond 
friend of Professor Winchell. In a memorial paper read before 
the Historical Society at its May meeting. 1914. and before 
the memorial meeting of the Minnesota Academy of Sciences 
(of which Winchell was one of the foundprsl, held .Tune 2. fol- 
lowing. Mr. Upham presented an elaborate sketch, personal 



558 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



and general, of his former friend and associate. Some of the 
paragraphs of his article are these: 

My association with Professor N. H. Winchell began in 
June, 1879. Coming from the Geological Survey of New 
Hampshire, in which I had been for several years an assistant, 
I was thenceforward one of the assistants of the Minnesota 
survey six years, until 1885, and again in 1893 and '94. In 
the meantime and later, while I was an assistant geoolgist of 
the surveys of the United States and Canada, on the explora- 
tion, mapping, and publication of the glacial Lake Agassiz, 
which occupied the basin of the Red River and Lakes Winni- 
peg and Manitoba, my frequent association with Professor 
Winchell kept me constantly well acquainted with the progress 
of his Minnesota work. Since the spring of 1906 he had been 
in the service of the Minnesota Historical Society, having 
charge of its Department of Archaeology. During all these 
thirty-five years I had intimately known him, and had increas- 
ingly revered and loved him. 

He was a fellow of the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science, was also one of the chief founders of 
the Geological Society of America, in 1889, and its president 
in 1902. He was a member of national societies of mineral- 
ogy and geology in France and Belgium, and in the Interna- 
tional Congress of Geologists he became a member in 1888, 
and attended its triennial meeting last August in Toronto. 

Under appointment by President Cleveland in 1887, Pro- 
fessor Winchell was a member of the United States Assay 
Commission. His geological reports received a diploma and 
medal at the Paris Exposition of 1889, and a medal at the 
World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. 

He was the chief founder of the American Geologist, a 
monthly magazine, which was published in Minneapolis, under 
his editorship, during eighteen years, 1888-1905. This work, 
in which he was much assisted by Mrs. Winchell, greatly pro- 
moted the science of geology. 

In one of the bulletins of the Minnesota Geological Survey, 
entitled "The Iron Ores of Minnesota," Professor Winchell had 
the aid of his son. Horace Vaughn Winchell; and in a text- 
book, ''Elements of Optical Mineralogy" (503 pages, 1909) he 
was associated in autliorship with his younger son. Professor 
Alexander Newton Winchell, of the University of Wisconsin. 
During parts of the later years of the Minnesota survey he 
was aided by his son-in-law, Dr. Ulysses S. Grant, Professor 
of Geology in the Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. 
In 1895-96, Professor and Mrs. N. H. Winchell spent about 
a year, in Paris, France, and again he was there during six 
months in 1898, his attention being given mainly during each 
of these long visits abroad to special studies and investigations 
in petrology. 

The work on which he was engaged for the Minnesota His- 
torical Society, during his last eight years, based on very 
extensive collections, by Hon. J. V. Brower, of aboriginal imple- 
ments from Minnesota and other States west to the Rocky 
Mountains and south to Kansas, enabled Professor Winchell 
to take up very fully the questions of man's antiquity and of 
his relation to the Ice Age. This very interesting line of 
investigation was the theme of the last paper written by Pro- 
fessor Winchell, entitled "The Antiquity of Man in America 
Compared with Europe," which he presented as a lecture before 
the Iowa Academy of Sciences in Cedar Falls, Iowa, on Fri- 
day evening, April 24, only a week before he died. 

Besides being a skilled geologist, Newton Horace Winchell 



was a good citizen, a Christian in faith and practice, beloved by 
all who knew him. 

"Green be the turf above thee, 
Friend of my better days! 
None knew thee but to love thee, 
Nor named thee but to praise." 

The Winchell Library of Geology in the University was 
founded by Professor Winchell donating his valuable collec- 
tion of more than one thousand volumes, covering the world's 
best writings on the subject. 

He became an enthusiastic advocate of the artesian well 
source of supply for the city's water, knowing that an abun- 
dant supply of the best water could be thus secured at nominal 
expense, his conviction in this respect being abundantly veri- 
fied by subsequent efforts of citizens. 



WILLARD CARLOS PIKE. 



The late Willard C. Pike, who was for years one of the most 
extensive and widely known building contractors in Min- 
neapolis, was born at Potton, province of Quebec, Canada, Feb- 
ruary 15, 1844. and died in this city May 10. 1914. He was 
a son of John Sheppard and Lorinda (Manuel) Pike, the for- 
mer a native of Northfield, New Hampshire, and the latter of 
Vermont. Both families were of long standing and frequent 
prominence in New England history, and Mr. Pike was proud 
of their record and his connection with them. His father was 
a justice of the peace in Canada, and died in that country at a 
good old age. 

When he reached the age of twenty-four Willard C. Pike 
went to Newton, Massachusetts, to learn the carpenter trade. 
He was then self-supporting and until the end of his life he 
always relied wholly on himself for advancement and success 
in his operations. Before going to his trade he taught school 
for a few terms, and made a good reputation as a teacher. 
He worked at his trade some eight years at and near Newton, 
and in June. 1878, came West, locating at St. Paul. He was 
disappointed, however, in finding wages no higher than in the 
East, and soon aftenvard moved to River Falls, Wisconsin, 
where he was placed in charge of the work of rebuilding, after 
a destructive fire, and remained three years. 

In March, 1881, Mr. Pike came to Minneapolis and at once 
became a contractor in building houses. His system was to 
buy lots, build houses on them and then sell the property. 
In 1883 he formed a partnership with George Cook, who 
boarded at the same place that he did, the partnership lasting 
until his death. Tlie firm became one of the best known con- 
tracting firms in the city. Its pay roll at times included 400 
names, and was never a short one. Mr. Pike had charge of 
the work, such as St. Mark's Pro-Cathedral, Andrus Building, 
University Library Building, Central High School. Second 
Church of Christ, Scientist, and many other public buildings 
which was mostly local and grew continuously, always increas- 
ing the number of employes of the firm. He devoted himself 
wholly to his business, and put all his energy and intelligence 
into it, never seeking recognition in public life, although he 
was a firmly loyal Republican and a valued member of his 
party. His leisure was employed in reading, but in this he 
confined himself to the standard authors, Scott being one of 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



559 



his favorites, and gave a great deal of attention to tlic better 
class of magazines. 

Mr. Pike was married in Minneapolis on June 20, 189U, to 
Miss Elizabeth Doynton I'ushor, a native of X'lymouth, Maine. 
Tliey had no children. Both were active in the Park Avenue 
Congregational cliureh, in which Mr. Pike was one of the 
leading members of the board of trustees, although not a com- 
municant, and active in the work of the Men's club in that 
church. He was fond of fishing, baseball and other outdoor 
sports, and a great lover of music. For ten years he lived 
in the home in which he died, at the corner of Portland avenue 
and Twenty-fifth street, which is still occupied by his widow. 
He was one of the most hospitable of men, having no higher 
social enjoyment than found in having his house filled with 
friends. His life was a useful one and a genial one in the 
community. He contributed extensively to the growth and 
improvement of Minneapolis and was always, during his resi- 
dence, one of its best and most esteemed citizens. 



EDWARD A. PURDY. 



This gentleman, who was widely and favorably known in 
Minneapolis and elsewhere prior to Tuesday, April 21, 1914, 
rose to special prominence in the observation of the public 
then, because on that day President Wilson nominated him 
to the United States Senate for the office of postmaster of 
Minneapolis. He was confirmed by the Senate a few days 
later and immediately took charge of the office, and from the 
manner in which he has conducted his private afTairs and 
made his way forward in the world by his own unaided 
efforts, it is confidently predicted that he will give the city 
the best i)ostal service it has ever known, being impelled to 
do this not by any personal ambition for himself but by his 
strong and abiding interest in the welfare of the public. 

Mr. Purdy was born in Lansing, Iowa, in 1877, and is the 
youngest postmaster Jlinneapolis has ever had. His grand- 
father emigrated from New York westward some eighty years 
ago, his probable destination being Minnesota. But in Prairie 
du Chien, Wisconsin, somebody whispered to him that Min- 
nesota was a wilderness and Iowa was a desirable lotality 
for residence and business. He was steered to Lansing, in 
the northeastern part of that state, and there he took up 
his residence and passed the remainder of his life. During 
the presidential terms of Piei'ce and Buchanan ho was post- 
master at Lansing. His son, Edward Purdy, Sr., the father 
of Edward A., is now living at Waukon in the same county. 

Edward A. Purdy began his education in the public schools 
of his native place, continued it at Beloit College, Beloit, Wis- 
consin, and completed it at the University of Minnesota. But 
he was obliged to work his way through it, and encountered 
many diiriculties in doing so, all of which he met with a res- 
olute and cheerful Spirit of determination that foreshadowed 
success from the start. At Beloit his serious appearance and 
demeanor led his college associates to bestow on him the 
nickname of "Deacon," and this has stuck to him ever since, 
even though he has for years been living far from where he 
received it. After spending two years at Beloit he found him- 
self unable to go on witii his course, and was compelled to 
stop and earn the necessary money. He came to Minneajiolis 
and Soon afterward started a night school at the \. M. C. A.. 
and that night school, in which he continued to teach after 



he entered the University, is now one of the most appreciated 
features of Y. M. C. A. educational activities. When Mr. 
Purdy left the University he obtained control of the Western 
Architect, which he has ever sinee published, and of which 
he has made a widely circulated and popular periodical. 

Mr. Purdy has been a Democrat from his youth, but was 
never very active in party afTairs previous to the last presi- 
dential campaign. He entered into that with his whole heart, 
being an ardent admirer and champion of Woodrow Wilson, 
aiding in bringing about his nomination and election. He was 
a vigorous and enthusiastic power in Hennepin county and in 
the state, and played an important role in the Baltimore con- 
vention. 

Mr. Purdy has a great deal of personal magnetism and 
warmth of manner, and his associates are always firmly 
attached to him. He is always interested in his work, and 
inspires otlieis with the same spirit. 

Mr. Purdy is a representative of the new type in politics 
and public odice, the energetic, hustling young business man 
who believes in doing things. Like the old line politicians 
of all parties, he is for the people, but instead of promises 
gives eiiicient, economical service, and belongs to that school 
of statecraft which teaches business methods to its public 
servants. He is an enthusiastic hunter and fisherman and a 
devotee of all proper outdoor sports, and belongs to the Min- 
neapolis, Athletic and University clubs, but never allows 
sport or club interests to interfere in any degree with his 
attention to the business in hand, whether it be public or 
private. 



JAMES F. R. FOSS. 



James F. R. Foss, president of the late Nicollet National 
Bank of Minneapolis, and one of the most progressive and 
successful bankers in the 'country, was born at Biddeford, 
Maine, March 17, 1848. One of his maternal ancestors, a 
Rev. Mr. Jordan, owned a large tract of land in the part of 
Maine that belonged to the state of Massachusetts until 1820, 
when Maine was admitted to the Union as a Separate state. 
Jlr. Foss, however, was obliged to make his own way in the 
world without outside assistance, and his highly creditable 
career was wholly the work of his own abilities and persistent 
industry. 

Mr. Foss' father, .James Foss. died when the son was four 
years old, but the latter attended the public schools until the 
beginning of the Civil war. He left school, although but 
fourteen years of age, and enlisted in the United States navy, 
in which he served on the Frigates Sabine, Niagara, Hartford 
and Savannah until 1863, when he was honorably discharged. 
He was but sixteen at the time, but was offered a commis- 
sion as a midshipman. He preferred civil life, however, and 
entered Bucksport Seminary to enlarge his scholastic educa- 
tion. After leaving school he was employed as a iHiokkeeper 
in Boston. Providence and New York, ami in 187.') was serving 
the Shoe ami Leather National Bank in Boston in that 
capacity. 

Finding his health failing in 187:i, Mr. Foss passed the next 
two years as second mate on a coastwise schooner, then 
returned to the banking business, serving for a time as a 
bookkeeper in the .Market Bank at Brighton, Massachusetts, 
and afterward in the same capacity in the Merchandise Na- 
tional Bank in Boston. At the end of one year he wa» 



560 



HISTOKY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



elected cashier of the latter institution, and was, at the time, 
the youngest man who ever held a position of such impor- 
tance in Boston. He filled the office of cashier of this bank 
for seven years, then resigned it to come West, locating in 
Minneapolis. 

Very soon after liis arrival in this city in 1884 he founded 
the Nicollet National Bank with a capital stock of $500,000, 
$325,000 of which was taken by Boston men who knew Mr. 
Foss personally and on that account. He was cashier of the 
Nicollet until 1888, when he was elected president. When this 
bank was founded by him the banking business in Minneap- 
olis was carried on in a very peculiar way. At least 75 per 
cent of the deposits of the banks in the city consisted of 
money borrowed by them on time certificates of deposit at 
a high rate of interest. This required them to charge bor- 
rowers a high rate on loans with the result that the local 
banks carried all the paper whose makers' necessities com- 
pelled them to pay the high rate, while the best paper was 
driven to Eastern banks through note brokers. 

Mr. Foss was the first Minneapolis banker who announced 
a different policy, and throughout its existence the Nicollet 
National Bank issued no interest bearing certificates of de- 
pasit, but gave the preference at lower rates, to the better 
grade of loans, such as were sought by the Eastern banks. 
As a result of this policy, during the nearly seventeen years 
of Mr. Foss' management of this bank Eastern capital was 
brought to this city amounting to about fifty-five million 
dollars, all on his personal approval solely, and not one dollar 
of this money was ever lost. 

The wisdom of Mr. Foss' course was impressively shown in 
the panic of 1893, when most of the other banks here failed 
and all of them lost 25 to 75 per cent of their deposits, while 
the Nicollet National, still paying no interest, increased its 
deposits without solicitation nearly 50 per cent. That Mr. 
Foss was far-seeing and wisely progressive was shown by 
another result of his banking methods, which took its start 
at the same time. This was twofold: Up to 1883 the 
banks in St. Paul had always carried larger country bank 
deposits than those in Minneapolis. At a joint meeting of 
the clearing house banks of the two cities in 1893 the St. 
Paul banks proposed that while the panic lasted no checks 
on country banks deposited with the banks in the Twin Cities 
by their city customers be credited to the customers, but 
that all such checks be received by the city banks only for 
collection, and not credited until paid. This proposal was 
accepted by every bank in the two cities except the Nicollet 
National, but when Mr. Foss presented to the meeting his 
objections to the plan, the Minneapolis banks withdrew from 
the agreement. The St. Paul banks adopted it, however, and 
momentous results to the banking and jobbing interests of 
Minneapolis followed. 

First, the country banks began to increase their deposits 
in the Minneapolis banks, where more liberality was shown 
in handling country checks; and. second, the Country mer- 
chants naturally began to buy more goods in Minneapolis. 
where they knew their checks to the jobbers would be more 
freely and liberally handled. This led up to the present state 
of affairs, in which the fact that the deposits in the Min- 
neapolis banks from the country are so much larger than 
those of the St. Paul banks, and the relations of the former 
with the country merchants and bankers are so much wider 
than those of the latter, as a consequentee, commended Min- 
neapolis as the proper place for the location of the new Re- 



gional Reserve Bank of the United States. To the attitude of 
Mr. Foss and the Nicollet National Bank in 1893, more than 
to any other one cause, this gratifying condition is due. 

Mr. Foss was married on February 22, 1877, to Miss Alvena 
M. Baker, of Auburndale, Massachusetts. They have had 
three children, Minnie Frances, James Franklin and Florence 
Ellen, of whom the daughters are still alive. 

In 1898, during the Spanish- American war, Mr. Foss was 
commander-in-chief of the National Association of Naval Vet- 
erans of the United States, this organization embracing the 
Veterans of the navy of the Civil war. 



JOSEPH SMITH JOHNSON. 



The life of this estimable citizen of Minneapolis, who died 
here in 1891 after residing in the city for a continuous period 
of over thirty-seven years, touches so closely and is so inti- 
mately associated with one of the beauty spots and popular 
resorts of the community that it contains elements of unusual 
and enduring interest. He was born at Farmington, Maine, 
June 15, 1811, the son of Joseph Johnson, a merchant in that 
town, and obtained his education in the public schools there. 
For a short period after leaving sthool he worked in his 
father's store, but when the California gold fever broke out 
in 1849, he became its victim and went to the new eldorado to 
seek a rapid fortune. He lived in California a few years and 
then returned to his old home at Farmington. But the lure 
of the West was on him and he could not shake it off or resist 
its importunities. It led him into a new region where he re- 
mained. 

Deacon S. A. Jewett, Mr. -lohnson's brother-in-law, was 
then living at St. Anthony and owned a large tract of land 
on Bassett's creek and what is now Western avenue. Mr. 
Johnson joined him here in the spring of 1854, and soon after- 
ward took up his residence on a tract selected for him by 
the deacon, the land lying within the thoroughfares now 
known as Nicollet and Lyndale avenues and Grant street and 
Franklin avenue. Mr. Johnson paid the government the pre- 
emption fees on this land and immediately set about building 
a residence on it for his wife and daughters, who were still 
in Maine. The location of the dwelling was about where 
the shelter house now stands in Loring park, and Mrs. 
■lohnson and her daughters came and the family occupied 
it in September of the same year. He gave the name "Jewett 
Lake" to the beautiful sheet of water in the park in honor 
of his wife whose maiden name was Ann Wilder .Jewett. 
The lake was at that time entirely fed by nearby springs. 

This lake and the twenty acres surrounding it Mr. .John- 
son reserved as a homestead when he later surveyed and 
platted his land offering parts of it for sale. The first piece 
of land disposed of by Mr. Johnson ^^a* sold to T. K. Gray, 
a retail druggist, and his family Still occupies the old home 
he built on it on Oak Grove street. The second sale was to 
A. B. Barton, C. M. Loring's father-in-law. 

The rest of the land was retained by Mr. Johnson and cul- 
tivated by him for many years. He never engaged in mer- 
cantile or other business in this city, preferring, as be himself 
said, "to live the life of a farmer." He was married in Maine 
to Miss Ann Wilder Jewett. a daughter of Samuel and Sarah 
(Kimball) Jewett, natives of Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. 
Johnson had three daughtere. One is now Mrs. A. K. West; 



HISTORY OF MlXXEAl'OI.lS AND HENNEPIN COl'NTV. .MlXNKSnTA 



rm 



another is Mrs. E. P. Wells, who resides at 230 Oak Grove 
street on a part of the old family homestead, and the third is 
Mrs. Paul A. Pierce. 

Mr. Johnson died in 1891 at the age of eighty. His wife 
lived until 1898. They belonged to the First Baptist church 
and were among its first members. In politics Mr. .Johnson 
was a member of the Democratic party, but he was never 
an active partisan, although taking an earnest interest in the 
growth and development of the city and rejoicing in its 
progress and improvement. He lived quietly and usefully, and 
enjoyed the respect of the whole community. 

When E. P. Wells, the husband of the second daughter of 
the Johnson household, earae for the second time to live in 
Minneapolis he bought his present residence at 230 Oak Grove 
Street because it was a part of the old estate. S. W. Wells 
and Mrs. C. G. Ireys, son and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. P. 
Wells and grandchildren of Mr. Johnson, have their homes 
at Dell Place, also a part of the old homestead, which came 
to them through their mother. The grandfather planted the 
family tree in the wilderness. It is now flourishing in the 
midst of one of the most populous, progressive and beautiful 
cities in the country. 



WILLIAM XRVING GRAY. 

William Irving Gray, head of the contracting firm of W. I. 
Gray & Company, which has its headquarters and home oflBce 
in Minneapolis but carries on extensive operations far beyond 
the limits of this state, is a native of Minnesota and has passed 
almost the whole of his life to the present time (1914) in 
the state. He was bom at Lake City, Wabasha county, the 
son of Alexander and Mary (Dingwall) Gray, who came 
to this country from Scotland, where their families had been 
domesticated for many generations. They reached Minnesota 
and took up their residence on a farm in Wabasha county in 
1862. 

The son passed his boyhood on his father's farm eight miles 
from Lake City, where he began his education in the district 
school. Later he attended and was graduated from the Lake 
City High School. He then entered the engineering depart- 
ment of the University of Minnesota, and in 1892 was gradu- 
ated from it with the degree of Electrical Engineer. He at 
once began the practice of his profession and devoted two years 
of close and studious attention to it. At the end of that period, 
in 1894, he started in business as a contracting engineer under 
the firm name of W. I. Gray & Company. 

Mr. Gray has organized and operated a number of electric 
lighting plants throughout the country among which can be 
mentioned the Wheaton Electric Light Co. of Wheaton, Minn., 
which he successfully operated for ten years, also the Kirlin- 
Gray Electric Co. of Watertown, South Dakota, for eleven 
years. In 1908 the Belden, Porter and Gray heating and plumb- 
ing company was founded, and in 1913 tlic Schumacher-Gray 
Company of Winnipeg, Canada, was started. 

The firm takes contracts for mechanical plants of all kinds 
in the domain of heating, electric lighting, ventilating, plumb- 
ing and similar lines of tonstruction work. It carries on an 
extensive local business, and in addition its operations cover 
throe or four adjoining states and large parts of the Dominion 
reaching into Western Canada. Its business is steadily grow- 
ing in volume and extending into new territory, wliicii is a 



strong proof of the correctness of its business methods and the 
excellence of its work. 

While Mr. (iray takes an active part in the public affairs 
of his home city, he is independent in political faith and action, 
but never indilfcrent to the general welfare of the community 
or any of the duties of citizenship. Socially he holds mem- 
bership in the University club, the Minneapolis Athletic club 
and the Kotary club, and in the line of his profession he haa 
been president of the state lioard of electricity from 1899 to 
1909. His religious affiliation is with the Park Avenue Con- 
gregational church, and he i» also a member of the Congre- 
gational club of Minnesota, in 1899 he was married to Miss 
Isabelle W. Welles. They hare two sons, Alexander Wellea 
and Franklin Dingwall Gray. 



FRANK K. HAYCOCK. 



Mr. Haycock has rendered Hennepin county exceptionally 
good service in the office of county surveyor during the last 
eight years. He is a native of Minnesota, having bven born in 
St. Paul, November 15, 1859. He is a son of E. R. Haycock, 
a steamboat captain on the Mississippi in the early days, 
when railroads were unknown in this state and the great river 
was the chief highway between the Territory and the East. 

Mr. Haycock attended the public schools in St. Paul and 
Minneapolis, the fajnily having moved to this city in his 
boyhood. He grew to manhood amid the surroundings and 
influences of the frontier. 

He decided on a professional career, and succeeded in fitting 
himself for the profession of civil engineering. He became a 
civil engineer while he was yet a young man, and has ever 
since been engaged in the practice of his profession. Survey- 
ing is a part of his business and he is a thorough master of it. 
But he has gone far beyond this in his operations, studying 
large engineering problems of practical utility. He spent years 
in inventing and perfecting a system of disposing of garbage 
and sewage, and has secured patents on it and put it in serv- 
ice in different places. 

In the fall of 1906 Mr. Haycock was elected county sur- 
veyor of Hennepin county, and he has been re-elected to this 
office at the close of each term since. Previous to his 
first election to the position he was for some time deputy 
county surveyor and drainage engineer for the county. He is 
connected with the Republican party in political belief and 
affiliation and inlluential in the councils of the party. Fra- 
ternally he is a member of the Masonic order and the order of 
Junior Pioneers, being the president of the Minneapolis branch 
of the association, which he was largely instrumental in hav- 
ing organized, and to which he has given his time and energy 
liberally. 

On December 31. 1882. Mr. Haycock was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Carrie .T. Higgins. They have five children — 
Leon L., Irene J.. Elaine L.. Vivian 0. and Francis .S. The 
members of the familv all attend the Presbyterian church. 



FREDERICK GRANT ATKINSON. 



Frederick Grant Atkinson, one of the directors of the Wash- 
burn-Crosby company, has made his mark in Minneapolis as 



562 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



one of the business men of the city who do things without 
making any noise about them, either before they are begun or 
after they are accomplished. He was born in Chicago, Illi- 
nois, a son of Richard F. Atkinson, a Xew Yorker by nativity, 
and came to Minneapolis in 1S76. During the next four years 
he attended the old Washington school, at which a large num- 
ber of the leading citizens of this community obtained part 
of their education, and then passed one year at the Central 
High School before beginning his business career. 

After leaving the high school he at once entered the employ 
of the Washburn-Crosby company as an office boy. He has 
been with the company from that time to the present, and has 
worked his way on demonstrated merit through all the dif- 
ferent grades of employment until he is now one of the com- 
pany's directors and an influential factor in the management 
of its affairs. He is also a director of the Imperial Elevator 
company and connected with other business and industrial 
institutions of importance. Socially he is a member of the 
Minneapolis, Minikahda and Automobile clubs and takes an 
active part in the affairs of each of these organizations. 

Mr. Atkinson's wife was Miss Dorothy D. Bridgman, a 
daughter of Rev. George H. Bridgman, for many years presi- 
dent of Hamline University. They have two children, Mary 
Elliott and Frederick Melville. The parents are members of 
St. Mark's Episcopal church and take part in its activities, as 
they do in those of all agencies working for good in the com- 
munity. The pleasant and hospitable home of the family is 
located at 308 Ridgewood avenue, and is a center of social cul- 
ture and refined enjoyment, which makes it a popular resort 
for tlie numerous admiring friends of its occupants. 



MA.JOR SALMON A. BUELL. 

Salmon A. Buell was born October 1, 1827, at Lawrence- 
burg. Indiana, situated on the Ohio River, two miles below 
the mouth of the Miami, the western boundary of the State 
of Ohio. He was the oldest son of George P. Buell, a merchant 
of that place, at one time a member of the Senate of Indiana, 
and Ann Lane Buell, a daughter of Hon. Amos Lane, a lawyer 
and Member- of Congress from that District. In Salmon's 
early boyhood, his father retired from mercantile life and 
settled upon a large farm about two miles back from the 
river in the same county, where the boy spent his life until 
about twelve yeai-s of age. His first schooling was by private 
tutors at home, then in the nearby country schools, during 
the fall, winter and spring; afterwards in Asbury College (now 
Purdue L'niversity), one year in the preparatory department 
of Marietta College, Ohio, and in Bloomington College (now 
Indiana State University). In the "forties" he entered the 
United States Navy, as an Acting Midshipman, reporting for 
duty at the Naval School in Annapolis, Maryland. The rules 
of the Naval Service then required attendance at that school 
for the whole or part of the first si.x years, then service on 
board ship until the sixth to be spent in study at the school 
in preparation for graduation and promotion. He was some 
montliS there until the close of the school year, and after a 
"leave" entered on his ship service, making besides duty on 
Receiving ships at Charlestown, Mass., Norfolk, Va., and 
Brooklyn. N. Y., cruises in sea going ships to Cape Verd 
l!?!ands, England, northern and western continental Europe, 
Bio Janeiro in Brazil, thence round Cape Horn to Valparaiso 



in Chili, back to Rio Janeiro, and finally to Boston, Mass. 
While at Rio Janeiro the latter time, the yellow fever was 
raging there and the ship sailed for Boston with the disease 
on board, losing on the trip out of forty odd cases, five 
officers and eleven men; Buell being one of its victims and a 
very severe case. Soon after getting home and after about 
three and a half years in the service, he resigned from the 
Navy on account of ill health. He adopted civil engineering 
as a calling and rose to be an Assistant Engineer, principally 
in charge of the leveling party, but his health would not per- 
mit him to continue. He then entered upon the study of law, 
and during the course of such study taught school for about 
five months at North Bend, Ky. In 1853-3 he was admitted to 
practice law in the Courts of Indiana and the United States 
Courts for that District, locating at Indianapolis, Indiana. 

On Decem.ber 20, 1853, he married Miss Elizabeth P. Free- 
man, of Norfolk, Va., the daughter of Capt. William G. Free- 
man, who as owner and commander in our merchant marine 
had taken extensive part in supplying material from the 
debris of the granite quarries of New England to construct 
the foundation of the fortification of what is known as the 
"Rip Raps" part of the defenses at Old Point Comfort, Va., 
where Miss Freeman was born. 

The wedding of Buell and Miss Freeman took place in 
"Old St. Paul's," filled with the friends of the bride. This 
church is historic; built in 1739, and in an attack by the 
British Army during the Revolutionary War, a cannon ball 
lodged half buried in its wall, and can still be seen, although 
almost hidden by the ivy that covers nearly the entire church. 
Buell brought his new wife to Indianapolis, Ind., where they 
remained until the fall of 1857, when his health again requir- 
ing a change, they came to Minnesota, locating at St. Peter, 
on the Minnesota River, and then near the frontier. Here he 
became Secretarj- and Agent of the St. Peter (Townsite) 
Company, which position he held, except for the period of his 
Federal Military Service, until 1874, when they moved back 
to Indianapolis, Ind. 

The duties of Buell's position as Such Secretary and Agent, 
occupied his whole time until January 2, 1860, when he was 
admitted to practice law in Minnesota and formed a partner- 
ship for that purpose, in addition to such duties, with Hon. 
A. G. Chatfield, residing at Belle Plaine, Minn., under the 
name of Chatfield & Buell, their office being at St. Peter, 
though Judge Chatfield continued his residence at Belle Plaine. 
This law partnership continued until Buell entered the Federal 
military service. 

On August 18, 1862, the Sioux Indian outbreak along the 
whole frontier occurred, during which over 600 whites were 
massacred. The next morning certain news of this reached 
St. Peter, and Hon. Charles E. Flandrau, then one of the 
associate justices of the Supreme Court of ilinnesota, and 
residing about a mile below St. Peter, raised, in all possible 
haste, from Nicollet and Le Seuer Counties, a company of 
about 130 volunteers for aid to the stricken frontiersmen. 
Buell was a member of this company, and one of eighteen, 
who, being mounted, were sent in advance by Capt. Flandrau, 
to New Ulm. thirty miles west across the Minnesota River, 
and a frontier town, then reported under attack by the 
Indians, and which Capt. Flandrau had determined to make 
his first point of destination. This mounted advance reached 
New Ulm late in the afternoon, and entered it at its south, 
end. while under attack at the north by about 130 Indians.. 

In his "Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars," Volume- 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



563 



1, Page 732, Judge Flamlrau wrote as follows: "Our advance 
guard (above mentioiu'd) reached Now Ulm about four or five 
o'clock P. M. — just in time to aid the inhabitants in repelling 
the attack of about 100 Indians upon the town. They suc- 
ceeded in driving the enemy off, several citizens being killed, 
and about five or six houses in the upper (northern) part of 
the town being tired and destroyed." 

In his "History of the Sioux War and Massacres of 1862 
and 1863," Page 80, I. D. V. Herd, on Gen. H. H. Sibley's 
staff, wrote, in 1863, of this advance guard: "It is conceded 
that these men Saved the town." 

Capt. Flandrau with the main body of his force reached 
New Ulm about 10 o'clock P. M., and on next morning an 
organization was effected, giving Capt. Flandrau chief com- 
mand with the rank of Colonel, and he appointed Buell his 
Chief of Staff and Provost Marshal, with the rank of Captain. 
This organization was afterwards recognized by the State 
authorities, served on the frontier about three months, and 
was paid accordingly. 

The service at and around New Ulm lasted until and includ- 
ing the 25th of August, 1862. On the 23rd and 24th, the 
Indians, in large numbers, variously estimated from 650 to 
800, well armed, attacked the town, defended by about 250 
poorly armed white men, both sides resting during the inter- 
vening night. At this time, there were in the tow* also about 
1,500 persons, principally women and children with a few aged 
men, citizens and refugees from the surrounding country. 

Before noon on the 24th, the Indians abandoned the attack, 
and commenced retiring, burning the outside buildings, driving 
off cattle and taking with them other movable property. On 
Monday, the 25th of August, by order of Col. Flandrau, New 
Ulm was vacated and all the occupants proceeded down the 
west side of the ilinnesota River to Mankato. 

The loss to the whites, which was wholly from the force 
placed under Col. Flandrau's command, by the organization 
of Wednesday, the 20th of August, was ten killed and fifty- 
one wounded; the Indian loss was not ascertainable, as they 
carried off their dead and wounded, though two, one a leader, 
were killed within the lines of defense, and could not be so 
rescued. 

At Mankato, on Tuesday, the 26th, Col. Flandrau's original 
force was disbanded and its members returned to their homes. 

Within a few days, by order of Gov. Alexander Ramsey, 
Col. Flandrau took command of the Southwestern frontier, 
and the State troops gathered for its defense, with head- 
quarters at South Bend, Capt. Buell continuing as his chief 
of staff and serving under him in that capacity; during Col. 
Flandrau's absences, which became necessarily frequent, he 
placed Capt. Buell in command. This situation continued for 
a number of weeks, and until relieved by the arrival of a full 
regiment of Federal volunteer infantry from Wisconsin, where- 
upon the services of Col. Flandrau. and of his staff, and of 
the State volunteers forming his command, ceased, and all 
returned to their homes, and civic duties. 

Upon the organization, later that fall (1862), of the "First 
Minnesota Mounted Rangers," a regiment of cavalry mustered 
into the service of the United States, Capt. Buell was appointed 
and commissioned its Second Major. His commission was dated 
in November, but he was not mustered in until December. 
That winter he was stationed at St. Peter, two companies of 
his regiment being also stationed there, and one at Kastoa, 
nearby. 

At the hanging of the thirty-eight Indians at Mankato, 



under command and charge of Gen. Miller, Major Buell was the 
ranking Cavalry officer, and commanded the cavalry guard 
there. 

The greater portion of this regiment, including Major Buell 
and most of his battalion, in the following year (1863), formed 
part of the force under Gen. H. H. Sibley in his campaign 
against the Indians from Minnesota, through Dakota to the 
Missouri River. At Camp Atchison, a reserve force was 
formed in charge of the Expedition's Reserve Supplies under 
Major Rice, of the Second Minn. Volunteer Infantry, with 
Maj. Buell in command of the Cavalrj- part of such reserve 
force. 

XATien the advance of the F.xpedition returned to Camp 
Atchison, Gen. Sibley with his whole command, came back to 
Minnesota, by way of Fort Abercrombic, and late in that 
year (1863), the "First Minnesota Mounted Rangers" were 
mustered out of the Federal Service at Fort Snelling. During 
such military service, Major Buell was twice a member of and 
served upon a general court martial and one military com- 
mission. 

Being mustered out with the regiment, ilajor Buell returned 
to the duties of Secretary and Agent of the St. Peter Com- 
pany and in connection therewith, the practice of the law at 
St. Peter. 

In 1866, Jlajor Bucll's health requiring a change from office 
work, they purchased a farm, of 219 acres in Le Seuer 
County and about two miles east of St. Peter, and moved on 
to it, both himself and wife devoting their whole time (save 
such as he gave to his duties as Secretary and Agent of the 
St. Peter Company), to the improvement and operation of 
the farm, for about two years. 

His health was so much improved by this experience, that 
he returned to the practice of law in St. Peter, still however 
continuing his residence upon and the operation of the farm 
for about four years more. Then they moved back to the 
town, disposing of the farm, and he entered again upon the 
practice of the law, continuing it until August. 1874, when 
he resigned his position as Secretary and Agent of the St. 
Peter Company and moved back to Indianapolis, Ind., Mrs. 
Buell having preceded him a few months. 

Major Buell practiced law there until 1885. In that year 
he was appointed Clerk of the Yakima Indian Agency in 
Washington Territory. He served there about one year, and 
then, his wife's health having failed, he resigned and took 
her east for treatment. They went to Philadelphia, and 
remained there two years, during much of which period Major 
Buell was engaged with established firms in the practice of his 
profession in that city. 

In 1S89, he brought his wife west for her health and came 
to Minneapolis, where Mrs. Buell died in 1893. He has lived 
in this city ever since with a few slight intermissions. Part of 
two years he passed at Nashville. Tenn., and has spent one 
winter and spring in Florida for his health. 

Major Buell is an ardent political worker; allied with the 
Democratic party. He joined the Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic in 1888, in Philadelphia and still keeps up his membership 
in George G. Meade's I'ost, in that city. His secret society 
affiliations have been with (he I. 0. 0. F. and the Masons. He 
was reared a Methodist, but upon his marriage joined the Epis- 
copal church to be with his wife. About twelve years after 
her death, he joined the Qitholic Church in Nashville, Tenn., 
and in Minneapolis is a member of the "Church of the Incar- 
nation," Rev. J. 'M. Clenry's Parish. For about four ycar» 



564 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Major Buell has resided with relatives at 3709 Pillsbury 
Avenue. 

His interests have always been those of a student of polit- 
ical and economical affairs, and he has been for years devoted 
to the teachings of Henry George, having been Secretary of 
the local society of advocates of the single tax. 

Major Buell has living relatives of his immediate family, 
the oldest eight years younger than himself, as follows: A 
brother, Hon. John L. Buell, of Quinnesec, Michigan, a retired 
lawyer and now extensive farmer, who was an officer of the 
U. S. regular army, serving under Gen. George B. McClellan 
in his campaign against Richmond and subsequent battles 
around Washington, during the Civil War, afterwards resign- 
ing from the Army as it became necessary for him to take 
the administratorship of his father's estate; a sister, Miss 
Almy Buell, of Cincinnati, Ohio; another sister. Miss Ann J. 
Buell, who, as "Sister Ann Cecelia," is a member of the 
Catholic Order of "Sisters of Providence," having their mother 
house at St. Mary's, Vigo County, Indiana; a nephew, Don 
Carlos Buell. residing on a farm near and doing business in 
Nashville, Tenn., the only child of another brother, Gen- 
George P. Buell, who died in 1881, an offiteer of the United 
States Regular Army; and two nephews, Robert and John 
Howes, sons of another sister (deceased), and who reside in 
a western state. 



HON. JOHN FRANKLIN CALHOUN. 

Is a native of Licking county, Ohio, where he was born 
April 28, 1854, being taken as a child by his parents, David 
and Caroline Calhoun, to Mercer county, Illinois, where he 
obtained his early education in "Doaks" schoolhouse, Keiths- 
burg Township. 

At the age of tliirteen he was employed as a 'printer's 
devil" for a time, and also partially learned the carpenter 
trade. However, with a mind set on being a merchant he 
secured a clerkship in so continuing eight years, where he 
engaged in merchandising first in the retail and afterward 
in the wholesale and retail dry goods trade. 

In 1881 he came to Minneapolis and engaged in tlie real 
estate and loan business, devoting attention largely to prop- 
erty and investments for owners outside of the city, and in 
which lines he has the management of extensive interests. 

In his political faith and allegiance he is a Republican and 
has ever taken an earnest and serviceable interest in public 
aflairs. In 1902 he was elected to the State Senate from 
the Fortieth Senatorial district, and in 1906 was re-elected, 
serving in the sessions of 1903, 1905, 1907 and 1909. He was 
energetic and active, especially in warding off measures that 
were against the business interests. He is also given credit 
for the law of 1909 which prohibits the payment or receiving 
of rebates in the procuring of insurance contracts. 

January 20, 1879, Mr. Calhoun was married at Galesburg. 
to Clara Zenora Edwards, a daughter of Hon. John Edwards, 
who was a member of the first legislature of the State of 
Indiana. Three children have been born to them: John 
Edwards, associated with his father: Frederick D., an illus- 
trator in New York city, and Beatrice Z. Mr. Calhoun is a 
member of the Minneapolis and the Commercial clubs and is 
a thirty-third degree Mason. 



FRANCIS A, CHAMBERLAIN. 

Francis A. Chamberlain, president of the Security National 
Bank, was born in Bangor, Maine, April 20, 1855, a son of 
James T. and Caroline (Emery) Chamberlain, the father being 
a merchant. In 1857 he removed to Red Wing, Minnesota, 
where Francis A. attended the public schools. He was also 
a student of Hamline University, and for two years attended 
the State University. 

His first business engagement was as collector for the 
Merchants National Bank of Minneapolis, the city directory 
for 1877 naming him as a messenger of the above institution. 
His aptitude, integrity, fidelity and other business attributes 
attracted attention, and, soon after the Security National 
Bank was founded, he was given a position in its employ. 
The same qualities were ever evident and resulted in promo- 
tion, passing from one position to another, until he was 
chosen the head of this important bank. Wisdom and pru- 
dence have marked the management, this institution having 
become one of the strongest and most popular in the Jfforth- 
west. 

Mr. Chamberlain is also a director of the Hennepin County 
Savings Bank, a director and ex-president of the North- 
western National Life Insurance company, and a director of 
the Minneapolis Threshing Machine company. He is also 
president of the Clearing House Association. In fraternal 
relations he is a Freemason, and his social affiliations are with 
the Minneapolis, Athletic and Minikahda clubs. In religious 
connection he is a Methodist. He was married May 23, 1883, 
to Miss Frances T. Foss, daughter of Bishop Cyrus D. Foss. 
They have three children, Cyrus. Ruth and Caro. The father 
has taken a cordial and practical interest in the growth and 
improvement of Minneapolis and given 'cheerful and material 
aid to the promotion of its welfare. He is esteemed as one 
of the city's most useful and representative residents. 



J. D. EKSTRUM. 



.John D. Ekstrum, president of the Flour City Fuel and 
Transfer Company. 40 West Lake street, and manager of the 
Interstate Fuel and Transfer Company, is a well known busi- 
ness man of Minneapolis. He was born in Sweden in 1873. 
When but nine years of age he accompanied his mother to 
America and Minneapolis. They came to join the husband 
and father, Solomon Ekstnim, who had preceded them a few 
years before. He was engaged in the business of mason con- 
tracting until his retirement in late years from all business 
activity. 

John D. Ekstrum attended the city schools and meanwhile 
seized every opportunity to make his start in the business 
world, finding employment much of the time in teaming for 
his father. A little later he went on the police force and 
was appointed sergeant of the fifth precinct. In 1889, after 
three years' service on the force, he established himself in the 
fuel business, starting with a capital of $100, which has 
increased to $100,000. Shortly after his successful start in 
business, he took into partnership Mr. N. L. Johnson, and 
within the next few years was laid the foundation for the 
rapid development of the firm's interests. .\t the end of 
four years John Olson joined the partnership. In 1911 the 
Company was incorporated with a capital of $100,000. and 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COrNTY, MINNESOTA 



5G5 



iidditiuiial capital added, with J. U. Ekstrura as president, 
N. L. Jolinson, secretary and treasurer, and John Olson, vice 
president. In the same year a number of yards were added. 
They now operate nine branch yards ami employ about 90 
men. 

The company has become engaged in the transfer and 
storage business since its incorporation and the prolits have 
equalled those of the longer established fuel industry. It also 
owns a wagon and paint shop where a number of workmen 
are employed in the building of wagons and vans. Aside 
from his prominent association with the Flour City Fuel and 
Transfer Company, Mr. Eksti-um is manager and partner in 
the Interstate Fuel & Transfer Company, 2407 East Lake 
street, which has a prosperous trade, operating three yards. 
Mr. Ekstrum is a director of tlie Minneapolis State Bank. 
He is president of the Westside Commercial Club, was one 
of its organizers in 1908. and since that time has continued 
to serve on its board of directors. He is also president of 
the Swedish-American club, which has about 300 members. 
He is a member of the Odin club and of Zion Lutheran 
Church, and in politics is a Republican. His marriage to 
Miss Ida K. Nelson of Minneapolis, occurred in 1901, and 
there are four children. .lohn D.. .Ir.. Martini. Kobert. and 
Bertill. 



ROBERT WINTHROP CUMMINGS. 

This gentleman, who was a member of the first village 
council of St. Anthony, was born on .June 19, 1825. and was 
the youngest of the six sons and three daughters of Andrew 
Cummings of Williamsport. Lycoming county. Pennsylvania, 
and of Scotch ancestry. When he was but seven or eight 
years old his father died, and he was cared for by an older 
brother. He passed eight years at a private academy in 
York, Pennsylvania, then taught school one winter. At the 
age of nineteen he turned his face Westward, and arrived at 
St. Anthony Kails before the end of the year, 1844, this 
region being then in its state of primitive nature. It did 
not meet his desires, and he returned to the St. Croix Valley, 
and took up a tract of government land at Cottage Grove, 
in Washington county, but in 1847 returned to St. Anthony. 
He was a gentleman of good education, courteous manners 
and attractive personality, and immediately became popular. 
At the election of 1848. of which S. W. Farnham and Caleb 
D. Dorr were judges, twenty-three votes were cast in St. 
Anthony. Stillwater was then the county seat. 

Mr. Cummings took an immediate and energetic interest in 
his new home and within a short time saw wonderful trans- 
formations. The region developed steadily and increased in 
population rapidly. The first city council, of which he was 
a member, convened April 13, 1858, the other aldermen being 
Benjamin N. Spencer. .John Orth, Daniel Stanchfield, Edward 
Lippincott and Caleb D. Dorr. 

Mr. Cummings took up a claim on rising ground, beyond 
the Hat east of the river, a part of which later became 
Maple Hill Cemetery, and part Ramsey & Lockwood's Addi- 
tion to St. Anthony and a part Cummings Second Addition. 
For some years he clerked, but was always interested in the 
advancement of the community and the enjoyment of its 
residents. In 1851 he helped to organize Cataract Lodge of 
Freemasons, of which he continued to be a member, and he 



was also u Knight Templar. lie was also a trUHtee of .lohn 
Potts Lodge No. .!. Independent Onler of Odd Fellows. In 
the first fire company organized in the city lie was first 
assistant foreman. 

He also took an active part in all public airairs. In 1S56 
he helped to organize the Republican party, and at a special 
election in 1860. just after the organization of the new 
county, he waa elected one of the county commissioners. He 
did not, however, seek political honors, accepting them re- 
luctantly. In 1854 he opened a real estate oflice, and during 
the remainder of life engaged in the real estate, loan and 
insurance business, and through investments in these lines 
accunuilated a fortvnie of nearly one-half a million. He laid 
out Cummings' Addition, Cummings' Second Addition and 
Cummings & Brott's Addition. He was frequently chosen 
guardian and trustee of estates, and his counsel in business 
matters was valued. At the time of his death he was presi- 
dent of the East Side Loan Association and vice prejiident of 
the Minneapolis Savings and Loan Association. 

Mr. Cummings was married January 17. 1854, to Miss 
Martha J. Estes, who was born in Maine and came to St. 
Anthony with her parents. She was a sister of Mrs. S. W. 
Farnham and Mrs. Charles W. Stimpson. Some time before 
his death he removed to 2301 Portland avenue, where bis 
family is still living. He died September 11. 1891, and having 
been closely connected with so many people and with inter- 
ests of such extensive diversity the loss of his presence and 
services was keenly felt. 

Mr. Cummings was honest, kindhearted and benevolent. 
He enjoyed the respect and confidence of all. He was tall, 
possessed of a fine, frank, open countenance and an engaging 
smile. No man excelled him in courtliness or in genial and 
generous deportment. Two daughters were born of his mar- 
riage, Mrs. Minnie C. Winthrop and I.K)uise R. Cummings, 
both of whom arc with their mother, and like her. are 
absorbed in business affairs. The daughters were educated 
at the University and all belong to the Church of the 
Redeemer. 

There is also a granddaughter in the family, whose maiden 
name was Louise Cummings Winthrop. She is now the wife 
of George Deming Grannis II, who was born in Syracuse, 
New York, and resides in that city. She is a graduate of 
Smith College, of the class of 1909. She traveled extensively 
in Europe before her marriage, and is devoted to music, being 
a fine organist. Her husband is a graduate of Williams 
College and a lawyer in active practice. 



JAMES H. DURYEA. 



Having rendered the city and state signal service in an 
official way, and being now one of the leading real estate men 
in Minneapolis, with an extensive and profitable business, 
James H. Durj'en has made » record of private enterprise 
and service that is creditable alike to himself, to the citizen- 
ship of Minnesota, and to American manhood in general. 

Mr. Diiryi'a is a native of Plainfleld. Will county, Illinois, 
where his life began on November 7. 1853. He is a son of 
George T. and Eliza Duryea. In 1857. when he was four 
years old. his parents moved to Marion township. Olmsted 
county. Minnesota, where the father bought a claim. Within 
the same vear thev moved to near Chester, where the father 



566 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



the remainder of his life. He was born in Orange 
county, reared in Sullivan county, New York, and became a 
resident of Illinois in the early period of its history. He 
died on his farm at tlie age of seventy-two. The mother 
survived him several years, having her home at Kasson, 
Dodge county. 

When they entered Minnesota there were no railroads or 
telegraph lines, and they brought to the state the news of 
the passage by congress of an act enabling the people to 
adopt a constitution. This was completed and Minnesota 
admitted to the Union the next year, 1858. JameS 
remained in Olmsted county until he was past the age of 
thirty. He was educated in the public schools and at the 
Rochester high school. He then taught school eight terms, 
when he became a traveling salesman for the McCormick 
Machine company for five or six years. He then worked in 
the office of the general agency of the company at Red Wing 
until he was obliged to return to his home to manage the 
farm and care for his parents, and in the course of a few 
years became the owner of the old homestead. 

In 1887 Mr. Duryea became a resident of Minneapolis as 
a traveling salesman in the same line that he had formerly 
followed. Later he became city salesman for the wholesale 
hardware house of Wyraan & Partridge, with which he re- 
mained six years. Since 1901 he has been engaged in the 
real estate business witli dealings on the North Side as a 
specialty. He served one term of four years as alderman 
from the Tenth ward, being elected as a Democrat. He 
served on the leading committees and was energetic in his 
efforts to secure a sewer and bridge on Thirty-second avenue 
north. He was placed on a committee to act in conjunction 
with a similar committee from St. Paul as representatives of 
the Twin Cities at the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase exposi- 
tion. The two cities united in the erection of a building in 
which each had a manager. 

Mr. Duryea was a pioneer in the good roads movement. 
He advocated before the Real Estate Board a tax of 
one mill for good road construction and maintenance, and 
was d member of a committee to act jointly with a St. Paul 
committee before the legislature in this behalf. The desired 
legislation was secured for the two counties involved, this 
beginning having since resulted in the enactment of the 
present good roads laws, applying to the whole state. While 
in the council he also secured the passage of an ordinance 
to require the grading of streets in new additions to the 
city before lots in them were sold. This was bitterly con- 
tested by real estate men, and after two years' agitation 
was killed. 

Mr. Duryea is a Democrat of the old scliool, loyal and 
effective in service to his party. He has frequently been a 
delegate to its conventions, local, county and state, and 
while living in Olmsted county was once nominee for the 
office of register of deeds. He is a member of the North 
Side Commercial club, and also prominent in the activities 
of Highland Park Presbyterian church. For a number of 
years he was one of the trustees of this churcli, and also 
taught a class of men in it in Bible study. In 1886 he was 
married in Sullivan county, New York, to his cousin. Miss 
Elizabeth M. Duryea. They have no children of their own, 
but are rearing and educating Marbry Olson from the age 
of ten. 



EDMUND EICHHORN. 

Mr. Eichhorn took an active part in the life of his home 
community, civil, social, industrial, commercial and fiscal. He 
was the first president of the German-American Bank, serving 
that institution three years as its head; and after giving up 
this office he continued to serve it as a director until he 
went to California some ten or twelve years before his 
death, which occurred in Minneapolis on May 14, 1907, while 
here on a visit. He made an excellent record as president of 
the bank, and it flourished and grew rapidly under his man- 
agement. And everything else that he was connected with 
in a business way did the same. He dealt extensively in 
real estate, insurance and loans, and served long as a notary 
public. In 1873 he also founded the firm of E. Eiclihorn & 
Sons, real estate dealers, with offices at the present time in 
125 Temple Court, and until he left this state was at the 
head of it. 

The present head of the firm of E. Eichhorn & Sons is 
Arthur E. Eichhorn, one of the sons of Edmund, and himself 
one of the leading business men of Minneapolis. He was 
born in Wisconsin on August 37, 1856, and entered his father's 
real estate office as a clerk in 1873. His connection with the 
business has been continuous since that year, and he has 
studied its requirements and property values in all parts of 
the city to such good purpose that he has made himself an 
authority on all subjects connected with real estate of every 
kind and description here. 

Arthur E. Eichhorn possesses fine natural faculties for 
business and special fitness for the line in which he is en- 
gaged. These were carefully trained and developed under the 
direction of his father, and when the latter was ready to retire 
from active pursuits, the son was well qualified to fill the 
place the retirement made vacant. His brother, Alvin A. 
Eichhorn, and J. William Dreger, a sketch of whom is pub- 
lished elsewhere in this volume, are associated with him in 
the firm, and its business is very extensive and involves 
many transactions of considerable magnitude. Arthur was 
one of the original stockholders in the German-American 
Bank, and he is now a member of its board of directors, 
residing at 1119 North Sixth street, in this city. 

Alvin Eichhorn, another brother, was also a member of the 
firm from the begimiing of its history until his death at 
Ocean Park, California, on July i, 1910. He was born in 1854, 
and was also a native of the state of Wisconsin. The mark 
and enduring impress of all the brothers, like their fatlier's, 
is visible in many parts of the city they have all helped so. 
materially to build in its massive business structures and its 
attractive residences, and is shown also in its educational, 
mercantile and financial institutions, to many of which tliey 
have been liberal contributors in time, effort, good counsel 
and more material support, whenever assistance of any kind 
has been needed. 

Arthur E. Eichliorn, the immediate sul)jpct of this review, 
has taken an earnest and helpful interest in the social life 
of his community, notably as an active member of the 
Benevolent, Protective Order of Elks and its club, the Inter- 
lachen club and the Teuton ia Kegel Klub, a German tenpin 
or bowling organization. He has also been active in municipal 
affairs as an advocate of good government and wise provision 
for the best interests of the city and its residents, but never 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COrNTY, MINNESOTA 



567 



as a political partisan or aspirant to ofificial station of any 
kind. 

Mr. Eichhom was married in 1886 to Miss Susie Rauen, a 
native of Minneapolis and the daughter of Peter Kaucn, one 
of the old-time merchants of this city. Two children have 
been born of the union and both of them are living. They 
are: Edmund P., a graduate of the Nortli High .School and 
the law department of the University of Minnesota, who is 
now connected with the real estate firm of E. Eichhorn & 
Sons; Myrtle, who is still living at home with her parents, 
and is also a graduate of the North High School and now a 
student in the University. All the members of the family 
are widely popular and generally esteemed for their genuine 
worth, lofty ideals and exemplary citizenship. 



CARLOS CHURCH. 



During the last five years a resident of Minneapolis, at 
517 Ninth avenue southeast, but for many years an energetic 
and productive promoter of the redemption and improvement 
of the wilderness that has been tributary to the growth and 
greatness of this city, Carlos Church has honestly earned 
the high regard and esteem in which he is held by all who 
have tlic enjoyment of his acquaintance. 

Mr. Church was born at Jericho, Chittenden county, \'er- 
mont, April 9, 1845, and was but a schoolboy of eighteen 
when in 1863 he enlisted in the Ninth Vermont Infantry, 
then in the field in Virginia. He was soon assigned as a 
musician, playing the tenor drum, and as such remained in 
the service to the end of the war. 

Ho then rejoined his parents and the rest of the family in 
Dodge county, Wisconsin, where they were profitably engaged 
in farming. He became a farmer too, and was there united 
in marriag'e with Miss Amelia D. Maechler, who was born 
and reared in the county. When the Red River valley country 
was opened for settlement, he, his brother Azro and their 
father, Lyman D. Church, each took a homestead in the new 
region near Hreckcnridge, Minnesota, and there began the 
arduous work of converting the wilderness of that region 
into the garden spot they made of it. 

Their land originally was worth at the utmost $1.23 an 
acre. When they had it raised to a proper state of improve- 
ment and cultivation, it was easily worth $75 to $100 an 
acre. The father remained there the rest of his life, dying 
at the age of seventy. His sons took his remains back to 
Dodge county, Wisconsin, for burial, where they were laid 
in soil he had also hallowed by his labor. 

Carlos Church jiroved himself as valiant in contest with 
the wilderness as he had been on the field, reducing liis wild 
land to subjection and improved it to high productiveness. 
He began at once to plant thrifty pine trees around his 
homestead, which he continued until he had more than two 
miles of them in good growing condition, and the rows of 
giants of the forest which now belt his farm of MO acres 
with stateliness and beauty are among the boasted attrac- 
tions of the neighborhood. For some years he devoted his 
energies to raising wheat and other cereals, but of late years 
he has given a great deal of attention to raising live stock. 
Indians and bulTalo were plentiful in the region when he in- 
vaded it, but they did not deter him from going or hamper 
him in his enterprise after he went. -Ml his products from 



first to last helpeii to swell the commercial greatness of 
Minneapolis. It was therefore entirely lit and proper that 
when he retired from active work he should seek a home in 
the city. 

He and his father and brother were among the first home- 
steaders in the locality they chose in the Red River valley, 
and they became important factors in laying the foundations 
of civil life and government there. They were active in 
helping to establish township and county organization, build 
schools and churches, create and direct political activities 
and perform all the other duties of progressive citizenship. 
What Wilkin county is they aided vastly in making it, and its 
progress is a part of their creditable history. 

Since he came to Minneapolis Mr. Church has acquired a 
number of valuable properties. He and his wife were the 
parents of two sons and one daughter. Eva is the wife of 
Wilbur Larrabee, a retired grocer in Southeast Minneapolis. 
For many years he was a popular railroad agent in Minne- 
sota and North Dakota. They have one child, Dorothy. 
Burton Church also became a railroad agent and was manager 
of the station at Farwell, Pope county. He was a young 
man of great promise and ability and enjoyed wide popu- 
larity. But his career was cut short by death in early man- 
hood. Willis chose the same line of work and was fitting 
himself for advancement in it, when he too was stricken 
down, jjassing away while he was yet in his teens. The 
father has mingled to some extent in fraternal life as a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has 
never been active in political alTairs, but he has never neglected 
any of the duties of good citizenship. They are members of 
the First Congregational church. 



FRANKLIN AL CROSBY. 



Franklin AL Crosby, who is almost wholly a product of 
Minneapolis, although born and partly educated in another 
state than this, is a son of the late .lohn and Olive (Muzzy) 
Crosby, natives of Maine and founders of the family in this 
city. The father was president of the Washburn -Crosby com- 
pany at the time of his death, and during his life was one of 
the most potential forces in building up that colossal indus- 
trial institution, by his connection with which in a leading 
way he nuide Minneapolis and himself known throughout the 
civilized world in in<lustrial and commercial circles. 

Franklin M. Crosby was born in Bangor, Maine, in 1876, 
and eanie to Minneapolis with his parents when he was four 
years ohl. He attended the Minneapolis public schools and 
prepared for college at the .Andover preparatory school in 
Massachiisetts. From that school he went to Vale University 
and from its academic department he was graduated in 1897. 
He then returned to Minneapolis, and for aliout one year he 
was employed in flour mills. 

Mr. Crosby's inclination was, however, to trading. He rep- 
resented Washbuni-Crosby Co. on the trading Moor of the 
Minneapolis Ctiamber of Commerce, and he has Iwen steadily 
connected with that organization ever since, rising constantly 
in its councils until he is now its president, having been 
elected to that ofiiice in 1913. He is also a director of the 
.Security National Hank, and has taken his father's place to 
some extent in the management of the Washburn-Crosby 
Company as one of its ilirectors. 



568 



HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Mr. Crosby is also active in the organized social life of the 
community as a member of the Minneapolis, Minikahda, 
Lafayette and several other leading clubs of the city. He 
was president of the Minneapolis club in 1908. In 1901 he 
was married in this city to Miss Harriet McKnight, a Minne- 
apolis lady. They have six children, and their family home 
is at 2120 Park avenue. 



AXEL ALBERT EBERHART. 

Axel A. Eberhart was bom on a farm in Vermland, Sweden, 
April 28, 1876. His father was Andrew and his mother 
Louisa Olson and they came to St. Peter, Minnesota, when 
Axel was about 5 years old. Two years later they went to 
Nebraska to a farm near Lime Grove, where he reached his 
majority. His first schooling was about three months of 
each year in the country schools near Lime Grove and at 
twenty he began to earn the money for a course in college 
and attended the University of South Dakota, funds lasting, 
however, but three months. The next year he remained six 
months, and by so continuing completed the five-year Ad- 
vanced Latin course in the Mankato Normal School in 1902. 
Completing the law course in the University in the spring of 
1906, he was admitted to the bar and began the practice of 
his profession, for two years being in partnership with Clin- 
ton M. Odell. 

He is a Republican in polities. Socially he is a member of 
the Odin club, the University club and the Civic and Com- 
merce Association. 



,TOHN N. GREER. 



John N. Greer, principal of the Central High School and 
well known educator, was born at Davenport, Iowa, April 17, 
1860, the descendant of Quaker ancestors who came to this 
country at an early date and played an important part in 
the colonial history of Pennsylvania, as members of its gov- 
erning council presided over by William Penn. Mr. Greer was 
reared on a farm near Davenport, where the death of his 
father occurred when .John was but ten years of age. He 
attended the public schools of Davenport, and after graduating 
from the high school in 1878 as valedictorian of his class, 
spent some time teaching and then entered Grinnell college 
for further study and training. The education he sought and 
notably achieved in this institution was a preparation that 
would result in a worthy and competent success in the world's 
work and to this end he interested himself in every phase 
of education, winning honors in both scholarly and athletic 
pursuits, and finding time to secure further practical experi- 
ence as a teacher by giving instruction in science. During his 
attendiince at college he formed an intimate acquaintance 
with Dr. Albert Shaw, now editor of the Review of Reviews, 
an association which did much to influence and enrich his 
latter career. He graduated in 1882, receiving the degrees 
of bachelor of arts and of science and member-sliip to the 
honorary society of Phi Beta Kappa. The master degree 
was conferred on Mr. Greer by Grinnell in 1885. After leav- 
ing college he sjient some time in the employ of the Central 
Union Telephone company and installed the telephone ex- 



change at Cedar Rapids. Iowa. In 1884 after two years in 
this business he resumed his activities in the teaching pro- 
fession, becoming principal of School Number 2 in Davenport, 
wliere he remained until 1888, when he came to Minneapolis 
to accept the position of principal of North High school. He 
served three years in this scliool and was then advanced to 
his present responsible position as principal of the Central 
High School. The twenty-two years of his association with 
this school have witnessed remarkable development in educa- 
tional methods and an increase in attendance of from 500 
pupils to 2200 and throughout this period his progressive and 
capable management and expert knowledge have made his 
services of inestimable value to the school system of the city. 
The establishment of the West school made a slight reduction 
in the attendance at other buildings, but the new Central 
building which opened in Sept., 1903, has an enrollment of 
over 2000 students and 70 instructors. This building, recog- 
nized as representing the most complete departmental equip- 
ments and advanced educational ideas of any similar structure 
in the country, embodies the plans and theories of Mr. Greer 
based upon years of study and experience. He has made 
every department of his vocation the subject of his keenest 
interest and careful application, striving to master every 
problem presented to the modern educator and winning much 
recognition from his fellow laborers through his efforts. Not 
only the mental training of the pupil has received his atten- 
tion, but the physical as well. He has become an authority 
on school architecture and has given his influence to the 
maintenance of iiuf high athletic standard of the Minneapolis 
schools. He has given much time and thought to vocational 
courses and vocational guidance work and is getting some 
splendid results while others are talking about it. He is a 
member of various teachers' associations and compiled for 
Dr. Albert Shaw an educational history of Minnesota. Mr. 
Greer was married to Miss Elizabeth Russell, daughter of 
Mr. Edward Russell, editor of the Davenport Gazette. They 
have three children, Edward Russell, who is chief engineer 
for the Gas Traction company of .Minneapolis; Margaret, a 
graduate of the state university in 1913 with the honor of 
Phi Beta Kappa, and Abby, who is a student in the high 
school. Mr. Greer was a member of the Plymouth Congre- 
gational church for a number of years, but of late years has 
become an active supporter of the Christian Science church. 



LOUIS KOSSUTH HULL. 



Louis Kossuth Hull is a lawyer in active practice in Min- 
neapolis, where he has been engaged in professional work 
since 1887. He came to this city that year well prepared 
for the line of endeavor he had chosen as his life occupation 
by careful study in the law department of Yale University 
and two years' practice in New Haven, Connecticut, and in 
the Territory of Dakota. He also enjoyed exceptional aca- 
demic advantages, and by energetic and judicious use of them 
obtained a first rate general education. 

Mr. Hull was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, on November 9, 
1861, the son of Commodore Charles and'Lucy Lincoln (Perry) 
Hull. His scholastic training was begun in Hopkins Grammar 
school in New Haven, and he afterward attended the academic 
department of Yale University, from which he was graduated 
in 1883. Taking up the study of law he entered the law 





L iC>..^.^ 



HISTORY OP MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



569 



department of the same university, and, after completing the 
course of study in it, received his degree of LL. B. from it in 
1885. He at once began practicing in the city in which he 
had prepared for his profession. Going in the fall of 1885 to 
the Territory of Dakota he engaged in the law business as a 
partner of Hon. John E. Garland at present a judge of the 
United States Circuit Court, remaining there in legal contests 
until 1887. In 1887 he came to Minnesota to live, and here 
he has been active in the practice of law ever since. He has 
attained good standing at the bar, and is highly esteemed as 
a citizen and business man. 

The exacting requirements which the law lays upon a 
practitioner have not, however, wholly occupied Mr. Hull's 
attention and energies. He is president of the Southern 
Minnesota Lumber company and vice president of the Union 
Lumber company, president of the Diamond Boiler Works 
and the Minnesota & Southeastern Railroad company. He is 
also a director of and the general counsel for the Security 
National Bank of Minneapolis, and connected in a serviceable 
way with other institutions and activities of value in pro- 
moting the progress, development and substantial improve- 
ment of the city. 

Mr. Hull keeps closely in touch with the advance in his 
profession as an active and interested member of the Ameri- 
can Bar Association. He has also taken an earnest and 
helpful part in public all'airs in both his native and his 
adopted state. In 1884 he was an alderman in New Haven 
and Connecticut's member of the National Democratic com- 
mittee. In 1888 he was a member of the State Democratic 
committee of Minnesota and in 1892 chairman of the Demo- 
cratic Central committee of Minneapolis. He is an ardent 
believer in the principles of his party and always a zealous 
worker for its success. 

In church relations Mr. Hull is an Episcopalian, and his 
fraternal connection is with the Masonic Order, in which he 
is a Knight Templar in the York Rite and a Freemason of 
the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite. While at Yale 
he was captain and for several years coach of the University 
rowing crew and captain of the football team. He was also 
a Skull and Bones man, and in the Psi Upsilon fraternity. 
In Minneapolis he belongs to the Minneapolis, Town and 
Country, Minikahda, Lafayette, Automobile and Elks clubs. 
He was married in this city on December 12, 1892, to Miss 
Agnes Oliphant McNair. He has his office in the Security 
National Bank and his residence at No. 21 Groveland Terrace. 



ALFRED ELLSWORTH MERRILL. 

Alfred Ellsworth Merrill, lumberman, was born at Maid- 
stone, Essex Co., Vt., May 28, 1845, son of Samuel Day (1810- 
1891) and Louisa (Heath) Merrill. He was of sterling New 
England ancestry. His great-grandfather, .John Merrill, of 
English descent, was born at Haverhill, Mass., in 17.'>0. mar- 
ried Sarah Rowell, fought at Bennington, Vt., as a soldier in 
the revolutionarv war, was a first lieutenant stationed at 



Plattsburg, N. Y., in the war of 1812, and died at Maidstone, 
Vt., in 1837. John Merrill's son Joseph, grandfather of Alfred 
E. Merrill, was born at Lisbon, N. H., in 1774, married Susan 
Day, was a volunteer in the 11th U. S. Infantry in the war 
of 1812, was at Plattsburg under Col. Dana, and died at 
Maidstone, Vt., in 1864. 

Alfred E. Merrill received his early education in the dis- 
trict schools of Vermont. In 1855, Samuel Merrill removed 
with his family to Wisconsin, where he engaged in farming 
near Portage City, and the son later attended Lawrence Uni- 
versity at Appleton, At the age of twenty-two he entered 
the employ of the lumber firm of George B. Bureh & Com- 
pany at Necedah, Wis., his business talent and attention to 
detail soon gaining for him a partnership in that firm, which 
owned saw mills and extensive pine tracts on the tributaries 
of the Wisconsin River. Here, on the frontier, thrown in 
intimate contact with men of all types and stations, living 
in the midst of and overcoming the adverse conditions of an 
undeveloped region and continually subject to the impelling 
force of an active business, he spent sixteen years. Developed 
and equipped by this training and experience, in 1884 he 
removed to Minneapolis, where he engaged in the real estate 
and loan business. He soon became identified with many of 
the substantial business enterprises of his adopted city, and 
also entered keenly into civic, municipal and political affairs. 
In 1899, he became a member of the City Council as represent- 
ative of the Fourth Ward, and this position by successive 
elections he thereafter held, serving uninterruptedly for ten 
years. During the first six years of this service he was con- 
tinuously chairman of the committee on Ways and Means 
and a member of the committees on Water Works and Health 
and Hospitals. For the following four years he was the 
president of the City Council. His constant aim in the Coun- 
cil was to serve the people. He took the lead in much pro- 
gressive legislation; to his initiative was due the appoint- 
ment of the first pure water commission; he had a large part 
in securing for Minneapolis a complete and efficient pamping 
station and distributive mains as part of the water system; 
an effective garbage crematory plant, and a modern quaran- 
tine hospital. He introduced the ordinance establishing a 
comprehensive system of municipal accounting and to the 
great profit of the city, he continually applied to the con- 
duct of its finances the same accuracy and care that his busi- 
ness training had led him to give private matters. His com- 
prehension of public questions was clear and keen and his ex- 
ample of fearless, vigorous, unselfish, upright discharge of 
public duty served as an inspiration to his fellow-citizens. 
He was a man of balanced temper, genial disposition and 
(piick generosity, he was guided by strong convictions and 
high ideals and his character and personality made a strong 
impress on the community. 

He was married Juno 30, 1S69, to .lane Summerside. daugh- 
ter of George and Mary Summerside, of Necedah, Wis. There 
were three children, Nellie Louise, Roy Willard and Guy 
Summerside Merrill. 

Mr. Merrill died April 10, 1909. 



!&- 



INDEX 



General Subjects. 
Advertising, pioneer, in St. Anthony, 92, 93. 
Agricultural Fair, first in Minnesota at Minneapolis, 123, 124. 
Agricultural Society, Hennepin County, 123. 
"All Saints," first proposed name of Minneapolis, 97. 

Personal Subjects. 

Aecault, Michael, commandiT of Hennepin's expedition, 4. 

B. 

General Subjects. 

Banks. Clearings of in 1881, 1890, 1892, 1893, 145; first 
in St. Anthony, 169; first on west side of river at Minne- 
apolis, 169; First National, 169; Northwestern National, 
170 to 172; Security National, 172, 173; Minneapolis Trust 
Co., 173, 174; Minnesota Loan and Trust Co., 174; State 
Institution for Savings, 174, 175; Farmers' and Mechanics' 
Savings, 175, 176; Scandinavian-American National, 176; 
Metropolitan National, 177; St. Anthony F'alls, 177; 
National City Bank of Minneapolis, 177; German American, 
178; East Side State, 178, 179. 

Battles. Indians, between Sioux and Chippewas, in July, 
1839, at Rum River and Stillwater, 46 to 49; of Gettys- 
burg,, First Minnesota in, 134; Capt. Strout's with Little 
Crow's Indians at Kelly's Bluff and Hutchinson, 133, 158. 

Blake School, 135 et seq. 

Boom, business of 1884 to 1891, pp. 140, 144. 

Bridge, first across Mississippi, from source to mouth, by 
Frank Steele at St. Anthony, July, 1851, p. 99; new suspen- 
sion in 1874, p. 140. 

Personal Subjects. 

Backus, Miss Electa, first school teacher in St. Anthony, 90. 

Bailly, Alexis. Agent of American Fur Company at Mendota; 
superseded by Sibley, 45; first citizen slaveliolder in Minne- 
sota, 46. 

Banfil, John, early settler at mouth of Rice Creek, 79. 

Beltrami, J. Constantine. Comes to Fort Snelling on first 
steamboat, describes St. Anthony Falls, etc., 37, 38. 

Bottineau, Pierre. Early settler of St. Anthony, etc., 62; has 
his lots surveyed, 73. 

B^wn, Joseph Renshaw. Explores Afinnchaha Creek and dis- 
f»\ers Lake Minnctonka; makes first land claim in Hen- 
nepin County, and probably Minnehaha Creek and Falls 
were named for him, 36; planned organization of and named 
Minnesota, etc., 37; plans Minnesota Territory, 59. 60; 
Member of Canvassing Board at first State election, 129. 



General Subjects. 

Cattle, first dairy herd at Minneapolis, 107. 

Census, first in Minnesota, 1849, p. 75; in St. Anthony by 
families and households, 76; "war" with St. Paul in 1890, 
p. 144; figures for I'JOO, p. 146. 

Chamber of Commerce established, 147. 

Charters. For St. Anthony as a city, 125; for Minneapolis, 
138; for the consolidated city. 138. 

Cheyenne Indians in Minnesota Valley, 39. 

Churches. First in St. Anthony; Catholic, built in 1851, by 
Fr. Ravoux, 100, 101; Episcopalin 1852, 100; Methodist 
was first organized, 100; Congregational church building 
completed in 1854, p. 101; first churches in Minneapolis, 
121; churches erected between 1880 and 1890, p. 142. 

Claims, Land. First in Hennepin County by J. R. Brown, 
36; first under Treaty of 1837 by Frank Steele and others, 
52. 

Commercial Club, organized, 147, 148. 

Conventions. The Stillwater, 71; Constitutional, elettion of 
delegates to, 126-127. 

County Seats. Of Ramsey County, failure of St. Anthony to 
secure, 101; of Henne[iin County, locating and naming, 111. 

Crises in Minnesota History. Discovery of St. Antljony's 
Falls in 1680, pp. 7, S, 9; building of Ft. Snelling, 29; evic- 
tion of white settlers from reservation, 57, 58; treaties of 
1837, pp. 50, 51, 52. 

Personal Subjects. 

Carver, Capt. Jonathan. His account of a visit to St. Anthony 
Falls and Minnesota in 1766, with comments, 19-22; his 
descendant claims St. Anthony, 70; grandsons visit Minne- 
sota, 33. 

Catlin, George, visits Minnt'Sotn in 1835 and 1836; paints 
and describes St. Anthony's Falls and other Minnesota 
scenery, 54. 

Champlain, Samuel, founds Quebec, 2. 

Charleville, M. de, claimed to have ascended Mississippi to 
300 miles above St. Anthony Falls, 17. 

Christian, Geo. H., article on early roller mills, etc., 100-162. 

Cloud Man, thief of Lake Calhoun Sioux band, general sketch 
of, 40-42. 

D. 

General Subjects. 

Dams, first across east channel of Mississippi, 67. 

Dan Patch Electric Railway, 148. 

Diversions of early residents of St. Anthony, 101, 102. 



571 



572 



INDEX 



Personal Subjects. 

Dunwoody, William H., benefactions to educational institu- 
tions, 149. 



General Subjects. 

Elections. For first Delegate to Congress, 85, 86; poll list 
of first at St. Anthony, 86; in 1849 for members of Ter- 
ritorial Legislature, 86, 87; in 1850 for Delegate to Con- 
gress and county officials, 87, 88. 

Eviction of settlers from Fort Snelling reservation, 57, 58, 
59. 

Expeditions. Hennepin's, 4-14; LeSueur's up the Minnesota, 
15, 16; his alleged 300 miles above St. Anthony's Falls, 17; ■ 

Charleville's alleged, 17; Verendrye and Sons, 18; Carver's to 
Minnesota, 19-23; Lieut. Pike's, 23-26; Long's in 1817, 1823; 
through Minnesota, 33 to 36; Featherstonhaugh's, 53. 
Explorers, first white, 2, 3. 



General Subjects. 

Falls of St. Anthony. When at moutli of Minnehaha Creek, 
2; considered holy by Indians, 2. 

Ferry, first at St. Anthony, 73, 74. 

Financial panics. Of 1857, p. 129; of 1859, pp. 129, 130; of 
1873, p. 139. 

Fire Department, volunteer organization in 1867, and paid 
department in 1879, p. 140. 

Firsts. White occupation of Minnesota, by Capt. Perrot, 15; 
steamboat at Fort Snelling, 37; white children born in 
Minnesota, 42; white women at F'ort Snelling, 42; piano in 
Minnesota, 42; marriages in Minnesota, 44; dwelling house 
on present site of Minneapolis, 44; store in St. Anthony, 67; 
business boom in St. Anthony, 67; ferry at St. Anthony, 
73, 74; census in Minnesota, 75; newspaper in Minnesota, 
79; court at St. Antliony, 84, 85; election at St. 
Anthony, 85; schools in St. Anthony, 90; steamboats 
at St. Anthony, 90, 91; bridge at St. Anthony, 199; 
post office in St. Anthony, 76; first in Minneapolis, 
119; lyceum and public library in St. Anthony, 120; 
railroad in Minnesota, 134, 135; Public Library at Minne- 
apolis, 137; court house at Minneapolis, 138; street rail- 
way in Minneapolis, 140; stores in Minneapolis, 151, 158, 
159; merchant mill in Minnesota, 151; bank at St. Anthony, 
169; bank at Minneapolis, 169. 

Fort Snelling, originally called Fort St. Anthony, established 
by Lieut. Col. Leavenworth, 29; early history sketched, 28 
to 33; eviction of white settlers from reservation of, 57, 
58; reduction of reservation, 113. . 

Forts, Early. St. Nicholas and St. Antoine, built by Perrot, 

14; L'Huillier, by LeSueur, 15; St. Beauhamois, 18. 
Fourth of .July celebration, first in Minnesota at St. Paul, 
and second at St. Anthony, 92. 

Personal Subjects. 

Featherstonhaugh', Geo. W., visits Minnesota in 1837 and sur- 
veys and describes the country and St. Anthony's Falls, 
53, 54. 

Folsom, Edgar, second ferryman at St. Anthony, rescues Sally 
Bean, 74. 



Folsom, Simeon P., surveys St. Anthony in 1847, p. 73. 
Ford, L. M., early citizen and booster of St. Anthony, 96. 

G. 
General Subjects. 

Gas, generally used in Minneapolis, 142. 

Governor, first' election of, 127-129. 

Grand Army of the Republic, National Encampment of in 

1884, p. 144. 
Grasshopper plague, 140. 

Personal Subjects. 
Gaultier, Father Lucian, holds services in his dwelling at 

Mendota, 1840-1844, p. 66; builds chapel in St. Paul in 1841, 

p. 66. 
Godfrey, Ard. Builder of first mill at St. Anthony's Falls, 

67; builds first dam over the river, 69; part owner of town 

site of St. Anthony, 72; first postmaster of St. Anthony, 

76. 
Goodhue, James M., first editor and publisher in Minnesota 

and booster of St. Anthony in early days. Chapters IX and 

X ; predicts great future for the town at the Falls, 96. 
Groseilliers, Sieur des, alias Medard Chouart. His alleged 

journey to Minnesota with Radisson discussed, 14. 



General Subjects. 

Hard winter in St. Anthony in 1847-48, pp. 67, 68. 
Hennepin County. Organization of, 109, 111; naming county 

seat of. 111; takes in St. Anthony, 125, 126; first court 

house, 138. 
Hennepin Island, controversy over ownership of, 150. 
High dam. Government, 148. 

Personal Subjects. 

Hennepin, Father Louis. Sketch of, 3; ascends the Mississippi 
in 1680 and is captured by the Sioux, 4; incidents of cap- 
tivity, 4 et seq. ; lands at site of St. Paul and is taken to 
Mille Lacs, 6; released and discovers St. Anthony Falls, 
7, 8, 9; journeys toward Lake Superior and meets Du Luth, 
and returns with him to Mille Lacs; returns to Lake Su- 
perior and closes his career in America, 9 to 14. 

Hole in the Day, Chippewa chief, sells timber to build mill and 
for first lumber at St. Anthony, 69. 

I. 

Iowa Indians, about mouth of Minnesota in early times, 39. 

Indians, Chippewa and Sioux. Send delegations to Wash- 
ington in 1824, p. 43; tragedies between Chippewaa and 
Sioux; battles between at Rum River and Stillwater orig- 
inated on present site of Minneapolis, 46 to 49; Sioux in 
vicinity of St. Anthony, 90. 



Jobbere' Association of Minneapolis, founded, 147. 

K. 

Keating, Prof. W. II., recorder of Long's expedition of 1823, 
describes Fort Snelling, St. Anthony's Falls, and Jlinnesota 
country, 35, 36. 



INDEX 



573 



General Subjects. 

Lake Minrn'tonka. Discovered by J. R. Brown. 36; named by 

Gov. Ramsey in 1852. 
Libraries. First Public at St. Anthony, 120; of Minneapolis, 

137; perfection of and completion of buildiiif;, 141. 
Lyceum, first at St. Anthony, 120. 

Personal Subjects. 

La Grue, first Caucasian resident of St. .\ntlionj'. Occupies 
Steele's claim cabin at the Falls in 1838; wife meets tragic 
death, 60. 

Leavenworth, Colonel Henry, establishes Fort St. Anthony 
(Snelling), 30, 31. 

Le Sueur, Pierre Charles, early explorer and resident. Mem- 
ber of Capt. Perrot's company in 1683, etc.; ascends the 
St. Pierre, builds a fort, and claimed to have discovered a 
copper mine, etc., 15; his visit to St. Anthony Falls de- 
scribed by I'enicaut, 16; claimed to have gone 300 miles 
above the Falls, 17. 

Little Crow, Old or III. Holds 'council with Pike, 24; village 
at Pig's Eye described by Pike, 25; conference with Pike 
at mouth of St. Croix. 26; band in 1819 numbered 200, 
p. 30. 

Long, Major Stephen H.. makes an expedition to Minnesota 
and St. Anthony in 1817 and 1823; describes Falls, etc., 
33, 34, 35, 38. 

Loring, Charles M., sketch of early history of Minneapolis, 
155-160. 

Lowry, Thomas. Becomes leading spirit in Street Railway, 
143; statue of, 148; mentioned, 159. 

M. 
General Subjects. 

Markets, early, in St. Anthony, 99, 100. 

Mills, the olil Government, 31, 32; first at St. Anthony built 
by Frank Steele; dam completed in 1848, p. 67; established 
at Minneapolis on west side of river, 153; first steamsaw 
on West Side, 154; first merchant mill in Minnesota, 151; 
first private mill at St. Anthony Falls, 152. 

Minnehaha Creek, first called Brown's Creek; the stream and 
fall may have been named for .Joseph R. Browm, 36. 

Minneapolis. In 1845-49, pp. 63, 64, 65; first settlers on 
present of, 108, 114, 115, 116, 117; first called Albion, 111; 
name, Minneapolis, selected by Charles Hoag, 111, 112; first 
post office in 1854, p. 119; becomes summer resort. 119; as a 
municipality, 138; consolidation of, with Si. Anthony, 138; 
first city government, 138; chur'ches built between 1880- 
1893, p. 142; first public library, 137; library consolidated 
w'ith St. Anthony, 137; first street railway in, 140; pop- 
ulation of, in 1880, p. 140; in 1890, p. 142; expo.sition, 142; 
additions to area made, 143; new public buildings between 
1880-1890, p. 143; G. A. R. national encampment in 1S84, 
A p. 144; growth of, celebrated in 1911, p. 148; first store in, 

150; first mills on West Side. 152, 153; first bank, 169. 

Minnesota Territory. Organized. 71; governmental machinery 
set in operation and boundaries fixed, 75. 

Minnesota River, name changed from St. Peter's, 113, 114. 

Missouret, or Missouri Indians, the "wooden canoe people," 4. 

Mound Builders, and their mounds. Sketch of, 1, 2; at Min- 
neapolis, 2; at Bloomington and Lake Minnetonka, 2. 



Personal Subjects. 

Marshall, William R. Makes claim at St. Anthony in 1847, 

p. 67; surveys town site, 72; sketch of, 73. 
Mousseau, Charles, first settler on present site of Minneapolis, 

108; sketch of, 108. 



N. 
General Subjects. 

Newspapers, first in Minnesota. "Pioneer," at St. Paul, 79; 

comments on St. Anthony, 1849-1850, 95, 96, 97; first in 

St. Anthony, called "The Express," 96, 120; second in St. 

Anthony, "Northwestern Democrat," 120; leading of the 

Twentieth Century, 147. 
Northwestern Democrat, second newspaper in St. Anthony, 

120. 

Personal Subjects. 

Nicolet, Jean, voyageur, first to hear and report of the Mis- 
sissippi, 3. 

Nicollet, Joseph Nicolas (or Jean N.). Engineer and astron- 
omer. Visits, surveys, and describes Minnesota in 1836-37- 
38-39; makes a Celebrated map of the region, describes St. 
Anthony's Falls, etc., 55, 56. 

Northrop, Cyrus, LL. D., becomes President of the University, 
141. 

0. 

Organization of Minnesota Territory, 71; of Hennepin County, 

109, 110, 111. 
Outbreak, Siou.v, 133, 134, 158. 



General Subjects. 

Palmyra, steamboat, Capt. John Holland, brings news of rati- 
fication of Treaty of 1837, to Fort Snelling, 56. 

Panics, Financial. Of 1857, p. 129; of 1859, pp. 129, 130; of 
1873, p. 139. 

Park System, beginning of, 137; creation of, 141. 

Pioneer, Minnesota, first newspaper in Territory, first num- 
ber printed in St. Paul, April 28, 1849, 79; bposts St. An- 
thony in August, 1849, with description of situation, 80. 

Plague, grasshopper, of 1875, p. 140. 

Political Parties, Republican in U. S., 121, 122; in Minnesota, 
122, 123; Democratic, 122. 

Pottery, ancient, made by Sioux, 1. 

Post Offices. First in Fort Snelling in 1842, p. 42; first in 
Minneapolis in 1854, p. 119; first at St. Anthony, 76. 

Prohibition. In St. Anthony in 1851, p. 99; "Friends of Tem- 
perance" organized in 1851, and territorial convention held 
at St. Paul, Jan. 1, 1852, p. 99; efTective in St. Anthony in 
1852, p. 99. 

Personal Subjects. 

Parker, Mrs. .\manda Huse, reminiscences of early days in 

St. Anthony, 81. 
Perrot, Capt. Nicholas. Builds trading post in Minnesota in 

1683, p. 14; builds Fort St. Antoine on Lake Pepin in 1685, 

p. 14; takes possession of country for King of France, 14. 
Pettijohn, Eli. came to site of Minneapolis in 1842 and made 

a claim, 62. 
Pike, Lieut. Zebulon M. His expedition to Minnesota in 

boats 1805-06; reaches mouth of Minnesota, Sept. 21, 1805, 



574 



INDEX 



and camps on Pike's Island, 22; makes treaty with In- 
dians, 24; surveys and passes St. Anthony's Falls, 24; 
ascends the Mississippi to Pike Rapids and builds fort, 
and explores upper river on boat, 25; sets out on return 
and holds grand council with Sioux, April 11, 1806, on Pike's 
Island, 26; interviews old Little Crow, 26. 

Pond Brothers, Gideon H. and Samuel W. Came to Fort 
Snelling in 1834 and built first house on site of Minneapolis, 
becoming first actual white citizens of Hennepin County, 44. 

Plympton, Maj. Joseph. Commander of Fort Snelling in 1837- 
38, p. 39; drives away settlers from reservation, 57, 58; 
makes a claim at the Falls in 1836, with others, 60; but 
claim was subsequently jumped by Frank Steele, 60. 



Juinn, Peter, first instructor in farming to Indians, 44; has 
claims at St. Anthony in 1840, p. 62. 



General Subjects. 

Railroads. First in Minnesota, 134, 135; street, first in Min- 
neapolis, 140, 153; Northern Pacific completed to Pacific 
Coast, 143; Soo Line, Canadian Pacific and Great Northern 
development mentioned, 142; motor line described, 143; 
Dan Patch Electric Railway, 148; grade crossings, 'contro- 
versy with city regarding, 149. 

Red River, immigrants into Minnesota at Fort Snelling from 
1821 to 1831, p. 44. 

Reminiscences, of Amanda Huse Parker of early days in St. 
Anthony, 81. 

Republican Party. Organization of, in U. S., 121, 122; in 
Minnesota, 122, 123. 

Reservation, Fort Snelling, reduced, 113. 

Rum River, battle at, between Sioux and Chippewa in 1839, 
pp. 46-49. 

Personal Subjects. 

Badisson, Pierre Esprit, accompanies Groselliers to North- 
west, 14. 

Ravoux, Faflier Augustine. Associated with Rev. Gaultier 
at Mendota, 1842-48, p. 66; sketch of, 100. 



General Subjects. 

Schools. First in St. Anthony, 90, 121; System of public 
schools founded, 135; the Blake, 135 et seq.; New Central 
High, 148. 

Settlers, first at St. Anthony, 61, 62. 

Sioux Indians. Proper name Dakota or Dahkotas, called at 
first by the Chippeways and others Nadouessioux, a term 
with various spellings in Caucasian languages. See Chap- 
ters I and II, and elsewhere; in War of 1812 and the 
British against Americans, 28; bands in Minnesota from 
1798 or earlier, 39; bands about site of Minneapolis in 
1830-34 and later, 39 to 42; treaties of 1851, pp. 102, 103, 
104; great outbreak of, in 1862, pp. 133, 134, 158. 

Slavery in Minnesota. Dred Scott sketch of and case, 45; 
Alexis Bailly, first citizen slaveholder in Minnesota. 46; 
Eliza Winston, case of, 130, 131. 

Symphony Orchestra, founded, 146. 



Snelling, Fort, originally Fort St. Anthony. Established in 
1819 by Lieut. Col. Leavenworth; early history notes relat- 
ing to. Chap. IV; the garrison mill at St. Anthony Falls, 
31; name changed, 38; social life at in early days; duels 
between officers, infrequent mails, 43. 

Steamboating. Local, 91, 120; R. P. Upton's notes on, 151, 
152. 

Stillwater, Battle at, between Sioux and Chippewa in 1839, 
pp. 46-49; the convention, 71. 

Street Railway. First in Minneapolis, 140; electrifies its 
lines, 143; Thomas Lowry, leading spirit in, 143; constructs 
Conio-Harriet Line, builds Lake Street Cross-Town, Fort 
Snelling, and double track to Lake Minnetonka, 146; con- 
troversy with city regarding rates, 149. 

Stores, first in St. Anthony, 67. 

'"St. Anthony County," organization of prevented by Gov. 
Gorman, 124, 125. 

St. Anthony. F'irst claims and settlers at. Chap. VII, pp. 59 
et seq.; situation in, 1845; site surveyed and comes into 
market in 1848; first claims sold at Stillwater in Septem- 
ber, 66; first surveyed, 72; citizens in 1849-1850, p. 89; In- 
dians vicinity in 1850, p. 90; fails to secure county seat, 101; 
incorporation of, as a city, 125; first city election in, 125, 
138; becomes part of Hennepin County, 125, 126; public 
library consolidated with Minneapolis, 137; consolidation 
of, with Minneapolis, 138; First bank, 169. 

St. Croix River, origin of name, 16, 17. 

St. Paul, conditions in 1848, p. 66. 

St. Peter's River (now Minnesota), origin of name, 16; 
changed to Minnesota, 13. 

Surveys, first Government lands in Minnesota surveyed in 
1847-48, p. 66. 

Personal Subjects. 

Scott, Dred, slave of Dr. Emerson, post surgeon at Fort 
Snelling; sketch of Scott and his noted case, 45. 

Seymour, E. Sanford, descriptive writer. Describes St. An- 
thony and the F'alls in 1849, interviews Hole in the Day 
and other chiefs, 78-79; visits and describes country be- 
tween St. Anthony and Sauk Rapids, 79. 

Sibley, Henry Hastings. Comes to Minnesota and Fort 
Snelling, in 1834, as agent of American Fur Compapy, 45; 
elected Delegate from Wisconsin Territory by Stillwater 
Convention and by people in 1848, p. 71; elected first Gov- 
ernor of Minnesota, 127, 128, 129. 

Snelling, Colonel Joseph. Takes command of Fort St. An- 
thony in 1820, p. 31; attempts farming, 32; his character, 32. 

Steele, Franklin. Lays foundation for a city at St. Anthony's 
Falls in 1838, p. 57; "jumps" Plympton and Scott claims at 
the Falls, July 16, 1838, p. 60; first postmaster at Fort Snell- 
ing, 70; make claims and builds cabins at St. Croix Falls 
in 1837, p. 53; controversy with A. W. Taylor, 94, 95. 

Stevens, John H. Pioneer politician, henchman for Sibley, 
88; opposes H. M. Rice and the Mitchell Whig faction, 88- 
89; first settler at the original site of Minneapolis, 106, 
107. 

St. Pierre, Jacques Le Gardeur, commander of Fort St. Beau- 
harnois, 14, 18. 



INDEX 



575 



General Subjects. 

Telephones.. Northwestern Co., 142; Tri-State Co., 142. 

Telegraph, tirst line between La Crosse, St. Anthony and 
Minneapolis, 157. 

Timber cutting, first on the upper Mississippi, 68, 69. 

Trade, wholesale, development of, 145. 

Traders. British, trespass on the Minnesota by building 
posts under English flag, etc., 25, 28, 29; recruit Indians 
to fight Americans, 28. 

Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1825, with several Indian tribes, 
43; of 1837, with the Chippewas, 50, 51; of 1837, with 
the Sioux, 51, 52; news of ratification reach Fort Snell- 
ing, 56; Traverse des Sioux and Mendota, 102, 103, 104. 

Personal Subjects. 

Tahmahah. or Rising Moose, one of the two Sioux, "ever 

faithful" to the American, 28. 
Taylor, Arnold W., Boston capitalist, purchases half interest 

in Steele's water power, 70; controversy with Franklin 

Steele, 94, 95. 
Taylor, Zachary, commander of Fort Snelling in 1828-29, p. 46. 
Tuttle, Calvin A., has claim .shanty at St. Anthony in 1847, 

p. 65. 

U. 

General Subjects. 

University, Minnesota State. Beginnings of, 117, 118; real 



establishment of, 137; Dr. Folwell, first president of, 137; 
Dr. Cyrus Northrop, president of. 141. 

Personal Subjects. 
Upton, Rufus P., notes of early St. Anthony, 150-152. 



Personal Subjects. 

A'erendrye, P. G. V., heads an expedition west of Lake Su- 
perior, in 1731, built forts, etc., 18. 



General Subjects. 

War.s. Civil, Minnesota in, 132, 133, 134, 158; of 1812, p. 28; 

Sioux of 1862, pp. 133, 134, 158; with Spain, during, 145. 
Wheat raising in Minnesota, first attempts at, by garrison 

of Fort Snelling, 33. 
\Vliole.sale Trade, development of, 145. 
Women, pioneer of St. Anthony, mentioned, 160; see Mrs. 

Parker's reminiscences, 81, 82, 83. 

Personal Subjects. 

Walker, Thomas B. Reminiscences, etc., by, 152-155; presi- 
dent of Library Board, 159. 

Warren, George H., article on the Pioneer W^oodsman, 162- 
168. 

Wiishburn, Wm. H., Secretary of Minneapolis Mill Co., 152. 

Winston, Eliza, a slave, case of, 130, 131. 



PORTRAIT INDEX 



B 



Page 

Badger, Walter L 344 

Bailey, Hon. Francis Brown 288 

Baldwin, Mrs. Snell J 460 

Baldwin, Snell J 4C0 

Barber, Edwin Roswell 348 

Banows, Frederick C 380 

Bell, James Stroud 234 

Boardman. William B 388 

Boutell, Paul D 373 

Bovey, Charles A 198 

Brackett, George A 318 

Briggs, O. P 300 

Brooks, Lester R 254 

Bruce, Olof Ludwig 434 

Burnett, William J 4 73 

Bull, Benjamin Seth 351 

Byrnes, William 468 



Chaffee, Herbert Fuller 396 

Clarke, Hovey Charles 316 

Cooke, Elbridge Clinton 343 

Crafts, Leo Melville, M. D 432 

Crocker, George W 266 

Crosby, John 232 



Page 

GilfiUan, Hon. John Bachop 268 

Gillette, Lewis S 354 

Gould, Walter Henry 480 

Gray, Thomas Kennedy 478 

Guilford, Jonas 476 

Guillot, Right Rev. Joseph 482 



H 



Haglin, Charles F 362 

Harrison, Hugh Galbraith 238 

Hartsough, D. M 534 

Hastings, Charles W 486 

Hayes, Moses P 374 

Haynes, Hon. James C 358 

Herrick, Kdwin Winslow 420 

Hewitt, Edwin Hawlcy 368 

Hill, Henry 284 

Hopwood, Frank Pershing 424 

Humphrey, Otis Milton, M. D 488 



I 



Irwin, Everett F 490 

Irwin, John B 492 



Dean, .Joseph 236 

De Laittre, Howard M 336 

Dc Laittre. John 194 

Dorr, Caleb D 250 

Doerr, Henry 330 

Donaldson, William 300 

Douglas, George P 400 

l)iiut;las. Walter Donald 302 

Dunsmoor, Irving A 404 

Dunwoodv, William Hood 190 



Eastman, George H 408 

Eastman, William Wallace 216 

Eustis, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel S 458 

Evans, Owen J., M. D 410 



Forest, S. E 414 



Gardiner, Thomas 474 

Gates, Charles G : 402 



•Johnson, Asa Emery, M. I) 258 

Johnston, D. S. B 464 

.Johnston, Mrs. D. S. B 465 

.Johnson. Judge Edward Morrill 426 

Jones, Hon. Edwin Smith 242 

Joyce, Col. Frank Melville 328 

JudJ, Williaiu Sheldon 252 



Kellogg, James Alfred 4.12 

Knoll, Paul H 536 

Koon, Martin B 208 



Langdon, Robert Bruce 244 

Lee, Joseph F 524 

Leighton, Levi E 438 

Longyear, Eilmund J 418 

Loring, Charles M 272 

Lowry, Thomas 183 

Luce, Col. Erie D 356 

Lundecn, Ernest 436 

Lyons, P. J 430 



577 



578 



GENERAL INDEX 



Mc 

Page 

McDonell, Duncan D 440 

McMillan, James 498 

McNair, William Woodbridge 264 

Mac & M 

Manchester, James Eugene, M. D 496 

Martin, Charles Jairus 226 

Martin, Captain John 260 

Mataon, Nels Albin 508 

Mattison, Schuyler H 500 

Merrill, Alfred E 569 

Merriman, Orlando C 340 

Miller, James H 504 

Miller, Marcus 526 

Morgan, Kimball Scribner, D. D. S 510 

Morse, Willard W 364 



N 



Nelson, Benjamin Franklin 278 



S 

Page 

Scanlon, M. J 338 

Sheffield, Benjamin B 352 

Shevlin, Thomas Henry 222 

Sidle, Jacob K 330 

Sims, Charles F 516 

Skiles, Thomas Daggs 314 

Snyder, Fred Beal 320 

Snyder, Simon Peter 312 

Stacy, Edwin Page 454 

Starnes, Pleasant M 370 

Stewart, Levi M 228 

Stillman, Horatio R 522 

Stone, Heman W 456 

Summers, George 518 



Thorpe, Samuel S 382 

Thomas, Guy A 308 

Tilleny, Lazarus 530 

Tourtellotte, Jacob F., M. D 306 

Tourtellotte, Mrs. Jacob F 306 

Tuttle, Harry A 384 



Ostrom, Olof N 294 

Owen, Sydney M 444 



Vanderburgh, Hon. Charles Edwin 310 

Velie, Charles Deere 324 



Peavey, Frank H 314 

Peppard, Matthew J 416 

Peteler, Col. Francis 448 

Pettit, Curtis Hussey 431 

Pillsbury, Charles Alfred . 200 

Pillsbury, George A 212 

Pillsbury, Hon. John Sargent 186 

Piper, George Frank 256 

Poehler, Hon. Henry 274 

Pond, Jonathan H 506 

R 

Robbins, Andrew Bonney .■ 450 

Ross, Charles Henry 512 

Ruhnke, Albert R 514 



W 



Waite, Harry B 334 

Wales, William W 898 

Walker, Thomas Barlow 204 

Warner, E. C. 346 

Warren, George Henry 386 

Webster, Henry 394 

Welles, Henry Titus 248 

Welles, Mrs. Henry Titus 248 

Weyerhaeuser, Frederick 470 

Whited, Oric 286 

Wheeler, Charles Hall 502 

Wilcox, John Finley 326 

Wyman, James Thomas 292 

Wyman, Oliver Cromwell •. . . 282 



\ 



GENERAL INDEX 



Page 

Abbott, Howard Strickland 185 

Alcott, Capt. Robert K 193 

Alexander, Roman 199 

Allan John W 185 

Allen, Joseph 184 

Allen, Rev. Lorenzo B 196 

Ames, Eli B 193 

Amsden, Charles M 190 

Andrews, James Currier 189 

Ankeny, Alexander Thompson 196 

Atkinson, Elmer E 197 

Atkinson, Frederick Grant 561 

Atwood, Hczekiah S 189 

Austin, M. P., M. D 474 



B 



Badger, Walter L 344 

Bailey, Hon. Francis Brown 288 

Bailey, William Crawford 199 

Baillif , Rene L 277 

Baldwin, Snell J 460 

Baltuff, Joseph M 220 

Barber. Edwin Roswell 348 

Bardwell, Lament J 215 

Bardwell, Winfield ,W 228 

Barnette, Lewis Cass 235 

Barney, Fred Elisha 200 

Barr, Warren F 217 

Bartlett, William W 227 

Barton, C. A 423 

Barrows, Frederick C 380 

Bausman, Abner Lacock, D. D. S 210 

Baxter, John T 218 

Belden, George K 234 

Bell, James Stroud 234 

Benjamin, Arthur Edwin, M. D 213 

Berry, William Morse 213 

Bibb. Cliarlcs W 216 

Bingenheimer, Gustave A 215 

Bisbec, Edgar C 210 

Blaisdoll, .Tohn True 224 

Bleeekcr, George M 236 

Boardman. William B 388 

Boehme. Cliristopher Adam 231 

Boutell, Paul D 372 

Bovey, Charles A 198 

Bovey, Charles Cranston 225 

Bovey. William Howard 202 

Bow, Dennis C 203 

Bookwalter, Sumner 224 

Buell, Major Salmon A 562 

Bull, James Alvah 532 



Page 

Bull, Benjamin Seth 251 

Bull, Benjamin S 251 

Burhyte, Randall S 218 

Burnett, William J 472 

Burns, John E 256 

Burns, William 235 

Burr, Melbourne C 230 

Butters, William 233 

Bracken, Henry Martyn, M. D 207 

Brackett, George A 218 

Bradley, George L 206 

Brecke, O. E 194 

Breding, Alfred Melvin 213 

Briggs, 0. P 390 

Brooks, Anson Strong 202 

Brooks, Lester R 254 

Brown, Dan C 233 

Brown, Henry F 206 

Brown, James P 220 

Bruce, Olof Ludwig 434 

Byrnes, William 468 

Byrnes, William .Joseph, M. D 219 



Calderwood, W. G 555 

Calhoun, Hon. John Franklin 564 

Campbell, Wallace 246 

Cargill, Sylvester Smith 335 

Carleton, Frank Henry 265 

Carlson, C. M. E 254 

Carpenter, Elbert L 267 

Carter, Oliver Perry 253 

Case, Dana L 249 

Castner, Frank H 263 

Chaffee, Gibson Allan 252 

Chaffee, Herbert Fuller 396 

Chamberlain, Francis A 564 

Chapman. Joseph 241 

Chase, Frank R 238 

Chatfield, Edward Crane 391 

airistian, George H 246 

Church. Carlos 567 

Chute. Frederick Butterfield 811 

Chute, Richard 270 

Chute, Richard Henry 259 

Chute, Samuel Hewes, M. D 221 

Clark, Charles Bradley 259 

Oarke, Hon. Charles H 262 

Clarke, Hovey Charles 316 

Clentor, William P 273 

Collins, Herbert O.. M. D 2*4 

Comstock. Edgar F 272 

Condit, L. A 240 



579 



580 



GENERAL INDEX 



Conkej-, De Witt Clinton 271 

Connor, Oilman 262 

Cooke, Elbridge Clinton 342 

Coolcy, George W 237 

Cooper, Barclay 253 

Cooley, Thomas Edward 275 

Cordelia, Victor 260 

Corriston, Col. Frank T 247 

Crafts, Leo Melville, M. D 422 

Cramer, H. B 243 

Crittenden Mason H 269 

Crocker, George Washington 266 

Crosby, Franklin M 567 

Crosby, John 232 

Crosby, John 556 

Crow, Henry A 240 

Cummings, Robert Winthrop 565 

Currier, Frederick W 243 

Curtis, Theodore F 257 

D 

Dahl, John F 282 

Dapprich, L. H 273 

Davies, William H 288 

Davis, Charles Albert 283 

Day, James W 296 

Day, John Wesley 285 

Dean, Alfred J 237 

Dean, Frederick W 293 

Dean, Joseph 236 

Decker, Edward Williams 280 

de la Barre, William 287 

De Laittre, Howard M 336 

De Laittre, John 194 

De Laittre, Karl 288 

Deming, Hon. Fortius C 284 

Deziel, Godfrey, M. D 286 

Dickey, Frederick A 283 

Dingman, George L 290 

Doerr, Henry 330 

Donaldson, William 300 

Dorr, Caleb D 250 

Douglas, George P 400 

Douglas, Walter Donald 302 

Dow, George H 276 

Dreger, J. W 281 

Drew, Charles Wayland, M. D 293 

Dunsmoor, Frederick Alanson, M. D 276 

Dunsmoor, Irving A 404 

Dunwoody, John 289 

Dunwoody, William Hood 190 

Durst, William Arthur '. 237 

Duryea, James H 565 

Dwinnell, Hon. William Stanley 279 

E 

Eastman, George H 408 

Eastman, William Wallace 216 

Eastman. William W 302 

Eaton, Franklin J 294 



Page 

Eberhart, Axel Albert 568 

Eichhorn, Edmund 566 

Eitel, George Gotthilf, M. D 300 

Ekstrum, J. D 564 

Ellingson, Sever, 291 

Elwell, Senator James T 295 

Elwell, George H 297 

Elwood, Lester Bushnell 304 

Engquist, John 299 

Erdmann, Charles A., M. D 302 

Eustis, John B 458 

Evans, Owen J., M. D 410 

Ewe, Gustave F 302 

F 

Fagerstrom, John 316 

Fairchild. Herbert Everett 308 

Falk, Major Edward G 318 

Farusworth, Ezra 309 

Farwell, George N 318 

Fay, Charles Stevens 320 

Fifield, Walter V 313 

Filbert, Christian 321 

Fisher, George A 321 

Fitzgerald, Don. F., M. D 314 

Fitzgerald, Reynaldo J., M. D 312 

Folwell, William Watts, LL. D 319 

Forman, Frank William 315 

Forest, S. E 414 

Fo3s, J. F. R 559 

Fosnes, Martin C 311 

Fosseen, Manley L 305 

Fowler, Charles Rollin 316 

Frisbie, William Albert 300 

Fruen, William F * 311 

Fruen, William Henry 304 

G 

Gage, James Edward 338 

Gale, Edward Chenery 322 

Gale, Samuel C 337 

Gardiner, Thomas 474 

Garvey, James L ". . 329 

Gates, Charles G 402 

Gerlach, Lieut. Col. William 330 

Getchcll, P. B 325 

Gibson, Hon. Paris 323 

Gilfillan, Hon. John Bachop 268 

Gillette, Lewis S 354 

Gilman, James B * 338 

Gluek, Charles 323 

Gluek, Louis 336 

Godfrey, Ard 333 

Godlcy, Charles M 333 

Godwin, J. Walker 314 

Gould, Walter Henry 480 

Gramling, Charles N 273 

Gray, Thomas Kennedy 478 

Gray, William Irving 561 

Green, T. Homer 345 



GENERAL INDEX 



581 



. ; - Page 

'Greer, Dorance Dormaii 326 

Greer, John N 568 

Gr^ory, William Daniel 327 

Grimes, Jonathan T. 328 

Gross, Francis A 325 

Guilford, Jonas 476 

Guillot, Right Rev. Joseph 482 

H 

naokett, Michael W 361 

Haglin, Charles F 362 

Hale, Andrew Tolcott 345 

Hale, Charles Sumner 368 

Hale, Jefferson M 364 

Hale, William Dinsraore 347 

Hall, Emanuel George 371 

Hall, Stephen Crosby 367 

Hallowell, William Penrose 370 

Hanson, Mrs. Helen F 355 

Harden, Spencer S 350 

Hardenbergh, Charles Murgan 344 

Hare, Earle Russell, M. D 352 

Harnisen, Prof. Ludwig "W 353 

Harper, A. W 376 

Harrington, Curtis L 363 

Harrison, Hugh Galbraith 238 

Harrison, Perry 356 

Harrison. Thomas Asbury 371 

Hartig, William Otto 358 

Hartsough, D. M 534 

Hastings, Charles W 486 

Hastings, Samuel 342 

Hawley, Newton F 343 

Haycock. Frank E 561 

Hayes, Moses P 374 

Haynes, Hon. James C 358 

Hays, Theodore L 349 

Helm, Harry S 358 

Herriek, Edwin Winslow 420 

Hewitt, Edwin Hawley 368 

Hewitt, William S 376 

Heywood, Frank 343 

Hickok, Lewis 357 

Higgins, Judson C 366 

Hill, Henry 284 

Hoar, Alonzo 1) 369 

Hobert, Arthur W 356 

Hoffman, Charles A 341 

Hohag, Charles A 372 

Holdridge, Leason Edwin 363 

Hopwood. Frank Purshing 424 

Hooper, Charles M 353 

Hooper, Rev. John 365 

Hornung. Adam 375 

Horton, John Harvey 373 

Hnbner, G. Adolph 348 

Huey, George E 361 

Hughes, Hon. Alexander 351 

Hughes, John R 374 

Huhn, George 347 

Hull, Louis Kossuth 568 



Page 

Humphrey, Otis .Milton, M. I) 488 

Hunt, William S , 369 

Hunter, Andrew M 259 

Hyser, George (i . 360 

I 

Ingciiliiitt, Anthony W . 377 

Irwin, Everett F , 490 

Irwin, John B , . , 492 

J 

Jackson, Andrew Bluke 381 

Jairray, Clivc Talbot 379 

Janney, Thomas B 379 

Jennison, Willis Jason 384 

Jepson, Hon. Lowell E 383 

Johnson, Asa Emery, M. D 258 

Johnson, Charles J 380 

Johnson, Judge Edward Morrill 426 

Johnson, Gustavus 384 

Johnson, H. S 378 

Johnson, Joseph Henry 377 

Johnson, Joseph Smith 560 

Johnson, William Chandler 376 

Johnston, U. S. B 464 

Johnston, Mrs. D. S. B 465 

.Johnston, Jay Hughes, D. D. S 385 

Jones, David Percy 381 

Jones, Herschel V 382 

Jones, Hon. Edwin Smith , 242 

Joycej Col. Frank Melville 323 

Joyce, Rev. Isaac Wilson, D. D., LL. D 530 

Judd, William Sheldon 252 

K 

Kellogg, James Alfred 432 

Kelly, Anthony 388 

Kcnyon, Albert H 389 

Kenyon, Thomas N 387 

Keir, William A 386 

Kingman, Joseph Ramsdell 387 

Knight. William M 392 

Knoll, Paul H 536 

Knott. Henry \ 390 

Koon, Martin I! 208 

Kunz, ,Iacob 385 

Kunz, Matthias 390 

L 

Lag<'r(iuist, Gust 416 

Landis. William H 400 

Lane, Leslie C, JL D 398 

Langdon, Cavour S 403 

Langdon, Robert Bruce '• 244 

Larnway, Floyd Melvin *^^ 

Laraway, Orlo Melvin ■"•'' 

Lntta, J. A *03 

Lawrence, W. H ■♦Ol 



582 



GENERAL INDEX 



Page 

Layman, Charels B 406 

Lee, Joseph F 524 

Lehman, Max A 395 

Leighton, Horace Newell 417 

Leighton, Levi E 438 

Lenhart, Frank F 395 

Lennon, Hon. John G 412 

Lindley, Alfred Hadley, M. D 399 

Linsmayer, Charles F 410 

Livingstone, Neil S 405 

Locliren, Judge William 392 

Lohmar, John 395 

Longfellow, Levi 401 

Longyear, Edmund J 418 

Loring, Albert C 403 

Loriiig, Charles M 272 

Lougee, Charles D 412 

Lowry, Horace 409 

Lowry, Thomas 183 

Lucas, John T 397 

Luce, Col. Erie D 356 

Lundeen, Ernest 436 

Lyons, P. J 430 

Mc 

McCoy, Peter 482 

McDonald, Francis S 478 

McDonald, Hugh N., M. D 458 

McDonell, Duncan D 440 

McGowan, John T 334 

Mclnerny, M. P 481 

McMillan, James 498 

McMillan, John D 478 

McMillan, Putnam Dana 446 

McMuUen, James 476 

McNair, William Woodbridge 264 

McReynolds, Lucien Alden 475 

H 

Mahoney, John 499 

Manchester, James Eugene, M. D 496 

Manton, Rev. Joseph R 501 

March, Hon. Samuel A 499 

Martin, Captain John 260 

Martin, Charles Jairus 226 

Martin, Henry Luther 493 

Martin, James H 490 

Martinson, Oscar 480 

Massolt, Albert 488 

Matson, Nels Albin 508 

Matthews, Alinus C 479 

Mattison, Schuyler H 500 

Mead, Ellery 487 

Mendenhall, Richard Junius 466 

Merrill, Alfred E 569 

Merrill, Eugene Adelbert 483 

Merriman, Orlando C 340 

Meyst, Frank Jay 497 

Miller, .James H 504 

Miller, Marcus 526 



Minnesota Linseed Oil Co 482 

Moore, Harry L 490 

Moore, James Edward, M. D., F. A. C. S 496 

Morgan, Kimball Scribner, D. D. S 510 

Morison, William K 497 

Morrison, Clinton 453 

Morrison, Dorilus 489 

Morrison, Frank L 48' 

Morse, Charles 480 

Morse, Frank Leonard 491 

Morse, Willard W 364 

Munro, Weed 492 

Musgrave, John H 492 

N 

Nelson, Benjamin Franklin 278 

Newell, George R 418 

Nicholson, S. J 417 

Noerenberg, Frederick D 421 

Norred, Charles Henry, M. D 415 

Northland Pine Co 423 

Norton, Hon. Willis 1 422 

Northrop, Dr. Cyrus 413 

Northup, William Guile 419 

Nott, William S 420 

Nutter, Frank H 421 

Nye, Hon. Frank Mellen 406 

Nye, Hon. Wallace G 414 



O'Brien, James E 432 

Ochu, Paul F 436 

Odium, George 431 

O'Donnell, James S 433 

Ogden, James K 427 

Olson, C. 0. Alexius 425 

Orde, George F 435 

Osborne, Edward N 426 

Ostrom, Olof N 294 

Oswald, Henry 424 

Owen, Horatio R 42S 

Owen, Sydney M 444 

Owens, David Lloyd 538 

Ozias, Albert Newton 428 

P 

Palmer, Hon. Frank L 452 

Parks, Albert H., M. D 455 

Paul, Amasa C 437 

PauUe, Leonard 457 

Pauly, Gustav J 553 

Peavey, Frank H 214 

Peavey, George Wright 441 

Peck, Daniel F 449 

Peck, Frank 452 

Peirce, Washington 455 

Pennington, Edmund 460 

Peppard, Matthew J 416 

Peteler, Col. Francis 448 



GENERAL INDEX 



583 



Page 

Peteler, Edwin 449 

Peterson, Alfred 461 

Peterson, John P 455 

Peterson, Swan J 438 

Pettit, Curtis Hussey 431 

Phelps, Kdmund Joseph 428 

Pike, Willard Carlos 558 

Pillsbury, Alfred Fiske 555 

Pillsbury, Charles Alfred 200 

Pillsbury, Cliarles Stinson 439 

Pillsbury, (ieorge A 212 

Pillsbury, Jolin Sargent 433 

Pillsbury, Hon. John Sargent 186 

Piper, (ieorge Frank 256 

Poehler, Alvin Henry 439 

Poehler, Hon. Henry 274 

Pond, Jonathan H 506 

Pooler, George W 450 

Porteous, James S 446 

Pratt, Ezra C 434 

Pratt, James 189 

Pratt, Robert 437 

Prendergast, Edmond A 439 

Preston, Arthur G 449 

Price, George Herbert 459 

Prince, Frank Moody '. 435 

Pryor, Luman C 458 

Purdy, Edward A 559 

Q 

Quist, Charles A 462 

R 

Rahn, Andrew A. D 471 

Rand, Alonzo Cooper 473 

Ravicz, Simon 475 

Rawitzer, Clarence M 467 

Reeve, Gen. Chas. Mc. C 442 

Reeves, Nelson H 477 

Riheldafler, John H 472 

Ringer, Cliarles W 472 

Robb, John G 442 

Robbins, Andrew Bonney 450 

Roberts, J. Warren 469 

Robinson, Charles H 469 

Robinson, Charles N 460 

Robinson, Sumner C 470 

Rogers, Arthur R 447 

Ross, Charles Henry 512 

Rowc, John H 474 

Rubbert, Ernest 467 

Ruhnke, Albert R 514 

S 

Salisbury, Fred Richardson 509 

Samels, F. A 520 

Sanford, Prof. Maria L 525 

Satterlec, William Eugene 511 

Satterlee, Rev. William W 516 



Page 

Sawyer, Hon. Charles L 517 

Scanlon, M. J 339 

Schaefer, Jacob 540 

Seheid, Peter J 534 

Schober, Gottlieb 505 

Schwerdfcger, August 512 

Schwerdfeger, Karl 502 

Scott, Charles H 508 

Scrinigeour, Ebenezer James Hall 521 

Scrivcr, Hiram A 505 

Secombe, David Adams 484 

Sclden, Lewis H 506 

Selovcr, Arthur William 50O 

Sessions, John Hebard 511 

Shearer, James Duncan 501 

Shellicld, Benjamin B 352 

Sheldon, Albert Millard 520 

Shevlin, Thomas Henry 222 

Shillock, Daniel George 523 

Shumway, John P 503 

Sidle, Jacob K 230 

Simmons, Chester 518 

Simonson, Hans 508 

Sims, Cliarles F 516 

Skellet, Thomas J 510 

Skilcs, Thomas Daggs 314 

Smith, Fred L 519 

Smith, George F 515 

Smith, Hon. Edward E 509 

Smith, Hon. George R 518 

Smith, Paul W 514 

Smith, Payson 515 

Snyder, Fred Beal 320 

Snyder, Simon Peter 312 

Somsen, Garrett J 525 

Stacy, Edwin Page 454 

Starnes, Pleasant M 370 

Steele, Franklin 462 

Stevens, Col. John Harrington 485 

Stewart, Levi M 228 

Stillman, Horatio R 522 

Stilwell, Eugene J 507 

Stockwell, Hon. Silvanus Albert 495 

Stof t, Jacob 504 

Stone, Alvin 522 

Stone, Frank L 457 

Stone, Henian W 456 

Storer, George Cutler 531 

Stratton, Levi Woodbury 514 

Strong, Albert W 521 

Sullivan, Michael J 503 

Summers, George 518 

Swett, Owen T 513 

Swift, Lucian 494 

T 

Taylor, Thomas Newton 533 

Tennant, George Henry 527 

Thomas, Guy A 308 

Thorp, Walter H ^ 524 

Thorpe, Samuel S 388 



584 



GENERAL INDEX 



Tilleny, Lazarus 520 

Tourtellotte, Jacob F., M. D 306 

Trask, Eugene L 531 

Traxler, Cliarles Jerome . , , • • • 534 

Trickett, W. P 537 

Tryon, Charles John . .... ...... ... 533 

Turnblad, Swan Johan ....... ... .,... • -. 532 

Turnbull, Robert W 528 

Tuttle, Harry A 384 

U 

Upton, Robert J 537 

Upton, Rufus Porter 536 

V 

Vanderburgh, Hon. Charles Edwin 310 

Van Doom, John C 540 

Van Slyke, Vader Harmanus 526 

Van Valkenburg, Jesse 536 

Velie, Charles Deere 324 

Venie, Prank J , 371 

Vincent, George Edgar 539 

Voegeli, Thomas 538 

Von der Weyer, William J 535 

W 

Wadsworth, Frank H 543 

Wadsworth, Harry H 552 

Waite, Harry B 334 

Wales, aiarles E 299 

Wales, William W 398 

Walker, Mrs. Thomas B 529 

Walker, Thomas Barlow 204 



Page 

Ware, Joseph Edwin 542 

Warner, Ellsworth C 346 

Warnes, Oliver F 542 

Warren, George Henry 386 

Washburn, Hon. Cadwallader Golden 543 

Washburn, Hon. William Drew 545 

Webb, Ralph Day 548 

Webber, Charles C 542 

Webster, Henry 394 

Welles, Henry Titus 248 

Wells, Edward Payson 546 

Weyerhaeuser, Frederick 470 

^Vheeler, Charles Hall 502 

Wheeler, William E 541 

Wheeloek, Ralph W 550 

White, Samuel 548 

Whited, Oric 286 

Whitmore, George A 539 

Wilcox, John Finley 326 

Williams, F. L 550 

Williams, Martin C 547 

Williamson, James Franklin 549 

Willson, Frank .J 551 

Winchell, Newton Horace 556 

Winston, Philip B 551 

Woods, Albert Frederick 547 

Wright, Frederick B 541 

Wulling, Frederick John 549 

Wyman, James Thomas 292 

Wyman, Oliver Cromwell 382 

Y 

Yale, Stephen M 552 

Young, Charles 553 

Young, Fred D 554 



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